Chapter 342: An Unconventional Surrender
The kingdom of Italy had found itself in a remarkably poor position following Bruno’s rapid advance through its northernmost regions. Hours was all it took for the German Army and its allies to seize their objectives.
It was entirely possible that the Italian soldiers defending those regions did not even fight, and instead rose the white flag the moment they made contact with the enemy. And by the time a treaty had been agreed upon, this was proven to be true in multiple cases.
Take Milan, for example, where Bruno and his soldiers had advanced from the Alps down to their beloved and ancient city. The Italian soldiers threw down their rifles and waved the white flag the moment they saw the thousands of armored vehicles rolling their way.
Why was this the case? Because they knew fighting against ten tanks was pointless, let alone 1,000 of the damned things. They had no weapons that could properly damage them. And the allies tank corps was currently located on the borders of France and Germany. Fighting its way through the German control over southern Belgium. And suffering extensive losses as they did so.
Having not quite lost enough men to be experiencing the delusion that came with the sunk cost fallacy, and having no real enmity with the Germans and Austrians that compelled them to advance forward to their doom against a superior enemy like mad men. The Italian commander simply decided to surrender they moment they saw the Germans advancing towards them.
The Italian commander literally welcomed the Germans into his territory with open arms, basically claiming that he had no intention of fighting them, as he was well aware of what they had done at the border.
Offering Bruno a cup of wine, and a pack of cigarettes, which Bruno rejected, the field officer tasked with the defense of Milan went on and on about how foolish it was for Italy to get involved in this war when they had just made major gains in north Africa a few years prior.
His exact words were:
"I can’t believe our king was foolish enough to intervene in this conflict on behalf of the French and British. I mean what in the hell have they done for us lately? Sure, the alliance with German and Austria didn’t quite pan out as intended, but whatever grievances lie between our kings and your emperors shouldn’t have been great enough to jump at the chance of war. Damned foolish indeed..."
Bruno walked with the protection of an entire squad of his own men around him. He was quick to counter the officer with his own take on why the Italians had joined on behalf of the Allies.
"Not foolishness, but greed. Humanity’s worst instinct, and the one that we are so easily controlled by. Your King saw this war as an opportunity to seize Austro-Hungarian lands by using the British and French support they received to do so.
If I’m being honest, he would have been much better off saving up his forces to attack Ethiopia. It is the only African nation left untouched by colonialism and is a much easier conquest than Austro-Hungary.