The participation of Italy in the Second World
War was characterized by a complex framework
of ideology, politics, and diplomacy, while
its military actions were often heavily influenced
by external factors. Italy joined the war
as one of the Axis Powers in 1940, as the
French surrendered, with a plan to concentrate
Italian forces on a major offensive against
the British Empire in Africa and the Middle
East, while hoping for the collapse of the
UK in the European theatre. The Italians bombed
Mandatory Palestine, invaded Egypt and occupied
British Somaliland with initial success. However,
German and Japanese actions in 1941 led to
the entry of the US and the USSR in the War,
thus ruining the Italian plan and postponing
indefinitely the objective of forcing Britain
to agree to a negotiated peace settlement.The
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was aware
that Italy (whose resources were reduced by
pre-WWII military interventions, albeit successful,
in Spain, Ethiopia and Albania) was not ready
for a long conflict against three superpowers
but opted to remain in the war as the imperial
ambitions of the Fascist regime, which aspired
to restore the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean
(the Mare Nostrum), were partially met by
late 1942. By this point Italian influence
extended throughout the Mediterranean. Libya
had been pacified under the fascists and was
undergoing Italian settlement. A friendly
Fascist regime had been installed in Spain,
and a puppet regime installed in Croatia following
the German-Italian Invasion of Yugoslavia.
Albania, Ljubljana, coastal Dalmatia, and
Montenegro had been directly annexed into
the Italian state. Most of Greece had been
occupied by Italy following the Greco-Italian
War and Battle of Greece, as had the French
territories of Corsica and Tunisia following
Vichy France's collapse and Case Anton. Finally,
Italo-German forces had achieved large victories
against insurgents in Yugoslavia and had occupied
parts of British-held Egypt on their push
to El-Alamein after their victory at Gazala.
However Italy's conquests were always heavily
contested, both by various insurgencies (most
prominently the Greek resistance and Yugoslav
partisans) and Allied military forces, which
waged the Battle of the Mediterranean throughout
and beyond Italy's participation. Ultimately
the Italian empire collapsed after disastrous
defeats in the Eastern European and North
African campaigns. In July 1943, following
the Allied invasion of Sicily, Benito Mussolini
was arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel
III, provoking a civil war. Italy's military
outside of the peninsula itself collapsed,
its occupied and annexed territories falling
under German control. Italy surrendered to
the Allies at the end of the Italian Campaign.
The northern half of the country was occupied
by the Germans with the fascists' help and
made a collaborationist puppet state (with
more than 500,000 soldiers raised for the
Axis), while the south was governed by monarchist
and liberal forces, which fought for the Allied
cause as the Italian Co-Belligerent Army (at
its height numbering more than 50,000 men),
helped by circa 350,000 partisans (mostly
former Royal Italian Army soldiers) of disparate
political ideologies that operated all over
Italy. On 28 April 1945, Benito Mussolini
was executed by communist partisans, two days
before Adolf Hitler's suicide.
== Background ==
=== Imperial ambitions ===
During the late 1920s, the Italian Prime Minister
Benito Mussolini spoke with increasing urgency
about imperial expansion, arguing that Italy
needed an outlet for its "surplus population"
and that it would therefore be in the best
interests of other countries to aid in this
expansion. The immediate aspiration of the
regime was political "hegemony in the Mediterranean–Danubian–Balkan
region", more grandiosely Mussolini imagined
the conquest "of an empire stretching from
the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Hormuz".
Balkan and Mediterranean hegemony was predicated
by ancient Roman dominance in the same regions.
There were designs for a protectorate over
Albania and for the annexation of Dalmatia,
as well as economic and military control of
Yugoslavia and Greece. The regime also sought
to establish protective patron–client relationships
with Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria,
which all lay on the outside edges of its
European sphere of influence. Although it
was not among his publicly proclaimed aims,
Mussolini wished to challenge the supremacy
of Britain and France in the Mediterranean
Sea, which was considered strategically vital,
since the Mediterranean was Italy's only conduit
to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.In 1935,
Italy initiated the Second Italo-Ethiopian
War, "a nineteenth-century colonial campaign
waged out of due time". The campaign gave
rise to optimistic talk on raising a native
Ethiopian army "to help conquer" Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan. The war also marked a shift towards
a more aggressive Italian foreign policy and
also "exposed [the] vulnerabilities" of the
British and French. This in turn created the
opportunity Mussolini needed to begin to realize
his imperial goals. In 1936, the Spanish Civil
War broke out. From the beginning, Italy played
an important role in the conflict. Their military
contribution was so vast, that it played a
decisive role in the victory of the rebel
forces led by Francisco Franco. Mussolini
had engaged in "a full-scale external war"
due to the insinuation of future Spanish subservience
to the Italian Empire, and as a way of placing
the country on a war footing and creating
"a warrior culture". The aftermath of the
war in Ethiopia saw a reconciliation of German-Italian
relations following years of a previously
strained relationship, resulting in the signing
of a treaty of mutual interest in October
1936. Mussolini referred to this treaty as
the creation of a Berlin-Rome Axis, which
Europe would revolve around. The treaty was
the result of increasing dependence on German
coal following League of Nations sanctions,
similar policies between the two countries
over the conflict in Spain, and German sympathy
towards Italy following European backlash
to the Ethiopian War. The aftermath of the
treaty saw the increasing ties between Italy
and Germany, and Mussolini falling under Adolf
Hitler's influence from which "he never escaped".In
October 1938, in the aftermath of the Munich
Agreement, Italy demanded concessions from
France. These included a free port at Djibouti,
control of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad,
Italian participation in the management of
Suez Canal Company, some form of French-Italian
condominium over French Tunisia, and the preservation
of Italian culture on Corsica with no French
assimilation of the people. The French refused
the demands, believing the true Italian intention
was the territorial acquisition of Nice, Corsica,
Tunisia, and Djibouti. On 30 November 1938,
Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano addressed
the Chamber of Deputies on the "natural aspirations
of the Italian people" and was met with shouts
of "Nice! Corsica! Savoy! Tunisia! Djibouti!
Malta!" Later that day, Mussolini addressed
the Fascist Grand Council "on the subject
of what he called the immediate goals of 'Fascist
dynamism'." These were Albania; Tunisia; Corsica,
an integral part of France; the Ticino, a
canton of Switzerland; and all "French territory
east of the River Var", including Nice, but
not Savoy.Beginning in 1939 Mussolini often
voiced his contention that Italy required
uncontested access to the world's oceans and
shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty.
On 4 February 1939, Mussolini addressed the
Grand Council in a closed session. He delivered
a long speech on international affairs and
the goals of his foreign policy, "which bears
comparison with Hitler's notorious disposition,
minuted by colonel Hossbach". He began by
claiming that the freedom of a country is
proportional to the strength of its navy.
This was followed by "the familiar lament
that Italy was a prisoner in the Mediterranean".
