Tu felix Austria... (Interwar Austria)

[Viribus Unitis]

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 13

28.5.1929​

When the Schützen had turned up in Verona with their price the local commander had been amused. And as it seemed, so had been higher ups. It took a few days, but some fresh faced 18 year olds turned up, conscripts just out of basic training. A couple of old hands from the fortress artillery had taken them in hand, drilled them for a week, even fired the guns a few times, with at least one occasion that I know of where the target had been just as real as the shells. They completed the course with the declaration that they were now just 'very green', but received congratulations that nobody had lost a finger or a hand yet.

As it turned out they would stay horse mobile, despite the surprising ability of the Schützen to acquire motorised transport. There was a limit amount of cars, trucks and tractors, and as an auxiliary formation they were at the bottom of the pile when it came to being assigned some. The ammunition situation might be more dangerous. I was told that the Italians had bored out the barrels, making them unable to fire Austrian or Czechoslovak produced original shells. When informed, Michael had shrugged, and answered: "We know where we can get more."

With Venice and Padua having fallen, it seemed it was time to once again turn to the offensive for real, instead of the usual hit and fade attacks of the last month. As we moved out of our quarters and left the city for what might be the last time, we were joined again by Franzerl, Johann once again riding the tank.

Once asked how they were, Johann answered: "Good, good. We've been playing tourist in some of the side valleys. And we took a quick swim in Lake Garda."

When I opened my mouth for the obvious follow up question, the tank commander shot me a venomous look and told me: "Not one word. Just no."

I stayed quite, the commander was a formidable Tyrolean mountain farmer, who I didn't know how he even fit into the turret. To this day however I was still curious about just what that swim had entailed, the tank crew keeping quiet even under heavy alcohol consumption and Johann delighting in teasing, but never telling.

We walked once again. Sometimes hitching a ride with the gun carriages or Franzerl, but mostly we walked. In the afternoon radio chatter started up. I didn't know immediately what it was about, but would soon learn that the first scouts hat closed in on Mantua and they weren't seeing the large enemy concentration that was expected. So we continued on, not stopping to deploy the guns as was planned. By late afternoon we finally saw the city, the Mincio dammed up to create a formidable obstacle between us and it.

We approached due north, along the railway line. Once across from the city on the reservoir, the Schützen decided to stop, not pressing forwards. Most of them congregated on an open field behind the few scattered buildings on this side of the river. They stood in silence for a minute before returning to their previous seriousness and assessing their chances of taking the dam and city beyond.

When asked, Sepperl told me that this was the place where that same freedom fighter that had been born up in St. Leonhard had been executed.

Spoiler

That turned out shorter than I thought. Shorter than some old versions. Not sure I like it, but those older ones were worse.

Quick callback there in the end to (I think) part 2 - Andreas Hofer was executed outside of Mantua, and his name would have been used by some as a battlecry in such a war against Italy, even if he fought against mainly Bavarians and some French.

Week ahead turns to to be more stressful than I expected. But I've got a backlog, with some quick polish I think I'll manage a post a day.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Busy and distraced. Just dropping this here. I'm not certain if I'll manage to post tomorrow or the day after. Oh, and be gentle, I'm not too sure just how many butterflies this creates that I'm entirely unaware. I know there are those that are far more aware of computing or the history of computing than I on here.

It was in early 1921, a mere three months after the last Italian occupation forces left Innsbruck, that students of the University in cooperation with pupils of the Bundesgewerbeschule presented a device they had nicknamed "Charles". It was a Difference Engine, based on earlier models of Babbage and Scheutz. While this did draw some attention, it was mostly seen as a mere curiosity.

More attention was given to their next project. In the factory building of a recently bankrupt textile company the same team built the first completed Babbage style Analytical Engine nicknamed "Ada". Presented to the public, calculating Bernoulli numbers with Lovelace's program, this drew international attention. While by late 1922 mechanical calculation was a known quantity, and even electromechanical computing had been theorised, the increased flexibility of the Analytical Engine promised endless possibilities.

The University of Innsbruck was quick to react. They created a professorship for "Mechanisches Rechnen" - "mechanical calculations". They offered up the professorship to relative unknowns at first. Percy Ludgate was found to have died of pneumonia before the offer could reach them. Another candidate was Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, who declined citing other obligations. Humourlessly he added that he would reconsider if he could hold his lectures in Esperanto. Torres would however visit Innsbruck several times later in his live, even holding lectures on occasion. The university finally decided on one of their own associate Professors, Simon Halbstätter, from the Department of Mathematics to take over the new professorship.

The fact that the University of Innsbruck offered up calculation time to other scientists brought additional attention, and quickly efforts to duplicate and improve on the Analytical Engine started in other countries. Those derivates became known as mechanical computers. Even as a race between scientific institutions developed, the military saw the potential as well. As far as is known, the Polish Army were the first to use mechanical computers in a cryptographic duty. Meanwhile the British Royal Navy began experimenting with mechanical computer for fire control to replace their Dreyer Tables. They switched to electro-mechanical computing before they refitted them to most of their ships in the early 1930s.

Innsbruck remained at the forefront of development. As early as 1925 they were experimenting with vacuum tubes for computing, presenting their first finished computer based on them in 1926. While most other countries followed this trend and the binary computing that was introduced with them, others, like Italy and Germany, lagged behind. While this is commonly blamed on brain drain affecting those countries, especially in the nascent field of computing, at least some of it is down to political considerations.

Other developments out of Innsbruck in the late 20s were electronic data transmission leading to remote terminals and drum memory

By the time the Austro-Italian war happened computers had started to spread in Austria. It was no longer the providence of the Innsbruck University, but several others were operated by the Universities of Graz and Wien, by several Ministries, the Army and by a small number of private concerns. Meanwhile there were three known mechanical computers in use in all of Italy.

