How did the Italian army perform during World War II? Why are they a joke of World War II

After the outbreak of World War II, Nazi Germany used force to conquer, or threatened to coax, and almost occupied the entire Europe. At this time, Italy, as an Allied army, looked greedy. When Hitler attacked France, Italian Mussolini looked at the defeat of France, very greedy. Mussolini once said internally that he could sit at the negotiating table and share the results of the war even if he paid the price of thousands of people.

Italian jokes in Greece

So on June 10, 1940, France withdrew from Paris and was preparing for a full retreat, Italy declared war on France, at that time Italy There were 22 divisions in the offensive force, with a total of more than 300,000 people. At this time, there were less than 170,000 French troops facing Italy. Although the French suffered a defeat in Germany, it does not mean they are bullies. They need a victory to prove their glory in the Napoleonic Empire.

Until Germany and France signed the armistice agreement, Italy did not get any benefits from France. After France surrendered, most of its territory was occupied by Germany, and only less than 900 kilometers of land was allocated to Italy. This made Mussolini at the time very dissatisfied. After all, they were all members of the Axis powers. Why should Italy be so divided? Hitler only returned to Mussolini, we divided the land according to the contribution, and held Mussolini alive.

Mussolini feels that he can't beat France. Can he occupy Greece before Germany? So on October 28, 1940, Mussolini dispatched a million troops to Greece, and claimed to resolve the battle quickly. As the number of Greek troops stationed on the Albanian border was very small, Italy advanced very quickly. When it entered the Greek mountains, it encountered strong resistance from the Greek army.

On November 3, 1940, the Greek army not only smashed the Italian offensive, but also drove Italy back to Albania. The entire battle lasted only 8 days before the Italian army retreated. After a few days of repairing, Mussolini ordered another attack, but at this time the Greek side had assembled 12 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions and 3 infantry brigades to conduct full-scale confrontation with the Italian army.

In order to cover up its embarrassing situation, Italy even announced that Greece’s attempt to prevent the Italian military’s strategic retreat had failed. This sentence became a laughing stock across Europe. On December 4, the Greek army continued to increase its troops and pressed into Albania. In order to save face, in March 1941, Mussolini ordered the Italian army to launch another offensive, but failed again, and the front-line Italian army strongly demanded to withdraw to the country.

Compared with the African battlefield, the hard bones of Greece made Mussolini suffer a lot. This time the attack on Greece failed, and Albania, which may have eaten it, also vomited. Greece, with the support of Britain, built a large number of landing ships to prepare to retake Albania and vowed to counterattack to Italy. As soon as Mussolini saw that the game was big this time, he immediately asked Hitler for help.

Hitler loved and ruthlessly for this pig-like teammate. In order to prevent Britain from opening up a second battlefield in the Balkans, attacking Germany from the flank, but also to control the Mediterranean and ensure the supply of oil. So on November 4, 1940, it sent troops to Greece, and Britain also sent troops to the Greek islands of Crete and Mykonos.

However, when the German army entered Bulgaria, Yugoslavia had a sudden coup. Yugoslavia, which originally agreed to join the German, Italian, and Japanese axis countries, suffered a pro-British-American coup and seized the Yugoslav power and refused to ally with Hitler. This made Hitler furious at the time, vowing to teach the Yugoslavs a lesson, and beat Greece together.

Late on the night of April 5, 1941, the Germans fought against Greece and Yugoslavia at the same time. The Germans used their familiar blitzkrieg to launch a surprise attack on Greece, outflanked the Greek army that entered Algeria from behind and tried to break into Italy. The Greek army, which was fighting with Italy, was attacked back and forth by the German army. At this time, the British army fled even more, throwing down their helmets and unarmed.

After more than ten days of fighting, on the evening of April 18, Greek Prime Minister Korizos committed suicide. On the 20th, the Greek army surrendered to Germany. But when signing the letter of surrender, Greece hoped that Italy would not participate in the surrender ceremony because they felt they could not afford to lose that person. On April 27, the German army occupied the entire territory of Greece, and on April 30, the entire Peloponnese Peninsula was occupied. In this battle, the German army suffered 11,000 casualties. The German army also said that the loss was relatively large. After the war, Hitler also praised the fighting spirit of Greece.

