Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 176: Italian Advances in Libya



In many ways, German and Italian history were parallel. Both came from ancient cultures dating back to classical antiquity, and both cultures had lived as the respective hegemon of their own regions for a period of time.

Italy, for example, had ruled as the supreme hegemon of the Mediterranean during the latter centuries of Classical Antiquity, while in Germany's case, the erroneously named "Holy Roman Empire" had served as, more or less, the supreme sovereign of Europe during the High Middle Ages.

But in this world, time alone remained undefeated. Whether you were a dynasty of kings, an unrivaled Empire, or a god himself, sooner or later, all things came to an end. It was simply a matter of time.

Every civilization that had ever existed sooner or later disappeared into the annals of history. And if given enough time, every culture and language that had ever appeared on Earth would do the same. Such rules were universal in life. At the end of the day, even this universe we live in will come to an end.

It was for that reason that the ancient Roman and Holy Roman Empires were nothing more than ruins left behind, and the whispers of ghosts, whose historical records had miraculously survived until this very time.

Interestingly enough, Germany and Italy also shared a similarity in this regard as well, for when their ancient and great Empires had collapsed, they essentially splintered into a fractured culture of various petty kingdoms, principalities, and republics, all of which had fought with themselves and their neighbors until finally uniting once more into a single nation in the latter half of the 19th century.

Perhaps it was merely coincidence, but curiously enough, both the German Reich and the Kingdom of Italy united in the same exact year-1871 to be precise. While the process had begun decades earlier for both nations, it was not until 1871 that both nations unified beneath a single banner and monarch.

However, unlike the German Reich, Italy was not a nation known for its military prowess. While the Germans had a proud military history dating back to the days when they contended with Rome for control of their own borders, Italy had more or less either been occupied by foreign powers or had been seen as a joke in this regard since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

While still considered a Great Power by the world, Italy was also known as the "Least of the Great Powers," and accurately so. In Bruno's past life, they had fought 12 battles in Isonzo with the Austro-Hungarians to determine who was the worst of the Great Powers, and in doing so, lost at Caporetto.

Had the war continued for another year or two, Italy would have capitulated as their lines were thoroughly broken through by the combined forces of the German Reich and the Austro- Hungarian Empire during the 12th and last battle of Isonzo, also more commonly referred to as the Battle of Caporetto.

Though the Italians had halted the advance of the Central Powers at the Piave River and gained much-needed reinforcements from their allies in Great Britain and France, it was only a matter of time before Venice was taken, as the Prime Minister's government had already thoroughly collapsed as a result of the battle.

But that was another timeline, one where Bruno had long since resolved to ensure never happened in his new lease on life. Rather, the year was currently 1911, and such battles had yet to be waged. Instead, Italy was entrenched in war within Libya.

Currently, a relatively young Italian Colonel by the name of Giovanni Colombo was standing within a trench, looking over the edge of it through a pair of binoculars with a cigarette in his mouth. Unlike Bruno, who was clean-shaven, this man had a thick and stout dark brown mustache, which paired with his olive skin quite well.

However, the mustache, like the rest of his appearance, was rather unkempt. In fact, there were wrinkles on the man's face that made him appear much older than he actually was, along with plenty of mud, blood, and oil stains across his uniform and flesh.

The fighting in Libya, as Bruno had predicted, had been halted outside Shar al-Shatt, resulting in the Italians taking out their fury on the local population, massacring some few hundred civilians before digging into trenches and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

This was despite the first use of airplanes in warfare for the purposes of both reconnaissance and aerial bombardment, which came in the form of dropping a few grenades from the sky on enemy positions.

Even the deployment of the Fiat Arsenale, an Italian-made armored car, had utterly failed to break through the Ottoman lines despite significant advancements made during the initial landing in North Africa.

As a result, the fighting had turned into static trench warfare while the Italians waited on reinforcements from the fatherland to arrive in the region to relieve them. The fighting was made all the more brutal by the early adoption of machine guns as a result of Bruno's interference with the timeline.

Both the Ottomans and Italians made use of Maxim-style machine guns, as both nations were still developing their own domestic designs and had yet to field anything other than a prototype at the moment.

Because of this, the death toll had increased significantly in the conflict over what it had been during Bruno's past life. As a colonel in the Royal Italian Army, Giovanni was in command of a brigade's worth of men, who were currently waiting in the dead of night, as flares shot overhead lighting up the dark sky.

They were told to hold this position until they were properly relieved, but at the same time, the Ottomans were doing the same. Neither side dared to advance out of fear of the sheer carnage that would occur.

And because of this, Giovanni, like his men, was forced to rest in the mud and watch the enemy as they, too, watched him. He could only sigh and shake his head while silently praying to God above that this brutal war would come to an end sooner rather than later.

It was at this moment that a soldier in a similar uniform ran up to the Colonel. He appeared out of breath, as if he had run quite the distance, as he quickly announced why he was so flustered, all the while handing over the paper in his hand that conveyed orders from high command.

"Sir! Generale Caneva has given his orders. The message we received reads as follows: It is absolutely necessary that you do not advance upon the enemy position until reinforcements arrive! Hold your ground!"

It took everything Giovanni had not to curse under his breath. Why waste the resources necessary to send such a message across the Mediterranean when there were more important matters to take care of?

Frankly speaking, it was emblematic of General Caneva's personality to do such a thing. He was a man regarded by his own troops as being too conventional, too passive, and quite honestly, too cowardly.

In a war where cavalry was remarkably well suited, he had failed to deploy them, and despite his numerical inferiority, the General had also not requested reinforcements until suffering his first major defeat. Additionally, the man had completely failed to consult with the local Arab leaders, who were also pissed off at their Ottoman rulers and would gladly take the opportunity to raise some hell on behalf of the Italians.

The fact that the Italians had steamrolled through the Ottomans during this same conflict within Bruno's past life was more of a testament to Ottoman incompetency than it was to Italian military prowess. And General Caneva was just one of many Italian generals who was remarkably inept despite his high position.

Though, luckily for the Italians, their major rival in Europe shared the same degree of problems, with the Austro-Hungarians having perhaps one competent general, whom Bruno had long since established friendly ties to.

Because of this, Colonel Colombo sighed heavily, taking a drag from what little remained of his cigarette. He finally spoke after he had exhaled everything from his lungs, with a tone that sounded as if it were suppressing anger on a deeply spiritual level.

"Alright... dismissed..."

Once the runner had scurried off, Colonel Colombo shook his head and looked over at his immediate subordinate before giving an order that was directly counter to the ones he had

received from the General.

"It would appear we are having issues with these new wireless telegrams. I'm afraid the message we received from the General was rather jumbled... He did say that it was absolutely necessary to advance upon the enemy position before reinforcements arrived, is that

correct?"

Having grown sick and tired of sitting around waiting for others to arrive, when the enemy was currently sleeping in their trenches completely unaware that the Italians were planning an advance, the Major who served directly beneath the Colonel wore a toothy grin as he "confirmed" that those were indeed the words they had "received" from high command.

"That's what I heard..."

Seeing how the officers beneath his command were of the same opinion, Giovanni smirked

before giving an order.

"Silently go awake the men. I want our advance to catch those Turkish bastards by surprise! The last thing they will see as they awake from their slumber is the sight of Italian soldiers right before we slit their throats!"

With this, a rather unexpected night raid was about to begin-one that would hasten the Italian victory in Libya, and one that would also cause Bruno great concern when he read about it in the paper later that week.