Still classified computing devices used as part of bomb sights and Funkmeß-Peilung indicate that the Austrian military might have had other, classified, advanced computer models in use during the war.



Tauschek Datenverarbeitung GmbH, better known as TDV, is an Austrian Computer company. Gustav Tauschek founded the company in 1924, while he was still attending the University of Innsbruck. He began developing punch card readers, as well as calculation and tabulation machines based on them. When the US company IBM noticed his patent filings, they at first tried to buy the company. When it became clear that he had little interest, they started several legal disputes with Tauschek, limiting his ability to operate outside of Austria. Sill he preserved, supplying mechanical and electro-mechanical calculators and tabulation devices for the Austrian and Czechoslovak markets. In 1927 his luck turned around. First he filed a patent for drum memory, finally allowing for electronic long term data storage. Then several of the patent disputes were resolved in his favour, allowing him to fully enter the international market. And finally he managed to buy one of the Universities old mechanical computers, allowing him to offer further computing and calculating services to his clients, if only centralised via his headquarters in Zirl. In 1928 finally he was awarded a contract to conduct the Austrian census of 1930, leading to a lot of additional work as the circumstances of it changed in 1929.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler: Authors Notes

So things have come up. I've still got some buffer, but I barely had time to proof read anything, let alone fit in small details. Checking this one over for example I noted that I had mistimed the British general election. Just wave hands and pretend we are not in the OTL (where the election was called 6 months earlier than absolutely needed). Also I haven't done nearly as much research into the paper than I did the last few times I put something like that up here.

On upcoming updates... Those might be rare. Sorry. I might be without time, computer, internet or all three for the foreseeable future. And I don't write on a phone, I just can't. I'll put something up if i get the opportunity, but again, sporadic. So enjoy this piece filled with hints to some of the things coming up!

Regular updates should resume early January. Hopefully.

Evening Times, London, 29th May 1929


Britain needs more Battleships

Chancellor of the Excherquer calls for more military spending

Economic projections after the US stock market crash last month claim decreasing exports and rising unemployment as markets stagnate and purchases decline. A number of shipyards have announced a significant drop in demand, citing a decrease in world trade. The Chancellor of Excherquer Winston Churchill calls for an increase in military spending. "When the Great War ended I called for ten years of peacetime spending. Those ten years are over." he recently said in a speech. Further he claims that the current war in Italy shows, that other nations had already adapted to the lessons of the last war, and that Britain shall not fall behind. If Austria can come out of it's Treaty restrictions this strong, a war with the Soviet Union or even a resurgent Germany will be all but inevitable. Further he claimed, that current deployments show that the Royal Navy is all but overstretched with a single embargo in place. Therefore participation in the upcoming Naval Disarmament conference should be reconsidered, as should the Washington Treaty already in place.

Liberal and Labour MPs accuse Churchill of being desperate as his prospects of re-election in the upcoming election dwindle.


Austrians stopped cold!

After unbelievable offensive, Austrian Forces are stopped by a defensive line stretching along the Po and Adda rivers.

After nearly a month of nothing but reports of victories for tiny Austria, they finally overstretched. While they were surging across the Po valley in a matter of days, this turned out to be part of a controlled Italian retreat, allowing them to pull back into prepared defensive positions behind the rivers. With all bridges destroyed Austria has little hope of crossing the rivers against entrenched troops and artillery.

Our reporter, who is with an Irish volunteer Regiment, tells us, that this development completely surprised the Austrians. He also reports, that there are claims that Austria is prepared to bring forward bridging equipment, but he has so far not seen any sign of those.

This still leaves the centres of military industry in Bergamo and Brescia behind Austrian lines, but it allows Italy to mobilise it's superior numbers for a counter-attack.


Greek Submarine washed ashore at Rhodos

Italian Forces found the Submarine largely undamaged, but empty according to unconfirmed reports

The Greek Republic accuses the reckless mining by the Turkish Navy for the loss. Turkish officials meanwhile claim that this is the precursors of a full fledged Greek invasion of the islands. Both nations have started a slow mobilisation of their armies in response to the incident.

The Commander-In-Chief Mediterranean Fleet and Commanding Officer of the League of Nations Embargo Frederick Fields ordered both the Greek and Turkish Navy back to port, while British and French ships are to take over embargo duties at the Dodecanese Islands. While there has been no official word from the respective governments, insiders report that neither Navy will comply with that order.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

I'm back...



White, Graham (1979): War in Italy. The Po-Adda Defensive Line, London: Ward Publishing.


The Po-Adda Defensive Line was one of the largest military projects undertaken in the 1920s. Sometimes also called the Po Linie, Po-Milano Defensive Complex, Vallo Padano del Littorio1​, Balbo's Folly or Tolomei Grenze2​.


River lines had since recorded human history been defensive obstacles in military campaigns. Considering Northern Italy's often divided nature, centuries of planing had gone into how to best defend the area. Even if technology changed, at least some assumptions stayed the same.

A lot of planning had ironically gone on while Austria had ruled Lombardy-Venetia, but a lot of that was discarded by Italian military planners, because it was focused in the wrong direction and anchored on the Festungsviereck3​ of the fortress cities of Mantua-Peschiera-Verona-Legnago.

More immediately useful were studies and plans created during the Great War. Even when fighting was ongoing on the Isonzo other defensive positions had been scoped out. When Austrian troops then advanced to the Piave, a lot of thought was given to additional defences. The Euganean Hills just behind Padua were given a lot of though, in that regard, as was the Po river and some of it's tributaries.

Even as far back as mid-April 1929 we have evidence that some Italian military planners were dusting off and updating defensive plans for defensive lines. Though we also know of a memo that asked them to stop their defeatist attitude. It was the defeats in the Friaul that then sent shock waves through the Italian Army command, and plans were advanced.

