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1943 Nian 9 8, Italy and the Allies signed the armistice agreement
picture shows the March 31, 1943, in Tunis an Italian gunner hidden among the cactus
Published in: 2016 on 18
of "national cultural history": Jeff
"The German army received a rescue request from Italy in the desert and sent a squadron to rescue. When they met with Italy, they found that the other party was cooking macaroni with precious water..."
After saying that the other party must have fallen asleep if we fell asleep, so we won’t be attacked. Finally, we were attacked by the British army."
"In a battle in North Africa, one of the few British tanks attacked Italy. The anti-tank guns charged at the position. At the beginning, Italy fired back fire, but after two or three minutes, it stopped suddenly and surrendered with a white flag... After the British asked the reason, the Italian replied confidently: The ammunition box was not opened with a crowbar. "Z1z
In the eyes of most military fans and even ordinary netizens at home and abroad, the Italian army in World War II can be described as an ever-defeating division. The difference in combat effectiveness has led to an endless stream of negative stories. It seems that the powers of Italy are only responsible for the funny. So what is the Italian army in real history? On the whole, the Italian army in World War II was indeed mediocre. Among the major Axis nations, they were the last to participate in the war but were the first to lose. What is the inevitable or deep reason behind this?
To some extent, Italy's participation in the war was not the result of foresight. According to the plan, Italy would not be able to complete preparations for war until 1943, which Mussolini once told Hitler. However, as the German army was in such a ruinous battlefield, the "leader" could no longer sit still. "In order to sit at the negotiating table as a member of the victorious country, I would not hesitate to sacrifice thousands of lives", despite the general opposition of the party, government and military. , Tying Italy to Hitler's chariot.
"Poor imperialism" meets the rejoicing leader
When entering the war on June 10, 1940, Italy had a formidable force on paper: the army had 74 divisions, a large number of border troops and troops recruited from the colonies; the air force had 3296 various aircraft; the Navy has 151 surface ships and 116 submarines, including 6 battleships. The superficial strength of
cannot conceal structural flaws. The bluff of propaganda is everywhere-the army’s divisions are all two regiments rather than the three regiments commonly used by major powers, and the number and quality of artillery are far inferior to their opponents. The motor vehicles of the infantry division seldom rely on donkeys and horses, which makes the combat capability of an Italian army barely equal to that of an allied division. The main force of the armored force is the L.3 ultralight tank with no turret and only machine gun. A small number of medium tanks have weak armor and lack radios. Only two-thirds of the Air Force’s aircraft can be used, of which only 166 meet modern standards, and the rest are mostly outdated biplanes. Even the relatively advanced Macchi C.200 and Fiat G.50 fighter jets are better than their counterparts in the Allied and German forces. The aircraft is slow, has weak firepower and lacks radio. Among the huge bomber group of
, only SM.79 is considered a powerful weapon. Most of the navy’s battleships are improved old ships, and the concealment of submarines is not good (this is not good in the clear and transparent Mediterranean), and there is no aircraft carrier and radar. The cooperation between the navy and the air force is very poor. Mussolini passed legislation to assign all fixed-wing aircraft to the air force (even ship-based seaplanes). The conflicts between the services and the complexity of the command hierarchy have made naval and air coordination empty talk, and even staged repeatedly. The tragedy of a mistake.
The problems at the military level are behind the gap in overall national power. Italy, which Lenin ridiculed as "poor imperialist", is much worse than the major powers in terms of economic strength, especially in industry, and lacks resources. Coal, oil, and its strategic metals are mainly dependent on imports. Although fascists greatly increased their military budget (close to the level of France) after taking office, military adventures in Ethiopia and Spain consumed a lot of financial, material resources and personnel, making it impossible for the Italian army to complete equipment upgrades and war preparations. What's more, the relatively easy victory of the two wars caused Mussolini and the military to overestimate their own strength and draw some false inferences, such as the excellent exchange ratio of the Cr.32 biplane fighter (the opponents include Iraq). 16 monoplane fighters) convinced them that biplanes are more maneuverable, so they focused on developing biplane Cr.42 instead of monoplanes, which wasted the treasureExpensive resources and time, as a result, after World War II, it was impossible to fight against monoplanes such as Bf109 and Spitfire.
