Not exactly ridiculed nations but could you do a video on the contribution to the British Army by Indian and Sri Lankan (Ceylon) forces. As colonise these 2 nations supported Britain heavily but haven’t been mentioned too often.
Imagine capturing some James Bond Laprers in Scubasuits, interrogating them for hours and hearing "Well amigos, this shipa willa blow up in five minues, believa mi or die."
@@calvinfernandez1956 Here you are wrong, the airforce was pretty good, with some of the best airplanes of the axis, the navy was one of the best of the world, with dreadnought Littorio being the biggest ship of the world before Yamato, the only problem was oil and radar
to be fair for them it made perfect sense. they where a country lacking a strong industrial support, so motorising their army to the extend their ally germany could was out of the question, and the terrain of itally and their colonies was ill suited for vehicles, all the while horses are both disponible in ample supply, mobile to the extreme and require functionally no supplies to run (as oposed to the gigantic supply lines needed to support motorized troops). it is a less powerfull but more adaptable style of fighting that require less resources made perfect fit for a country that simply didn't have the industrial lift of its allies and oponents.
@@andreataccone2564 of course, and this does not even sligtly alter the fact that italians had severe balls to do what they did (i mean charging a tank collum with a horse takes a special kind of courage). most of the nations in the second war can't be told to have made "stupid decisions" because most of them made compromises based on what they knew, and we only see some decisions as wrong in hindsight after we forgot the reality of the situation. people say the US were stupid with their sherman production being "inferior" to german heavy tanks, forgetting that the shermans performed admirably during the african campains against the panzers, and remain one of the most survivable tanks of the war due to great ergonomics and reliable construction. people say that france's decision to not extend the maginau line all the way to belgium was a mistake, forgetting that not only building a fortification line in front of one of a neutral country is *scuffed* at best, but the whole idea of the line was moslty to force any invasion force into neutral territory to gain international support (especially for the US) because everyone at that time expected a repeat of WWI. and i could go on and on and on for basically all sides. we like to oversimplify things for the sake of ease of understanding despite the constant reminder that this is a recipie for overconfidence and ultimately catastrophy.... which looking at this early 2020 look like to be repeating itself once more
Legio XXI Rapax So it’s the incompetence of the Germans that had Italians lose to an enemy numerically smaller and outgunned and outdated? Also the Germans did come to Italy’s help but only after 6 months not one and a half month later. So it would be descent to say that that Italians lost to their incompetence and not Germany’s. 1 vs 1 gives you better perspective than 1vs my thugs and me.
@Legio XXI Rapax I am afraid you read somewhere the wrong facts. British troops didnt came to Greece until January 1941. Germans with operation Marita invaded Greece on April 6, 1941. Italian troops were armed better and numerically were double the size of the Greek army. Around half a million italian troops to a quarter million greek. The only thing you can say about the better readiness of the greek army is that it's office have been fighting wars since 1912. So they had much more experience than the italians. Also I will repeat that 1vs 1 is what determines what somebody can do, not 2 by 1. What germans did in one month couldnt the italians do in 6. So again, italians were far more incompetent than the Germans. The only thing that saved Italian troops from being thrown to the sea, is the german invasion.
During the british expeditions to the River Plate, in 1806-1807, an english ship got stuck in the muddy basin of the River Plate next to Buenos Aires, and when the water tide receded it was boarded by a cavalry force led by Martin Miguel de Güemes. Yeah, that actually happened.
Relatively inferiour, small arms were better than you'd think, tanks were the major let down, Navy and Airforce were absolutely good, most of the time even better than their counterparts.
Never forget the sacrifice of El Alamein. Honour to Folgore, Ariete, and more. *"We must honour the men that were the Lions of the Folgore."* -Winston Churchill *"The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier."* -Erwin Rommel *"Mancò la fortuna, non il valore!"* "Luck was missing, not the valor!"
