Tu felix Austria... (Interwar Austria)

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler: Authors Notes

So I've finally managed to get some words to (digital) paper again. This is something that rattled around in my mind for a while, and mutated heavily in that time. Yet, I've written this with just some quick fact checking on Wikipedia, not the stack of books I usually have by my side. I'll just post it anyway, and I'll see if it gets readers, and for the matter, fact checkers.
I'm going to (mostly) tell this from a detached perspective, newspapers, letters, books, etc. Since this will seriously change the world as we see it, some of the perspectives will be alien even to me, but I'll give it a try. I'll try to be mindful of topics that might be uncomfortable to people and give warnings.
If you want to be at least a bit spoiled, then read here:

Spoiler

This isn't a straight up ISOT of any variation, no SI and certainly not history just going a different path. There is a MacGuffin behind it, on what was at one time a quasi-crossover between a Science Fiction Universe and real History, but for this at least I'll mostly file the serial numbers off.
If you want to be spoiled as to the origin, keep reading.

There was a timeline on AH.com over a decade ago. lordroel's 'Kingdom of the Netherlands : a alternate star trek timeline'. Well this is similar, a advanced future space ship gets dropped via negative space wedge/asb/whatever into what could have been our universe, giving a single individual access to teleportation, matter creation, advanced computing, advanced (far in excess to current) sensors and most important of all, future would be knowledge. And being an 1918 (German-)Austrian there are a couple of things he learns he'd rather avoid. But since space plays no real part in this, nor do I need Q or Star Trek replicators in exactly that configuration, I filed off the serial numbers, even more so since I do not intend on showing the ship with less than two degrees of separation - in TTL it's the conspiracy that just nobody believes, but happens to be true, because there are layers and layers of lies to protect it.
Also, as some might notice: the MacGuffin is dropped in in 1918, first "story" bit is more than a decade later. A lot of things happened during that time, and while there will be later chapters that fill in some gaps, some will remain unfilled.

The Times, London, 12th April 1929

Italy crosses Brenner border

Claims Austria responsible for unrest in Venezia Tridentina

Matrei am Brenner burned out, Troops expected in Innsbruck by tomorrow

War has begun. After renewed unrest in Bolzano during the inauguration of the new Victory Monument yesterday, Italian Alpini crossed the border at the Brenner pass in the early morning. The border itself was unguarded by Austria, after previous incidents, to prevent provocations. When the border garrison engaged seven miles from the border outside the village of Matrei, Italian troops shelled the village to destruction. Austrian troop retreated afterwards, protecting a caravan of displaced villagers. Italian troop are expected at the city of Innsbruck by tomorrow.

Our correspondent in Vienna tells us via telegram, that he has been informed of Italian attacks towards Lienz and Villach as well.

Our correspondent in Milano tells us, that Italian troops have been moved north in order to ensure the protection of the King and the Duce even before the inauguration of the new monument. He reports, that further troops have moved north from Milano barracks overnight.

Reports of Street fighting in Bolzano and Merano have not yet been confirmed.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Gamper, Hans (1988): Introduction to Twentieth Century Austria, Bozen: Tyrolia Verlag


Flashpoint Tyrol


It should not come as a surprise that South Tyrol became one of the flash points of the collapsing treaties that were created after the Great War. While the Trentino held a majority of Italian speakers, north of Trient the population was overwhelmingly speaking Austrian-German. This wasn't inherently a problem, but italianization efforts created a lot of them. Even before Mussolini took power in 1922, there had been several bloody attacks on German speakers in Tyrol by Italian Fascists, but after it it became enforced by law. German in schools and government was outlawed by 1923, and efforts spread from there. By 1927 even gravestones were rewritten with Italian given and family names.

Added to this came economic considerations. Austria very quickly recovered both from the war and the splitting of their Empire, white Italy floundered. While people point to the reopened silver mines at Schwaz and Silbertal, as well as the gold mines at Rauris for Austrian economic success, this is just the tip of the iceberg. A large range of chemical, mechanical and agricultural companies grew, especially in the west of Austria, taking progress made during the war and finally using them for peaceful means. While this led to mainly internal migration, people from the former Empire also received favourable terms for temporary employment in Austria. When Mussolini's government learned of this, they quickly cracked down on this practice with new taxation, something that was unpopular not just with German speakers, but Italian speakers from the area as well.

Added to this was propaganda and weapons flowing into Italy from Austria in large numbers. It is known today, that it wasn't just war stocks of Mannlicher Modell 1895 that were smuggled there, but additional new build ones. Bloody clashes between the increasingly numerous Blackshirt and Army units and armed local started to become common in the late 20s.

Early 1929 was a powder keg waiting to go off. Sabotage the previous spring had damaged the planed victory monument in Bozen. The monument had since it's inception been controversial. There had been several protests before construction even began. Yet it was high profile enough, that both the Duce as well as the King were announced to be present for the inauguration.

Additionally on March 29th Josef Noldin had been executed without trial.

Noldin had been sentenced several times for teaching German language in so called 'catacomb schools'. In 1926 he was then, again without trial, sentenced to banishment on the island Lipari.

When he fell sick he was released in late 1928. Once back in Bozen, he resumed teaching German in private lessons, despite them being forbidden. When a groups of Blackshirts took it upon themselves to conduct an inspection, they happened upon one of those sessions. The same evening Noldin was shot in the courtyard of the local barracks.

