At the same time as the Czechoslovak side was bustling, Italy, Germany's steel ally, began its operations in Africa.
Undeclared war, 300,000 Italian colonial troops in Africa launched raids on Ethiopia on three routes of Eritrea and Italian Somalia.
That's right, Italy launched a raid, a modernized country launched a raid on a backward African country ...
Well, this may be explained by the lion fighting the rabbit with all his strength.
Regardless of the start, Italy has finally re-embarked on the land that once gave them shame.
Yes, this is not the first time Italy has made a move against Ethiopia.
The last Italian-Egyptian war took place in 1895, when 70,000 well-armed Italian expeditionary forces joined the wave of colonization of Africa on an expedition against Ethiopian "natives" armed with a small number of rifles and a large number of spears and iron swords.
This war should have been a situation in which Italy violently beat the "natives" to one side, and the situation was indeed one-sided, but it was a pity that the "natives" of Russia and Ethiopia violently beat the Italian expeditionary force.
In addition to winning eight consecutive battles against tribal chieftains in the beginning, Italy began to lose consecutive battles.
Finally, on March 1, 1896, on this humiliating day, the Italian elite expeditionary force entered a depression due to the misdirection of its guide, and was surrounded by the Egyptian army, which sent 20,000 infantry armed with rifles and swords, 20,000 spearmen and 8,000 cavalry to rush out of the valley like a tide. After a fierce battle, 7,000 Italian troops were killed, 1,500 wounded, 3,000 were captured, including 252 officers below the brigadier general, and the commander Bharatieri abandoned the army at night and fled, and Italy was completely defeated.
In this war, the Italian expeditionary force suffered 10,000 casualties and 4,000 captured, which can be described as a complete annihilation.
The poorly equipped Russian and Russian army suffered between 4,000 and 5,000 dead and 6,000-10,000 wounded.
After the war, the German chancellor at the time, Stingsmarck, mocked Italy: "They came to the African continent with a mouth full of decay and a great appetite." "
So in order to wash away the shame of the last time, Italy can be described as menacing this time, they are equipped with a total of 164 aircraft, 157 tanks, 703 new guns, 5800 machine guns, 5550 cars and 42900 camels and donkeys.
Under such a large modern force, no one thinks that Russia can withstand the Italian offensive.
Mussolini naturally thought so, and he even sent his two sons and a son-in-law to the front-line air force to gild them.
And why choose to put it in the air force that looks dangerous? Because the Russians couldn't shoot off the plane, they didn't even have a long-range gun in their hands.
At the beginning of the war, as expected, the Italian army successfully captured Adiegraut, then Adua, and nine days later Axum.
Just as Mussolini was triumphantly preparing for the celebration banquet, he suddenly found that he had calculated or missed a little - he was a group of Italian soldiers, and Italian soldiers were not playing with you.
Sure enough, the Russians, who were stunned by the raid, quickly reacted, and under the leadership of their king Haile Selassie, they united as never before, and on the first day after the fall of Akemsu, they organized an army of 200,000 and went to the front to support the 350,000 Egyptian troops that were fighting.
In the ensuing Battle of Tigray, the Italians encountered stubborn resistance from the supported Egyptian army and suffered heavy losses.
So ruthless, it directly instigated the commander-in-chief of the Italian army, De Bono, who stationed the troops in place and cowered.
Mussolini behind him saw that De Bono was instigated, jumped to his feet angrily and cursed, urging de Bono to attack quickly.
De Bono heard the leader's urging, and he was also anxious, but he couldn't beat and couldn't, so he had to switch strategies and use another method.
He began to package his troops as liberators of the Ethiopian people, in a vain attempt to disintegrate the enemy from within him.
But the Italians are stupid, the Ethiopians are not stupid, why did you hit me in front of me, but if you couldn't beat it, you said that you came to liberate me, why are you as stupid as you are?
Therefore, he could not be deceived, and De Bono, who was urged by the leader to fight or not, had to fight again with the whole army.
The result is still the same, how can the Italian literary and artistic youth with a combat strength of five beat the fierce Russian Uncle Obia? De Bono was beaten up again.
Mussolini in China looked anxious, thinking that my 300,000 well-equipped Italian warriors could not beat you, a group of indigenous Africans with clubs and javelins, isn't this a joke for other countries?
Therefore, he directly withdrew De Bono and made Badoglio, who had once recommended himself, as the new commander.
However, when Badoglio first came to the field, due to lack of supplies, he did not dare to rashly attack, but was taken advantage of by the Ethiopian army to counterattack and regain a large part of the lost territory.
Seeing that Italy was about to repeat the mistakes of the previous one this time, Mussolini struck a wit, and he remembered the poison gas that the Germans had first used in the last war.
So he secretly gave orders to the troops on the southern front, instructing them to use poison gas to attack.
The following year, Italian troops on the southern front used poison gas on the battlefield for the first time in the campaign against Doro.
High-tech weapons are worthy of high technology, allowing Italy to successfully eliminate a large number of Russian Cypriot "natives" whose combat effectiveness is orders of magnitude higher than their own in the Battle of Dolo, and successfully occupy Dolo.
And Badoglio in the north looked at it and was suddenly taken aback, lying down, poison gas is so easy to use? So he also began to use poison gas.
On 20 January, Badoglio launched the First Battle of Tambien, on 10 February the Battle of Enderta, on 27 February the Second Battle of Tambirn and on 29 February at the Battle of Siley.
In these four battles, Badoglio used poison gas, relying on the powerful power of poison gas, which killed hundreds of thousands of Russian Ethiopian soldiers and civilians, and the Italian army finally reversed the defeat, four battles and four victories, while the Egyptian army was forced to shrink to Lake Assiandi to prepare for the final decisive battle with the Italian army.
On the eve of the decisive battle, Lyon promised Mussolini that the carrier support fleet was finally "long overdue." (In fact, Lyon could not afford to lose the man, deliberately let Raeder lead the fleet for a long drive outside, avoiding the early stage of being beaten and the use of poison gas in violation of the Geneva Convention in the middle period, and then went to Tajura Bay outside British Somalia to support the Italian army.)
And the "belated" Raeder also has requirements for support, that is, Badoglio is not allowed to use poison gas, otherwise he will not take off a plane even if he looks at the scenery here.
Badoglio silently weighed the poison gas and the German army, and then decisively chose the latter.