With the enemy already holding Verona and so far managing to spoil all efforts to muster a counter-attack with concentrated air power and spoiling attacks, the Po river was suddenly given higher priority. Actual work started on the lower river, and additionally stock was taken of potential defensive positions along it's entire run and several of it's major tributaries.

As the Austrian advance continued seemingly unhindered, more resources were allocated, by order of Duce Balbo himself. Meanwhile due to raiding groups advancing as far as Bergamo and Cremona many intervening positions were discarded as potential defensive lines, and work started in earnest along the Po and Adda rivers, as well as in the area around Bergamo.

It was the failed counter offensive on the Livenza that changed everything. Thousands of Italians suddenly found themselves drafted, not to be trained as soldiers, but to do large scale construction work. Trenches were dug, buildings reinforced, concrete bunkers built.

While hope was still pinned on the city fighting at Treviso, a lot of the more cynical or realistic Regio Esercito planners rightly decided that it was just a stalling action, allowing them to build up the defences further and allowing them to bring up troops from all over Italy.


The defensive line was a rushed project and it showed in many places. It can in general be divided into three different sectors.

Along the lower hundred miles of the Po river it was judged that blowing up the bridges would be the most notable action taken. Without bridges the river was judged to be too difficult to cross, yet even here coastal defence troops drawn from further south were emplaced. Their defences were mostly in the form of observation posts, single machine gun nests covering miles of river, and artillery backing it up, from pre-dug emplacements with dug in phone lines and communication trenches. There were also a couple of hastily put together camps further back soon manned by additional troops, that should back up the front line troops in the face of potential attempts by the Austrians to still cross the river.

This sector is characterised mostly by large scale use of wood, sandbags and dirt in the construction or reinforcement of the defensive positions. Infantry was comparative light on the ground, and even artillery was lighter than in other sectors.

The upper 35 miles of the Po river and the lower 25 miles of the Adda were judged as reasonably likely to be crossed, and so defences were more dense. An entire trench network had been dug behind them, often quite a bit behind the river to avoid flooding them. Machine gun nests with overlapping fields of fire were emplaced, often in forwards positions where they could hit troops on the other side of the rivers. Those earthworks were then protected by a lot of barbed wire. Additionally thousands of buildings along the rivers had been seized and turned into strong points, hiding infantry from view. While wood and dirt were still used a lot, small scale new constructions of concrete were also created, mostly limited to reinforced observation posts, but also in a few cases for gun emplacements.

Since crossing attempts were expected here, more infantry was placed along the river lines to discourage such attempts, but still a lot was left to artillery stripped from other parts of Italy.

Along the upper 20 miles along the Adda river it can no longer truly be called a line. Some people treat this as it's own separate defensive installation, calling it the Bergamo-Milano complex.

Within this reasonably densely urbanised area, with it's twin industrial centres, most of the preparation work took place.

Within three weeks an impressive array of interlocking positions had been built, from the outskirts of Bergamo all the way back to the centre of Milano. Tunnels were dug, bunkers created, guns emplaced in fixed or mobile firing positions. Additionally a large number of anti-personal as well as anti-vehicle mines were emplaced in this sector. The population was either thrown into construction work, the factories or evacuated, often under very dangerous conditions. In many cases construction work on defensive structures continued until the first artillery ranging shots impacted in the area.

Probably the most well known feature of this sector were the four Italian 15 inch railway guns. The Great War veterans had been stowed after that war, but were reactivated and placed in their own small tunnels with two to four firing positions per gun.

While a lot of wood, sandbags, dirt and brick was used in this area as well, the overall perception will remain it's hastily built and now quickly crumbling concrete structures, some famously emplaced in the middle of urban areas.

It had been ensured that the most reliable troops were employed in these areas, often light infantry that had family in the area, as it was judged that staying behind a river on the defence was easier for shaken troops, than participate in urban combat. As such infantry was disproportional used in this theatre, often to devastating effect as they had preplanned overlapping reinforced positions all over the cities.


A lot has been made of Austrian surprise at the defensive line. Local and especially international papers reported this, and it has since been repeated in movies and books. However even at the time surprise was by no means at the existence of the line, just at it's extend. This had been miscommunicated and then spread not just by embedded journalists among the troops, but also deliberately so by the higher ups of Austrian Army Media Relations.

Austrian planners had expected the Regio Esercito to make a stand to the north of the Po river, not fall back to it before contact was even made. Especially the old fortress city of Mantua, with it's formidable artificial lakes defending it to the north, had been expected to be a strong point of defence, as aerial reconnaissance had indicated large troop concentrations.

Another factor was, that while aerial reconnaissance had shown build up of defensive positions, the fact that many homes, farms and other buildings had been incorporated did give a somewhat wrong impression of their extent. Top down photos often did not reveal the extent of modifications to those.

Additionally this type of scouting was rarer than Austrian command would have wanted, since their aircraft were a limited resource and were already stretched to and in some case over their limits.

Maybe more importantly contributing to surprise was the fact that a lot of Italian planning was no longer communicated via radio or even phone. Having grown wise to Austrian signal intelligence to an extent, obfuscation and physical orders did contribute somewhat to them missing some of the extent of the defence.


Arguably first contact between the Austrian advance and the defensive line had been made on the 26th​ of May, when the spearhead of the Austrian advance west ran into prepared defences in Bergamo. Simply considered prepared defences for the important industrial city, the advance slowed, and artillery was brought up to shell those positions. This tactic would continue for weeks, as the slow advance was made across Bergamo, all but flattening the city, and then to Milano and finally into that city as well.