Riots the day after cost at least three lives, two Tyroleans and a soldier from Sicily. Several others vanished during the fights, and it is assumed that at least a few of them were murdered and disposed off. Order, for a given value of order had been restored at the barrel of a lot of guns, and then not even two weeks later the high profile inauguration was to take place. Rescheduling would have been seen as weakness, so it was to take place.

And so it happened that 19 year old Andreas Pircher fired a single shot from a roof some 200 meters distant on the other side of the river Talfer, hitting Mussolini in the chest. The Duce died five days later of the wounds.

Spoiler

Mixing truth and fiction here. Laws are mostly as was. Obviously no new mines and industry OTL. Also no smuggled weapons as far as I know, prior to WWII. Victory Monument was contentious, but was only target of attacks between 1960ish-1990ish. Noldin OTL died of his sickness, caused by his imprisionment. And obviously Mussolini wasn't shot.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Innsbrucker Nachrichten, Innsbruck, 14th April 1929


Critical Italian Defeat at Bergisel!

Liberate Tyrol Now!

After the Italians burned Matrei, they faced our troops at the historical site of Bergisel. The regulars were once again aided by several units of local Schützen, who in small groups, with their hunting rifles, answered the call to all men in defence of our country. Also present was a significant unit of students under the banner of the Akademische Legion.

The Italians were obviously surprised at the resistance, only having expected to face the small number of professional soldiers. But in the end those made most of the difference. Under fire of the dug in machine guns and pre-sighted artillery the Alpini quickly started to retreat. In a last measure of spite their artillery turned their guns on the city, before they abandoned them to to flee.

By now our troops will have driven them back beyond the Brenner, and soon enough we will have driven them south of the Salurner Klause!

Landeshauptmann Franz Stumpf called up all Schützen to rise to liberate Tyrol. They should, among the Heimwehr, and yes, even the Schutzbund, serve as a cadre to facilitate a quick expansion of the army in the face of Italian aggression. He announced that there will be a general muster as soon as it can be organised.

Vienna has been silent on the issue of general mobilisation, but existing units are quickly brought forward. Troops from Salzburg have already been involved in the fighting, and the Garrison in Landeck, backed by troops from Vorarlberg has already started their own counter-attack over the Reschen.

Spoiler

Well, the likes tell me that at least someone looks at this.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

So part of this entire thing is to write something every day - part of why those are short. Though part is also that my mind currently rapidly wanders off if I try anything longer. Still I got a bit more than one of those together a day since Saturday, so today two snippets instead of one

Moss, John (1944): Memories of the Austro-Italian War, or Franzerl des Panzerl, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
14.4.1929

When I heard about what the Italians did I deliberated for a while, then approached a guy I knew. I had spent the winter drinking and gambling my life away, but I still introduced myself as a journalist. It surprised me at the time, the guy that I knew got me a meeting with a very distracted Oberst. He asked me if I wanted to tag along with the regulars, or if I was more interested in something special. I was shocked, here I was a foreign journalist, and they offered me more, far more than my own government would have. Than again, I considered that they didn't know a thing about me. So I told him I'd be up for something special, the adventure appealed to my younger self.

The next night I was woken while it was still pitch black outside. Two soldiers in white winter uniforms led me outside, where I joined a couple other in the back of one of the seemingly ubiquitous small trucks. We first moved not south, but up the Inn valley, then through the Öztal. Our drive ended with the asphalt road in the tiny hamlet of Gurgl, seemingly surrounded on all sides by massive mountains covered in snow.

There we met with three local guides. Sepp, the only local to speak something different than an incomprehensible variation of the local Austrian, explained that usually he would consider the conditions too dangerous, but that there had been enough snow recently so they were willing to make the trek. The next question was if I've ever skied. While my best memories of holidays in Montafon had been of long nights playing illegal poker with the local chief of police, I did confirm that I knew how to.

As it turns out I wasn't aware what I was talking about. My companions in the meantime had unloaded some of the fuel cans the locals used and some boxes, one of them I quickly decided was a radio, and started strapping them to their backs. Sepp meanwhile fashioned me with a pair of skis, odd ones with come kind of textile strapped to the bottom. It turned out this allowed me to walk upslope on the skies. At one point during our trek our guide informed me that we had now arrived on the glacier. During mid April this high in the Tyrolean mountains I couldn't have told where anything was beyond a lot of snow. When I asked how he knew he gave me the puzzling answer that he used to help herd sheep over it for them to graze on the north side during summer.

Our guides had us take several detours around dangerous areas I couldn't have told the difference from any other patch of snow. At one point we halted for half an hour for one of them to deliberately set of an avalanche in front of us. It was early afternoon by my clock, but the sun was setting already as we again descended on the other side.

We then arrived at a small collection of huts that I've been told were called Pfelders. I was told that normally at this time of the year it wouldn't be occupied, but since they had stashed some gear here, local fighters were here and expecting us. And our fuel apparently, since they were short.

The welcome was hearty and we were given some Schnaps and tea to warm up. It was then that one of my military companions asked why they were short on fuel, they had expected to just need to bring ammunition. Ignaz, one of the locals then answered that they had used Franzerl to move some lumber that had fallen last fall during a storm.