He called Corsica, Tunisia, Malta, and Cyprus
"the bars of this prison", and described Gibraltar
and Suez as the prison guards. To break British
control, her bases on Cyprus, Gibraltar, Malta,
and in Egypt (controlling the Suez Canal)
would have to be neutralized. On 31 March,
Mussolini stated that "Italy will not truly
be an independent nation so long as she has
Corsica, Bizerta, Malta as the bars of her
Mediterranean prison and Gibraltar and Suez
as the walls." Fascist foreign policy took
for granted that the democracies—Britain
and France—would someday need to be faced
down. Through armed conquest Italian North
Africa and Italian East Africa—separated
by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—would be linked,
and the Mediterranean prison destroyed. Then,
Italy would be able to march "either to the
Indian Ocean through the Sudan and Abyssinia,
or to the Atlantic by way of French North
Africa".As early as September 1938, the Italian
military had drawn up plans to invade Albania.
On 7 April, Italian forces landed in the country
and within three days had occupied the majority
of the country. Albania represented a territory
Italy could acquire for "'living space' to
ease its overpopulation" as well as the foothold
needed to launch other expansionist conflicts
in the Balkans. On 22 May 1939, Italy and
Germany signed the Pact of Steel joining both
countries in a military alliance. The pact
was the culmination of German-Italian relations
from 1936 and was not defensive in nature.
Rather, the pact was designed for a "joint
war against France and Britain", although
the Italian hierarchy held the understanding
that such a war would not take place for several
years. However, despite the Italian impression,
the pact made no reference to such a period
of peace and the Germans proceeded with their
plans to invade Poland.
=== Industrial strength ===
Mussolini's Under-Secretary for War Production,
Carlo Favagrossa, had estimated that Italy
could not possibly be prepared for major military
operations until at least October 1942. This
had been made clear during the Italo-German
negotiations for the Pact of Steel, whereby
it was stipulated that neither signatory was
to make war without the other earlier than
1943. Although considered a great power, the
Italian industrial sector was relatively weak
compared to other European major powers. Italian
industry did not equal more than 15% of that
of France or of Britain in militarily critical
areas such as automobile production: the number
of automobiles in Italy before the war was
around 374,000, in comparison to around 2,500,000
in Britain and France. The lack of a stronger
automotive industry made it difficult for
Italy to mechanize its military. Italy still
had a predominantly agricultural-based economy,
with demographics more akin to a developing
country (high illiteracy, poverty, rapid population
growth and a high proportion of adolescents)
and a proportion of GNP derived from industry
less than that of Czechoslovakia, Hungary
and Sweden, in addition to the other great
powers. In terms of strategic materials, in
1940, Italy produced 4.4 megatonnes (Mt) of
coal, 0.01 Mt of crude oil, 1.2 Mt of iron
ore and 2.1 Mt of steel. By comparison, Great
Britain produced 224.3 Mt of coal, 11.9 Mt
of crude oil, 17.7 Mt of iron ore, and 13.0
Mt of steel and Germany produced 364.8 Mt
of coal, 8.0 Mt of crude oil, 29.5 Mt of iron
ore and 21.5 Mt of steel. Most raw material
needs could be fulfilled only through importation,
and no effort was made to stockpile key materials
before the entry into war. Approximately one
quarter of the ships of Italy's merchant fleet
were in foreign ports at the outbreak of hostilities,
and, given no forewarning, were immediately
impounded.
=== Economy ===
Between 1936 and 1939, Italy had supplied
the Spanish "Nationalist" forces, fighting
under Francisco Franco during the Spanish
Civil War, with large number of weapons and
supplies practically free. In addition to
weapons, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie ("Corps
of Volunteer Troops") had also been dispatched
to fight for Franco. The financial cost of
the war was between 6 and 8.5 billion lire,
approximately 14 to 20 per cent of the country's
annual expenditure. Adding to these problems
was Italy's extreme debt position. When Benito
Mussolini took office, in 1921, the government
debt was 93 billion lire, un-repayable in
the short to medium term. Only two years later
this debt had increased to 405 billion lire.
In September 1939, Britain imposed a selective
blockade of Italy. Coal from Germany, which
was shipped out of Rotterdam, was declared
contraband. The Germans promised to keep up
shipments by train, over the Alps, and Britain
offered to supply all of Italy's needs in
exchange for Italian armaments. The Italians
could not agree to the latter terms without
shattering their alliance with Germany. On
2 February 1940, however, Mussolini approved
a draft contract with the Royal Air Force
to provide 400 Caproni aircraft; yet he scrapped
the deal on 8 February. British intelligence
officer, Francis Rodd, believed that Mussolini
was convinced to reverse policy by German
pressure in the week of 2–8 February, a
view shared by the British ambassador in Rome,
Percy Loraine. On 1 March, the British announced
that they would block all coal exports from
Rotterdam to Italy. Italian coal was one of
the most discussed issues in diplomatic circles
in the spring of 1940. In April Britain began
strengthening their Mediterranean Fleet to
enforce the blockade. Despite French uncertainty,
Britain rejected concessions to Italy so as
not to "create an impression of weakness".
Germany supplied Italy with about one million
tons of coal a month beginning in the spring
of 1940, an amount that even exceeded Mussolini's
demand of August 1939 that Italy receive six
million tons of coal for its first twelve
months of war.
=== Military ===
The Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) was
comparatively depleted and weak at the commencement
of the war. Italian tanks were of poor quality
and radios few in number. The bulk of Italian
artillery dated to World War I. The primary
fighter of the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica)
was the Fiat CR.42, which, though an advanced
biplane with excellent performance, was technically
outclassed by monoplane fighters of other
nations. Of the Regia Aeronautica's approximately
1,760 aircraft, only 900 could be considered
in any way combat-worthy. The Italian Royal
Navy (Regia Marina) had several modern battleships
but no aircraft carriers.Italian authorities
were acutely aware of the need to modernize
and were taking steps to meet the requirements
of their own relatively advanced tactical
principles. Almost 40% of the 1939 budget
was allocated for military spending. Recognizing
the Navy's need for close air support, the
decision was made to build carriers. Three
series of modern fighters, capable of meeting
the best allied planes on equal terms, were
in development, with a few hundred of each
eventually being produced. The Carro Armato
P40 tank, roughly equivalent to the M4 Sherman
and Panzer IV medium tanks, was designed in
1940 (though no prototype was produced until
1942 and manufacture was not able to begin
before the Armistice, owing in part to the
lack of sufficiently powerful engines, which
were themselves undergoing a development push;
total Italian tank production for the war
– about 3,500 – was less than the number
of tanks used by Germany in its invasion of
France). The Italians were pioneers in the
use of self-propelled guns, both in close
support and anti-tank roles. Their 75/46 fixed
AA/AT gun, 75/32 gun, 90/53 AA/AT gun (an
equally deadly but less famous peer of the
German 88/55), 47/32 AT gun, and the 20 mm
AA autocannon were effective, modern weapons.
