WW2 Italy thread?

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Time for annexia de Grecia, oh nos Mama Mia!

O mamma mia what-a is that americano and-a inglese in sicilia o porco dio

What caused Italian army to be, despite modernisation and size, so meme-tier?

Because its entire government was meme-tier. Nothing was well organized or well motivated. You still only had a very fragile sense of what "Italy" is as a whole, and on top of that, you have people placed in posts largely to make unbalnaced coalitions that can't unseat Il Duce, combined with rapid policy shifts from the top to keep everyone else off-balance. One of the reasons the invasion of Greece was such a shitshow is that it was decided at the proverbial last minute, and on the eve of the invasion date, Mussolini suddenly realized that he needed to demobilize about half of the force in Albania because he was short of labor to bring in the harvest.

this board is for history, not jokes.

Their industry was very underdeveloped compared to the other powers like the UK, Germany, and the US, and they never mobilized the economy to the degree they did.

Memes aside they actually would have annexed Greece without help if the Brits stayed out of it. The Greeks had basically no arms industry and no foreign currency with which to buy while the Italians, shit as they were, actually did. By Jan 1941 the British estimated that the Greek Army only had 2 months of ammunition left. After a large infusion of aid they were still mere weeks away from running out of everything in April. The few divisions they has facing Germany were basically unarmed, no vehicles, AA guns, AT guns, or tanks at all, and only around 100 antiquated artillery pieces for 100,000 men who often lacked tents and helmets.

It was not prepared for war, Mussolini said that he needed 3 more years to prepare. And it certainly wasn't prepared for an offensive war in terrain it was forced to fight in - the doctrine primarily prepared them for defensive war in mountainous terrain, whereas they mostly fought in large, open spaces. Hence them using tons of very light tanks that were easily destroyed, but would have been pretty useful in Apenines for instance.

Other than that, some sections of their armed forces were well prepared. Especially the navy had some rather glorious episodes.

Making them into incompetent retards is largely British propaganda that wasn't ever dispelled. While British commanders often regarded Germans as their equals, most of them really hated the Italians and thought them to be a lesser race.

Official British (and Russian) historians, on the occasion they lost battles to Italians, would often just lie and say that the Italians were Germans. For example the Savoia charge and siege of Mersah Matruh.

Three reasons, the last being by far the most important.

1. Italy was not ready for war. They had rearmed too quickly, so most of their equipment was out of date, and had expended a huge amount of resources in Ethiopia and Spain right before WW2 broke out. Mussolini said he needed until 1942 to prepare Italy. Furthermore, Italy had negligible domestic oil, coal, and steel production, being dependent on British trade, which was absolutely crippling when Britain was now blockading and embargoing them. Their fleet for example was basically confined to port for the vast majority of the war for lack of fuel.

2. Italian society by and large was anti-Axis and did not support the war. This explains why they never mobilized as much of their industry and society as Germany or Japan, why they switched sides/surrendered immediately in 1943 despite still possessing a lot of men and material, and why morale on the front was so poor. Mussolini was booed by the crowds in Rome when he publicly declared war on Britain.

3. The Italian leadership were a bunch of fucking retards. In the correct situation, the Italians performed as well as any other soldier, see numerous battles in Russia/Ukraine and North Africa as well as actions by Italian partisans (most of whom were former military). But their generals were so incompetent ("hey just march across that border with no plan and sit still in a static position in a desert without any water lol") that I'm not sure any soldiers could've salvaged the situation.

>WW2 Italy thread?
It's so funny to think that the main fear for this board was to degenerate into constant Hitler threads, but in reality it ends up talking about Italy a lot more than it does Germany, especially when it comes to WW2.

*blocks your path*

I was actually reading a book about this, "Swastika Over the Acropolis." Debunks a lot of common misconceptions about the whole affair, mostly exaggerations of how well the Greeks did. However it did make me appreciate the Greeks more, when I saw what a shoestring they were on.

>Making them into incompetent retards is largely British propaganda that wasn't ever dispelled. While British commanders often regarded Germans as their equals, most of them really hated the Italians and thought them to be a lesser race.
It's because the Judeo-Anglo fears the Roman Warrior

Why couldn't they catch up?

They didn't even want to be at war.

no die pls

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The war had no reason to happen for Italy, the country wasn't prepared for it, and it didn't have the motivation to start it. Sure Italy was still angry about those terre irridente, but after the War in Ethiopia Mussolini got more than he would have get from WW1
Also le "greece war meme" is exagerate, as the Greeks manage to resist only thanks to the Anglos help

t. butthurt Italian.

>five great powers
>italy

Come on, even in Italy the Italian army wasn't the largest military

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I'll also post this to add to that graph

These nine guys....they killed hundreds

At least one of them's working out.

Never happened

Ok guido
Care to explain this Italian poster commemorating the whole thing then?

The casualties were exaggerated, that's what I meant.
It was confirmed to have been inflated for propaganda purposes.

[citation needed]

Step 1
>"Dat battle never habben'd!!!"
>"Yes it did, here's proof"

Step 2
>"K, but figures be wrong!"
>"No they aren't, here's proof"

Step 3
>"W-well t-they were disadvantaged anyway!!!!"
>"....."

Just stop the denial train already

The numbers used to cite 900 deads, but it is actually 200 deads and 600 wounded.
I thought you were referring to the wrong number.
No one mentioned that the soldiers were at a disadvantage.

>The numbers used to cite 900 deads, but it is actually 200 deads and 600 wounded.
A wiki number with no internal citation does not make a casulty count. Its changing doesn't mean that it was confirmed to be inflated (by whom) or for what purpose. This is a site where any random idiot can come in and write whatever they want.

Please cite your confirmation that it was inflated for propaganda purposes. Inflated by whom?

>No one mentioned that the soldiers were at a disadvantage.
I'll mention it. These retards don't understand how sieges work.

>besieging nine guys in a casemate

Lol
I'd agree that the Italians soldiers who were sent waves after waves to assault the casemate were disadvantaged, but the Italians overall werent

If their commander wasn't the spiritual grandson of Cadorna, he'd have waited and called an airstrike instead of losing 200 dead and 600 wounded to take a bridge held by nine guys

Real-life isn't COD. You can't just "call in an airstrike" to solve all your problems. Aircraft are essential to the functioning of a 20th century military force, but they can't do everything.

They killed hundreds of thousands.