At that point I simply asked, maybe my tongue loosened a bit by the alcohol, "Franzerl?"

Iganz grinned across his whole face, and told me to follow. We moved outside and then to a building I had pegged as just another barn. Inside however, inside was a Renault FT, a red eagle lovingly painted on the front.

Spoiler

Since I lack the skill to imitate and the motivation to read a lot of Hemmingway, welcome to discount Hemmingway. He's even managed to get the same publisher! We'll see more of him. Franzerl is there because I find it funny. Nothing more, nothing less. I also await first protest about historical accuracy. Some might have reason, others, well reminder that the POD is over a decade ago.

Heilbronner General-Anzeiger, 16th April 1929


War without declaration

Austrian Chancellor claims there has been no formal declaration of war

Claims that actions speak clearly enough, and they will presume that a state of war exists

Calls upon League of Nation and signatories of Geneva Protocols to interfere

Austrian Chancellor Ignaz Seipel has addressed his nation and the world yesterday in a radio broadcast. He stated that even after four days of fighting they have yet to receive any declaration of war. Yet he, as well as the Austrian parliament, were convinced that their mere actions constitute such a state existing. He therefore called upon the League of Nations, reminding them of Part I, Article 11 of the Treaty of St-Germain-en-Laye, to interfere and bring an end to the fighting.

Further he announced, that due to the current crisis he had reached out to his Social-democratic counterparts and has arranged for a government of national unity, until the end of the crisis. Details for this will be announced in the coming days.

Additionally he proclaimed a general conscription, since even with the aid of militias and volunteers, the 50000 strong professional army isn't expected to be able to deal with all Italian forces.

Further he announced, that the situation in North Tyrol was under control. Italians troops had been pushed south of the Brenner pass, fighting was currently happening at Sterzing. A second thrust had crossed the Reschen and liberated Schlanders, with minimal resistance of the Italian garrison.

Meanwhile elsewhere the situation was worse. Lienz was occupied by Italians, and elements were pushing north along the recently finished Glocknerstrasse.

In Carinthia, Italian forces were moving more slowly. Thörl-Maglern is after less than five years once again occupied by Italy. However despite the short distance, only scouts have yet to move further than Arnoldstein. A reason for this could be the use of the rail yard in Fürnitz as a mustering point for troops.


Italian officials are silent on all this. Official word of Benito Mussolini's hospitalisation was only provided today.

Spoiler

I've got to read up on Austrian interwar social democrats and socialists. Again. I've done it before. Three times. I've forgotten all about it again. It's getting worrying. Maybe I should get rid of the last alcohol in my flat before I start? Also: Shots fired at undeclared wars and the League of Nations. Fun fact to take home: Seipel was an ordained catholic priest. He was also the Austrian Chancellor twice. Make of that what you will.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

So I wrote less today, but I've still got enough ready-ish. So two pieces today again.

Da ist Gold in den Bergen – Feierliche Festschrift zu 50 Jahren Tauern Gold AG, Lienz (1969), translated from German


That there is gold in the Alps has never been in doubt. According to some estimations by the mid-fifteenth century about ten percent of mined gold in the known world came from the Tauern area. However by the early twentieth century known deposits had become uneconomically to further mine out.

During the Great War however there was a lack of just about everything in Austria-Hungary. An enterprising individual in the k.k. Handelsministerium therefore ordered a new survey in the hope of finding sources for needed metals. While reports of their work are mostly lost, it is known that they reported a new gold vein near Rauris.

We started work to exploit this deposit started in early 1919, providing a much needed influx of cash to the post war economy. At the same time silver mines at Schwaz and in the Silbertal area were reopened.

In the first year most of the metal mined was used for food imports, allowing the new nation to feed itself.

In 1922 then the treaty parties of St-Germain met in Geneva. The Treaty of St-Germain had pegged Austria as unable to pay as it was in 1919. The treaty said, that future payments were to be adjusted to similar proportional rates as Germany paid. However Austrian economic stability compared to German hyper-inflation, in the wake of the Ruhr occupation, caused lenient negotiations. Getting Austria not just to pay, but to pay on schedule would be another weapon against German reticence in doing so.

Still Austria was burdened with a staggering 9 billion Goldkronen, to be repaid over thirty years. In exchange there were some minor modifications made to the Treaty of St Germain. Notably it amended limitations on the Austrian Armed Forces. They also reaffirmed a ban on unification with Germany, in exchange for guarantees of territorial integrity.

After the Geneva Protocols were signed, negotiators approached British, French and Yugoslavian negotiators, about the possibility of paying off some of the debt early. Yugoslavia, at the time always starved for cash, agreed quickly to payment then and there. While a good part was in gold from the Tauern area, according to legend the Yugoslav Foreign Minster signed backdated agreements on infrastructure as payment right there in the vault of a Swiss bank on top of a stack of gold bars. While France and Britain did not have any state property on annexed territories that could be put up as partial payment, they were willing to grant rebates and trade agreements in exchange for early payment. Among other things, our gold allowed Britain to return to the gold standard soon after.

The biggest debt holder however, Italy, found Austria to be more difficult. They often argued, that Italy had already been paid in goods, properties and infrastructure in the annexed areas that had been insufficiently regulated in previous treaties. Arbitration of the value of the defunct k.u.k. Navy alone took nearly four years in the Reparation Commission. Other times they tried to tie payments to better treatment of the Austrian minority in Italy. By the time of the Austro-Italian war, less than five percent of reparations to Italy had been repaid.

