Glorious Mission 1937

The country of Italy is really unlucky, and this kind of unluckyness is not comparable to that of other countries.In fact, whether Italy declared war on Britain and France or war on Greece, this is a typical war speculation.Mussolini declared war on Britain and France not because he wanted to do anything to Britain, but to participate in the division of French heritage.Mussolini's war against Greece was also an arrogance to the British. He just thought that Greece was a weak country, a soft persimmon that could be kneaded at will, and a prop for Mussolini to show the Germans a sense of reality.

But Italy obviously didn't look at celebrating themselves, let alone their opponents.Here, it is necessary to mention the level of combat power of the Italian armed forces, although in Hitler's view, the Italian armed forces are already very strong, and its army, sea and air forces are complete, especially the army is as many as dozens of divisions, so Hitler thinks Italy is fully capable of winning in the theater assigned to Italy.

However, in fact, Italy's armed forces in 1940 were not as powerful as they appeared on the surface, especially the lack of weapons and equipment. Compared with the luxuriously equipped German army, Italy's weapons and equipment were still ten years ago. Many also look outdated.

According to the data released by Italy after the war, before Italy attacked Greece, it had a total of 59 divisions in the Apennines, Sardinia and Sicily. According to calculations, these 59 divisions should have at least 59 troops, or even more.

However, the 59 infantry divisions in Italy are all two-regiment divisions.In addition, due to insufficient weapons and equipment, only 20 divisions reached 70% of the wartime establishment, and the other 20 divisions only reached 50%.In the words of the Minister of Logistics of the Italian Army: "To conduct a general mobilization, we lack everything, and the Army cannot even put all the reserves on shoes."

The lack of equipment and soldiers made the Italian army, although large in scale, but strong on the outside and capable in the middle, it had nothing to do with appearances.This is not the most terrifying, the most worrying thing is Italy's war potential.Due to the small output of the military industry, financial resources are insufficient.The technical equipment of the Italian army was at a standstill.There were no motorized and tank divisions comparable to the corresponding German corps.

Although Mussolini also realized the importance of mechanized troops to Italy after participating in Hitler's birthday celebration, he also formed three mechanized infantry divisions after returning home, but it is ironic.Although the three infantry divisions that should be driven in by car according to the establishment are well-manned.But they don't have cars of their own.

This is the case with the Army.The situation is also worrying for the Air Force and Navy, which has 3700 aircraft, most of which are obsolete.The navy appears to be in better shape than the other services.It had 8 battleships, 20 cruisers, 53 destroyers, 68 lightning strikers and 111 submarines.However, the combat training of the navy, like the army and the air force, is not suitable for the requirements of modern warfare.All in all, the Italian army lagged behind its enemies in command, armament, and combat training.

A German official who did not want to be named commented on the Italian army in this way: "The Italian army is far from the standards of modern warfare. This force is only designed to deal with a colonial war. Destroy some rebel peoples. Their tanks and armored vehicles are too light, their engines are not powerful enough, and their radius of action is too short. The artillery used by the artillery is second-hand from the First World War, and the range is extremely short. War defense There are not many guns and anti-aircraft guns, and even the rifles and machine guns are old."

This is the real situation of the Italian army, not an exaggeration at all.It's not scary to have no strength, what's scary is to jump around without strength.If Mussolini only used this army as a tool for political speculation, it would be enough, but it is obviously unrealistic to use this army to make the world "shudder".It's a pity that Mussolini was a madman, and he needed this army to fulfill the promise he made when he left school: "I will make the world tremble!"

Italy's invasion of Greece, which on the surface seemed insignificant and had little to do with Germany or Britain, turned out to be one of the most important decisions of World War II. It even changed the course of the world war.

Adolf Hitler wrote to Mussolini shortly after the Italian invasion of Greece: "I hope that all that has been said will cause you to postpone your actions, at least until after the presidential elections in the United States. Don't act until Tejima takes lightning action..."

But it is a pity that Mussolini did not listen to Hitler's advice, and he decided to take the risk.Mussolini's ambitions were great, but his motives were small.Evidently, the conquest of a few barren hills will not solve the problem of Italy's overpopulation or economic impoverishment.

Via Epirus was not the shortest route to Alexandria in war terms.In the end, Italy attacked Greece, but it gave the British the best opportunity to intervene in the Balkan situation, which meant that the British had the opportunity to regain a stronghold in the European continent.

