The Mediterranean Medley
The Mediterranean Medley
Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don’t care, I’m still free.
You can’t take the sky from me.
Take me out
to the black.
Tell ‘em I ain’t comin’ back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can’t take the sky from me.
Have no place
I can be
Since I found Serenity.
But you can’t take the sky from me.
- Theme from Firefly.
We have the right to live in peace
You must fight for what you keep
If what you keep holds truth inside
Stand up, defend, or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
- P.O.D., Freedom Fighters.
With trouble brewing and open warfare raging all around them, the otherwise quite stubborn and independent minded Greeks saw it wise to secure some sort of backing from one of the Great Powers. First France, the Britain was seen as suitable partner – or more correctly protector -, but as the German warmachine beat the of said countries into pulp and hammered the second into its most massive defeat since the American Revolution, Mussolini’s Italy seemed more appropriate. The Greek government under the Mussolini-like Metaxas felt the growing German and rather ham-fisted diplomatic pressue on the region,and as with Hungary found it best to seek Italian aid – the lesser of two evils for sure. There was price to pay, however.
The Italo-Greek relationship was actually rather good, both countries being ruled by Strongmen with and all. And eventhough the Italian government wanted nothing more than to expand and increase its influnce in the Aegean Sea - Mussolini was rather keen on establishing naval and air bases on some of the Greek isles there to protect the sea routes to the Italian Dodocanese isles and see the Italian flag hoisted on yet more territory – the tone and mood between to the countries were polite and generally good natured. During the Battle for Britain, the first Italian advisors arrived in Greece, just as the first batch of Italian weapons were sold to the ill-equipped and far from modern Greek Armed Forces – a deal for British Hurricanes had for instance been cancelled due to Britian’s own sudden and desperate need. Several elderly Italian ships and submarines were sold, and in a few cases simply handed over, as well.
At the same time Italian troops occupied the tiny country of Albania with nothing more than the most flimsy of excuses. Apparently, the government og King Zog of Albania had neglected to repay some Italian loans or some such thing – at the time, noone really paid much attention -, and soon the now rather famous and feared Italian Marines backed by paratroops and Bersaglieri units from the elité Celere-divisions landed and swarmed all over the small mountain state. King Zog spend the rest of his life in house arrest in Venezia. After his death, his family were allowed to leave Italy and soon took refuge in Brazil.
Later, after the Paris Peace Accord had been signed and the Italo-British cooperation began to see the light of day, several air and naval bases on the Ionian Islands, plus a larger, mostly logistical base on Crete, were leased to the Regia Aeronauctica and Marina respectively after serious pressure being applied from both London and Rome.
While not too satisfied with the presence of foreign troops on the sacred soil of Mother Greece, the Greeks nonetheless quite happily joined in on the Italian carving-up of Yugoslavia after the German assault on the USSR in the summer of 1941. Greek and Bulgarian troops almost clashed on several occasions during the invasion, and Italian troops had to be used to secure a demilitarized zone between the armies of the two nations for a while. The occupation zones and areas of annexation would only finally be in place in late May, 1942.
With Germany occupied in the USSR, and France consumed with its own problems, real or imagined, Mussolini, allways the gambler, threw the dice and ordered his Legions against Yugoslavia in the summer of ´41. In 1941, the Italian Armed Forces had mostly been re-equipped with modern weaponry and its tactics been polished and updated. The seemingly easy series of German victories had been a real eye opener for Mussolini and the Italian leadership in general, who had initiated a major sweep of the Comando Supremo - Italian High Command - and upper echelons of especially the Regio Esercito – Royal Italian Army -, but also the Regia Marina – ditto Navy. Literally hundreds of senior officers, most actually being generals, suddenly found themselves in defacto retirement in the Colonies. Not only did the new Italian High Command reorganize the Italian divisions, adding a third regiment to the frontline divisions, put they also began to recruit large numbers of NCO’s as in the German army. Led by the resourcefull Marshal Ugo Cavalero, the Comando Supremo and Nuevo Regio Esercito did perform quite well in Yugoslavia - even if the road at times was bumpy and the Italian troops faced adversals. After little more then three months of fighthing, Yugoslavia was no more.
On the 23rd of September, representatives of Yugoslavia's remaining power structure signed an armistice with Italy and its Hungarian, Bulgarian and Greek allies in bombed-out Beograd, thus putting a stop to the fighting that had wrecked the country for some 90 days. More than 60,000 Yugoslavians had died and some 200,000 thousand were taken prisoner. The Italian led coalition had lost some 20,000 men altogether.