Spoiler

Who's that there around the corner? Oh, it's the ghosts of Spanish Treasure Fleets? Whatever are they doing here?
No seriously, I looked into just how much reparations Germany actually was supposed to pay. With the reduced rates they finally agreed to they were still expected to pay yearly rates of (though in various means) more than the yearly world wide gold production at the time. For forty years.
Even with me avoiding hard numbers, the amount of gold the "new found" vein provided doubles world gold production in the 1919-1922 period. Again just having done some rough estimates in my head for the numbers, the lump payments mentioned here might have been worth up to 2% of existent worldwide mined gold up to that point. I have no idea where I'd start on value already provided in government assets, since OTL that process wasn't even started. Also I haven't really looked into what France and Britain would consider a nice infusion of cash during a time I know they had loan repayments and expanding social programs.

Böhmische Arbeiterzeitung, Pilsen, 18th April 1929


Austria opens additional Guest Worker slots

With full mobilisation in our Southern Neighbour expected to happen very soon, the Austrian government has expanded their usual limited guest worker slots significantly. While we do not usually support exploitation of workers and anti-internationalist measures, even we have to admit that limited work permits had kept both wages for Austrian workers high, and to a lesser extent also in the new nations in their outdated former empire. One only has to look to Germany or Poland, where guest worker slots in Austria are much harder to acquire and what pittance workers have to live there.

While we do not support war, we know that at least the local war profiteers will continue to have to pay wages one can actually live on. Thousands of Krona have been spent for further war materials, and our labour will be in high demand. Already yesterday night train after train left the local Skoda factory, carrying more than hundred of their newest war machines south.

Austrian railway worker pressed into forced labour

While our comrades to the south had spend many an hour working tireless at the great projects that are bringing together worker from all corners of the world, we must now hear their plight. By the hundreds they and their materials had been pressed into service of the Austrian capitalist Army.

And then they were not even armed and trained, preparing them for the inevitable struggle where we will overthrow the capitalist order, but they were plucked from their projects, their wages cut in half, and then assigned to repair rails that the Army had destroyed just days earlier.

We must protest this treatment of our brothers in the harshest terms.

Capitalist Leaders Hypocritical

While there had been numerous denunciations of war, no leader of any of the greater powers truly care how many workers are fed into the fires of war.

Our own government already has the blood of workers on their hands, having agreed to extensive arms deals, that will be used to kill and suppress workers. Our neighbours haven't yet agreed to similar deals, likely only to not appears to be not too much of war profiteers.

We observe with sadness that only the United States had announced that they will embargo all war parties so far. It isn't the capitalists blood that will run in rivers, it is workers fighting for causes not their own.

Spoiler

I've rewritten this one several times today. And I'm still certain I missed some of the vocabulary that I should have used... Oh well.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Two pieces again. Not 100% happy with them, but that's for the dreaded re-write that dies halfway through.

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 2
15.4.1929

The next morning we again started moving early. All of us capable skiers we were able to move further down the valley quickly. The tank barely managed to keep up, even if the driver obviously was used to the dangerously winding path. When we arrived at Moos, it first occurred to me how different the villages over the mountains were. The street further down valley was barely more of a track than the one we've followed down from Pfelders. The small trucks you found everywhere in Austria were missing. Equally the tractors, that some farmers owned even in mountainous areas to the north. A lone motorcycle stood leaning at the front of the church, but no others were there. Not even their muscle powered imitations were to be seen. To be honest I always thought the locals in Austria mad, to take those contraptions that far into the mountains, but their absence was still something that stood out to me.

At the time I simply though that Moos was a backwater, a place so high in the mountains that civilisation had barely even reached there. We moved further down valley, finally leaving the snow behind to make the skis more of a hindrance than a help. I managed to hitch a ride on Franzerl for a while, but mostly was stuck walking. As we moved through the mountain, men appeared amongst us. It seems that at every building we passed, one or two joined up, each with their own rifles, in hardy brown and red clothing, that gave them something of a uniform look. The only things truly uniform however were the red-white armbands Ignaz passed out from some seemingly infinite storage in the tank. It was quite clear to me, that the locals had been waiting for this day, and were prepared to fight for their country.

We finally arrived in St Leonhard, and stopped there for a while. As we waited colourful standards were unrolled, and carefully mounted so that they could be seen from afar. A couple of people were conferring with the Austrian liaisons in the thick accent of theirs. Several times they consulted with someone else over the radio we had brought with us over the mountains. I was treated to some hearty soup, as we waited.

Finally everyone gathered in front of a pub, spread out into squads. Standards front, they listened to a speech. While at the time I had considered my German to be quite good, I only understood some of the words, so thick was the accent of the locals. I gathered that they were appealing to those gathered to fight for their freedom. They then swore an oath of some kind, and then as they started to move out, started singing "Zu Mantua in Banden".

Johann told me afterwards that the pub had been the Sandwirt, birth place of the Tyrolean freedom fighter Andreas Hofer. Most of us, including Franzerl, moved up another valley. A smaller group meanwhile moved down valley. I've been told that they would meet up with others, living further down the Passeier, and would block the Italians from moving north from Meran. We meanwhile were going north, towards Sterzing, where fighting had already started.