The Italians were some of the best soldiers of the war, up there with Germany easily. The only difference was the Germans actually had an industrial base to support said soldiers, and some of the best leaders in history to command them. The Italians had 1/4 of the industry, and leaders that were put in their positions for political loyalty rather than actual talent.
Most of the soldiers also had close to zero training. You were a farmer and a month later you are fighting against elite British units. It's a shame that they are ridiculised
I don't know where are you from, but I fully agree with your words. As italian I have to admit that, except for few units like the paratroopers of Folgore, our soldiers might be brave, but with very poor training and equipment, especially compared with Germans or British.
my (Italian) grandfather told me that when we ran out of ammunition and without heavy weapons, the Italians attacked the English tanks by climbing on it and throwing incendiary bottles, discovering the trap door, rather than giving up ... The Italians lacked the means, not courage. I speak of the war in North Africa
I have Italian family though they fled to America to evade concentration camps (they were Jewish Italians) he ended up fighting in the invasion of Sicily and helped translate
they were actually called "pigs". if you ever go to venice, there's one in the naval museum. it looks so impossibly unwieldy and clumsy to work, and yet....
Artjom Koslow that’s completely wrong. The Germans had a slew of talented generals, from the iconic ones like Rommel and Guderian to the lesser known (though still pretty recognizable to those in the know) like Von Manstein and Kesselring. And, I’m sure it will traumatize you, Hitler’s decision-making, in retrospect, wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Out of all the decisions he made, most people can only point to a couple that were really terrible. The only reason the Germans lost was because they ran into a Soviet juggernaut that was an A+ to their A.
The story of Amedeo Guillet is among the most interesting of ww2. It's like if it came straight out of an adventure book. After the fall of Italian east africa he organized an eritrean rebellion, using their fear of Ethiopian annexation, too keep as many british troops as possible away from north africa, where the core of the conflict was. To strengthen his alliance with locals, he even married the daughter of a tribal chief. When he get sick from malaria and the British get closed to catch him, he disguised himself as a Yemenite, read the quran and learned about islam (he was already proficient in arab) and his trasformation was so good that when allied soldiers found him his servant convinced them that he was just an arab and to stop bothering him as he was praying. He later even get a permit from the governor to travel to Yemen as the son of a camel s breeder. But the yemenites thought that he was a british spy, so they arrested him. But when the Imam learned that Amedeo was an enemy of the UK, which asked the Yemen to extradite him, he set him free and invite him to live in his palace, where he worked as a groom for more then one year. In late 1943 he finally reach back to Italy, hiding in a Red Cross Navy. He later worked for the Italian inteliggence and after the war became a diplomat. While he was working as ambassador in Morocco, in 1972, he saved the life of many other diplomats during an attempted coup, and for saving his ambassador, West Germany granted him the Great Cross with Star and Sash (If I do not mistake). And these are only extracts of his life. It's sad how even in Italy only few knows about him. He died in 2010.
@@alyssinclair8598 To make an historical comparison, I've always been impressed at how, from historical accounts, Scipio Africanus was one of those guys. Everyone he talked with, Iberian tribesmen or African kings, became a friend and an ally. He was even frowned upon in Rome, for all this relationships he had with foreigners.
I knew some old boys in my local pub who fought the Italians and the Germans. They both claimed that the Italians fought much harder. The Italian soldier was formidable but was let down by equipment and leadership issues
@Mock Harris He mentioned one last stand but didn't go on talking about it, it was in AOI, Ethiopia, Prince Amedeo di Savoia resisted the english and they were allowed to go with flags and weapons: "On 31 January, the Duke of Aosta reported that the Italian military forces in East Africa were down to 67 operational aircraft with limited fuel stocks. With supplies running low and with no chance of re-supply, the Duke of Aosta opted to concentrate the remaining Italian forces into several strongholds: Gondar, Amba Alagi, Dessie, and Gimma. He himself commanded the 7,000 Italians at the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi. With his water supply compromised, surrounded, and besieged by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, the Duke of Aosta surrendered Amba Alagi on 18 May 1941. Due to the gallant resistance of the Italian garrison, the British allowed them to surrender with honours of war." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Amedeo,_Duke_of_Aosta#World_War_II from Fuller, J.F.C. (1993). The Second World War, 1939-45 : a strategical and tactical history. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 102.