Italian jokes in North Africa

When the Soviet Union and Germany started fighting, the entire World War II entered the stage of full-scale outbreak. What about Italy? In addition to occupying Algeria, no matter whether they played France or Greece, they all ended in failure. This made Mussolini feel that the enemy on the European battlefield was too strong, so he showed his skills in North Africa. And before the outbreak of World War II, Italy annexed Ethiopia, which gave Mussolini the confidence that the Italian army would definitely do something in the North African battlefield.

It can be said that Italy is definitely Germany’s pig teammate. Germany’s biggest opponent at the time was the Soviet Union. It didn’t want to intervene in Greece, so Italy was forced to pull the water down. At this time, North Africa was very far away from Germany and Mussoli Nila enters the battlefield.

On August 8, 1940, Mussolini ordered the 10th Italian Army to invade Egypt. As a result, the Italian army was ruthlessly slapped in the face, and the Italian army did nothing at this time. The Italian army has left Germany, and the army has no fighting spirit. So Mussolini personally lobbied Marshal Grachiani, then North African commander-in-chief, and told him that Germany was about to take the Soviet Union, followed by Britain. If we do not speed up the process, there will not be much land for us to divide.

So one month later, on September 8, Italy began to march into Egypt. Compared with Germany at that time, Italy not only had poor fighting spirit, but also had poorer equipment and training. The North African battlefield actually relies mainly on mules for transportation, and the entire logistics supply is not available.

Blitzkrieg is hard to talk about. Every step taken is almost in the eyes of the Allies. At this time, the British assembled colonial forces, such as Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, etc. The condition given was that they could be independent after victory. The motivation for this promise was too great, so under the leadership of the British commander Weaver, he raided the Italian army from the flanks.

And what about the Italian army? At this time, I was in difficulty in logistical supplies, so I built fortifications in the water sources of the deserts and formed strongholds. The entire army of hundreds of thousands, like sheep's dung eggs scattered on the ground, one piece here, one piece there, stretched several times. Hundred kilometers.

So the British army, with only a few tens of thousands, concentrated its forces to break through these strongholds one by one. Italy’s heavily fortified towns Badia and Tobruk were successively captured by the British. When the Italians fled, they were intercepted by the 7th Panzer Division ambushed by the British. In less than three months, the entire 10th Army of Italy was completely destroyed, and the British captured a total of 130,000 Italian prisoners.

And throughout World War II, Italian prisoners of war were rated as imitating prisoners of war. Not only were they very well-behaved after being captured, but they also voluntarily surrendered during the war. This made the Germans fighting together look hateful and ridiculous, often not charging at the enemy, but beckoning to surrender. Once on the battlefield, the British tank battalion with less than 30 tanks was taken prisoner by the Italian army with hundreds of tanks.

At the end of the war, the British commanders were unwilling to capture these Italian soldiers. After all, this group of people wanted to eat, but according to the Geneva Convention, as long as they voluntarily surrendered Soldiers must be treated well. It can be seen how ridiculous it is that Mussolini relies on such a batch of live treasures to conquer the world. So Mussolini could only go to Hitler again with a cheeky, hopingCan help yourself on the African battlefield. Hitler sent Manstein and Rommel to the North African battlefield.

On July 9, 1943, the British and American forces landed in Sicily, Italy. The Italian army again symbolically resisted, and Palermo's Italian army surrendered without a fight. . Mussolini received the notice of the meeting of the Supreme Committee of the Fascist Party, so he came to the venue on the afternoon of July 24. At this meeting, Mussolini and the opposition had a heated debate, but in the end he was unable to obtain the party committee. Will trust. In the evening, I heard a radio broadcast from Rome that the head approved Mussolini's resignation and appointed Marshal Bardolio to succeed him. Mussolini was arrested and held secretly on Ponca Island.

Throughout World War II, the Italian army can be said to have surrendered except for the pig teammates, so that the lonely German army fought vigorously, and finally it was guarded by the Allies, and Mussolini It was rescued. You must know that the island of Ponca, where Mussolini was secretly held at the time, was very hidden, and it was unknown whether Mussolini was alive or dead. After Mussolini was rescued by Scorzner, with Hitler's support, he established the "Italian Social Republic" in northern Italy to confront the Bardolio government.