Why were the Italian soldiers so poorly motivated compared to their German counterparts...

Why were the Italian soldiers so poorly motivated compared to their German counterparts, despite comparable levels of fascist propaganda thrown at them?

Because they had shit commanders, shit equipment and shit wages

If the Germans blundered around like the Italians did when they invaded Poland and France I doubt their soldiers would be as gung-ho about the war.

Germany was built on militarism from the beginning whereas Mussolini only joined the war when he realized Hitler was winning.

Because everything about their army was shit. Even their uniforms were made of a synthetic wool which provided no warmth at all in the Russian winter

Equipment was bad, with artillery left over from WW1, rifles that managed to be worse than their WW1 counterpart, overcomplicated machineguns, faulty hand grenades, serious lack of AT armament, extreme lack of coordination between the various branches, old generals who fought in WW1 and refused to adopt the new doctrine, severe lack of mechanized divisions because of the weak italian industry which meant that most soldiers moved on foot or motorcycles.
The only equipment the italians could trust was handmade, such as the passaglia grenade.
Many italian military marches and chants would acknowledge these faults, reciting phrases such as "it doesn't matter if the enemy's stronger, the italian soldier is fearless".
Italians were well aware of their military history, which was the reason why people put their hope into the individual soldier, rather than the military itself.
The bulk of the italian army were the Celeri divisions, which were composed by the various elite divisions such as the Bersaglieri, the Alpini (who fought mostly in the balkans and on the eastern front) and the only three fully mechanized division they had (mainly Ariete, Centauro and Littorio).
On paper, they were supposed to follow the Guerra di Rapido Corso doctrine pioneered by Stefano Di Simone, but the generals failed to do so and kept a defensive stance for most of the conflict on the african front, until Rommel arrived.
Italy enjoyed some very nice successes in the balkans, but they're all sadly overshadowed by the incompetence on the greek front.
Most people assume that soldiers are too brainwashed to realize the situation they're in, but that's quite wrong.

Have you played Hearts of Iron? Italy has no clear reason to expand anywhere aside from the miniscule Italian areas in France/Austria/Yugoslavia. Africa is piss poor, Yugoslavia is piss poor, Albania is piss poor, Albania is piss poor, and France up to Rhone is hard to invade.

Italians are smarter.

>tfw to smart to win wars

You forgot Folgore

They should gave used the console

I had assumed OP wanted to know about the divisions who fought on the ground.
The parà were pretty amazing.
I've posted Fulmine instead.

Not to mention: Albania is piss poor as well.

They had a sense of self-awareness thanks to the Mussolini brand of fascism which was borderline parodic. Germans have always taken themselves much too seriously for their own good.

They really didn't hate Britain and France that much.

I think it has something to do with latin genes and culture.
Latin peoples tend to be lazy, corrupt, duplicitary and short tempered, plagued by mood swings and rapidly changing passions.

Meanwhile germanics are cold and calculated and when they embrace an idea they hardly let go hence their fanatism for various causes, including self destructive ones.

Decima MAS was a good division desu

I think OP wanted an historical and rational question, not some discussion about genes from someone who likely doesn't even understand them.

Well it's a good answer anyway.

the word "genes" should be banned here. Go back

Mussolini never considered himself a big player in the war and didn’t make preparations as such. Italy didn’t experience even a fraction of the hardships caused by WWI as the rest of Europe did so they didn’t put much value in military or technology.

>Mussolini never considered himself a big player in the war and didn’t make preparations as such.
What?
Mussolini's fascism was all about the militarization of the country.
The Comando Supremo told Mussolini that neither Italy, nor Germany would've been ready for a war until 1943, because both countries still had new weapons in development and didn't have enough numbers, not to mention readying the industry for a total war.
Both Mussolini and Hitler decided to ignore their warning and declared war on the allies.
Mussolini had big plans and his ego was too big to consider himself "secondary" to the grand scheme of things.
>Italy didn’t experience even a fraction of the hardships caused by WWI as the rest of Europe did so they didn’t put much value in military or technology.
What?

The "Guerra Mutilata" was basically the whole reason why Mussolini managed to become Italy's dictator, there was quite some hatred and jealousy for France and Britain by most of the population.
Not to mention all of Mussolini's brainwashing, going as far as saying that "Britain was an oppressor that denied Italy of its rightful lands" and the whole "Mare Nostrum" thing.

Germans: one race

Italians: 3 or 4 different races

What were the Italians fighting for exactly?

IMPERO
Or, at least, that's what Mussolini wanted.
The usual megalomaniac mentality, he wanted to restore the roman empire at its peak and claim the whole mediterranean and the balkans.
Still better than replacing "inferior races" and creating a "thousand years" empire.

- Italy didn't have eternal butthurt from WW1 since they technically won
- Italy hadn't been a proud military society for centuries
- Italians never wholeheartedly supported Fascism or Mussolini
- They're Italians

In theory it was semi-realistic. Although I reckon the Turks and the Brits in the middle east would have ended up pummeling them anyway. And good luck trying to conquer Spain.

He hoped for an alliance with Turkey, actually, in fact that's why he tried invading Greece to begin with.
He was similiar to Hitler in many ways.

Not feeling like you lost a war that you won?

>when your incompetent ally seeks to forge and alliance with an equally incompetent country
How do you want your Thousand Year Reich?

>Italy didn't have eternal butthurt from WW1 since they technically won

Actually, they kinda did. Sure they were on the winning side, but they joined the Allies because they were promised a shitload of territory if their side won, and when the war was over they got shafted hard. So Mussolini as a radio man pushed the idea of "what exactly did we fight for? Does anyone here feel like a winner?"

I know but it wasn't on the same level as Germany, enough to get Fascists in power but not enough to convince most of the Italian people to go die for them.

They also had a very large divide between officers and enlisted, whereas German armies often had a strong NCO corps with much responsibility for the lower ranks (Auftragstaktik) that bridged the gap.