Hitler and Mussolini meet at Brennero, on the Brenner pass. The Italian dictaor declares that Italy is ready to join the war against Britain and France.
From Wikipedia:
Brenner Pass (German: Brennerpass; Italian: Passo del Brennero) is a mountain pass through the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria, and is one of the principal passes of the Alps. It is the lowest of the Alpine passes, and one of the few in the area. For that reason possession of the pass has long been coveted.
Below the pass, high Alpine pastures have been used by dairy cattle for summer grazing, making space available at lower altitudes for cultivating and harvesting hay for winter fodder. Many of the high pastures are at altitudes over 1,000 meters.
The central section, the Brenner Pass itself, covers the track between Sterzing and Matrei, through the village of Brenner.
The pass was a trackway for mule trains and carts until a carriage road was opened in 1777. The railway was completed in 1867 and is the only transalpine rail route without a major tunnel. Since the end of World War I in 1918, when international borders shifted, control of the pass has been shared between Italy and Austria. Until then, both sides of the pass had been within the Habsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire. During World War II, the German leader Adolf Hitler and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini met there to celebrate their Pact of Steel on 18 March 1940. This pass was the way out of Germany for some Nazis after collapse of the government in 1945.
Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary
No comments:
Post a Comment