Spoiler

Kinda surprised that South Tyrol didn't resonate more with the US in OTL - on the other hand ITTL here we do have a well armed militia rising, instead the troubles starting with destruction of infrastructure. Searching for "Feuernacht" should give you an idea of the start of the OTL post-WWII conflict.

Miller, Franz; Smith, Heinrich and Hintergruber, Kenneth (1948): Germans in America – A pursuit of Liberty, Cincinnati: Steinlage

By 1919 there was a significant resurgence of the German language in the US. While this was watched with some trepidation in US government circles, there was no longer a war going on. Several News papers were quickly closed down for a wide range of reasons, but at least some didn't offer too many weaknesses for legal complaints or operated in states where angering the German vote wasn't seen as practical. Investigations showed that most operators that remained had an impeccable record during the war, and many weren't even originally from Germany, either having been born in the US, or hailing from Switzerland, France or the nations of the former Habsburg Monarchy.

However the return of German language newspapers was mostly accepted as a return to normality after the Great War. A seeming unspoken agreement amongst the German publishers towards objectivity didn't really hurt this. With low prices, wide ranging contacts and at least in some cases a simplified German language, such as the Cleveland Tagblatt or the Milwaukee Arbeiterzeitung, some papers gained a readership even outside of German-American circles.

After the Supreme Court ruling in Meyer v. Nebraska, and the ruling against bans on language teaching, German made a return in schools as well. The Society for Multi-Lingualism was supported by people very much in the same circles as many German newspaper publishers, but also received money from European industrialists. Via various fronts it is estimated that as much as a quarter of the funding came from the Austrian government. However the Society offered and supported a large number of second language courses all over the US, as well English courses for migrants, and didn't limit themselves to German. French, Spanish, Russian and Swedish were the most commonly taught languages aside from German in the 1920s.

The Society, as well as others, also lobbied for expanded second language courses in the official school curricula in the US. This was strongly opposed by several influential people of an English-Protestant background.

Very much the same people opposed the return of German language books into public libraries. During the Great War on several occasions it had come to book burnings, mainly to destroy German language book in libraries. While there were some libraries that did not return German books to their shelves, many more did. They couldn't very well deny donations too often. Even today most libraries have at the very least the canon of great German literature, most often in the bi-lingual version, with the German original on one page and the English translation on the other one.

Spoiler

That's sort of a companion to a piece I haven't written yet, concerning media on a larger scale. The authors of this piece in my mind those people came from very specific milieu, one that was pretty much was dead in the US by the 30s OTL and is dead in Austria and Germany today as well, because they got awfully close to the Nazis.
Mentions of French born Germans might trip some up - well Alsace is a thing. It leads to interesting things when people do not keep border changes in mind. OTL US government had several blunders in that direction. Also thought long and hard about using the term WASP in there, but then decided against it.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 3
15.4.1929

It was a steep climb up the mountains, even on the winding road. As we arrived at the top of the Jaufenpass Ignaz informed me that his father had actually taken part in constructing the modern road, back before the Great War. He told me that while people on foot, or on skis, would have managed just fine, he'd doubt that we'd have gotten a tank over it in mid-April. As it was, tracks proved themselves in an environment where I'd doubt a wheeled vehicle would have managed.

A large part of the locals had taken their skies with them and were soon dispersing down the two northbound valleys. I meanwhile stayed on the road leading down the ridge between the two with Franzerl.

On the north side the road slowed downhill far more gently than to the south of the pass. We quickly moved from the empty height of the pass downwards, trees quickly appearing in ones or twos, and before you knew it, it was dense enough that there were points where snow hadn't gathered in the undergrowth.

It was there that Johann took me aside. He told me that the tank would obviously take fire, and it'd be dangerous to follow with it directly and recommended I'd vanish down into the woods with one of the groups of Schützen. He also offered me his machine pistol and an armband, telling me that while they hoped that the Italian regulars expected at Sterzing would respect a journalist embedded at the front line, he could by no means confirm it. Then he grimaced and told me that the same certainly couldn't be said for the blackshirts.

I seriously considered it for a moment, but ultimately decided against it. I hoped that without the brown-and-red jackets most of the locals seemed to have scourged up or the white winter uniforms of the Austrians, my camera and binoculars would give the Italians pause before shooting me out of hand. Still, it was the moment I realised that this certainly wasn't just some adventure. I hadn't been old enough to fight in the Great War, but I certainly remember the stories I heard, or more tellingly my uncle George who'd just go silent when the war came up. And I certainly understood that moment that'd my mother would certainly be mad at me, traipsing around with soldiers behind enemy lines. But this was also a line I drew in my mind. I'd be a journalist, sure a journalist moving along with soldiers and rebels – freedom fighters – whatever you'd call them, but I wasn't a soldier in a war.

We passed down into the forest, over patches of snow and some signs of a regular path leading somewhere. We were a small group, the only one I'd have spoken regularly before was Ignaz, guided by a boy who couldn't have been fifteen. He had joined us just south of the pass and obviously knew the terrain very well. We moved slowly downhill, and as the wind turned I understood why. What had been distant and scattered growls of thunder beforehand now was a regular thumping coming from the north. Every now and then you'd even hear the sharper cracks in between, rifle fire of some kind.

