My Italy - Chapter 700 Twenty Years Truce

The surrender of the French allowed Germany and Italy to allocate sufficient troops to other aspects. Among them, Germany mainly deployed its troops to support the Eastern Front, while Italy did the same and deployed its troops mainly towards the Indian Ocean.

However, Germany and Italy also communicated with the Spanish, asking them to open their borders and allow Germany and Italy to send troops to attack Gibraltar.

Of course, Germany and Italy used a little trick to do this. Let it think that if it does not agree, then Germany and Italy will attack it. If it agrees, then Gibraltar can be returned to Spain after the war.

So after some struggle, the Spanish agreed to the border crossing requests from Germany and Italy. Then more than 80,000 German and Italian troops entered Spain and rushed all the way to Algeciras outside Gibraltar. At this time, the German-Italian forces did not have many troops, but they carried a large number of artillery. Even Germany has transferred three Big Bell Tower guns, which shows that Germany and Italy attach great importance to Gibraltar.

Gibraltar is the throat connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Only by capturing it can the combined fleet enter the Atlantic Ocean to intercept British ships.

Soon, in the third month after the surrender of France, the Battle of Gibraltar broke out. In the month-long battle, the three German large betas played a crucial role, naming the forts in the Gibraltar Fortress one by one. It was precisely this that allowed the German and Italian armies to capture Gibraltar with only a loss of 23,000 people.

When Gibraltar was captured, Germany and Austria also launched the Battle of Warsaw. 630,000 German and Austrian troops and 670,000 Russian troops fought around Warsaw and its surroundings.

After more than three months of fighting, Germany and Austria finally won. The Russians had to evacuate Warsaw after losing 390,000 people.

And this battle also made Russia feel the pressure. You must know that before, Russia usually attacked Germany and Austria and defended. Now it has become Germany and Austria attacking, and Russia defending.

The German officers and soldiers who had experienced on the Western Front were still a little uncomfortable with the density of firepower on the Eastern Front battlefield. Mainly because it was too low, which made the German troops on the Western Front who were accustomed to raindrops of firepower a bit uncomfortable.

After capturing Gibraltar and opening up the channel to the Atlantic Ocean, the Combined Fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean in July 1915 and bombarded Plymouth on the east side of the English Channel.

Although this bombardment was not serious, it frightened David in the UK because it meant that the Italian-Austrian Combined Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet could carry out a pincer attack on the British mainland. This put the British Home Fleet in a dilemma.

For this reason, Britain had a call to transfer the Allied ships that had retreated to India to the mainland, but this aroused Japan’s refusal. For Japan, after seizing the German and Italian colonies in Southeast Asia, there was a burst of cheers in Japan. But when France surrendered, it cast doubt on Japan’s legitimacy to join the Allies.

At this time, Japan was even more unwilling to let its warships go to the British mainland. In view of the fact that the British captured the French warships in the fleet, Japan was very wary of this, causing its crew members to generally disembark in batches for fear of capturing their own warships.

Similarly, in North America, the United States became more resistant to joining the war after France surrendered.

The United States is now even more unmoved by the British’s wooing. Even the British-Russian bonds on the New York Stock Exchange cannot be sold. As for British and Russian purchases, payment needs to be made first. All this was caused by the surrender of France and the great disadvantage of the Allied Powers on the battlefield.

For this reason, the Russians came to Britain and proposed a radical end to the war, which made London feel slim about the victory of the war.

This is because the UK is also heavily in debt. From the 400 million pounds owed to itself by the United States to a debt of 900 million pounds to the United States. In addition, during this war, British military expenditures reached more than 2 billion pounds every year. This year, 1.47 billion pounds was spent in just six months. This caused a large amount of British wealth to be consumed by the war, and also led to widespread complaints among the British people.

For this reason, London, as a politician, also has concerns, but at this time, the concerns are just concerns, because the British mainland has not been attacked yet, because the United Kingdom can still support it. Because the vast colonies can also provide Britain with various supplies and soldiers.

However, as the Italian-Austrian fleet could enter the Atlantic at any time and lacked enough warships, the British Navy was already in a difficult position. For this reason, the British Navy was forced to formulate a plan to have a decisive battle with the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. It would be easy to win, but if it loses, then the British Empire will really have no hope of coming back.

For this reason, the British made careful preparations and used battle cruisers to bombard Schleswig in the early morning. Although this bomb caused many casualties, it angered the Germans. Germany sent out battle cruisers to pursue it, while other warships of the High Seas Fleet suppressed the formation.

Facing the deceived High Seas Fleet, the rest of the Home Fleet deployed in the southern North Sea to try to encircle and annihilate the German battle patrol formation first. However, as the commander of the battle patrol formation, Admiral Speer was very alert and avoided the encirclement of the Home Fleet. At the same time, he called Commander Scheer of the High Seas Fleet with news that the entire enemy force was dispatched.

Faced with the news that the British Home Fleet appeared in the southern North Sea, Scheer immediately felt that this was an opportunity. In the previous naval battle of Dogger Sandbank, he had experienced the performance of British warships. Now I still have three Bavaria-class ships with 380mm main guns in my hands, and I can’t give up at any cost.

So in the middle of the North Sea, a decisive naval battle broke out.