The next day, troops moving south from Choggia on the Adriatic coast weren't surprised when they ran into resistance either. The Regio Esercito yielding and allowing a crossing in the Po delta hadn't been expected, and so Austrian troops fell back out of Italian artillery range after they confirmed that all bridges had been destroyed. When the Regia Marina turned up in support of the Army, troops were pulled even further back, leaving only a few handful observers with radios behind to serve as a tripwire.

When the general offensive across the Po valley commerced on the 28th ​the advance was later on criticised for being overly cautious. However at the time spoiling attack and smaller strong points were still expected, and it is difficult to argue that the Italian would have been less prepared to destroy their bridges a day earlier. The few token engagements that took place certainly didn't invite to rushing forwards.

By the 29th​ large scale contact with the Italian defensive line had been made. In many cases the Austrian troops pulled back, waiting for support outside of Italian artillery range. In a few cases however, breakthroughs had been achieved anyway and those got priority on reinforcements.


After the armistice French military engineers studied the Po Line extensively. This didn't just include visual surveys, investigating damaged and destroyed structures, but in some cases even destructive testing using French artillery.

Most of the knowledge gained went immediately into the construction of the Maginot Line, who's construction had been halted due to the hostilities. And of course, from there it was spread to French allies and even opponents over the next decade.

Since the secret of the defence was already considered out there, Italian governments allowed continued study of the remnants of the line, making it by far the best documented defensive structure of the 20th​ century.

1​Roughly translates as Fascist Po-Valley Wall. Supposedly there was a related project of a very similar name proposing defensive positions in the Alps, but exact plans were supposedly lost when the Ministry of War was bombed. [Well, out of story this explains where the name came from. Correct me if anyone here actually understands Italian and hadn't been driven off yet]
2​A term supposedly used by Austrian soldiers during the war, that entered general use via so called 'Freikorps Romane' and related media. Refers to Ettore Tolomei, supposedly the architect behind the Brenner border, and the unjust border that should be demanded in return.
3​ lit. Fortress Rectangle, also called the Quadrilatero

Spoiler

So this is back. Between family, other commitments and looking for a new job I didn't manage to write that much. There are some ideas that I might mange to put to paper or at least polish up, but no promises.

I feel like I missed something. Oh well, can't be too bad.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Spoiler

Good news. I've found time to write the last month. All together probably exceeding half a million words. Some of that I even posted elsewhere on the internet. Bad news, I haven't gotten back into this in that time. Muse was elsewhere. Anyway, this is an attempt to get back into doing more on this project. I'll post it under a different category, for reasons that should be self explanatory. - Inspired by something I read by a commenter on another AH story, calling an even in OTL 'rolling nothing but sixes'. It rattled around my brain for a few days, before I got it written up.

In what in a different world would have been called an Instant Messenger Service, some time in the future (cleaned up for readability, slang)


→ Hey.

← Good to see you again, what's up?

→ Got my world view challenged, again.

← What else is new?

→ You know I grew up in rural Ohio. Kids actually spoke this weird creole until we were old enough for school, when we learned how to separate German and English. Not always successful.

← I've heard some of your odd new word creations, yes.

→ Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Anyway, we were actually taught about the Austro-Italian War in school. Might have to do with the fact that some veterans emigrated there. Well, some Germans, a handful Austrians, one or two Sudeten, and well, my Great-Grandma. From Italy.

← Must have been odd for her to be there.

→ Warbride, what can you do?

←Run before they notice they are pregnant?

→ Well, the old woman noticed I was decent with languages, and decided I should learn Italian as well. No matter how irrelevant that language is.

← Hey, I've been told that some French chicks can understand it. Supposedly.

→ One track mind there. Right, anyway, I've had this paper to write about that war for university. I thought it sounded neat because of my background. And well, I know you did some in depth research some time ago. Anyway, that was when I found out they had some Italian language books on it in the library.

← Expanded your horizon?

→ A bit, yeah. I mean I know that some Austrian researchers have been publishing some more critical views on it recently, but well, that was quite a bit beyond what I expected.

← Picked one of a US fasci?

→ No. I did check at least the minimum where they were published. Universities of Bologna, Pisa and Catania.

← Ah, right, because those are so much better. How many of them quote Marx?

→ One. I think.

← Anyway, you found out what you were taught in school was incomplete? The whole tale? Small, well trained, modern, nation attacked by large, bumbling one that only won the last war because of their allies? Triumph of Technological Progress? Brotherhood of Nations fighting the Expansionist neo-Roman Empire? The tiny war with consequences widely out of proportion?

→ Yeah. And it's not just the high level stuff. The way we were taught sounded so logical and well, easy. What I read now sounds more like the Austrians rolled one six after another, and tended to pull some additional dice from their sleeves when that wasn't enough.

← Ah, so actually read some halfway decent books. Good. Yeah, trying to figure out logistics, production numbers and the like for them will drive you mad. Literally in at least one case I know of. Kept on claiming that the rail capacity wasn't there to supply more than two thirds of what was used up on the front.

→ Uh, yeah, I read stuff like that. But that wasn't even what I meant. It's even small stuff. Like that precision bombing in Rome, when our guys still resorted to area bombing decades later.

← Different mission profile on that one. Relatively easily explainable. Our guys were doing high level bombing runs, the Hussarenritt was basically rooftop height. Far easier to hit. Though their bomb sights still are classified. We know that they were doing some kind of radio ranging, but details are missing. Likely because they had help from other nations, that don't want it to be known.

→ And now who is quoting conspiracies? I'm pretty certain that Radio Vatican wasn't involved there.

← No, but best guess the Yugoslavs might have been.

→ Right. And that one is more believable why?

← Because they couldn't tell the future?

→ But it's not just that. Verona holding out for months, basically uncontested. Repeated deep strikes that go perfectly, while the most basic of Italian counter-attacks run into snags.