As we arrived at the edge of a glade, we were ushered into a small hut. At first glance it was obviously not meant for winter habitation, but it provided shelter anyway. A small fire was crackling, and I was offered some tea, being told that food will have to wait a bit more.

There was also a radio in operation in a corner, and we soon learned that during the later afternoon fighting had escalated from just some skirmishes to dug in infantry in the narrow north of Sterzing.

The Italians had in addition to that dug in artillery not just in the city, but also in the mountains around it, including somewhere downhill from us.

After I had received some food I moved out again. I stayed in the tree lines, to avoid being seen, but quickly noticed that light was too low for good photos. I did however see a lot of tiny pinpricks of light to the north, and even the east of us, predating distant thunder. The battery below us seemed to be silent yet, but since we had been ordered to leave them alone for now I was uncertain why.

Finally Sepperl, the young guide, came to find me, only to inform me that'd I'd have an early morning tomorrow.

Spoiler

There will be another part in the evening, or even two. I do have some buffer stored up after all.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Technically 3 pieces, but two are pretty short

Flight, London, 13th September 1928


Airisms from the Four Winds

Altenrhein Flugzeugwerke

The Swiss manufacturer started delivering the successor to their AR.1 passenger aircraft. The AR.2 as produced seats 20 and is powered by two Rhomberg Destrier engines. Swiss Air, the first of certainly many operator has already announced that they will be extending their regular air service, owning to the better speed and range of their new aircraft.

(advertisement on the opposite page)

Fly Swissair!

With new services from Geneva and Basel to London we now offer three attractive destinations in Switzerland. Fly with the most modern planes, to see the Alps in less than three hours, and enjoy a stay in the mountains!

Spoiler

Note the date, it's more than half a year before the war.

Regierung Seipel IV (Am 17.4.1929 angelobt)
Bundeskanzleramt	Bundeskanzler Ignaz Seipel (CS)
	Vizekanzler Richard Schmitz (CS)
Bundesministerium für Justiz	Bundesminister Josef Resch (CS)
	Staatssekretär Heinrich Steinitz (SDAP)
Bundesministerium für Unterricht	Bundesminister Otto Glöckel (SDAP)
	Staatssekretär Kurt Schuschnigg (CS)
Bundesministerium für Soziale Verwaltung	Bundesminister Karl Renner (SDAP)
	Staatssekretär Theodor Innitzer
Bundesministerium für Finanzen	Bundesminister Viktor Kienböck (CS)
	Staatssekretär Hugo Breitner (SDAP)
Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft	Bundesminister Vinzenz Schumy (LBd)
	Staatssekretär Rudolf Buchinger (CS)
Bundesministerium für Verkehr	Bundesminister Robert Mehr (SDAP)
	Staatssekretär Friedrich Schuster
Bundesministerium für Heereswesen	Bundesminister Carl Vaugoin (CS)
	Staatssekretär Julius Deutsch (SDAP)
Bundesministerium für Äußeres	Bundesminister Alfred Grünberger
	Staatssekretär Helene Polanyi (SDAP)
Bundesministerium für Handel, Gewerbe und Industrie	Bundesminister Franz Odehnal (CS)
	Staatssekretär Hans Schürff (GdP)

Spoiler

That bit took far more time than it should have. And the Formating was a pain to put together. Those politicians without a party mentioned are all not official members of one, but all close to the CS. And yes, this cabinet will do interseting things to the social democrats primarily, but also to a lesser extent the other parties.

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 4
16.4.1929

At one point during the night I was woken by the noise of an angry god crushing mountains. Orange light spilled though gaps in the wooden walls of our shelter. Then it was silent again, just broken up by the droning of aircraft engines. I joined Sepperl at one of the small windows. He excitedly pointed east said: "Look, they've got the one over in Gospeneid too." And indeed you could see a fire flickering, where you had seen flashes in the evening. Though it seemed to have avoided the spectacular explosion of the one downhill from you.

Michael, the leader of the small band of Schützen, checked his watch and then told you that while the strike had been early, you'd better get ready anyway. On reflex you checked your own watch, it reading just shy of four o'clock. Early morning indeed.

I then once again listened half hearted to the briefing. Italian defensive lines at the Brenner had been overrun in a combination of speed and concentration they hadn't expected. Similarly defensive lines near Brennerbad and Gossensaß never really managed to be set up, the motorised transport giving Austrian troops unexpected speed. Around Sterzing however the local garrison managed to set up on pre-planned lines. This was aided by trainload after trainload of re-enforcements. Re-enforcements that weren't available to move into the side valleys to quench a general uprising there.

Some other Schützen had moved through the night and were supposed to neutralise the battery stationed halfway up the Rosskopf. Franzerl was supposed to rush east, and cut the railway line below Schloss Spechtstein.

We then started moving downhill, to do out part. On the way we were joined by several more squads of Schützen, as well as several indvidual ones. Apperently they had come from the surrounding mountenous farms, or snuck out of Italian held Sterzing. They all were in their colourful jackets and wore the red and white armbands. We then crossed the Mareiter Bach, seemingly a tiny stream, but I was informed that it'd swell significantly in the afternoon and was prone to violent and destructive floods.

We then moved uphill through the woods, avoiding the street that barely deserved that name, up to Thuins. I was still moving uphill when the people in front threw themselves to the ground as bullets whipped over the next edge. "Blackshits!", someone shouted.