After long and hard negotiations, Italy and Germany readjusted their common border, so that most of the former Yugoslsavian region of Slovenia was annexed by Germany and the Italian dominated region known as South Tyrol was seeded to Italy in return.
Seen in retrospect, the hardest duty for the Italian soldiers in the Yugoslavian War was to keep Italy’s allies from initiating further bloodshed and warfare against each other. A problem that only grew with the creation of Croatia and the puppet state of Serbia, which proved extremely unstable to say the very least. In Croatia and Serbia genocidal campaigns soon followed as did severe persecution of political adversaries. Often to a point were Italian troops time and time again had to step in. As the 40’s turned into the 50’s, Serbia slowly collapsed as a state and would in the end play an instrumental role in bringing about the so-called Collapse of Dictatorship.
In Turkey, the Italian and British dealings in the Balkans reinforced Premier Ismet Inönü’s view that Turkey must remain neutral at all costs, eventhough the anti-Soviet element in his cabinet and in Tyrkish politics in general was well-entrenched and quite pronounced. Actually, the Italian involvement in Greece and Germany’s apparently unending succes of arms ensured the pro-German element in Turkey were more prominent, while never dominant, than ever before. Never a nation of gamblers, Turkey steered well clear of getting into a shooting war with the USSR, even as the Germans kept pushing deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union, but did supply strategic raw materials in impressive quatities to Germany during the first years of said war, only to stop as Britain reenters the war in ’44. After the war the former near-allies, Italy and Britain, will use the regional rivalry of Greece and Turkey to keep each other on their toes, so to say, and turn the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean into a potential warzone for most of the 50’s and early 60’s until the Collapse of Dictatorship.
Meanwhile political instability and popular uprisings played hawock with the former French mandate in Syria and Lebanon. After the defeat at first the hands of the mighty Wehrmacht and then the humiliating defeat at the hands of the much loathed Italians afterwards, France was in no condition to exercise its right to rule in said territories. The deterioating situation led the British to intervene and occupy both Syria and Lebanon in the spring of ´41. In reality, however, it was Commonwealth forces that did most of the hard work as the British themselves had scarely recovered after their own defeat in the Battle of Britain. It is even rumored, that Italian units were used to ensure British success. Something that might hold some truth as the Italian Navy often used Lebanon as a secondary base.
The Mediterranean Medley
Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don’t care, I’m still free.
You can’t take the sky from me.
Take me out
to the black.
Tell ‘em I ain’t comin’ back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can’t take the sky from me.
Have no place
I can be
Since I found Serenity.
But you can’t take the sky from me.
- Theme from Firefly.
We have the right to live in peace
You must fight for what you keep
If what you keep holds truth inside
Stand up, defend, or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
- P.O.D., Freedom Fighters.
With trouble brewing and open warfare raging all around them, the otherwise quite stubborn and independent minded Greeks saw it wise to secure some sort of backing from one of the Great Powers. First France, the Britain was seen as suitable partner – or more correctly protector -, but as the German warmachine beat the of said countries into pulp and hammered the second into its most massive defeat since the American Revolution, Mussolini’s Italy seemed more appropriate. The Greek government under the Mussolini-like Metaxas felt the growing German and rather ham-fisted diplomatic pressue on the region,and as with Hungary found it best to seek Italian aid – the lesser of two evils for sure. There was price to pay, however.
The Italo-Greek relationship was actually rather good, both countries being ruled by Strongmen with and all. And eventhough the Italian government wanted nothing more than to expand and increase its influnce in the Aegean Sea - Mussolini was rather keen on establishing naval and air bases on some of the Greek isles there to protect the sea routes to the Italian Dodocanese isles and see the Italian flag hoisted on yet more territory – the tone and mood between to the countries were polite and generally good natured. During the Battle for Britain, the first Italian advisors arrived in Greece, just as the first batch of Italian weapons were sold to the ill-equipped and far from modern Greek Armed Forces – a deal for British Hurricanes had for instance been cancelled due to Britian’s own sudden and desperate need. Several elderly Italian ships and submarines were sold, and in a few cases simply handed over, as well.
At the same time Italian troops occupied the tiny country of Albania with nothing more than the most flimsy of excuses. Apparently, the government og King Zog of Albania had neglected to repay some Italian loans or some such thing – at the time, noone really paid much attention -, and soon the now rather famous and feared Italian Marines backed by paratroops and Bersaglieri units from the elité Celere-divisions landed and swarmed all over the small mountain state. King Zog spend the rest of his life in house arrest in Venezia. After his death, his family were allowed to leave Italy and soon took refuge in Brazil.
