In the past few months, when the German army was advancing vigorously across most of France, Mussolini could not sit still. In order to show his strength in front of the German allies, the Italian army also launched an attack from southern France.
24 divisions were assembled and attacked the French defense line north of the Alps.
Wishes are beautiful, but reality is often cruel. The 24 Italian divisions only advanced 5 kilometers in the Alps before being blocked by 4 French divisions. As a result, the Italian army was completely defeated, suffering nearly 5,000 casualties, and retreated hastily.
In Italy, the French army on the opposite side only suffered less than 200 casualties. If the French Vichy government had not announced its surrender to Germany a few days later, these four French divisions would have been able to push the Italian army all the way back to Rome.
In the first attack, the Italian army showed a small eye, but Mussolini was unwilling to accept it. If the Italian army did nothing during the war, there would not be many benefits for Italy after the war was won. The Italian leader
After summarizing the experience of fighting France with other Italian generals, we came to the conclusion that the French army is still very powerful and cannot be competed by the Italian army.
Since the Italian army couldn't compete with these European powers, it had to find some soft persimmons to pinch. So Mussolini looked on the map and found that to the west was Spain, which was a neutral country and should not disturb them; to the north was France, which was already there.
After surrendering to the Axis Powers, of course we can no longer fight; eh? There is a country in the east that is a member of the Allied Powers and a bastard of the British. Then we will fight it. First use it to give our Italian army a sacrificial flag!
The country that Mussolini was interested in was Greece! The map of Europe at that time was different from the current layout. Italy also had an occupying power, Albania, across the strait, and Albania's neighbor was Greece. So the Italian army mobilized 8 more
The division's troops are preparing to attack Greece from the northern border of Greece.
At that time, there were only 2 divisions and 2 brigades of Greek defenders on the Asch border, about 20,000 people, with 20 tanks and more than 30 aircraft. However, it was only five days after the war started. In addition to the initial advance to Greece, the Italian army
50 kilometers within the territory, and then they were chased and beaten by the Greek army, from Greece to Algeria.
Mussolini was now panicking and quickly mobilized troops from home to support him. He asked Mustache for help. Germany was now concentrating on preparing to attack the Soviet Union on the eastern front. The troops and equipment were almost ready, and they were just waiting for spring.
After arriving, they began to launch a general offensive against the Soviet Union. At this time, the Italians came for help, and they were defeated by the Greek army. It seemed that Algeria could not be saved.
Mustache is so angry. You said you don't want to help me. Just look at the Mediterranean and defend Germany's belly. If nothing else, go attack Greece. Yes, your starting point is good. You want to contribute to the war.
You tried to do your part, but in the end, you failed to help. In the end, you had to ask Germany to help you.
He was angry, but Mustache couldn't watch Italy being defeated by Greece. In that case, the British could threaten Germany from the northern shore of the Mediterranean. So Mustache had to suspend the plan to attack the Soviet Union and sent four German troops south.
Go to Algeria to rescue Italian allies.
As a result, the four German invaders launched attacks on Greece and Yugoslavia at the same time, occupying these two countries in just one month. Mussolini looked on with envy and anxiety. What he envied was
Why does Germany have such a strong capability? What is worrying is that Italy has not done much since its launch, which makes Mussolini a little unable to hold his head up in front of the mustache.
The ashamed Italian madman did not look at his one-third acre of land honestly. Mussolini, who had a heart as high as the sky and a life as thin as paper, was not willing to be a supporting actor. He planned to show it to the world again.
After seeing the abilities of the Italians, he found a country that was weaker than Greece and prepared to bully them.
Since the entire Europe was basically wiped out by the German army, the Soviet Union was a powerful country that Italians should not mess with at all. Mussolini, who was also self-aware, set his sights on Africa. Italy was still in North Africa and East Africa.
There are only two colonies left, which are now Libya and Ethiopia, and the Somali region. He plans to launch an attack from Libya to the east and Ethiopia to the west and towards Egypt at the same time, ultimately threatening the Suez Canal occupied by the British.
This plan is still very strategic. If the Italian army can cut off the Suez Canal, then Britain's national strength will be reduced by less than half, and all its colonies in Asia will lose contact with the mother country. If it wants to transport supplies to Britain,
It has to go around more than 10,000 kilometers and enter the Atlantic Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
The Italians invested nearly 600,000 troops in these two colonies, while the total number of British troops stationed in Sudan and Egypt at that time was less than 100,000. However, these tens of thousands of British troops in East Africa made the Italians flee.