Also of note were the AB 41 and the Camionetta
AS 42 armoured cars, which were regarded as
excellent vehicles of their type. None of
these developments, however, precluded the
fact that the bulk of equipment was obsolete
and poor. The relatively weak economy, lack
of suitable raw materials and consequent inability
to produce suitable quantities of armaments
and supplies were therefore the key material
reasons for Italian military failure.On paper
Italy had one of the world's largest armies,
but the reality was the opposite. According
to the estimates of Bierman and Smith, the
Italian regular army could field only about
200,000 troops at the war's beginning. Irrespective
of the attempts to modernize, the majority
of Italian army personnel were lightly armed
infantry lacking sufficient motor transport.
There was insufficient budget to train the
men in the services, such that the bulk of
personnel received much of their training
at the front, when it was too late to be of
use. Air units had not been trained to operate
with the naval fleet and the majority of ships
had been built for fleet actions, rather than
the convoy protection duties in which they
were primarily employed during the war. In
any event, a critical lack of fuel kept naval
activities to a minimum.Senior leadership
was also a problem. Mussolini personally assumed
control of all three individual military service
ministries with the intention of influencing
detailed planning. Comando Supremo (the Italian
High Command) consisted of only a small complement
of staff that could do little more than inform
the individual service commands of Mussolini's
intentions, after which it was up to the individual
service commands to develop proper plans and
execution. The result was that there was no
central direction for operations; the three
military services tended to work independently,
focusing only on their fields, with little
inter-service cooperation. Discrepancies in
pay existed for personnel who were of equal
rank, but from different units.
== Outbreak of the Second World War ==
Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September
1939, marked the beginning of World War II.
Despite being an Axis power, Italy remained
non-belligerent until June 1940.
=== Decision to intervene ===
Following the German conquest of Poland, Mussolini
hesitated to enter the war. The British commander
for land forces in the Middle East and the
eastern Mediterranean, General Sir Archibald
Wavell, correctly predicted that Mussolini's
pride would ultimately cause him to enter
the war. Wavell would compare Mussolini's
situation to that of someone at the top of
a diving board: "I think he must do something.
If he cannot make a graceful dive, he will
at least have to jump in somehow; he can hardly
put on his dressing-gown and walk down the
stairs again."Initially, the entry into the
war appeared to be political opportunism (though
there was some provocation), which led to
a lack of consistency in planning, with principal
objectives and enemies being changed with
little regard for the consequences. Mussolini
was well aware of the military and material
deficiencies but thought the war would be
over soon and did not expect to do much fighting.
== Italy enters the war: June 1940 ==
On 10 June 1940, as the French government
fled to Bordeaux during the German invasion,
declaring Paris an open city, Mussolini felt
the conflict would soon end and declared war
on Britain and France. As he said to the Army's
Chief-of-Staff, Marshal Badoglio:
I only need a few thousand dead so that I
can sit at the peace conference as a man who
has fought.
Mussolini had the immediate war aim of expanding
the Italian colonies in North Africa by taking
land from the British and French colonies.
About Mussolini's declaration of war in France,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United
States said:
On this tenth day of June 1940, the hand that
held the dagger has struck it into the back
of its neighbor.
The Italian entry into the war opened up new
fronts in North Africa and the Mediterranean.
After Italy entered the war, pressure from
Nazi Germany led to the internment in the
Campagna concentration camp of some of Italy's
Jewish refugees.
=== Invasion of France ===
In June 1940, after initial success, the Italian
offensive into southern France stalled at
the fortified Alpine Line. On 24 June 1940,
France surrendered to Germany. Italy occupied
a swathe of French territory along the Franco-Italian
border. During this operation, Italian casualties
amounted to 1,247 men dead or missing and
2,631 wounded. A further 2,151 Italians were
hospitalised due to frostbite.
Late in the Battle of Britain, Italy contributed
an expeditionary force, the Corpo Aereo Italiano,
which took part in the Blitz from October
1940 until April 1941, at which time the last
elements of the force were withdrawn.
In November 1942, the Italian Royal Army occupied
south-eastern Vichy France and Corsica as
part of Case Anton. From December 1942, Italian
military government of French departments
east of the Rhône River was established,
and continued until September 1943, when Italy
quit the war. This had the effect of providing
a de facto temporary haven for French Jews
fleeing the Holocaust. In January 1943 the
Italians refused to cooperate with the Nazis
in rounding up Jews living in the occupied
zone of France under their control and in
March prevented the Nazis from deporting Jews
in their zone. German Foreign Minister Joachim
von Ribbentrop complained to Mussolini that
"Italian military circles... lack a proper
understanding of the Jewish question."The
Italian Navy established a submarine base
at Bordeaux, code named BETASOM, and thirty
two Italian submarines participated in the
Battle of the Atlantic. Plans to attack the
harbour of New York City with CA class midget
submarines in 1943 were disrupted when the
submarine converted to carry out the attack,
the Leonardo da Vinci, was sunk in May 1943.
The armistice put a stop to further planning.
== North Africa ==
=== Invasion of Egypt ===
The Italians fared poorly in North Africa
almost from the beginning. Within a week of
Italy's declaration of war on 10 June 1940,
the British 11th Hussars had seized Fort Capuzzo
in Libya. In an ambush east of Bardia, the
British captured the Italian 10th Army Engineer-in-Chief,
General Lastucci. On 28 June Marshal Italo
Balbo, the Governor-General of Libya, was
killed by friendly fire while landing in Tobruk.
Mussolini ordered Balbo's replacement, General
Rodolfo Graziani, to launch an attack into
Egypt immediately. Graziani complained to
Mussolini that his forces were not properly
equipped for such an operation, and that an
attack into Egypt could not possibly succeed;
nevertheless, Mussolini ordered him to proceed.
On 13 September, elements of the 10th Army
retook Fort Capuzzo and crossed the border
into Egypt. Lightly opposed, they advanced
about 100 km (62 mi) to Sidi Barrani, where
they stopped and began entrenching themselves
in a series of fortified camps.
At this time, the British had only 36,000
troops available (out of about 100,000 under
Middle Eastern command) to defend Egypt, against
236,000 Italian troops. The Italians, however,
were not concentrated in one location. They
were divided between the 5th army in the west
and the 10th army in the east and thus spread
out from the Tunisian border in western Libya
to Sidi Barrani in Egypt. At Sidi Barrani,
Graziani, unaware of the British lack of numerical
strength, planned to build fortifications
and stock them with provisions, ammunition,
and fuel, establish a water pipeline, and
extend the via Balbia to that location, which
was where the road to Alexandria began. This
task was being obstructed by British Royal
Navy attacks on Italian supply ships in the
Mediterranean. At this stage Italian losses
remained minimal, but the efficiency of the
British Royal Navy would improve as the war
went on. Mussolini was fiercely disappointed
with Graziani's sluggishness. However, according
to Bauer he had only himself to blame, as
he had withheld the trucks, armaments, and
supplies that Graziani had deemed necessary
for success. Wavell was hoping to see the
Italians overextend themselves before his
intended counter at Marsa Matruh.