← They were lucky. More than lucky. But they also made the best out of the resources they had on hand.

→ Yeah, well that's what I talking about. What if they hadn't drawn a full house on every draw?

← They would likely have settled differently. Gone more defensive. They quickly ramped up to the strength to kick the Italians out of Tyrol, and then certainly would have had the strength to hold there. You read what happened. Sooner or later the other powers would have gotten impatient, and pace would have been made. Maybe not as far reaching as what happened, but peace certainly.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Moss (1944), Franzerl des Panzerl
Part 14

29.5. - 1.6.1929​

To my shame I must admit that the worldwide headlines proclaiming Austrian total surprise about the Italian defensive line might have been my fault. I quickly learned that the surprise was just about the extent, not the existence of the Po River line.

As it was, I had stayed with the Schützen, as they dug some hasty trenches some three miles east of Borgoforte, a town of usually some five thousand inhabitants. Most of whom had left before we arrived.

Some 400 yards away, but all but unreachable across the river, were the Italians in a far more extensive trench network. Every here and there were concrete bunkers or hastily reinforced farms providing strong points. Behind the trenches one could see and hear artillery firing. However fire was exchanged mainly by rifle, the heavier guns having a far more important target.

We only had heard rumours, but it was confirmed later, that at Borgoforte remained the only bridge over the Po or the Adda that hadn't been demolished by the retreating Italians. In fact I took a photo nearly identical to the iconic image of Austrian tanks racing over the railway bridge, while Italian pioneers were still down in the river hanging to the pillars, trying to get the explosives to work on a second try. It just turned out that the picture provided by an Austrian soldier was spread faster than mine.

Across the river the Austrian tanks showed just why they had been developed during the Great War. The tracked vehicles crossed the many defensive tranches with ease, their machine guns clearing them of infantry. Italian anti-tank guns once again bouncing off their armor as during earlier engagements. Austrian infantry quickly followed on and secured their foothold in the Italian trenches.

However the Schützen and I waited further down the river, since the attack hadn't been without difficulties. A near miss of Italian artillery damaged the bridge to the point where the Austrians were only willing to send over infantry in single file.

Still, the bridgehead held, and support was thrown at Borgoforte because of the bridgehead. There were rifle duels up and down the river, artillery tried to counter each other, or take out the bridgehead, and we got a taste of trench warfare. Just enough to clearly tell me, that I'd hate to have done this job in a war that was more static, such as the Great War had been.

In the two days that followed Austria brought up new equipment. They had prepared pontoon bridges for cases just as these. And then there were the new Siegfried Systems.

We had been informed that a new push would happen that day, but when the projectiles started screaming over our heads we were just as unnerved as the Italians. 1600 of the rocket projectiles crashed into the unprepared defenders arrayed against the bridgehead in less than a minute. The ground shook even where we were dug in. Afterwards conventional artillery started up again, far more numerous than the days before. Even the guns the Schützen had acquired and had been silent the days before joined in. Overhead Libellen dived in, taking out the few Italian heavy guns that were still firing. Overhead Austrian and Italian fighters clashed, several of the last remaining, obsolete Italian biplanes falling from the skies around us. The Schützen did their part, keeping the Italian infantry across from us occupied, while upriver we could see the new pontoon bridges growing.

Then the Siegfried launchers had been reloaded and another rain of steel screamed over our heads. From where I was I could see Italians scrambling out of their trenches and running, despite not having been anywhere near the focus of the bombardment. A mere hour after the first shots fired the trenches across from us had been cleared and were under Austrian control. In the evening, when the Schützen got their orders to start moving the spearhead of the Austrian attack had taken Carpi and was well on the way to Modena.

Spoiler

Well, let's see if I can revive this from it's current once a month schedule...
Siegfried of course is an ATL version of Katyusha/Stalinorgel; cheap, easy to built, enormous psychological impact.
I spend far more time than I should have researching railways. All I can say that this isn't the mainline in the area (that one runs Verona-Revere-Bologna to the east of the one described here, that runs through Mantua) and that it was (partially?) built under Austrian control in the 1850...

Ah yes...

So conspiracy is alive and well... Good, nothing like a good conspiracy theory to get the juices flowing... Remember kids, never trust the government.

Click to shrink...

Ever heard of the brilliant term "Amtsgeheimnis"? Online dictionaries translate it as 'official secret' for me, but that's not quite it. People working for government agencies are expected to keep everything not worked on in public secret. Now mostly nothing will come from gossip, but well, it can carry jail sentences with it. It's been a way of live for public servants for well over a century (can't offhand find when the first one went into force, but the current one is part of the constitution since 1925, without more research I suspect that it's very much a law that originated at the Habsburg court), but it's now under attack again, for transparency and anti-corruption reasons. On the other hand, it's part of Austria's very robust privacy laws. I can see both sides of the argument, and I'd say there is plenty reason to limit the areas where it applies. A complete revocation however isn't ideal either.

 

[Viribus Unitis]

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

Liechtensteiner Regiment


A legend exists about Liechtenstein in the War of 1866. While Liechtenstein refused to fight "brothers" in the Austro-Prussian War, they did agree to send a unit south against Italy. 80 men were sent out to fight, and 81 returned home. While there are no substantial sources for this even it gets repeated regularly.

A similar legend exists about the Austro-Italian war. Liechtenstein sent 900 volunteers, only to have 2459 return. This however was because despite it's name, the Liechtensteiner Regiment fielded more Swiss than Liechtensteiners.