Leadership only. They had brilliant designers and were among the leading technological powers. They lacked industrial capacity and resources. And poor *PARTY* leadership had made it an order of magnitude worse. But if we talk about officer core, it also wasn't as bad as people imagine. There were a lot of great commanders. Italy had gotten a reverse of Germany. Germans had a leader, who understood economics, but generals, who believed that USSR will collapse if they take Moscow. Italians had generals, who knew what to do, but a leader, who was borderline mad:(
@@gongologiocaggio El alamein itself and besides, The Italian armed forces fought bravely and suicidally in many occassions, the problem was a cronic lack of resources, lack of radar and an overall incompetent high command.
The myth of Polish cavalry charging German Panzers is known by many (even though it never really happened) yet few speak of the actually succesful Italian charges against enemy tanks/strongpoints.
it happened, and sometimes it was quite succesful, the polish won a minor victory against german tank units; a victory that triggered into sending another division anf luftwaffe to annihilate them which they did
It's all fun and games until you hear "avanti Savoia, carica!" And a madlad with mounted askaris starts gallopping towards your tanks. Lt Guillet is the definition of a madlad. We have our very own Lawrence of Arabia. He died in 2010 at 101 years old. Even Death itself was afraid of him.
Sono nativo di Asmara e ho vissuto in Eritrea fino all'età di 19 anni ! Mio Padre fu uno dei poche ''reduci '' di quella ''EPICA '' battaglia : 13000 soldati Italiani guidati dal Generale Carnimeo a fronte dei 50.000 della ''Coalizione Britannica '' guidati dal Gen, William Platt , composta da Inglesi , Indiani di tre ''etnie '' Sudanesi , Francesi della '' francia libera '' , ma solo i ''quadri '' erano Francesi , la truppa era composta da Senegalesi . Resistettero fino alla fine del '41 . E' uscito dalla piazzaforte dopo che il fronte si era letteralmente '' consumato '' con l'ONORE delle Armi , onore che da sempre i cavallereschi Inglesi riservano solo al nemico VALOROSO . Gli Ufficiali Britannici vollero stringere la mano a ognuno di loro ! Sono nato nel dopoguerra ma conosco le gesta di Amedeo Guillet per bocca di mio padre .Avevano posto una taglia su di lui di mille sterline pa averlo vivo o morto . Questo leggendario personaggio he parlava correttamente l'Arabo e pregava indifferentemente secondo il rito Musulmano e Cristiano , avendo v bisogno di denaro per alimentare la sua ''guerra personale '' fatta di ''IMBOSCATE '' , travestito da Arabo andò di persona a ''INCASSARE '' la taglia senza che NESSUNO tra gli Ufficiali Britannici se ne fosse accorto . Alla sua morte , per suo volere la sua salma venne trasferita nel ''CIMITERO degli Eroi '' di Cheren. Sulla sua lapide volle fossero incise queste parole '' L'Italia non potrà mai fare quello che gli Eritrei hanno fatto pen noi '' . Annoto . Mio Padre è escito dalla Piazzaforte con un SACARO morente , volle stringere la mano di Giovani prima di rendere l'anima a Dio , nell'altra stringeva il ''Gagliardetto di combattimento '' Nel ''CIMITERO degli EROI ''di Cheren , giacciono gli uni accanto all'altro 18.000 soldati , 10.000.Italiani metropolitani e 8.000 ASCARI ITALIANI ! Questo è ciò che scrisse di quella battaglia , il Signor Compton Mc Kenzie , corrispondente di guerra della Eastern Epic :'' La battaglia è ancora oggi ricordata come una delle migliori prove di forza della storia militare italiana recente, nonostante il risultato; questo grazie al coraggio dei soldati italiani e degli Àscari e alla strategia militare del generale Carnimeo. Nel resoconto della battaglia dato nella Eastern Epic, Compton Mackenzie scrisse: «Cheren è stata una delle più dure battaglie di fanteria mai combattute