Graziani and his staff lacked faith in the
strength of the Italian military. One of his
officers wrote: "We're trying to fight this...
as though it were a colonial war... this is
a European war... fought with European weapons
against a European enemy. We take too little
account of this in building our stone forts....
We are not fighting the Ethiopians now."(This
was a reference to the Second Italo-Abyssinian
War where Italian forces had fought against
a relatively poorly equipped opponent.) Balbo
had said "Our light tanks, already old and
armed only with machine guns, are completely
out-classed. The machine guns of the British
armoured cars pepper them with bullets which
easily pierce their armour."Italian forces
around Sidi Barrani had severe weaknesses
in their deployment. Their five main fortifications
were placed too far apart to allow mutual
support against an attacking force, and the
areas between were weakly patrolled. The absence
of motorised transport did not allow for rapid
reorganisation, if needed. The rocky terrain
had prevented an anti-tank ditch from being
dug and there were too few mines and 47 mm
anti-tank guns to repel an armoured advance.
By the summer of 1941, the Italians in North
Africa had regrouped, retrained and rearmed
into a much more effective fighting force,
one that proved to be much harder for the
British to overcome in encounters from 1941
to 1943.
=== Afrika Korps intervention and final defeat
===
On 8 December 1940, the British launched Operation
Compass. Planned as an extended raid, it resulted
in a force of British, Indian, and Australian
troops cutting off the Italian 10th Army.
Pressing the British advantage home, General
Richard O'Connor succeeded in reaching El
Agheila, deep in Libya (an advance of 500
miles (800 km)) and taking some 130,000 prisoners.
The Allies nearly destroyed the 10th Army,
and seemed on the point of sweeping the Italians
out of Libya altogether. Winston Churchill,
however, directed the advance be stopped,
initially because of supply problems and because
of a new Italian offensive that had gained
ground in Albania, and ordered troops dispatched
to defend Greece. Weeks later the first troops
of the German Afrika Korps started to arrive
in North Africa (February 1941), along with
six Italian divisions including the motorized
Trento and armored Ariete.German General Erwin
Rommel now became the principal Axis field
commander in North Africa, although the bulk
of his forces consisted of Italian troops.
Though subordinate to the Italians, under
Rommel's direction the Axis troops pushed
the British and Commonwealth troops back into
Egypt but were unable to complete the task
because of the exhaustion and their extended
supply lines which were under threat from
the Allied enclave at Tobruk, which they failed
to capture. After reorganising and re-grouping
the Allies launched Operation Crusader in
November 1941 which resulted in the Axis front
line being pushed back once more to El Agheila
by the end of the year.
In January 1942 the Axis struck back again,
advancing to Gazala where the front lines
stabilised while both sides raced to build
up their strength. At the end of May, Rommel
launched the Battle of Gazala where the British
armoured divisions were soundly defeated.
The Axis seemed on the verge of sweeping the
British out of Egypt, but at the First Battle
of El Alamein (July 1942) General Claude Auchinleck
halted Rommel's advance only 90 mi (140 km)
from Alexandria. Rommel made a final attempt
to break through during the Battle of Alam
el Halfa but Eighth Army, by this time commanded
by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery,
held firm. After a period of reinforcement
and training the Allies assumed the offensive
at the Second Battle of Alamein (October/November
1942) where they scored a decisive victory
and the remains of Rommel's German-Italian
Panzer Army were forced to engage in a fighting
retreat for 1,600 mi (2,600 km) to the Libyan
border with Tunisia.
After the Operation Torch landings in the
Vichy French territories of Morocco and Algeria
(November 1942) British, American and French
forces advanced east to engage the German-Italian
forces in the Tunisia Campaign. By February,
the Axis forces in Tunisia were joined by
Rommel's forces, after their long withdrawal
from El Alamein, which were re-designated
the Italian First Army (under Giovanni Messe)
when Rommel left to command the Axis forces
to the north at the Battle of the Kasserine
Pass. Despite the Axis success at Kasserine,
the Allies were able to reorganise (with all
forces under the unified direction of 18th
Army Group commanded by General Sir Harold
Alexander) and regain the initiative in April.
The Allies completed the defeat of the Axis
armies in North Africa in May 1943.
== East Africa ==
In addition to the well-known campaigns in
the western desert during 1940, the Italians
initiated operations in June 1940 from their
East African colonies of Ethiopia, Italian
Somaliland, and Eritrea.
As in Egypt, Italian forces (roughly 70,000
Italian soldiers and 180,000 native troops)
outnumbered their British opponents. Italian
East Africa, however, was isolated and far
from the Italian mainland, leaving the forces
there cut off from supply and thus severely
limited in the operations they could undertake.
Initial Italian attacks in East Africa took
two different directions, one into the Sudan
and the other into Kenya. Then, in August
1940, the Italians advanced into British Somaliland.
After suffering and inflicting few casualties,
the British and Commonwealth garrison evacuated
Somaliland, retreating by sea to Aden.
The Italian invasion of British Somaliland
was one of the few successful Italian campaigns
of World War II accomplished without German
support. In the Sudan and Kenya, Italy captured
small territories around several border villages,
after which the Italian Royal Army in East
Africa adopted a defensive posture in preparation
for expected British counterattacks.
The Regia Marina maintained a small squadron
in the Italian East Africa area. The "Red
Sea Flotilla", consisting of seven destroyers
and eight submarines, was based at the port
of Massawa in Eritrea. Despite a severe shortage
of fuel, the flotilla posed a threat to British
convoys traversing the Red Sea. However, Italian
attempts to attack British convoys resulted
in the loss of four submarines and one destroyer.
On 19 January 1941, the expected British counter-attack
arrived in the shape of the Indian 4th and
Indian 5th Infantry Divisions, which made
a thrust from the Sudan. A supporting attack
was made from Kenya by the South African 1st
Division, the 11th African Division, and the
12th African Division. Finally, the British
launched an amphibious assault from Aden to
re-take British Somaliland.
Fought from February to March, the outcome
of the Battle of Keren determined the fate
of Italian East Africa. In early April, after
Keren fell, Asmara and Massawa followed. The
Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa also fell
in April 1941. The Viceroy of Ethiopia, Amedeo,
Duke of Aosta, surrendered at the stronghold
of Amba Alagi in May. He received full military
honours. The Italians in East Africa made
a final stand around the town of Gondar in
November 1941.
When the port of Massawa fell to the British,
the remaining destroyers were ordered on final
missions in the Red Sea, some of them achieving
small successes before being scuttled or sunk.
