Ch.238Goebbels and Mussolini

A few days earlier, in an underground bunker in Berlin

The German Communist Party in the underground bunker was sinking into despair with each report that arrived daily.

There were no records of miraculous victories achieved through the power of the people—only reports of everyone dying to Russia’s new weapons.

And today brought more news about their incompetent allies.

“Ethiopian forces have landed in Sicily with the help of the Russian, Spanish, and Turkish combined fleet and are advancing toward the Italian mainland.”

“What are those fools capable of doing at all?!”

After everything else, that idiot Benito Mussolini had allowed an African army to land on his shores.

With this development, only France remained.

France too was being forced into a two-front war as the Spanish Falange’s army crossed the Pyrenees.

Those Italian forces were the real problem.

If only that cursed Italy had broken through the small Danubian mountain division and advanced north to capture Vienna while the Danubian main forces were tied down in the Sudetenland. They could have seized the Danube and moved into the Balkans before Russia arrived. They could have fought the final war.

By then, the war would have dragged on longer, and despite the weapons gap, they could have continued developing weapons to fight Russia effectively.

‘I should have sent the French Commune forces to Italy.’

It was too late for regrets—the tide of war had turned long ago.

“You really must evacuate now, Comrade Secretary.”

“Is the situation that serious?”

Goebbels looked around at his aides with a grave expression.

Yes. None of their faces looked normal.

Just look at those faces, all sunk in despair from the continuous defeats.

Yes. He could tell how serious the situation was.

Let’s hear how far they’ve advanced.

“To the east, they’ve reached Lichtenberg, Malsdorf, and Karlshorst.”

“When Steiner attacks, things will improve.”

Goebbels said this while deliberately tracing his finger across the map.

But his aides knew this was merely an attempt to deny reality.

“Comrade Secretary. Steiner… Steiner surrendered to the Kaiser long ago.”

Steiner’s surrender.

At those words, Goebbels’ hands trembled violently.

Unlike in the original history, as Germany’s leader, he had grown increasingly erratic as the war situation deteriorated.

“Only those I name will stay. Keitel, Jodl, Bormann, Krebs.”

After everyone except the four named people left the conference room, Goebbels opened his mouth with bulging eyes.

“That was an order! Steiner’s attack was an order! And this man dares surrender to the reactionaries? Daring to disobey my orders! How could this happen! The Red Army has betrayed me! Everyone! Even the People’s Internal Affairs Commissariat (Goebbels’ personal guard) has betrayed me! The generals are all reactionaries, untrustworthy cowards!”

Goebbels shouted furiously.

He had ordered the generals in charge of each army to defend their assigned areas at all costs.

Yet those men had rushed to surrender without even putting up a proper fight.

They surrendered as soon as the tide turned against them.

Honestly, he was beginning to doubt whether even the men before him could be trusted.

“Comrade Secretary, I cannot accept this. The soldiers who are bleeding for you—”

“They’re just cowards, traitors! Betrayers!”

Nothing but traitors.

Damn it. Just garbage hindering the world revolution.

Someday these men too would try to cut his throat.

How had the German people become so stupid and filled with vile traitors?

To think they would cower before those Slavs and spread their legs in surrender!

“Comrade, your words go too far!”

“The officers are traitors to the German people!”

His aides had nothing more to say.

It was indeed betrayal. Right now, generals were surrendering to the Russian army in droves.

If they had held out a little longer, Germany wouldn’t have been pushed back so helplessly.

Perhaps because they were nostalgic for the Imperial era, they all betrayed the cause as soon as the tide of war turned.

“You attend military academy for a few years and strut around calling yourselves generals. All you learned was how to hold knives and forks. I gave you opportunities, and you betrayed me!”

Goebbels’ rage showed no signs of stopping.

“The Red Army has hindered me for years. They’ve done nothing but block my path! I should have purged the high-ranking officers in prison instead of trying to win them over! Like that Anastasia! I was born into a petty bourgeois family. Yet I alone seized the Communist Party and Europe (limited to Western Europe)! From the beginning, I was betrayed and deceived by you all!”

