This is still just nostalgia baiting.

No British government was going to make peace with Hitler on any terms that made Britain second fiddle to Germany. No Greater Germany, no Lebenstraum, no colonial concessions. Any of these would mean Britain being eclipsed as the leading superpower in Europe.

Probably not.

This kind of did happen for the Pacific theater and the US just refused any peace deal short of total surrender.

In Europe, Nazi Germany tried to open negotiations with Britain after conquering France, but were just told no. Maybe if Germany laid out some wild offers like de-occupying France and making an anti-Soviet alliance, there could be a ghost of a chance. But that would dive into some wild alternate history.

Bet the guys in first, second, and third didn’t push replacing their nation’s Calvary sabers with their own pet project though

True, but they saw how every other power’s plans for quick and glorious victory fell apart and still deluded themselves into pulling that trigger

So swords have almost never been an actual battlefield weapon, but a side arm. The sword is what someone uses when their spear breaks or they have no time to reload their gun.

The real role of sword masters were in training nobility in private self-defense in major cities like Paris and Milan, and dueling other nobles. Which notably was not the context for America, even a century before the revolution. Hence why pistols specifically came to replace swords for most of the aristocracy and bourgeoise that made up America's upper class.

That being said, there were a number of famous fencers and teachers of swordsmanship. George Patton saw himself as quite the expert swordsman and set standards to be taught to US calvary, and Teddy Roosevelt was an avid fan of cane fighting.

They were under the false assumption that such gains would benefit them the way such changes in territory reflected strength and success in past decades. But the cost was far too high, both in lives and political unrest.

If territory was so important, Austria actually offered more concessions than what Italy eventually got in the peace, and that was just for remaining neutral. Their leaders could have played a much smarter game, but got caught up in Napoleonic ideas of glory and assumed easy victory.

A bigger issue for their navy would have been why it would bother to leave port against the French and British. Those 2 were their biggest trade partners, and effective close off the Mediterranean to the Italians.

The only potential trade partner to protect a trade route to would be the Ottomans, and they had little to offer.

The Italian navy would thus be stuck in port, or maybe blocking off the Adriatic for what little benefit it would give.

Staying neutral would have benefited Italy the most, selling goods to both sides and avoiding a war it just wasn’t ready for.

Joining the Central Powers would just be entirely suicidal. Italy was dependent on French and British colonial possessions just to import enough food for Italy, let alone importing industrial resources to modernize their military.

A Franco-British blockade and bombardment of Italian port cities would have meant Italy starts 1915 in famine.

There is an otherwise kind of bland sci-fi series written by Jack Campbell where the first alien species humans encounter is aquatic, so they take advantage of their water filled ships to pull off more g’s than vessels filled with humans and air could safely attempt.