At the same time, the last four submarines
made an epic voyage around the Cape of Good
Hope to Bordeaux in France. Some Italians,
after their defeat, waged a guerilla war mainly
in Eritrea and Ethiopia, that lasted until
fall 1943. Notable among them was Amedeo Guillet.
== Balkans ==
=== Invasion of Albania ===
In early 1939, while the world was focused
on Adolf Hitler's aggression against Czechoslovakia,
Mussolini looked to the Kingdom of Albania,
across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Italian
forces invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and
swiftly took control of the small country.
Even before the invasion, Albania had been
politically dominated by Italy; after the
invasion it was formally made part of Italy
and the Italian king took the Albanian crown.
Along with the intervention in the Spanish
Civil War and the invasion of Abyssinia, the
invasion of Albania was part of the Italian
contribution to the disintegration of the
collective security the League of Nations
instituted after World War I. As such, it
was part of the prelude to World War II.
=== Invasion of Greece ===
On 28 October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian
War by launching an invasion of the Kingdom
of Greece from Albania. In part, the Italians
attacked Greece because of the growing influence
of Germany in the Balkans. Both Yugoslavia
and Greece had governments friendly to Germany.
Mussolini launched the invasion of Greece
in haste after the Kingdom of Romania, a state
which he perceived as lying within the Italian
sphere of influence, allied itself with Germany.
The order to invade Greece was given by Mussolini
to Badoglio and Army Chief of Staff Mario
Roatta on 15 October, with the expectation
that the attack would commence within 12 days.
Badoglio and Roatta were appalled given that,
acting on his orders, they had demobilised
600,000 men three weeks prior. Given the expected
requirement of at least 20 divisions to facilitate
success, the fact that only eight divisions
were currently in Albania, and the inadequacies
of Albanian ports and connecting infrastructure,
adequate preparation would require at least
three months. Nonetheless, D-day was set at
dawn on 28 October.
The initial Italian offensive was quickly
contained, and the invasion soon ended in
an embarrassing stalemate. Taking advantage
of Bulgaria's decision to remain neutral,
the Greek Commander-in-Chief, Lt Gen Alexandros
Papagos, was able to establish numerical superiority
by mid-November, prior to launching a counter-offensive
that drove the Italians back into Albania.
In addition, the Greeks were naturally adept
at operating in mountainous terrain, while
only six of the Italian Army's divisions,
the Alpini, were trained and equipped for
mountain warfare. Only when the Italians were
able to establish numerical parity was the
Greek offensive stopped. By then they had
been able to penetrate deep into Albania.
An Italian "Spring Offensive" in March 1941,
which tried to salvage the situation prior
to German intervention, amounted to little
in terms of territorial gains. At this point,
combat casualties amounted to over 102,000
for the Italians (with 13,700 dead and 3,900
missing) and fifty thousand sick; the Greek
suffered over 90,000 combat casualties (including
14,000 killed and 5,000 missing) and an unknown
number of sick. While an embarrassment for
the Italians, losses on this scale were devastating
for the less numerous Greeks; additionally,
the Greek Army had bled a significant amount
of materiel. They were short on every area
of equipment despite heavy infusion of British
aid in February and March, with the army as
a whole having only 1 month of artillery ammunition
left by the start of April and insufficient
arms and equipment to mobilize its reserves.
Hitler later stated in hindsight that Greece
would have been defeated with or without German
intervention, and that even at the time he
was of the opinion that the Italians alone
would have conquered Greece in the forthcoming
season.After British troops arrived in Greece
in March 1941, British bombers operating from
Greek bases could reach the Romanian oil fields,
vital to the German war effort. Hitler decided
that a British presence in Greece presented
a threat to Germany's rear and committed German
troops to invade Greece via Yugoslavia (where
a coup had deposed the German-friendly government).
The Germans invaded on April 6 1941, smashing
through the skeleton garrisons opposing them
with little resistance while the Italians
continued a slow advance in Albania and Epirus
as the Greeks withdrew, with the country falling
to the Axis by the end of the month. The Italian
Army was still pinned down in Albania by the
Greeks when the Germans began their invasion.
Crucially, the bulk of the Greek Army (fifteen
divisions out of twenty-one) was left facing
the Italians in Albania and Epirus when the
Germans intervened. Hitler commented that
the Italians "had so weakened [Greece] that
its collapse had already become inevitable",
and credited them with having "engaged the
greater part of the Greek Army."
=== Invasion of Yugoslavia ===
On 6 April 1941, the Wehrmacht invasions of
Yugoslavia (Operation 25) and Greece (Operation
Marita) both started. Together with the rapid
advance of the German forces the Italians
attacked Yugoslavia in Dalmatia and pushed
the Greeks finally out of Albania. On 17 April,
Yugoslavia surrendered to the Germans and
the Italians. On 30 April, Greece too surrendered
to the Germans and Italians, and was divided
into German, Italian and Bulgarian sectors.
The invasions ended with a complete Axis victory
in May when Crete fell. On 3 May, during the
triumphal parade in Athens to celebrate the
Axis victory, Mussolini started to boast of
an Italian Mare Nostrum in the Mediterranean
sea.
Some 28 Italian divisions participated in
the Balkan invasions. The coast of Yugoslavia
was occupied by the Italian Army, while the
rest of the country was divided between the
Axis forces (a German and Italian puppet State
of Croatia was created, under the nominal
sovereignty of Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta,
but actually governed by the Croatian fascist
Ante Pavelić). The Italians assumed control
of most of Greece with their 11th Army, while
the Bulgarians occupied the northern provinces
and the Germans the strategically most important
areas. Italian troops would occupy parts of
Greece and Yugoslavia until the Italian armistice
with the Allies in September 1943.
In spring 1941, Italy created a Montenegrin
client state and annexed most of the Dalmatian
coast as the Governorship of Dalmatia (Governatorato
di Dalmazia). A complicated three-way conflict
between the puppet Montenegro regime, Royalist
remnants of the Yugoslav government, and Communist
Partisans continued from 1941 –1945.
In 1942 the Italian military commander in
Croatia refused to hand over Jews in his zone
to the Nazis.
== Mediterranean ==
In 1940, the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina)
could not match the overall strength of the
British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea.
After some initial setbacks, the Italian Navy
declined to engage in a confrontation of capital
ships. Since the British Navy had as a principal
task the supply and protection of convoys
supplying Britain's outposts in the Mediterranean,
the mere continued existence of the Italian
fleet (the so-called "fleet in being" concept)
caused problems to Britain, which had to utilise
warships sorely needed elsewhere to protect
Mediterranean convoys. On 11 November, Britain
launched the first carrier strike of the war,
using a squadron of Fairey Swordfish torpedo
bombers. This raid at Taranto left three Italian
battleships crippled or destroyed for the
loss of two British aircraft shot down.