Goebbels continued to scream and insult the German People’s Army, his own military.

But his aides felt there wasn’t even time for this.

“Comrade. Forgive us.”

Goebbels couldn’t continue speaking.

The Internal Affairs Commissariat guards had knocked him unconscious from behind.

But this had to be done.

It was the only way to buy even a little more time.

Keitel had long since convinced even Goebbels’ loyal Internal Affairs Commissariat that they needed to flee to the French Commune.

He had also informed Thorez of the French Commune to prepare for a desperate resistance.

They had moved loyal People’s Army troops toward France to defend the hastily constructed Maginot Line alongside the Commune forces.

Unlike in the original history, André Maginot’s Maginot Line construction had been rejected in favor of strengthening the army, but now they had hastily assembled one.

Of course, a defensive line built during wartime couldn’t be expected to have much defensive power—it had to be manned by sheer numbers.

So they had knocked Goebbels unconscious to facilitate their escape from Berlin.

“Is this really acceptable?”

“Even if we surrender unconditionally now, our necks won’t remain intact. We need to take the Secretary Comrade and flee to Paris quickly.”

Just recently, Okhrana agents had infiltrated their ranks.

They needed to escape while they still could.

Though the situation seemed hopeless, Britain remained unable to venture out, merely sending small forces to harass them.

If they continued to inflict damage on the Anti-Comintern Pact nations, those countries might eventually seek peace or a ceasefire.

How long could Russia’s “Saint” continue the war while her country’s forces were being ground down?

They needed to make their last stand in Paris, which was still intact.

Meanwhile, similar events were unfolding in Rome, the Italian Socialist Republic.

“How did this happen! What has the Red Army been doing all this time! Such idiots!”

“Comrade Secretary, you must calm down.”

“Calm? Do I look calm to you? Speak if you have a mouth. How could we allow Ethiopia of all countries to land troops here!”

Ethiopian forces had already landed and were proudly marching northward.

The Anti-Comintern Pact’s combined fleet had secured control of the sea and was pounding various parts of Italy.

“Because our forces are tied down in Greece—”

Forces tied down in Greece?

When the homeland is in danger, they should obviously withdraw troops, so what nonsense was this?

Benito Mussolini slammed his desk and raised his voice.

“Greece? What has our People’s Navy been doing all this time?”

“Well, it was annihilated and we lost control of the sea, so it’s difficult.”

In truth, the staff had so much they wanted to say.

Who had brought things to this state in the first place?

It was none other than Secretary Benito Mussolini standing before them.

What could they say if they tried to hold him responsible?

“How could the strongest Red Roman Army under heaven be pushed back like this?”

“Comrade. It seems you must make a decision now.”

One staff member who could no longer bear the nonsense spoke up.

It was time for them to make a decision too.

They had only two choices: surrender or flee to Paris for a desperate last stand.

At those words, Benito Mussolini momentarily came to his senses.

“What do you mean?”

“Even now, we could negotiate peace with them—”

“You call that a suggestion? To make peace with those bastards?”

Benito Mussolini was no fool.

He was the man who had brought this country—barely worthy of being counted among the great powers—this far through the red revolution.

And now they suggest making peace with those bastards! How is that different from a dog tucking its tail between its legs!

In reality, he was nothing more than a dog with its tail tucked, but Benito Mussolini had never once considered himself defeated.

It was his subordinates who were incompetent—he himself had done everything right!

“Comrade Secretary. We have an emergency.”

“What now?”

What could possibly make them wear such expressions?

Surely it couldn’t be news of another occupation or defeat.

“Rome. Ethiopian forces have landed in Rome.”

Ethiopian forces had landed as far as Rome.

What was this incompetent army doing?

Was the country’s military truly not strong after all?

Despite his efforts to create a Red Rome, was it still weak?

That’s impossible.

Was his dream of rebuilding Rome to be thwarted by a mere woman from Moscow?

“Comrade Secretary. Anastasian sympathizers have started a riot!”

