Italy is a small country, the Alps to the Apennines may sound quite far, in fact, Verona to Bologna is only a little more than 100 kilometers apart, that is, the distance from Shanghai to Wuxi, to Hangzhou is farther than that.

The quality of Italian roads was good, and Mussolini was as enthusiastic about the infrastructure of Italy as he was for architectural monuments and landmarks, and the new century Caesar was keen on anything that would go down in history. These road networks, often dating back to the Middle Ages and even further back to the Roman Empire, were built and reinforced with modern building materials to withstand heavy traffic.

It's just that don't confuse the 40s of the 20th century with modern times, when car transportation was basically less than ten tons, for example, the trucks used by the German army had a payload of one and a half to three tons, and some heavy trucks, just like Mercedes and Mann, only carried six tons. Of course, this is only the load in the case of bad roads, and in case of high-quality roads or additional trailers must be calculated separately, under normal circumstances, German logistics units will secretly overload some, but this amount usually does not exceed double the payload, because mechanical transition wear and tear will also increase logistics troubles.

For this war, the German Army deliberately organized the Austrian Rapid Reaction Group, but when the war really began, considering the problems of front development and supply, there were only eight infantry divisions and two armored divisions put into Italy so far, plus some logistics and engineering auxiliary units, with a total strength of almost 200,000 people, which was only the number of people needed for a second-line campaign in the European war, but for the Kingdom of Italy, this was already unbearable for them.

In four days, the Royal Italian Army could confirm more than 30,000 casualties, which could have been organized into two infantry divisions, of which more than 8,000 were killed in battle, and the rest were all wounded of all kinds, including some traumatized soldiers.

In addition, more than 150,000 officers and men of the army laid down their weapons, most of them the Alpine defense line and the troops in the northwest, they were compressed and surrounded by France and Germany from the east and west, and many troops did not put up any decent resistance at all, and surrendered directly to the formidable invaders.

Their generals seemed to have made some kind of deal with the Germans, and the once most elite units of the Italian Army had already exhausted the last remaining bit of morale in the confrontation with the French Army, so the Italians poured into the prisoner of war camps established by the Germans almost happily after receiving orders from their superiors.

But in a report forwarded to Mussolini by the Roman high command, a group of "brave Italian men" was still stubbornly resisting the German-French attack in the north, and these troops managed to regroup near Pavia, and there they held off the German attack, but the troops suffered heavy losses in the battle, more than half of the supplies were consumed, and they were about to run out of ammunition and food, and they urgently needed Roman assistance.

It was an inspiring and touching story, and Mussolini told the story to all Italians on Radio Rome that day, and personally ordered Rome's two squadrons of transport planes to be dispatched to drop much-needed military supplies to the warriors of Pavia.

In order to show the Italian people that he took the matter seriously, Mussolini even sent his own special plane, interestingly a German Junker JU52, one of Hitler's personal gifts to him.

A total of thirteen transport planes took off from Rome's airfields, and the cabins were filled with canned goods and ammunition, legend has it that they contained a commendation order issued by Mussolini himself and boxes of bronze medals of courage.

The group of transport planes took off to the sound of military music and the cheers of a crowd of journalists and civilians for the last time they were seen, and none of the thirteen planes returned to base, and no one knew what had happened to them on the flight.

After a long time, some curious historical researchers finally found the last trace of this group of planes from the mountains of German declassified documents. A German fighter group waited in an airspace on orders from its superiors to ambush and annihilate a group of "Italian bombers", and the report specifically mentioned a suspected German Junker plane with the ornate Italian logo on the fuselage, and the combat position recorded in the report overlapped with the airdrop zone intended by the transport plane.

The scholar sniffed out the conspiracy and wanted to get to the bottom of it, but he was soon pressured by the Italian government, and the investigation was eventually stopped, some of the information was destroyed, and no one ever knew the secret behind the incident.

The impregnable [Mussolini] line existed only on government documents and on the maps of the High Command. One of the greatest mysteries of the Italian war was born, and it was completely illogical why the Germans, faced with a mountain range guarded by only a handful of Italian troops, should give up their low-hanging fruit, order their troops to halt their advance, and confront the defenders for three whole days on that rudimentary line of defense.

Some believe that the Germans had problems with supplies, and that the poor road conditions in Italy were holding the Germans back. But in fact, the roads in Italy are very good, and the logistics commander of the German army has said in his report more than once that he is very satisfied with the traffic situation in Italy, because the delays caused by the roads are not as many as the number of traffic accidents, and the military station system that the German army established all the way at that time was mostly handed over to the Italian army after the end of the war to continue to use, which proves that the German army's stoppage is obviously not a logistical problem.

It was also suggested that this was a deliberate attempt by the Germans to attract the attention of Rome in order to cover the Anzio landing, which was agreed by most researchers, as no other plausible explanation could be found.

As for the allegation that the great Prime Minister Badoglio was in collusion with the German Führer, this is complete nonsense, a rumor unleashed by hostile forces, and a slander against the noble personality of the Supreme Imperial Marshal of Badoglio.

On October 26, the last of the Blackshirts in Rome had been transferred to the Apennines, many of whom had been recruited during the week, loyal members of the Fascist National Party, and Mussolini was not sure how loyal they would be, but the leader was sure that they were as passionate about the Kingdom of Italy as he was.

At this time, the magnificent city of Rome became a city without an army garrison, and only the police and a small number of gendarmes maintained order in the city.

The Romans were glad that the Germans had not bombed the ancient capital, and the government wanted to attribute this to the Italian Air Force and Mussolini, but none of the Italians believed that a German reconnaissance plane would go around the city center on time almost every afternoon, and no Italian fighter was seen to drive it away.

Many of the citizens of Rome believed that the outcome of the war was clear, that the kingdom could not confront the three powers on its own, and that Mussolini could not win the war. There were various versions of rumors circulating in the city, none of which were favorable to the leader, and the government's war reports had completely lost credibility. The reason is simple: if Italy is winning, why is the daily rationing of its citizens still decreasing.

Less than a week after the war began, the city of Rome was experiencing a severe food shortage. The army took away a large amount of strategic reserves from the warehouses, and there were not many supplies left for the citizens, and now they still have to squeeze out some of the supplies to the front every day, and some are secretly transferred to the black market by the bureaucrats.

The city of Rome is not self-sufficient in food, the capital consumes materials from all over Italy, and now the main grain production areas are in the areas controlled by the German army, and the Romans can only obediently prepare to go hungry.

PS: Chapter 2 is presented. (To be continued.) )