Later, after the Paris Peace Accord had been signed and the Italo-British cooperation began to see the light of day, several air and naval bases on the Ionian Islands, plus a larger, mostly logistical base on Crete, were leased to the Regia Aeronauctica and Marina respectively after serious pressure being applied from both London and Rome.
While not too satisfied with the presence of foreign troops on the sacred soil of Mother Greece, the Greeks nonetheless quite happily joined in on the Italian carving-up of Yugoslavia after the German assault on the USSR in the summer of 1941. Greek and Bulgarian troops almost clashed on several occasions during the invasion, and Italian troops had to be used to secure a demilitarized zone between the armies of the two nations for a while. The occupation zones and areas of annexation would only finally be in place in late May, 1942.
With Germany occupied in the USSR, and France consumed with its own problems, real or imagined, Mussolini, allways the gambler, threw the dice and ordered his Legions against Yugoslavia in the summer of ´41. In 1941, the Italian Armed Forces had mostly been re-equipped with modern weaponry and its tactics been polished and updated. The seemingly easy series of German victories had been a real eye opener for Mussolini and the Italian leadership in general, who had initiated a major sweep of the Comando Supremo - Italian High Command - and upper echelons of especially the Regio Esercito – Royal Italian Army -, but also the Regia Marina – ditto Navy. Literally hundreds of senior officers, most actually being generals, suddenly found themselves in defacto retirement in the Colonies. Not only did the new Italian High Command reorganize the Italian divisions, adding a third regiment to the frontline divisions, put they also began to recruit large numbers of NCO’s as in the German army. Led by the resourcefull Marshal Ugo Cavalero, the Comando Supremo and Nuevo Regio Esercito did perform quite well in Yugoslavia - even if the road at times was bumpy and the Italian troops faced adversals. After little more then three months of fighthing, Yugoslavia was no more.
On the 23rd of September, representatives of Yugoslavia's remaining power structure signed an armistice with Italy and its Hungarian, Bulgarian and Greek allies in bombed-out Beograd, thus putting a stop to the fighting that had wrecked the country for some 90 days. More than 60,000 Yugoslavians had died and some 200,000 thousand were taken prisoner. The Italian led coalition had lost some 20,000 men altogether.
After long and hard negotiations, Italy and Germany readjusted their common border, so that most of the former Yugoslsavian region of Slovenia was annexed by Germany and the Italian dominated region known as South Tyrol was seeded to Italy in return.
Seen in retrospect, the hardest duty for the Italian soldiers in the Yugoslavian War was to keep Italy’s allies from initiating further bloodshed and warfare against each other. A problem that only grew with the creation of Croatia and the puppet state of Serbia, which proved extremely unstable to say the very least. In Croatia and Serbia genocidal campaigns soon followed as did severe persecution of political adversaries. Often to a point were Italian troops time and time again had to step in. As the 40’s turned into the 50’s, Serbia slowly collapsed as a state and would in the end play an instrumental role in bringing about the so-called Collapse of Dictatorship.
In Turkey, the Italian and British dealings in the Balkans reinforced Premier Ismet Inönü’s view that Turkey must remain neutral at all costs, eventhough the anti-Soviet element in his cabinet and in Tyrkish politics in general was well-entrenched and quite pronounced. Actually, the Italian involvement in Greece and Germany’s apparently unending succes of arms ensured the pro-German element in Turkey were more prominent, while never dominant, than ever before. Never a nation of gamblers, Turkey steered well clear of getting into a shooting war with the USSR, even as the Germans kept pushing deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union, but did supply strategic raw materials in impressive quatities to Germany during the first years of said war, only to stop as Britain reenters the war in ’44. After the war the former near-allies, Italy and Britain, will use the regional rivalry of Greece and Turkey to keep each other on their toes, so to say, and turn the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean into a potential warzone for most of the 50’s and early 60’s until the Collapse of Dictatorship.
Meanwhile political instability and popular uprisings played hawock with the former French mandate in Syria and Lebanon. After the defeat at first the hands of the mighty Wehrmacht and then the humiliating defeat at the hands of the much loathed Italians afterwards, France was in no condition to exercise its right to rule in said territories. The deterioating situation led the British to intervene and occupy both Syria and Lebanon in the spring of ´41. In reality, however, it was Commonwealth forces that did most of the hard work as the British themselves had scarely recovered after their own defeat in the Battle of Britain. It is even rumored, that Italian units were used to ensure British success. Something that might hold some truth as the Italian Navy often used Lebanon as a secondary base.
Life just caught up with me, to say the very least!