The Italian navy found other ways to attack
the British. The most successful involved
the use of frogmen and riding manned torpedoes
to attack ships in harbour. The 10th Light
Flotilla, also known as Decima Flottiglia
MAS or Xª MAS, which carried out these attacks,
sank or damaged 28 ships from September 1940
to the end of 1942. These included the battleships
HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant (damaged in
the harbour of Alexandria on 18 December 1941),
and 111,527 long tons (113,317 t) of merchant
shipping. The XMAS used a particular kind
of torpedo, the SLC (Siluro a Lenta Corsa),
whose crew was composed of two frogmen, and
motorboats packed with explosives, called
MTM (Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato).
Following the attacks on these two battleships,
an Italian-dominated Mediterranean Sea appeared
much more possible to achieve. However, this
was only a brief happy time for Mussolini.
The oil and supplies brought to Malta, despite
heavy losses, by Operation Pedestal in August
and the Allied landings in North Africa, Operation
Torch, in November 1942, turned the fortunes
of war against Italy. The Axis forces were
ejected from Libya and Tunisia in six months
after the Battle of El Alamein, while their
supply lines were harassed day after day by
the growing and overwhelming aerial and naval
supremacy of the Allies. By the summer of
1943 the Allies were poised for an invasion
of the Italian homeland.
== Eastern Front ==
In July 1941, some 62,000 Italian troops of
the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia
(Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, or
CSIR) left for the Eastern Front to aid in
the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation
Barbarossa).
In July 1942, the Italian Royal Army (Regio
Esercito) expanded the CSIR to a full army
of about 200,000 men named the Italian Army
in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR).
The ARMIR was also known as the "Italian 8th
Army." From August 1942 – February 1943,
the Italian 8th Army took part in the Battle
of Stalingrad. At Stalingrad, the 8th Army
suffered heavy losses (some 20,000 dead and
64,000 captured) when the Soviets isolated
the German forces in Stalingrad by attacking
the over-stretched Hungarian, Romanian, and
Italian forces protecting the German's flanks.
By the summer of 1943, Rome had withdrawn
the remnants of these troops to Italy. Many
of the Italian POWs captured in the Soviet
Union died in captivity due to the harsh conditions
in the Soviet prison camps.
== Allied Italian Campaign and Italian Civil
War ==
=== 
Allied invasion of Sicily, Fall of Mussolini
and Armistice ===
On 10 July 1943, a combined force of American
and British Commonwealth troops invaded Sicily.
German generals again took the lead in the
defence and, although they lost the island
after weeks of bitter fights, they succeeded
in ferrying large numbers of German and Italian
forces safely off Sicily to the Italian mainland.
On 19 July, an Allied air raid on Rome destroyed
both military and collateral civil installations.
With these two events, popular support for
the war diminished in Italy.On 25 July, the
Grand Council of Fascism voted to limit the
power of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
and handed control of the Italian armed forces
over to King Victor Emmanuel III. The next
day Mussolini met with the King, was dismissed
as prime minister, and was then imprisoned.
A new Italian government, led by General Pietro
Badoglio and Victor Emmanuel III, took over
in Italy. Although they publicly declared
that they would keep fighting alongside the
Germans, the new Italian government began
secret negotiations with the Allies to come
over to the Allied side. On 3 September, a
secret armistice was signed with the Allies
at Fairfield Camp in Sicily. The armistice
was publicly announced on 8 September. By
then, the Allies were on the Italian mainland.
On 3 September, British troops crossed the
short distance from Sicily to the 'toe' of
Italy in Operation Baytown. Two more Allied
landings took place on 9 September at Salerno
(Operation Avalanche) and at Taranto (Operation
Slapstick). The Italian surrender meant that
the Allied landings at Taranto took place
unopposed, with the troops simply disembarking
from warships at the docks rather than assaulting
the coastline.
Because of the time it took for the new Italian
government to negotiate the armistice, the
Germans had time to reinforce their presence
in Italy and prepare for their defection.
In the first weeks of August they increased
the number of divisions in Italy from two
to seven and took control of vital infrastructure.
Once the signing of the armistice was announced
on 8 September, German troops quickly disarmed
the Italian forces and took over critical
defensive positions in Operation Achse. This
included Italian-occupied southeastern France
and the Italian-controlled areas in the Balkans.
Only in Sardinia, Corsica, and in part of
Apulia and Calabria were Italian troops able
to hold their positions until the arrival
of Allied forces. In the area of Rome, only
one infantry division—the Granatieri di
Sardegna—and some small armoured units fought
with commitment, but by 11 September they
were overwhelmed by superior German forces.
King Victor Emmanuel III and his family, with
Marshal Badoglio, General Mario Roatta, and
others, abandoned Rome on 9 September. General
Caroni, who was tasked with defending Rome,
was given duplicitous orders to have his troops
abandon Rome (something he did not want to
do), and essentially to provide rear guard
protection to the King and his entourage so
they could flee to the Abruzzi hills, and
later out to sea. They later landed at Brindisi.
Most importantly, Badoglio never gave the
order "OP 44" for the Italian people to rise
up against the Germans until he knew it was
too late to do any good; that is, he belatedly
issued the order on 11 September. However,
from the day of the announcement of the Armistice,
when Italian citizens, military personnel
and military units decided to rise up and
resist on their own, they were sometimes quite
effective against the Germans.On 9 September,
two German Fritz X guided bombs sank the Italian
battleship Roma off the coast of Sardinia.
A Supermarina (Italian Naval Command) broadcast
led the Italians to initially believe this
attack was carried out by the British.
On the Greek island of Cephallonia, General
Antonio Gandin, commander of the 12,000-strong
Italian Acqui Division, decided to resist
the German attempt to forcibly disarm his
force. The battle raged from 13–22 September,
when the Italians were forced to surrender
after suffering some 1,300 casualties. The
ensuing massacre of several thousand Italian
prisoners of war by the Germans stands as
one of the worst single war crimes committed
by the Wehrmacht.
Italian troops captured by the Germans were
given a choice to keep fighting with the Germans.
About 94,000 Italians accepted and the remaining
710,000 were designated Italian military internees
and were transported as forced labour to Germany.
Some Italian troops that evaded German capture
in the Balkans joined the Yugoslav (about
40,000 soldiers) and Greek Resistance (about
20,000). The same happened in Albania.After
the German invasion, deportations of Italian
Jews to Nazi death camps began. However, by
the time the German advance reached the Campagna
concentration camp, all the inmates had already
fled to the mountains with the help of the
local inhabitants. Rev. Aldo Brunacci of Assisi,
under the direction of his bishop, Giuseppe
Nicolini, saved all the Jews who sought refuge
in Assisi. In October 1943 Nazis raided the
Jewish ghetto in Rome. In November 1943 Jews
of Genoa and Florence were deported to Auschwitz.
It is estimated that 7,500 Italian Jews became
victims of the Holocaust.