This time, the British Home Fleet dispatched a total of 167 warships of various types, including 23 battleships and 7 battlecruisers. The German High Seas Fleet also dispatched 110 warships of various types, including 18 battleships and 6 battlecruisers, in a desperate struggle in the North Sea.

This naval battle lasted from 3 pm on August 17 to more than 8 pm. In this more than 5-hour naval battle, Germany sank 11 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, and 58 other battleships of the British Home Fleet at the cost of sinking 7 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, and 39 other battleships. This naval battle was won.

The defeat of this naval battle made other countries even less optimistic about the formation of the Allied Powers camp by Britain, Russia and Japan. At this time, Britain, which was at its peak before the war, was in such a situation, thinking about it makes the British cry.

After the defeat in this naval battle, the British people were even more disappointed with this war. Although defeat in the war has caused many problems, if the war continues, the problems will be more serious. This is the only solution to the lesser of two evils. For this reason, even die-hard representative Churchill said privately to his friends that it is too difficult to win this war now.

To this end, after consultations with Russia and Japan, Britain formed an alliance camp with Germany, Italy, and Austria on December 9, 1915, and made a request for peace talks. This is a humiliation for Britain’s hegemony of more than two hundred years, but faced with such a situation, unless the United States is willing to join the Entente, there is no way.

Faced with the peace talks proposed by the Allied Powers led by Britain and Russia, the Allies were naturally very willing.

Things were not going well for the Alliance camp at this time. More than two years of war had plunged all countries into starvation. The people’s tolerance is not far from the limit, and even Italy has also entered the problem of food shortages this year.

There is no way, although Italy has hoarded a lot of food before, but when all the allies are in food shortage, do you need some support? Even if it is you, you can’t get nothing, right?

So today A borrows some, tomorrow B exchanges for some, and C asks for some the day after tomorrow. Otherwise, if the jam is tight, the stored grain will have been eaten long ago, and we can still wait until now.

Since everyone is interested in peace talks, let’s sit down and talk slowly. Before the peace talks, the elimination of the fighting between the two parties has become a prerequisite for the alliance camp.

Of course the Allied Powers, led by Britain, knew why, and in order to ensure that the peace talks could proceed, they could only agree. Subsequently, a large number of orders came from all over the world, and materials such as grain, meat, raw materials, etc. were shipped back by ships from the alliance camp.

As for the location of the peace talks, the alliance chose Munich. The previous negotiation venue with France was also in Munich, and now the negotiations are in Munich. This is really a good place that all the countries in the alliance like.

Then the negotiations between the Alliance camp and the Entente camp began that affected the world. As for the condition of disarming the Entente camp, the Alliance camp did not mention it, because this is not a defeat of the two countries, but that both sides can no longer fight.

Therefore, after several months of negotiations, the two parties reluctantly reached an agreement recognized by all parties.

First of all, the Entente camp needs to withdraw from the territory and colonies of the Alliance camp, and must not destroy the facilities. If damaged, compensation must be made.

Regarding this point, the defeated Allied camp also agreed that this was a historical rule. After solving this problem, the next step is to discuss the conditions

On the British side, the military facilities and personnel in Egypt must be withdrawn, and the Kingdom of Egypt will pay to purchase these facilities at actual prices. This is completely to make Egypt independent, and Ottoman is still unhappy about this. However, under the persuasion of Germany, Italy, Austria, Britain and Russia, the Ottomans recognized the reality.

As for Egypt’s most important Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula, they were turned into an international condominium area, jointly managed by Germany, Italy, Austria and Turkey, and the defense of the area was left to Italy. It was also a recognition of Italian power in the Mediterranean. In addition, the British islands and military facilities in the Mediterranean were all taken over by Germany, Italy and Austria (Ottoman).

This is the condition for Britain. Because Britain still has strength, it can only occupy the captured territory. There is not even compensation, only 100 million pounds in the name of prisoner food expenses (paid over ten years).

On the Russian side, the Russians need to deliver Poland, Western Ukraine, Eastern Moldavia, and Georgia to Germany, Austria-Hungary, Romania, and the Ottomans respectively. As for the compensation, 500 million rubles is the limit that Russia can accept (to be paid in ten years). The Russians have suffered a huge loss.

As for Japan, it will withdraw from the German and Italian colonies and pay an indemnity of 200 million yen (to be paid in ten years). In addition, at Carlo’s request, Japan also withdrew from Taiwan, which it occupied.

It can be said that the losses of the alliance camp are not huge, and their strength is still there. The alliance camp has already given up on the situation and has no intention of having a life-or-death showdown with it.

Of course, this is except for France. In addition to ceding Savoy, Nice, Corsica, and Tunisia to Italy, France also needs to pay 12 billion francs in compensation to the Alliance camp (to be paid in ten years). This amount was mainly paid to Germany in exchange for Germany’s support for Italy’s claim to territory. Of course, if Germany obtained Poland, Italy would also support Germany.

There are also a series of conditions for prisoner exchange, intelligence, supervision, etc. Although these conditions may seem inconspicuous, they are still very important to various countries.

When Carlo saw the terms of the peace negotiation, he only said one sentence: This is an armistice clause for up to twenty years.

Next he needs to think about what Italy should do in the next war.