" Mussolini's Forces "

Discussions on all aspects of Italy under Fascism from the March on Rome to the end of the war.
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awara pagal deewana
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" Mussolini's Forces "

#1

Post by awara pagal deewana » 28 Mar 2003, 12:53

Why did Mussolini not make a powerful Italian Force even though he compared the power of Italy as that of Caesar's Rome? Though he ruled for 21 years but his Italian forces were very weak as the result in World War II, why?

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Peter H
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#2

Post by Peter H » 28 Mar 2003, 13:23

Because he had the poorest country,after Portugal and Spain,in all of western Europe.

The extended operations in Abyssinia and the Spanish Civil War did not help either---rather than having defense expenditure available for the build up of his forces,a lot was used in the current operations in those countries.The embargo after Abyssinia further meant that he had to import,and pay more,for any strategic materials that he could get.By 1939 the Bank of Italy had no bullion reserves.Italian defense expenditure in 1938 was only 10% of Germany's;40% of the UKs;70% of France's.


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Andy H
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#3

Post by Andy H » 29 Mar 2003, 16:40

In addition the Italian economy wasn't geared up to produce equipment on the scale or quality required. As with the German economy there were several powerful industrial conglomorates that delyaed weapons procurement due to political in-fighting on there behalfs.

Andy

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StG-44
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#4

Post by StG-44 » 31 Mar 2003, 18:00

and because of the poor economy they had less good equipment than the germans.
and.. they weren't well trained like the Wehrmacht or WaffenSS
i think mussolini was to proud to request hitler for trainers or so :)

Greetings Christian

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GLADIVM
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#5

Post by GLADIVM » 01 Apr 2003, 07:18

There are several reasons for Italy poor showing in WWII

- Italy in the 30's was not a rich country , perhaps not as poor as Moulded
suggests but surely not a rich one , Industrialisation had started only at the beginning of the century and mostly in the north . in the 30's Italy was still predominantly an agricultural country and had not the resources to field a big powerful army . Italy could have fielded a relatively small army of around 30 divisions well armed and mecanised but the Imperial ambitions of Mussolini instead dictated that we had a numericaly huge army with little trasportantion , mostly on foot .
For reason of military blindness also we had no AIRCRAFT CARRIERS as Italy itself was deemed to be an unsinkable CARRIER , Also we had no effective BOMBER airplanes and most of fighter airplanes were outdated in 1940 .

- Military Leadership , the Italians high echelons still had the mentality of WWI and no real strategical plan was prepared before the entry in the war .
Tactics employed were mostly outdated and based on masses of men .
the Officers were not in close contact with their men , for example there were three separate messhall , for soldiers / NCO / Officers .

- Weapons & Armaments , most of the Italian army weapons were effective in the 30's but outdate by 1940 , Italian airplanes and tanks made a reasonbly good performance during the spanish civil war but by summer 1940 were outdated and unable to operate with success against the English or French .
Italians tanks were underpowered , had no enough armours and the guns were ineffective against heavy armour .
Italians airplanes were usually too lightly armed and slow and therefore easy prey of british defences .
Only by spring 43 some of these defects were solved and new airplanes like the Macchi Veltro started to operate (the Veltro could take on even terms against the best allied fighters) , also some new tanks and self-propelled guns started to get out of production line but by then it was too late .

- Morale , it must be admitted that the war was not deeply felt by large parts of the population and for many the Germans/Austrians were still the traditional enemy of Italy .
If the war had been as Mussolini hoped a short one this would have not counted much but as it dragged for three years the morale of civilian population and army sunk bit by bit and by early 43 the war was already lost .

If add all these elements is clear that Italy had no chances of making a good show in the war and would have been much better to keep a neutrality favourable to Germany , as Spain did , but Mussolini could not accept to be left on the sideline when the destiny of the world was decided and therefore pushed for intervention in a war which he belived was already won and would last only a short time .

Yours

GLADIVM

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