1. Adam Mellott
Dr. Thomas
HIST 0206
4 December 2012
Italy in World War II
Throughout World War II, Italy was never a major force. Their participation
in the war was characterized by a complex framework of politics and ideology,
often times being heavily influenced by outside elements. The government of the
Italian Fascist Empire, led by Benito Mussolini, aspired to restore a “Roman
Empire,” but those plans were shot down due to poormilitary planning and
strategy, leading to Italian defeat in East and North Africa and Greece. Italy
became somewhat of a satellite to Nazi Germany, until 1943 when Mussolini was
arrested for initiating a long civil war. Northern Italy was occupied by Germans
and made into a puppet state, yielding more than 600,000 soldiers. The south was
governed by liberal forces that fought for the Allied cause.
When Italy entered the war, they had a lot of trouble. The Italian industrial
sectorwas very weak in areas such as automobile and biplane production, making
it difficult for Italy to mobilize its army. War materials weren’t exactly a surplus
either. In the late 1930’s into the 1940’s, Italy was mainly an agricultural based
economy, similar to that of a new, developing country.

2. Italy was, in most cases, involved in “sideshows”in World War II, such as
their attack against the tribesman in Ethopia, who had no armor or artillery. When
Italy met better trained, well equipped troops, they were happy to exit fighting
alive and surrendered by the thousands. The Germans didn’t trust the Italians to
fight, as they thought they were poorsoldiers, but still used them. There was a joke
regarding Italian tanks, stating that the engines had one forward speed, but four
reverse gears in order to escape faster. Italy had the reputation of soft, weak, and
poorfighters all throughout Europe during the war. When Winston Churchill heard
the news that the Italians were choosing to fight with Germany, he announced to
his people, “The Italians have announced that they will fight on the Nazi’s side. I
think it’s only fair. We had to put up with them last time.” In this quote, Churchill
is referring to the Italians’ poorfighting in World War I. There were times when
the Italian military excelled, such as September 13, 1940, when the Italians crossed
into Egypt from Libya and in just four days had managed to push the British army
back 60 miles. When the German army was surrounded at Stalingrad, a column led
by the 6th Alpini Regiment broke through the Russian lines and fought their way
out of the encirclement. However, the immaturity of Italy as a whole heavily
outweighed the good things they did during the war, so they were still seen by
many as a menace by many countries. They are often blamed for dragging

3. Germany into Africa and the Balkans. The poormilitary action in World War II
leads me to believe that Churchill’s quote is fairly accurate after all.