So there were Anastasian sympathizers in this country too.

Indeed, the peculiar accelerationist Anastasians, different from the traditional modified capitalism, existed in Italy as well. They had begun gaining strength due to Benito Mussolini’s terrible governance, the Red Army’s consecutive defeats, and the completely reversed war situation.

In particular, some of Rome’s defending forces sympathized with them, and some wanted to surrender to Anastasia or Hitler rather than suffer further humiliation at the hands of African forces.

“There were Anastasian sympathizers in this country too?”

But before he could ask further, a young staff member rushed into the Secretary’s office.

“Comrade. Ethiopian forces are approaching! Spanish, Turkish, and French Algerian forces are coming with them!”

Ethiopian, Spanish, Turkish, and French Algerian forces.

How could they possibly stop them all?

“The Danubian Federation is advancing from the north!”

With the Danubian Federation coming too, just how many forces were converging on them?

So where were they supposed to go?

“Fortunately, Comrade Goebbels is in France now, so you could go there.”

So it had come to this.

Going to France would mean admitting defeat, wouldn’t it?

How sad. But…

Benito Mussolini jumped up from his seat and clenched his right fist with determination.

“Comrades. I will not flee. I won’t run away pathetically like Goebbels! I’ll die fighting!”

“We don’t have time to escape anyway.”

There was nowhere to escape to in the first place.

And so Benito Mussolini and the Communist Party began their final resistance in Rome.

* * *

Berlin was occupied, but Goebbels had escaped.

After the occupation of Berlin, teeming with hardcore communists, a large-scale massacre took place.

Though called a massacre, the Anti-Comintern forces referred to it as the Berlin Purification Operation, meaning they were cleansing the red plague by eliminating pests that kept charging at them.

While the elderly were less indoctrinated with communist ideology, many Berlin women took up arms and charged forward as communists.

This showed how deeply Goebbels had instilled the red plague.

In any case, after the purification was complete, what remained was a ghost town abandoned by real people and poorly maintained, along with captured communists who couldn’t escape and a small number of civilians who couldn’t evacuate.

Since so many men had died, those who remained were mostly the elderly, women, and very young children who hadn’t become communists.

The Kaiser, while delighted to occupy the Chancellor’s residence, was focusing on securing Berlin’s public order by mobilizing the Imperial Army.

“Your Majesty, we should soon have all of mainland Germany under our control.”

“Hmm, that’s unexpected. There’s too little resistance.”

Unlike Berlin, the ease with which other areas were being taken was peculiar.

Perhaps the resistance in Berlin was effectively the last stand, or maybe it was because the army had surrendered, but anyway.

Am I too fixated on the original history?

That’s why Germany’s collapse like this is unexpected.

No, thinking more objectively, Communist Germany did everything it could from its position.

For the sake of world revolution, they had no choice but to fight us.

Meanwhile, they defended against the Allied forces and used Operation Sickle to mind-control France into becoming their ally.

They annihilated the British forces, effectively preventing Britain from landing troops with a single battle.

Looking at these achievements alone, excluding Nazi Germany’s history and considering only this world’s history, it’s not bad.

If not for Hitler of the Danube, the constituent states of the Dual Empire would still be fragmented and eventually swallowed by Germany.

From the communist regime’s perspective, they did try their best.

“Yes. Communist Germany’s Army Group A, which was defending the lowlands, has moved to France.”

“There was still an army group left?”

Is such a large force still remaining?

And with such an army available, it wasn’t used to defend Berlin?

“Yes. Perhaps they were eliminating resistance in the lowlands and guarding against possible landings by Commonwealth forces?”

That seems suspicious, considering they weren’t part of Berlin’s defense.

If they were advancing toward Berlin before we arrived, they should at least be marching toward the city.

The problem is that they moved in the opposite direction, toward France.

“Hmm. That’s suspicious.”

“It seems they intend to make their stand in France.”

Making a stand in France. Then it’s highly likely that the communist leadership that fled Berlin has gone to the Commune.

Goebbels might also remain in Paris to prepare for a final resistance.