While Liechtenstein didn't have a standing army for a while, after the Great War and the break up of it's traditional protector, the Habsburg monarchy, private interests in Liechtenstein decided to take steps to ensure their neutrality and sovereignty. They gathered interested men in a paramilitary unit and purchased Great War surplus weapons in order to arm them. While those hadn't been needed defensively, and considering good relations with Austria and Switzerland and between those two countries, they are unlikely to need it in the future, they did permit Liechtenstein to send out a volunteer unit in what they saw as unjustified Italian aggression. While a good part of this militia begged of, for reasons such as work, family or age, still a significant unit got together. With conspirator in place over the border in Austria, they looked to Switzerland to man the remaining weapons. And with Swiss tradition of conscription they received many volunteers who were already trained as soldiers.

As one of the relative few volunteer units with their own organic artillery and transport, as well as a relative good training level, they saw front line duty after Gebirgsjäger forced the Stilfser Joch, repeatedly forming the tip of the spear all the way from Bormio to Lake Como along the Swiss border. According to unproven rumours this geographical closeness allowed them to bypass usual supply lines, establishing their own running through Switzerland, to the infuriation of their Italian opponents.

After receiving a full week of rest and recovery they then participated in the fight towards Milano, as another flank was opened over the lake.

In the end when they returned to Liechtenstein, 79 Liechtensteiner and 162 Swiss of the Liechtensteiner Regiment had fallen, with over double that in wounded, most of that in the urban combat during the last weeks of the conflict.

Spoiler

Two days in a row...
On the other hand, short and something just polished up, having been put together a while ago. Some retreading of what Mercenary already showed (though they are arguably the other Swiss unit, taking some credit here for things they might or might not have been involved in)

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Austria should take South Tirol and a small part of eastern Veneto, just to have a good exit to the Adriatic Sea.

It should also take Libya and Eritrea, Italian colonies that are very sparsely populated, and can be colonized by Austria.
Eritrea even has a significant Christian population.

The first has natural resources and the second strategic position on the Red Sea.

Austria could make them German, with settlers and creating schools and orphanages that teach German.
Austria will have German settlers to spare with Hitler, there are several Jews or people of Slavic descent speaking German as their first language, they could go to Austria (and its colonies). Austria could also promote Spanish or Portuguese settlers (Catholic and "neutral" countries), however the settlers usually take the language of the colonial country. It might even get settlers from the Sudeten Germans.

Finally, Austria could annex the colonies. Austria should be able to have half the population in the long term if it has a better birth rate or more supports migration.

Austria could also take advantage of the resources, develop the colonies and then promote an independent Libya and Eritrea with a stable and developed government, and both countries speaking German.

PS: Somalia was also sparsely populated at that time.

PS2: If Austria plans to have a colonial empire, it will have to invest in the navy, although Libyan oil and possible Italian repairs should be more than enough.

PS3: UK can support Austria for the acquisition of colonies, Libya and Eritrea are close to Egypt (British puppet), and Austria is much less threatening than Italy (a great power). Germany would also support Austria considering that if Austria joins Germany in the future, Germany wins colonies.

PS4: An Austrian victory will create a strong national image, I doubt that Austria wants to join Germany, especially if it has a colonial empire of its own.

Click to shrink...

Some ideas are obvious. Others not so much. I hope i can still present some twists...

Anyway, I had some time so i rewrote a piece several times. Still not entirely happy with it, but here it is anyway, because I currently don't really want to fall back into not posting at all.

Gygax, Josef: Mercenary. Part 4

27.5-17.6.1929​

When we arrived at Lake Como we were again told to wait again. Looking at any good map it made sense. The Vetlin was shielded by mountains from most sides and attacking over them would be murderous. The Austrian had made some bad experiences fighting along the coasts at Lake Garda, the similarly steep shores and narrow paths difficult for the attackers. I was however aware of a thrust south through a side valley, towards Lake Iseo, where the terrain was more forgiveable and then from there to the side valleys, threatening Bergamo from the North.

In the meanwhile I used my spare time to build up contacts. One would never know when those might come in handy. While I'm certain that the existence of a direct rail line into Switzerland would have kept the people in the valley fed, I'm always willing to accept the extra credit I got for ensuring they were supplied with their needs. And that extended to the other fighting men deployed there.

There were also careful enquires coming from some of my more political inclined contacts to tell them about the mood of the locals and their thoughts of Switzerland. It was a surprise to me then, but events a year down the line would show that they had a good idea even before they enquired with me.

We were then introduced to our new transports. The Austrians had shipped some of their brown water patrol boats south, big beasts that I was surprised they had managed to cart over the mountains at all. Standing next to one, I would have doubted that one of their giant trucks could pass over the mountains on their own, let alone with a boat on their back. Said boats were certainly bigger than the ones the Swiss Army had trialled on the Zürichsee some years earlier. There were five of them, two were armed with their 47mm anti-tank guns, the other three with dual Oerlikons. Of course they all had additional machine guns, not to mention the arms carried by crew and passengers.

Mostly our new duty consisted of riding those boats across the lake, with the two heavy guns keeping the villages on the steep mountain shores under guns, while we went on land to search the villages. Mostly it was boring. There was the occasional fanatic that had to start a fight, but those were rare. On occasion a small garrison was left behind. Most notable in Menaggio, where they were to keep an eye on the entire valley over to Lake Lugano and the Swiss border even further than the lake itself. And of course, occasionally we had to do repeat visits, leading to some opportunities for side business.

Some of my men, as well as the other units with us, immediately took to the duty, while others absolutely hated it. The increasingly warm weather made it more like an adventure to me, than the fighting that had preceded it all. I made sure that I myself, and several of my men started to learn at least the basics of ship handling, something that would pay off again and again, especially in places where river were still the major transport links, and rail and road were underdeveloped.

