Chapter 727： Mussolini's decision

Regarding Romania's severe damage to the Mediterranean fleet in Alexandria, Italy has a different view.

In the prime minister's house, Mussolini watched and listened to the news brought by his son-in-law.

He played with this pen in his hand and talked about it playfully. How do Britain and France intend to exchange Greece for our continued neutrality? "

"Yes, father-in-law."

Ciano, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, answered his father-in-law's words, then took a sip from the water glass and said. "It seems that the loss of Alexander made Britain and France anxious."

Mussolini mocked when he heard the son-in-law's words. "Can you not worry, we have lost the British Mediterranean fleet. What can France do to stop our Italian warships, let alone our ally Romania. In recent years, Romania has developed rapidly under the leadership of Edel, not only the army? Great, even the navy is so strong."

Yes, Mussolini was jealous. When he came to power before, Italy was even more powerful than Romania. And after busying himself with the development of this country, Italy has developed quite well. But compared with the development of Romania, it immediately appears to be nothing.

In addition to the fact that there are too many Romanian plains, Mussolini's domestic resources also make Mussolini jealous. There are oil, coal and iron in the country, and basically all the raw materials needed by the industry.

If Italy has as good resources as Romania, Mussolini is also confident to develop Italy to that extent. Of course, Italy is not bad now. After the Spanish Civil War and the Ethiopian War, the Italian army that proved itself and the navy that dominates the Mediterranean (the French and British Mediterranean battleships are not as many as Italy), it is time for it to capture enough benefits for Italy. Up.

Just thinking of the Romanian navy's record just now, Mussolini couldn't help but speak again. "By the way, Ciano. Do you think we should build an aircraft carrier?"

As soon as Ciano heard what his father-in-law said, he knew what was going on. "Why, the Navy filed a report again requesting the construction of an aircraft carrier?"

Mussolini did not conceal his son-in-law and future successor. "Yes, Admiral Cavaliari has submitted another request for the construction of an aircraft carrier."

"It seems that the Navy is still obsessed with building aircraft carriers."

Ciano is right. The Italian Navy has proposed to build an aircraft carrier long ago, but the senior government believes that the need for multiple aircraft carriers in Italy is not urgent. The Italian peninsula as well as Sicily and Sardinia are natural aircraft carriers that can fully function as aircraft carriers, and Italy needs to spend more money on the task of building battleships.

In fact, this is also on par with Italy's needs for the Mediterranean. The Italian Navy has always had the main imaginary enemy being the French Navy, whose demand for aircraft carriers is indeed lower than for battleships. Moreover, the Mediterranean Sea is not large (relatively speaking), and the urgency of the demand for aircraft carriers is really not high.

Of course, the above ideas are all in the 1920s and 1930s when the aircraft's technology was not high, and the aircraft carrier's combat capabilities were not demonstrated. Now that everything has changed after Romania used an aircraft carrier to attack the Port of Alexandria.

The Romanian Navy fully demonstrated the role of the aircraft carrier, which made the Italian Navy, which does not have an aircraft carrier, very greedy. Therefore, Admiral Cavaliari, who is the Deputy Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Staff, will naturally not give up this opportunity. He once again proposed the construction of an Italian aircraft carrier based on the use of the aircraft carrier by the Romanian Navy.

One more thing, the current ministers of navy and air force are all Mussolini.

Obviously, this time Admiral Cavaliari's strategy worked. Seeing the role of the aircraft carrier in Alexandria, Mussolini certainly couldn't ignore it. It's just that now he is still a little undecided, because the results of this Alexandria battle really made him greedy, so his attitude towards the construction of aircraft carriers has somewhat softened.

As for the attitude of his father-in-law, how could Ciano as the son-in-law fail to feel it, thinking of the relationship between his family and the navy (his father is the only senior member of the navy in the Communist Party), Ciano said. "I personally think that the navy's request can be agreed, but the number needs to be strictly controlled. Because the current financial expenditure is relatively large, there is not much balance allocated to the navy for shipbuilding."

That's right, Ciano intends to release his kindness to the navy. Although he was not born in the navy, his father is. Moreover, his father was still the link between the navy and the party, and Ciano did not intend to give up this advantage.

Mussolini couldn't help asking when he heard the son-in-law's words. "Will this cause dissatisfaction with the Army?"

"The cost of building an aircraft carrier is much less than that of a battleship. We can do it with a special appropriation. Besides, the proportion of the army's expenditure is high enough, and the military expenditure is over half. How much do they want."

Naturally, Ciano knew the situation of Italian military expenditures. The proportion of the navy generally only occupies about three tiers, and the air force did not exceed 18%, and the rest was all army expenditures. As far as the situation facing Italy is concerned, this is obviously biased towards the army.

Of course, this is also related to the low proportion of Italy's military expenditure. Although the situation in Europe is rapidly deteriorating, Italy's military expenditure accounts for 14% of GDP, which is lower than the British army's 15%. (It’s much better. At this time in history, it was 10%. Now 14% is in the case of Edel drawing cakes)

In the case of obviously insufficient military spending, Italy must give priority to ensuring the safety of the country, and the army is still the basic plan of the army, and it is obvious who to choose.

After talking about the navy, Mussolini obviously had something to say. I saw him hesitate to speak. "Ciano, do you think it's time for us to join the war?"

Obviously Mussolini couldn't sit still after seeing the clear situation in the Mediterranean.

As for the words of his father-in-law, Ciano replied after thinking about it. "I do not know."

That's right, in the current situation, Ziano really didn't know how to choose. Unlike his strong opposition in history, the Italian navy is now stronger, and with the Romanian navy, it can easily obtain maritime superiority, which is also very beneficial to Italy's expansion.

To the east, you can make territorial claims against Yugoslavia, and to the west you can attack France with Germany (although this is not a good choice). As for the colony of Libya this is even simpler. To the east can attack Egypt, occupy the Suez Canal, and to the west can solve Tunisia and Algeria, both are good choices.

As for the East African colonies, they can also attack Sudan and North African forces to attack Egypt.

But with such a big advantage, Ciano still has a little worry in his heart, mainly because he is afraid that the result will be like a replica of World War I. It's just that if Italy is still hesitating with such a big advantage, then when the final results are calculated, Italy will not share much benefit.

As for his father-in-law's words, it was obvious that his heart moved, and he did not have sufficient reason to oppose it.

Mussolini was not angry when he heard his son-in-law say that he didn't know. I saw him speak. "I plan to call the Romanian ambassador over to discuss it. This time, to let us in Italy, at least the raw materials of the aircraft carrier need to be implemented."

That's right, Mussolini intends to hit Edel on the spot. This is also Mussolini's helplessness. Although Italy does not need to import armored steel from Britain before World War I, the current output is still not enough. While Romania’s armored steel production has gradually increased to a very high figure (under someone’s wise leadership) in the past few years, Italy naturally intends to find a way out of it.