More than 20 tanks once captured tens of thousands of Italian troops, so much so that when the British commander reported the results to the headquarters, he could not count the number of captured Italian troops and could only summarize them by area, 5
An officer with an acre of land, a soldier with 200 acres of land.
Within a few months, the Italian army lost its colonies in East Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia. In Libya, the Italian army was also defeated by the local British army and the British colonial army. Mussolini was really at his wits end.
, I can only ask for help from my eldest brother Xiaozhu again: Boss, brother, I am in trouble again in Africa, please help me.
Liu Fu couldn't understand why Mustache was so nice to Mussolini. When he saw that his younger brother was beaten up again by the British and African natives, he immediately became furious and even suspended and postponed the attack on the Soviet Union.
Plan to once again send German troops to the North African battlefield to vent their anger on the Italian brother.
In early 1941, Mustache sent his general Rommel to lead a German armored division, a light infantry division and an aviation squadron to Libya. Together with the remaining Italian troops, they repelled the British attack and stabilized the situation.
After controlling the situation in North Africa, they began to gradually launch a counterattack against the British army.
Liu Fu was preparing to launch a general attack on the west coast of the United States in Asia while paying attention to the progress of the war in Europe. When he saw the poor performance of the Italian army, he was not surprised, because in the memory of later generations, this Italian
The army was a big joke during World War II. Because of its participation, the cruel war seemed less bloody and less blunt.
Many World War II fans and historians in later generations have summarized Italy’s performance in World War II, and there are many very interesting descriptions among them. For example:
"When Mussolini ordered the attack on Greece, many Italian generals raised objections. The reason for the objection was that there were Finnish military bases in Greece. Due to the outstanding performance of the Finnish army in the Soviet-Finnish War, the Italian soldiers were unwilling to
To face those terrible killers, Mussolini protested to the Finnish government and asked the Finnish government to withdraw those Finnish soldiers in Greece. As a result, the Finnish government investigated for a long time and discovered that there were actually three Finnish soldiers and
Three Finnish officers are serving as volunteers.”
"A British pilot was captured by the Italian army and thrown into a prisoner of war concentration camp. That night, he got his own dinner in his cell. The dinner included many courses starting from appetizers, to pasta, then to meat, and finally...
Red wine and fruit were served, but the next day an Italian officer came to apologize to him, because the rich dinner was only food for ordinary soldiers, and according to regulations, pilots should be treated as officers."
“During World War II, when other countries were busy developing advanced weapons, the Italians were busy studying how to enable soldiers to eat delicious meals on the battlefield, and developed a method of freeze-drying and preserving food and vegetables.
, and shined brightly after the war."
After the end of World War II, a German general once described an ideal war in his mind: using German weapons, the Soviet army provides winter clothing, the British army provides summer clothing, the US military is responsible for logistics, the French army provides entertainment, and the Finnish army covers the flanks
, the last thing they faced was the Italian army.
In short, most people in history believed that if there were no Italians participating in the war, the German army would have had an easier time. Many German military enthusiasts concluded: If Italy remained neutral, Germany would have 10 more divisions.
strength; if Italy declares war with Germany, it will be equivalent to Germany having 20 more divisions of strength, because the Allies will have to dedicate part of their troops to help the Italians; but if Italy becomes an alliance with Germany, then the Germans will have to spend 50 divisions of strength.
Use the troops to protect it!!!
At this point, Liu Fu had personal experience. The submarine force trained by the Federal Navy for the Italian army was currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea. At the end of 1940, one of the submarines was actually captured by a British armed cargo ship.
At that time, the Italian submarine wanted to surface to capture the armed cargo ship. As a result, the captain of the submarine was injured during the artillery battle. Then the Italian navy on the submarine surrendered like a British fishing boat equipped with two small guns.
This incident also made Sandro, the federal minister of defense, admire Liu Fu's vision even more. When he decided to assist Germany and Italy, Liu Fu defied all opinions and resolutely opposed providing military technology and advanced weapons to Italy.
Weapons and equipment, the reason is that they do not trust the combat capabilities and confidentiality measures of the Italian army. If these technical data and weapons and equipment are given to the Italians, it is equivalent to giving them to the Allies.
Now it seems that Liu Fu's original decision was so correct. In fact, Sandro didn't know that his president's foresight was also heard from other places, but no one else could go to that place.