It didn't take all that long until we controlled the northern half of the lake. Of course, that was when the higher ups decided that we were to start shipping large amounts of men to Bellano. We knew what that meant. While the hike wasn't pleasant, it was one of those villages that was connected to the outside world by something other than paths carved out of the cliffs along the lake or the sabotaged railway.

And so it came that we were part of the assault of Lecco, the city on the south-east corner of the lake. With so many Italians engaged in the fighting in Bergamo and on the Adda line, the Austrian planers had assumed that there would be little resistance. They had assumed the defensive line would end further south at Villa d'Adda. They were wrong.

In hindsight the only good thing I can say about the attack was that we didn't attack Como. I've been there years later, and the defences there would have absolutely shredded us.

As it was, Lecco was bad enough. They had obviously observed our activities on the lake the last few days. From seeing the defensive fortifications afterwards I could tell that several had been hastily modified to accommodate us.

Patrol Boat A207 was sunk before we even realised it. I still think it had been a ranging shot gone very right, not crack gunnery as others had claimed, unsettling many. With her we had lost one of our big guns. Still, as surprising as it had been, it wasn't as if we hadn't been prepared for some resistance, just not for so much. In return we engaged the shore batteries to the north of the city to limited success. High speed manoeuvrers didn't lend themselves to good accuracy. Though we could tell that the Oerlikons made some difference. The bigger problem were the guns up on Monte Barro. They fired indirectly, and even if we had a better idea just where exactly they were, they had a stable gun platform, and we didn't. That isn't even considering the difference in guns. The troops that we had shipped into the Valsassina were also only lightly equipped themselves. So we had little choice other than to retreat. We managed to note the positions of a lot of those guns, and they received some attention from aircraft during the following nights.

We meanwhile, were back to showing the flag on the lake. We had one ship less, but it was still enough to do that job. In addition to that, we were also used to bring reinforcements and supplies to the units we had shipped over the lake before the aborted attack. During all that we did however avoid getting too close to Lecco, or Como as well as it was.

It was a week later that we received notice that the last resistance in Bergamo had been broken, allowing more troops to move north. In the end, the city hadn't fallen in a coup the main, as had been hoped and even reported in the beginning, but in a slow grinding full assault.

Then the artillery moved up to attack Lecco as well, and the sounds grew even louder than the weeks before, keeping many of us up all through the night. Early the next morning we again moving south by boat In the predawn light we went ashore in Lecco, with no resistance this time.

The city was shattered. Here and there a house was still standing, but most of it had been knocked flat. When we arrived where those defensive fortifications north of the city had been, we could barely tell that they had been there in the first place. The artillery bombardment had churned the earth so much, there were only some concrete boulders lying around telling of them.

It showed me what fully industrialised warfare was really like. We of course had read the papers, not just those supplied through the pipelines of the military logistics, but some sourced elsewhere too. The Austrians hadn't been shy about talking about the brutal city fighting they had engaged in repeatedly, but seeing it for oneself was different.

We weren't the only ones that had moved in that day. There were troops moving in from the north and the south, in addition to us coming from the lake. We systematically moved through the ruins remaining, and here and there some Italian soldier came out of the ruing of half destroyed strong points that had seemed so impregnable just a week earlier. Now they were all but traps for them, as they were found. Some injured grievously, some miraculous untouched. But all of them crusted in dirt and dust from the shattered buildings around them.

Spoiler

So I wanted to get some boats in anyway, even if I earlier stated that would be difficult. Reason for it? Several lakes and the Danube are a good playing field for them, if one prepares for war with Germany. Italy? Less so, with all the trouble one has to go through to get them over the mountains first. However there you will find some lakes with quite hostile geography to land movement among the southern extent of the Alps.
Additional justification of course are the Swiss lake patrol boats during the era (and even up to modern times). Not sure if "Brown Water Navy" is a term that would be in common use this ATL, but I used it anyway not too into looking into other terms to see if one would make more sense in ATL terms. (as in no US Navy/Marines to popularise the term to the extent of OTL)

Next up should be a piece about how some of the other players react to events....

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Martin Furlan (1954): The Austro-Italian War and the Wider World, Triest: University Press

French Intervention

Often perception matters more than reality in the end. And especially in the halls of powers of the governments of Europe, it seemed like the whole world was spiraling out of control by early June. Despite steadfast attempts to end the conflict the Fascist government around Balbo rebuffed all attempts. It didn't matter if such overturns were made by Austria via third party, or by the diplomatic representatives of many a power that was yet uninvolved in it. Even an attempted intervention with King Victor Emmanuel directly didn't lead anywhere, the monarch soon after quietly retiring from the public eye, officially due to medical issues.

Meanwhile the conflict seemed to embolden others. The Dodecanese Islands under Italian control were the powder keg that threatened to reignited the conflict between Greece and Turkey, both quickly to mobilise when given the chance to intervene to protect what they saw as their people on the islands.

But it didn't stop there. Emboldened by Austrian success, others were also quietly making preparations to 'liberate' their people trapped on the wrong side of borders by the Paris Treaties. Notably among them were Hungary and Poland. While both countries had in the past been courted by France for their own anti-German alliance system, the reality of the 'Little Entente' of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia had somewhat alienated them from that idea. The three countries were ideally placed to contain the Kingdom of Hungary, more so in any case than against Germany. Especially as Austria more and more moved into a close relation with Czechoslovakia and rumours of an official inclusion of it in the alliance system had made their round since at least 1927.

With Austria otherwise occupied, France and Yugoslavia similarly focused on the Italian conflict and most of all a significant part of the Czechoslovak standing army out of country as 'mercenaries' in service of Austria, the two countries with irredentist claims had been involved in high level meeting. While no first rank politician was official involved in those talks, the increase of meeting between high ranking military officers and even more so those of the intelligence branches were noted by many outside observers.

