After the march on Rome in October 1922 Benito Mussolini became the youngest Italian Prime Minister up to that date
He removed the political opposition through his secret police and outlying labor strikes
In fact, that was an attack on the Italian state Mussolini and his followers
Consolidated their power through a series of methods and laws that transformed Italy into a one-party dictatorship
in the next years a dictatorial
Authority was established and a new totalitarian state was created in Europe. The Italian dictator was aware
That Italy was not ready for a long conflict based on its resources and its pre World War two smaller military
interventions in Ethiopia, Albania and Spain
Mussolini accepted to enter in the war and to continue the campaign as long as the Imperial non-realistic
Ambitions of its regime are in progress and supported by his biggest ally
He aspired to restore a form of the ancient Roman Empire in the Mediterranean
These goals were partially met by late 1942
At that point Italian influence extended throughout the Mediterranean basin and the axis were at their peak on all fronts
Albania parts of Slovenia 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 on
the 28th of October Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece
Demanding the session of Greek territory the Italian army invaded Greece on the 28th of October before the ultimatum had expired
the ineffectiveness of the Italian army was visible
Thus the invasion was truly a disaster a hundred and forty thousand troops encountering a well determined
Enemy, the fight was mainly on mountainous terrain on the albanian Greek border
What was expected as a pretty quick success was instead of failure by mid-november?
The Greeks had stopped the Italian invasion and after that pushed away the enemy back to Albania
Finally its hello German forces had achieved victories
against Greece and
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 heavily contested
Even if Yugoslavia and Greece were defeated large partisan movements existed here and created large difficulties for Axis forces
After the struggle in North Africa mussolini requested help from his German ally
by May 1943 the Allies managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa and
New plans were to be made even before their victory a disagreement among the Allies existed
especially on the further strategies the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill
Focused on the naval power of Britain and his plan was to create well pointed small operations in order to weaken the enemy
The United States with the larger US Army wanted a more brute and direct strategy of fighting
The ability to launch such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic
Their staff believed that a full-scale invasion of France at the earliest possible time was needed to end the war in Europe
the British instead argued that the presence of large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the
Mediterranean made a limited scale invasion possible and more useful
Eventually the US and British political leadership
Reached a compromise in which both would commit most of their forces to an invasion of France in early
1944
But also launched a relatively small-scale Italian campaign
Franklin D Roosevelt desired to keep US troops active in the European theater during
1943 and his attraction to the idea of eliminating Italy from the war made him like this idea
Knowing Italian internal problems and their former military campaigns. It was hoped that the invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict
the elimination of Italy would enable Allied naval forces
Principally the Royal Navy to dominate the Mediterranean Sea and possibly create a bigger southern front
Italian divisions on occupation and coastal defence duties in the Balkans and France would be withdrawn to defend Italy
While the Germans would have to transfer troops from the Eastern Front to defend Italy and the entire southern coast of France
thus aiding the Soviets a
Combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on the 10th of July
1943
with both amphibious and airborne landings
The land forces involved there were the US 7th army under Lieutenant General George S Patton and the British Eighth Army
under the general Bernard Montgomery
The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allies capture of the island
But they succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland
Forces of the British Eighth Army still under Montgomery landed in the toe of Italy on the 3rd of September
1943 in operation Baytown the day the Italian government agreed to an armistice with the Allies
The Armistice was publicly announced on September 8th by two
broadcasts first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation by marshal Ben dog, Leo
Although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian assistance there had been hope that with the surrender of the Italian government
The Germans would withdraw to the north on October 13th
1943 one month after Italy surrendered to Allied forces
It declared war on Germany its one-time access powers partner
Italy was led into the war by Benito Mussolini the prime minister who had formed an alliance with Germany in
1936 in the summer of 1943 as Allied forces landed in Sicily
public support for the war and for Mussolini diminished
Mussolini was ousted on July 25th and his replacement
general Pietro Badoglio
Sought peace with the allies and reached an armistice on September 3rd
Germany which had drupe stationed throughout Italy proceeded with an occupation of the country and seized strongholds from a disorganized
Italian military
Knowing that just a small part of Italy was occupied
Why did they switch sides so easily as it was presented?
Even if Italy could have been a potential great power, it had many shortcomings and not only in the military
Having a fragmented society after the first world war the political arena was shocked by some
Instabilities and it ended with a guy who promoted war and some sort of fanatism at its helm
Italian logistical deficiencies were seen in their campaigns and
This was mainly due to the lack of proper equipment which was based on other factors
The army wasn't just poorly equipped with outdated or insufficient weapons, but in some cases poorly trained
Many army officers prepared the army for classical situations. It was a failure to adapt on the new type of war
That plus the fact that some of the generals were chosen more for their loyalty than their capacities
Although could be considered the main German ally the country wasn't ready for a large-scale conflict
Their industrial sector was small the preparedness and training of the soldiers was limited
large industries were vital in such campaigns
Germany placed a special emphasis on arming and creating industries for tanks artillery
warplanes and so on
The Italian army on the other hand was poorly equipped for a war against Great Britain or the United States
Italian industries were out produced in terms of quantity and quality compared to those of its enemies
The situation can be seen even worse if we look at it from a geographical perspective
The country is a peninsula a large one with huge coasts to guard
Having an enemy capable of doing amphibious and paratrooper landings in a sea
Which became less and less dominated by your ships is not a good sign to continual war
The Navy did its part in the war and was successful in securing its coasts and large parts of the sea
But again having the lack of proper warplanes in terms of numbers and technology to support the Navy campaigns was a big drawback
North Africa could have been seen as a shield between continental Italy and the Allies
the unsuccessful campaign there created the situation for British and American landings in Sicily and
Afterwards in the toe of Italy
For much of the political class. It was clear that the Italian forces are dealing with a more powerful enemy
And now the war isn't outside their borders
But with him as the Allies advanced they encountered increasingly difficult terrain
Allied forces advanced slowly north through the Italian peninsula before finally defeating Axis forces in May
1945
Mussolini who was rescued by the Germans from an Italian prison and made the leader of a puppet state the Italian social Republic
And parts of Italy not occupied by Allied forces was captured and executed by members of the Italian partisan resistance
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