=== Civil War, Allied advance and Liberation
===
About two months after Benito Mussolini was
stripped of power, he was rescued by the Germans
in Operation Eiche ("Oak"). The Germans re-located
Mussolini to northern Italy where he set up
a new Fascist state, the Italian Social Republic
(Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI). Many
Italian personalities joined the RSI, like
General Rodolfo Graziani.
The Allied armies continued to advance through
Italy despite increasing opposition from the
Germans. The Allies soon controlled most of
southern Italy, and Naples rose against and
ejected the occupying German forces. The Allies
organized some Italian troops in the south
into what were known as "co-belligerent" or
"royalist" forces. In time, there was a co-belligerent
army (Italian Co-Belligerent Army), navy (Italian
Co-Belligerent Navy), and air force (Italian
Co-Belligerent Air Force). These Italian forces
fought alongside the Allies for the rest of
the war. Other Italian troops, loyal to Mussolini
and his RSI, continued to fight alongside
the Germans (among them were the Esercito
Nazionale Repubblicano, the National Republican
Army). From this point on, a large Italian
resistance movement located in northern Italy
fought a guerilla war against the German and
RSI forces.
Winston Churchill had long regarded southern
Europe as the military weak spot of the continent
(in World War I he had advocated the Dardanelles
campaign, and during World War II he favoured
the Balkans as an area of operations, for
example in Greece in 1940). Calling Italy
the "soft underbelly" of the Axis, Churchill
had therefore advocated this invasion instead
of a cross-channel invasion of occupied France.
But Italy itself proved anything but a soft
target: the mountainous terrain gave Axis
forces excellent defensive positions, and
it also partly negated the Allied advantage
in motorized and mechanized units. The final
Allied victory over the Axis in Italy did
not come until the spring offensive of 1945,
after Allied troops had breached the Gothic
Line, leading to the surrender of German and
RSI forces in Italy on 2 May shortly before
Germany finally surrendered ending World War
II in Europe on 8 May. Mussolini was captured
and killed on 28 April 1945 by the Italian
resistance while attempting to flee.
== Italy and Japan after the surrender ==
Japan reacted with shock and outrage to the
news of the surrender of Italy to the Allied
forces in September 1943. Italian citizens
residing in Japan and in Manchukuo were swiftly
rounded up and summarily asked whether they
were loyal to the King of Savoy, who dishonoured
their country by surrendering to the enemy,
or with the Duce and the newly created Repubblica
Sociale Italiana, which vowed to continue
fighting alongside the Germans. Those who
sided with the King were interned in concentration
camps and detained in dismal conditions until
the end of the war, while those who opted
for the Fascist dictator were allowed to go
on with their lives, although under strict
surveillance by the Kempeitai.
The Italian concession of Tientsin was occupied
by Japanese troops after resistance from its
garrison. The Social Republic of Italy later
formally gave it to the Japanese puppet state
in China.
The news of Italy's surrender did not reach
the crew members of the three Italian submarines
Giuliani, Cappellini and Torelli travelling
to Singapore, then occupied by Japan, to take
a load of rubber, tin and strategic materials
bound for Italy and Germany's war industry.
All the officers and sailors on board were
arrested by the Japanese army, and after a
few weeks of detention the vast majority of
them chose to side with Japan and Germany.
The Kriegsmarine assigned new officers to
the three units, who were renamed as U-boat
U.IT.23, U.IT.24 and U.IT.25, taking part
in German war operations in the Pacific until
the Giuliani was sunk by the British submarine
HMS Tally-ho in February 1944 and the other
two vessels were taken over by the Japanese
Imperial Navy upon Germany's surrender in
1945.
Alberto Tarchiani, an anti-fascist journalist
and activist, was appointed as Ambassador
to Washington by the cabinet of Badoglio,
which acted as provisional head of the Italian
government pending the occupation of the country
by the Allied forces. On his suggestion, Italy
issued a formal declaration of war on Japan
on 14 July 1945. The purpose of this act,
which brought no military follow-up, was mainly
to persuade the Allies that the new government
of Italy deserved to be invited to the San
Francisco Peace Conference, as a reward for
its co-belligerence. However, the British
Prime Minister Churchill and John Foster Dulles
were resolutely against the idea, and so Italy's
new government was left out of the Conference.
Italy and Japan negotiated the resumption
of their respective diplomatic ties after
1951, and later signed several bilateral agreements
and treaties.
== Casualties ==
Nearly four million Italians served in the
Italian Army during the Second World War and
nearly half a million Italians (including
civilians) lost their lives between June 1940
and May 1945.
The official Italian government accounting
of World War II 1940–45 losses listed the
following data:
Total military dead and missing from 1940–45:
291,376
Losses prior to the Armistice of Cassibile
in September 1943: 204,346 (66,686 killed,
111,579 missing, 26,081 died of disease)
Losses after the Armistice: 87,030 (42,916
killed, 19,840 missing, 24,274 died of disease).
Military losses in Italy after the September
1943 Armistice included 5,927 with the Allies,
17,488 Italian resistance movement fighters
and 13,000 Italian Social Republic (RSI) Fascist
forces.
Losses by branch of service:
Army 201,405
Navy 22,034
Air Force 9,096
Colonial Forces 354
Chaplains 91
Fascist militia 10,066
Paramilitary 3,252
Not indicated 45,078
Military losses by theatre of war:
Italy 74,725 (37,573 post armistice)
France 2,060 (1,039 post armistice)
Germany 25,430 (24,020 post armistice)
Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia 49,459 (10,090
post armistice)
Soviet Union 82,079 (3,522 post armistice)
Africa 22,341 (1,565 post armistice)
At sea 28,438 (5,526 post armistice)
Other and unknown 6,844 (3,695 post armistice).Prisoner-of-war
losses are included with military losses mentioned
above.
Updated studies (2010) by the Ufficio dell'Albo
d'Oro of the Italian Ministry of Defence have
however revised the military deaths to 319,207:
Army 246,432;
Navy 31,347;
Air Force 13,210;
Partisan formations 15,197;
RSI armed forces 13,021.Civilian losses were
153,147 (123,119 post armistice) including
61,432 (42,613 post armistice) in air attacks.
A brief summary of data from this report can
be found online. There were in addition to
these losses the deaths of African soldiers
conscripted by Italy which were estimated
by the Italian military at 10,000 in East
African Campaign of 1940–41.Civilian losses
as a result of the fighting in Italian Libya
were estimated by an independent Russian journalist
to be 10,000. Included in the losses are also
64,000 victims of Nazi reprisals and genocide
including 30,000 POWs and 8,500 Jews Russian
sources list the deaths of 28,000 of the 49,000
Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union
(1942–1954).The genocide of Roma people
was 1,000 persons. Jewish Holocaust victims
totalled 8,562 (including Libya).After the
armistice with the Allies, some 650,000 members
of the Italian armed forces who refused to
side with the occupying Germans were interned
in concentration and labour camps. Of these,
around 50,000 died while imprisoned or while
under transportation. A further 29,000 died
in armed struggles against the Germans while
resisting capture immediately following the
armistice.