Meanwhile French and British intelligence services reported worrying rumours coming out of German government circles. Between the stalled negotiations over the Young Plan reordering the repayments of Great War reparations and worrying reports on the ability of German companies to get loans to replace their current short term ones, drastic actions were discussed. While nobody could tell how serious they were, everything up to and including national bankruptcy, suspension of repayments and even fully renouncing Versailles seemed to be on the table.

In the wake of heavy recruitment in socialist circles world wide, not just fighters had moved to Austria. A lot of politicians, thinkers and intellectuals of all socialist and Marxists shades had made their way to Vienna as well, be they pro or anti-war, social-democrat or anarchist. Even Trotsky under an assumed identity had been present for a couple of days. Most warily eyed by the international community however were the ones known to be loyal to Moscow. Coupled with increased military movements reported from all the way from Karelia to the Caucasus mountains this made more than a few Western governments nervous.

Even beyond Europe rumblings were starting. Conflicts in South America were quickly boiling up again. North African desert tribes beyond the Italian Colonies started looking to their brethren over the borders imposed by outsiders. In Persia the question of oil concessions was raised. While not a new conflict, several players internal and external were moving to position to make their own moves in the Chinese Civil War.

It was in this climate that France announced that they would mobilise their army on June 3rd,​ before further conflicts could grow hot. A day later Yugoslavia followed with their own declaration and a joint ultimatum was given to Italy. Either they would agree to an armistice and peace negotiations within a week, or France and Yugoslavia would join Austria, nominally under League of Nations mandate, and would force an armistice military.

Spoiler

Things are moving. While it's not the web of secret alliances and treaty clauses that caused "the Great War" France sees themselves faced with sparks causing fires all over and wants to be seen as acting decisively. (And they can see one of the grand prizes dangled in front of them: the short victorious war.) On the other side, that's it for Italy. Everyone with half a brain should be able to see that, it's just that some are too stubborn still to see it. (Meaning there is still some troubles ahead, even if the end result should not be in doubt.)

Btw, France and Austria intervening militarily in Italy? Who could have seen that one coming? It's not as if it never happened before, right?

Yugoslavia of course is a bit more complicated. What in that country ever is not? (I've got plans for that country. Though it's not yet fully fledged out, I have a (temporary?) end state in mind where I want that country to be ca. 1950 - never the best way to go about those kind of things... Oh well, I stated in the first post that it's going to be a low research effort ASB story.)

 

[Viribus Unitis]

Dear Susanna,

9.6.1929​

For about a week we had ranged up and down the Italian east coast. We've been cutting telegraph lines, sabotaged rails and rolling stock, took out a supply depot or two and on one memorable occasion, helped some pilots that had parachuted in steal a number of Italian planes. Between our orders and what news reaches us this far south, we can tell quite a bit about what is going on in the larger war. And recently, we've been given orders that headquarters hopes will redirect even more Italian troops from the fighting in the Po Valley. We've received our last resupply flight near Foggia, before we were redirected elsewhere.

Since then we have met some "honourable men" in Naples, men who have their own problems with the fascists, and who might know others in souther Italy who have similar problems. We had handed over some radios and some bribes, before leaving again, moving north out of the Camorra's usual stomping grounds, before causing some more mischief south of Rome.

After a week we were called back, and were told, that while they like the idea in principle, they were weakened enough to be unable to truly help us in the way headquarters had envisioned. On the other hand their friends on Sicily were interested. So we had left our horses behind, in good hands of man of honour, and had boarded a fishing boat moving south. Travel was neither fast nor pleasant. A late spring storm had arrived in the Mediterranean causing additional problems. I managed to catch up on sleep for a bit, but Harald it turned out didn't mix with even mildly rough seas. It took us nearly a day to arrive at Palermo, the unusual accommodations preventing any real restful sleep.

When we arrived on Sicily we met with several man who identified themselves as leaders of the local communities. Among them was a man who apparently could speak as their leader, but from what I understand only in a first amongst equals. On the other hand, his brother was the commandant of the local army units. That had been a shocking surprise, but it wasn't entirely unwelcome. Our orders had been to keep further army units from moving north, and this arrangement, even if unconventional would hopefully accomplish that.

Of course, it couldn't be that easy. While news from the north did quite clearly show what was going on, even Italian media had problems concealing that, they were still a bit reluctant to fully commit. They wanted support, not just in the way of weaponry. They considered themselves businessmen first and foremost, and protectors of their communities. They wanted concessions for the post war order, both political and economic. They wanted a say on the table once the fascists were gone, to protect and further their interests. Our own leaders weren't entirely against such arrangements, however with several members of the League of Nations getting more deeply involved, who could really tell what would happen. There would be several interest groups involved and few of them saw eye to eye.

Still there was the idea of a province rising on it's own, and then gaining a seat at the diplomatic table that was very attractive. While negotiations were ongoing, we undertook some more direct actions. Both to better our own position, and to help win favour with the locals. We were directly involved in taking out several of the expected troublemakers, both belonging to the government structures and the military. By far the larger group however, were expected to switch allegiance easily enough, being largely made up by locals.

It was a relieve to me when I was finally free of the politicking of this kind. Yes, in the end most politicians weren't any better than those honourable men of Sicily, but it still felt off to negotiate with someone who was by all signs a criminal. However we did manage to have some days of steady sleep that we had lacked for weeks and with all that done I almost looked forward to it when we return to Naples, probably getting extorted to get our horses back.

Even more, I'd still rather be home, than just back on mainland Italy, but it is our duty to serve. With all of those developments on the horizon I hope we will see peace soon.


Always your,

Alois

Spoiler

Originally I wanted to put up another Franzler piece, but I can't really get it to work. This one fits in about at the same position, even if chronological it should come later.

It's of course the alluded to cooperation with the Mafia.