I kept my head down, but the firefight was over surprisingly quickly. As I then moved over the edge myself, I could finally see a small collection of buildings myself, several of the local style farmhouses and a church. There were blackshirts in their name giving clothing lying around, a handful kept at gunpoint by Schützen that obviously hadn't moved with our group. A women just then threw out a blackshirt out of a second story window, and for his sake I hoped, that he was already dead.

Michael moved up to join the Schützen already there and greeted them as old friends. He then quickly organised his man, who moved through the village and took up positions amongst the trees and scattered buildings with a view towards Sterzing.

Sepperl took it upon himself to follow me and point out some things. You could obviously see the Zwölferturm, the town's landmark, but also the newly built barracks south of the city. While there were some features that gave some defensiveness as with every barracks, it wasn't built for a siege. And with maybe seven hundred feet distance, and a quarter that in elevation the Schützen with their hunting rifles should be able to hit often enough to be dangerous. Behind the barracks, between it and the railway station you could see artillery. It might have been further away, but even then some might be able to make a shot.

The Blackshirts in Thuins showed that they hadn't discounted enemies taking advantage by outflanking the defensive position north of the city, but they certainly hadn't expected several hundred Schützen pouring out of the valleys.

Spoiler

Not happy with the fighting, but oh well. Currently considering putting together a data sheet for the fighter bomber we didn't quite see this chapter. It's not the AR.1 or AR.2. Also not sure how far to go into the weaponry. I know some people are into that stuff, others aren't. My mind currently goes in all directions, so I certainly could write something up at some point. Not sure how much however.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Wasn't too productive today. Question, anyone got easy access to tables of organisation of the Italian army or at least the Alpini units prior to the 1935 organisation? Otherwise I'll simply use the post-35 ones and pretend that there were butterflies escaping their temporal nets. Figuring out what units were the "Pre-WWI" ones they returned to is a hassle.

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 5
16.4.1929

The fighting around Sterzing didn't last. Schützen coming from the Zillertal had taken out artillery batteries at Schmuders and Schloss Sprechenstein. From there they were threatening the Italian troops in the narrows and the railway. Not that the railway needed much threat, Franzerl had taken out a locomotive with a single shot, even before crossing the Eisack and capturing a trainload of ammunition. Add the Schützen threatening barracks, railway station and artillery south of the city, the regulars of the Italian army retreated towards their barracks. Even when they learned that their retreat was cut off, some kept on fighting, but most of them quickly surrendered as artillery started ranging in on the barracks.

Meanwhile the attached Blackshirts dug in in the city itself. The Austrians responded by sending German Brownshirts to do most of the fighting, proving that fascist neighbours would not be able to cooperate.

As I walked through the cobble stone streets, Sepperl at my side, the mood was sombre. There was blood in every street crack, rubble on the streets, bullet holes in the facades. Near the iconic tower someone had started stacking up Blackshirts and Brownshirts, not making too much of a distinction.

Hastily assembled barricades were negligently brushed to the side, some timber and sand sacks obviously having been prepared previously, others ripped from whatever source was at hand. In one case window shutters had been nailed to some long planks right in front of the house that still sported the same ones on the upper floors.

Further down the street people were poking at the burned out ruins of a building. By some miracle the neighbouring ones were only lightly charred, but otherwise intact. As an outsider not wearing one of the right uniforms I got some hostile glances, but my camera and my escort kept anyone from doing anything.

Even taking this detour I soon arrived where I had been requested. There was a big truck parked there, carrying one of the big boxes many were build for. This one was painted the drab olive that seems common amongst military vehicles. It was open in the back, but a heavy black curtain had been put in place.

A guy was leaning on the back of the container, a cigarette in his mouth, machine pistol hanging from his belt, and notably in the patchy green field uniform, instead of the far more common white winter uniform the Gebirgsjäger wore.

"You that Brit with the Passeier Schützen?", he asked me nodding at Sepperl and then continued not even waiting for an answer, "Right, I'm Holzmeister, Media Liaison officer. We've got darkroom in there, if your interested. We also provide postal and telegraph service with a higher priority than Feldpost, so you can send whatever you like to your publisher."

I started to explain that I didn't have a publisher, that I'd been in Austria on my own dime, but he wasn't interested in talking. So I shrugged as well, and offered to teach Sepperl how to develop a photo.

Since postal service was provided free of charge, I sent pictures and reports to several people I knew fleetingly. I didn't expect my pictures to become one of the leading impression of the war.

Spoiler

I threw together a shitty paint map for Sterzing, if I figure out how to upload it I'll add it at some point.

Meierhofer, Gebhard (1979): Militia and Volunteer Fighters in the Austro-Italian War, Vienna: Amalthea

The idea of Austria as part of a Greater Germany had cooled within the country in the years following Saint Germain and the Tyrolean vote to join Germany in 1921. While a lot of this was economical, a shift of reporting by media and especially in the fledgling radio broadcasts were equally important. Even Chancellor Ignaz Seipel was noted to have said that: 'Joining a Prussian led [...] increasingly anti-catholic Germany would not currently be in our best interest.'