== Aftermath ==
The Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947 spelled
the end of the Italian colonial empire, along
with other border revisions. The Paris Peace
Treaties, 1947 compelled Italy to pay $360,000,000
(US dollars at 1938 prices) in war reparations:
$125,000,000 to Yugoslavia, $105,000,000 to
Greece, $100,000,000 to the Soviet Union,
$25,000,000 to Ethiopia and $5,000,000 to
Albania. Italy also agreed to pay £1,765,000
to Greek nationals whose property in Italian
territory had been destroyed or seized during
the war.
In the Italian constitutional referendum,
1946 the Italian monarchy was abolished, having
been associated with the deprivations of the
war and the Fascist rule. Unlike in Germany
and Japan, no war crimes tribunals were held
against Italian military and political leaders,
though the Italian resistance summarily executed
some of them (such as Mussolini) at the end
of the war. Mussolini was killed by Italian
partisans on April 28, 1945.
== Controversies of historiography ==
Allied press reports of Italian military prowess
in the Second World War were almost always
dismissive. British wartime propaganda trumpeted
the destruction of the Italian 10th Army by
a significantly smaller British force during
the early phase of the North African Campaign.
The propaganda from this Italian collapse,
which was designed to boost British morale
during a bleak period of the war, left a lasting
impression. The later exploits of Rommel and
German accounts of events tended to disparage
their Italian allies and downplay their contributions;
these German accounts were used as a primary
source for the Axis side by English-language
historians after the war. Kenneth Macksey
wrote in 1972, that after the split in the
Italian state and the reinforcement of fascist
Italy by German troops, "the British threw
out the Italian Chicken only to let in the
German Eagle", for example..
James Sadkovich, Peter Haining, Vincent O'Hara,
Ian Walker and others have attempted to reassess
the performance of the Italian forces. Many
previous authors used only German or British
sources, not considering the Italian ones,
hampered by few Italian sources being translated
into English. Contemporary British reports
ignored an action of Bir El Gobi, where a
battalion of Giovani Fascisti held up the
11th Indian Infantry Brigade and destroyed
dozens of tanks of the 22nd Armoured Brigade.
Sadkovich, Walker and others have found examples
of actions where Italian forces were effective,
yet are rarely discussed by most histories.
During the Tunisian Campaign, where Italian
units were involved in most encounters, such
as Kasserine Pass, Mareth, Akarit and Enfidaville,
it was observed by General Alexander, "...the
Italians fought particularly well, outdoing
the Germans in line with them". Rommel also
conceded praise on several occasions. Other
times, German mistakes were blamed on Italians,
or the Germans left the Italians in hopeless
situations where failure was unavoidable.
Questionable German advice, broken promises
and security lapses had direct consequences
at the Battle of Cape Matapan, in the convoy
war and North Africa. According to Sadkovich,
Rommel often retreated leaving immobile infantry
units exposed, withdrew German units to rest
even though the Italians had also been in
combat, would deprive the Italians of their
share of captured goods, ignore Italian intelligence,
seldom acknowledge Italian successes and often
resist formulation of joint strategy. Alan
J.Levine, an author who has also extensively
worked with Italian sources, points out that
while Allied efforts to choke off Rommel's
supply lines were eventually successful and
played the decisive role in the Allied victory
in Africa, the Italians who defended it, especially
navy commanders, were not feeble-minded or
incompetent at all. He criticises Rommel for
ignoring the good advice of Italians during
the Crusader Offensive (although he also presents
a positive picture of the Field Marshal in
general), and in review of Sadkovich's work
The Italian Navy in World War II, criticises
it for being unreliable and recommends Bragadin
and the Italian official history instead.
Gerhard L.Weinberg, in his 2011 George C.
Marshall Lecture "Military History – Some
Myths of World War II" (2011) complained that
"there is far too much denigration of the
performance of Italy's forces during the conflict."In
addition, Italian 'cowardice' did not appear
to be more prevalent than the level seen in
any army, despite claims of wartime propaganda.
Ian Walker wrote:
....it is perhaps simplest to ask who is the
most courageous in the following situations:
the Italian carristi, who goes into battle
in an obsolete M14 tank against superior enemy
armour and anti-tank guns, knowing they can
easily penetrate his flimsy protection at
a range where his own small gun will have
little effect; the German panzer soldier or
British tanker who goes into battle in a Panzer
IV Special or Sherman respectively against
equivalent enemy opposition knowing that he
can at least trade blows with them on equal
terms; the British tanker who goes into battle
in a Sherman against inferior Italian armour
and anti-tank guns, knowing confidently that
he can destroy them at ranges where they cannot
touch him. It would seem clear that, in terms
of their motto Ferrea Mole, Ferreo Cuore,
the Italian carristi really had "iron hearts",
even though as the war went on their "iron
hulls" increasingly let them down.
The problems that stand out to the vast majority
of historians pertain to Italian strategy
and equipment. Italian equipment was, in general,
not up to the standard of either the Allied
or the German armies. An account of the defeat
of the Italian 10th Army noted that the incredibly
poor quality of the Italian artillery shells
saved many British soldiers' lives. More crucially,
they lacked suitable quantities of equipment
of all kinds and their high command did not
take necessary steps to plan for most eventualities.
This was compounded by Mussolini's assigning
unqualified political favourites to key positions.
Mussolini also dramatically overestimated
the ability of the Italian military at times,
sending them into situations where failure
was likely, such as the invasion of Greece.
Historians have long debated why Italy's military
and its Fascist regime were so remarkably
ineffective at an activity - war - that was
central to their identity. MacGregor Knox
says the explanation, "was first and foremost
a failure of Italy's military culture and
military institutions." James Sadkovich gives
the most charitable interpretation of Italian
failures, blaming inferior equipment, overextension,
and inter-service rivalries. Its forces had
"more than their share of handicaps." Donald
Detwiler concludes that, "Italy's entrance
into the war showed very early that her military
strength was only a hollow shell. Italy's
military failures against France, Greece,
Yugoslavia and in the African Theatres of
war shook Italy's new prestige mightily."
== 
See also ==
Black Brigades
Italian Army equipment in World War II
Italian Campaign (World War II), Allied operations
in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end
of the war in Europe
Italian war crimes
List of World War II Battles
MVSN (Blackshirts)
North African Campaign timeline
Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
== Notes ==
Footnotes
Citations
== References ==
== 
External links ==
ABC-CLIO Schools; Minorities and Women During
World War II – "Italian Army", by A. J.
L. Waskey
"Comando Supremo: Italy at War"
Mussolini’s War Statement – Declaration
of War against USA, 11 December 1941
Armistice with Italy; 3 September 1943 text
of the armistice agreement between the Allies
and Italy
Video: WWII Italian Forces in Combat