Hitler, in his talks with Ciano in July 1940, was preoccupied with his plans to crush Britain, and made no secret of his desire not to open another front in central or southern Europe, since Germany and Italy were not like Britain.After Germany's defeat in World War I, all the colonies under its rule have been carved up by the victorious countries, including many fertile lands in Africa and Asia.Although the situation in Italy is better than before, Italy's colonies are mainly concentrated in North Africa and East Africa.

The situation in the United Kingdom is much better. This country, known as the empire on which the sun never sets, has a large number of colonies around the world.In Asia, Britain has British India (including the Indian subcontinent and Burma, Ceylon), the Straits Settlements (including all parts of Malaysia) and Hong Kong.In Europe, the UK has Ireland, Cyprus, and Malta.

In Oceania, the UK has Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Nauru, Fiji, Barbados, Kiribati, etc.; in Africa, the UK has South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Lesotho, Botswana, Ghana, and Mara Victoria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Uganda, Tonga, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Gambia, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia; in the Americas.Great Britain has Canada, Belize, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Grenada, Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Christopher and Nigeria Weiss and others.

Once the UK opens up a new battlefield in southern Europe, the UK can use its powerful naval fleet to transfer the colonial troops from India, South Africa, East Africa, West Asia and other places to southern Europe, which will greatly disperse the power of Germany and Italy. As a result, Germany had to relax its attacks on the British mainland and other battlefields.

In addition to advising Italy not to provoke troubles in the Balkans, Hitler never stopped advising the hot-headed Hungarians to restrain their desires and not to attack the Romanians in order to regain Transylvania.The Hungarians are quite obedient. They took the strength of the Germans and followed Hitler's advice.

But Mussolini didn't care.He took Hitler's advice to be tantamount to ordering them to sit still.Don't do anything.In addition, Mussolini was jealous of Hitler's victory, and he was eager to achieve political and military achievements with his own initiative and strength like Hitler, so that he could get rid of his passive supporting role and share the feast of victory at the end. occupy a place.

All his plans before that had failed without exception.It had filled him with a morbid sense of shame.This feeling began to turn into a chronic depressed mood again.In order to rush out of this evil emotion.Mussolini must take credit in a parallel war.It was a war to be won in its own right, thus fulfilling his dream of Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean.

But preparations for this military operation could not have been worse, and the Italians threw eleven divisions into the first attack.This was later increased to sixteen divisions, and then to twenty-five divisions.The Greeks were able to resist them with only four divisions in the front line, and then, because the roads were narrow and few in number, and were washed out by autumn rains, the Italian army soon stopped advancing.

At this time, the Greek government got a respite, and all their people united around their government; mountain villagers, both men and women, fed their troops with food, and guerrillas also sneaked up on Italian troops from time to time.Then, as the Turks had protected the Greek rear from the Bulgarian attack by declaring that they would never join the war, the Greeks launched a counter-offensive, forcing the Italians to retreat across the board.

In less than ten days, the Italian army was pushed back behind their starting point.Italian propaganda fabricated the lie that the Greeks were failing in their attempt to stop Persaglyri's strategic retreat.After that, the Greeks came in a steady stream, pressing on Vlora, one of Albania's main ports.

Badolio was made the scapegoat and replaced by Hugo Caballero, but that didn't change the situation.When British submarines even infiltrated the Strait of Otranto and sank Italian ships, and the Albanians were ready to move again, the Greek general Papagos did his best to force the Italians to withdraw to their own country.Frustrated by the Italian army in Epirus and defeated in Libya, Mussolini had no choice but to turn to Hitler for help.

Mussolini's actions came as an unpleasant surprise to Hitler, and indeed Hitler was inconvenient to express annoyance that his partner had not made known his intentions to him beforehand, as he himself had done to him before.When Germany blitzed Poland and when Germany attacked France, Hitler did not do much better than Mussolini. Everyone is the same. You are a crow and I am a pig. Don’t say who is black.

But Hitler was furious at the incompetence of the Italian army, and he did not spare Mussolini for his failure, which he did.He expressed concern that the British might bomb the oil fields in Ploiesti and sent fighter jets to protect them.

However, Hitler was not very enthusiastic about sending troops to Albania, nor were German generals advocating for him to do so.However, Hitler did not let go. Whether it was for the unity of the Axis powers or for his friendship with Mussolini, he was not allowed to do nothing. Therefore, Germany prepared to send troops to assist Italy, an ally as stupid as a pig. (To be continued..)