Yet when Italy attacked it was the German far right that was quickest to send aid to their 'Southern Brothers'. A mixed group of Stahlhelm and Strumabteilung members from Rosenheim arrived in Austria in full kit, just in time to participate in the Battle at Bergisel. Those two paramilitary organisations provided most foreign volunteers during the first few critical weeks.

In private Austrian Army officers weren't too complementary about their far right supporters. In reports it was often noted, that they were undisciplined, easily distracted and prone to excess. Yet they were, one has to assume from records deliberately, fed into the worst fighting, especially city fighting. Adolf Hitler, leader of the NSDAP, would later state: 'While fighting in Austria [sic!] our Sturmabteilung took in excess of 90% causalities, and yet we were stronger for it, all weakness having been purged from our rows.'

As individuals or as groups, veterans and youths, with their own equipment or just their cloths on their backs, over the whole duration of the Austro-Italian war German volunteers arrived in Austria. At best estimate at least half a million Germans served in arms during the conflict, not counting those providing support in non-combat roles.

…

Yet Germans weren't the only volunteers. Czechoslovakia didn't just provide aid to it's citizens if they decided to volunteer, but sent entire army units as thinly veiled volunteers. This expeditionary force included among other things, an armoured regiment. Nationalism seemed to play a role again. A significant majority of Czechoslovak volunteers were Sudeten-German.

A similar pattern held true for other territories of the former Habsburg Monarchy. Significant number of Germans and Szekelys from Romania volunteered in significant numbers, and returned home well armed and trained. While to Romanian government had been tentatively supportive of volunteers during the war, the fact that they brought their weapons back with them was far less welcomed by them.

Yugoslavia was generally supportive of volunteers as well. However high level considerations about becoming an active participant in the War led them to hold back many potential volunteers, with an eye on forming volunteer into their own units. Still the Gottscheer Regiment, though being less than half ethically Gottscheer-German, became one of the media darlings of the Austro-Italian War.

Another media darling was the Liechtenstein Regiment. Jokes were told about a Company of men leaving Liechtenstein and arriving on the front as a Regiment. Switzerland was careful to be seen as strictly neutral, but a large number of Swiss-Germans did volunteer. Most of them were however assigned to Austrian or German formations, or mentioned Liechtensteiners, leading to them having relative little recognition.

A number of volunteers came from further afield. Italian socialists in exile managed to convince a significant number of volunteers to participate in the war, leading to several instances of fascists and communists fighting fascists side by side.

Spoiler

This one was in the pipleline for a while, being rewritten several times. One of the reasons I held it back was because I knew blackshirt on brownshirt action would turn up sooner or later.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Just the one for today

Der Hussarenritt, Part 1/4
17.4.1929

Hans Haidacher looked at his copilot once again, though he only shook his head. They'd talked about this often enough, back when it was only an outlandish possibly, but added some nice extra pay. Enough extra pay in fact that he now owned enough rental property that his wife and children would be taken care off even if this mission went awry.

A week ago he flew his tour thrice a week. Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin. That and the extension every Friday further to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, and back on Saturday. And then the thing he'd been paid extra for every other week. Flying in that other machine, the training machine. Having more cockpit crew, but non of the usual passengers. Keeping on course on commands of someone else but himself as the pilot. Training drills he'd tough he'd never need.

And then in that backwater in the mountains someone had kicked off another round of riots, as usual. Other as usual however it seemed someone decided to react to it with more than just a few idiots bleeding out in the streets. And so instead of his sharp airline uniform he wore the drab field uniform of the army. While their parade uniforms looked decent enough as well, he hadn't even received one of those. Nobody who wasn't officially part of the Bundesheer had one. And he had only been part of the secret reserve. Good money at the time, but if he backed out now the only thing waiting for him would be an execution squad.

Looking back he saw just how much work a squad of technicians had done in five days. Gone were the seats for 22 passengers, the kitchen, the steward and the cook. Instead the belly of the plane now held dozens of incendiary bombs, a bomb sight and of course, the giant radio navigation device. He didn't know how it worked, and the very clean instruction on how to destroy it if they for some reason had to ditch didn't make him want to question it.

"Right, let's get moving," Benjamin told him, nodding to the soldier outside, wildly waving his signal batons.

The lead aircraft was already rising into the sky in front of them, so Hans simply took a deep breath and agreed: "Let's go."

At his command the aircraft slowly surged forwards. Sluggish, he noticed. Not like usual. Then again, he rarely ever had a full load of passengers, let alone enough cargo to even come close to the limits on his usual flights. This time however, he was operating right on the limit.

He had overheard some of the others, civilian pilots like him, or worse hobbyists, not the madmen who flew fighters full time, talk about things like rocket assisted take-off or in-flight refuelling. He like everyone in the profession, understood the basic calculus what that'd do for cargo loads – bomb loads – but it still was very clearly madness. An aircraft as is was dangerous enough, no need to bring rockets into this when one could already expect to be shot at anyway.

Then finally, far further down the runway than usually his plane finally took off. Usually he would have informed the tower via radio, but this mission was to happen under strict radio silence. So all he did was nod at Benjamin and followed the aircraft in front of him into the clouds, as four others behind him did the same.

Spoiler

Number of pieces in this one might still change, but for now it's planed as five total. Some hints in there, most importantly probably the ones pointing to the shadow army - Austria had been buildling up one when certain interest groups pulled the trigger early. At all? All the conspiracies don't have a common opinion on that one.