in questa guerra e ciò per l'ostinazione mostrata dai battaglioni Savoia, dagli Alpini, dai Bersaglieri e dai Granatieri, in una maniera composta e decisa, cosa mai mostrata dai tedeschi in nessuna battaglia recente. Nei primi cinque giorni di battaglia gli italiani hanno contato 5000 soldati colpiti (1135 di questi, mortalmente). Lorenzini questo giovane e coraggioso generale, è stato praticamente decapitato da una serie di colpi sparatigli dall'artiglieria britannica. Egli è stato un grande comandante delle truppe italiane in Eritrea. L'infelice propaganda di guerra del tempo ha permesso alla stampa britannica di rappresentare gli italiani come soldatini di ventura; ma se escludiamo la divisione paracadutisti tedesca operante in Italia e i giapponesi attivi in Birmania, nessun esercito nemico col quale le truppe britanniche ed indiane hanno dovuto scontrarsi, ha saputo ingaggiare una battaglia più acre ed efficace di quella dei battaglioni Savoia a Cheren. Oltre ciò, le truppe coloniali italiane, fino al momento di capitolare sulle ultime postazioni, hanno combattuto con valore e coraggio e la loro lealtà in campo è stata testimone della eccellente amministrazione italiana e della valida preparazione militare operata in Eritrea.» !
Everybody: heavy tanks, long-range planes, well supplied and well equipped infantry The italian army: what about... *C A V A L R Y* and *H U M A N T O R P E D O E S*
I mean all the axis powers had poorly supplied and equipped infantry late war, but the Italians admittedly were at least poorly equipped as soon as they entered the war
We still have something like 24 on going trial for violation of international rights in Afghanistan, that is what happen when we have equipment and good commanders, we pretty much smash and mowe everything on our path
@@Darthevo99 Uhm uhm... San Marco Battalion... Uhm uhm... Introducing our most hated unit, just a bunch of fascists, incompetent, extremists; did a terrible job defending refugee camps in peace keeping operations, and thats not all!
@@iono5556 The polish charge was actually effective because the Poles used AT rifles which can penetrate the panzers of the time and bought the poles enough time to consolidate ay Warsaw.
Admiral Cunningham was so impressed by the courage of the Italian frogmen at Alexandia that he insisted on having the dinner with those who had been captured.
Alan Moore it was the one area where they were way ahead... set the path for SBS in U.K. and SEALS in US. Unfortunately history books in English lack coverage which is a shame for serious historical knowledge
@@englishalan222 Armada "Invincible" defeated by the English myth, never mention the English Armada (114 ships) far worse that was actually destroyed in combat, not by a storm, by only 5 Spanish warships and small merchant ships.
In Russia the fact that Italian "frogmen" became the blueprint for naval diversion operatives around the globe is pretty well known. To be fair, had USSR suffered some humiliating defeats from them things may have been different.
«Carri nemici fatta irruzione sud Divisione Ariete. Con ciò Ariete accerchiata. Trovasi circa 5 chilometri nordovest Bir el Abd. Carri Ariete combattono!» (Ultimo comunicato radio dell'Ariete prima della sua distruzione ad El Alamein, ore 15:30 del 4 novembre 1942) «Enemy tanks broke south Ariete Division. With this Ariete is surrounded. Is about 5 kilometers northwest Bir el Abd. Ariete tanks fight! " (Last radio statement of Ariete Division before its destruction at El Alamein, 3.30 pm on 4 November 1942)
I'm italian, and my great grandfather fought all the way through Africa as Captain in the 132nd Artillery Regiment, from our colonial wars to El Alamein, where he got captured. On the night of February the 10th 1943, he stole a few cannons from the British, allowing his unit to replace their broken Italian ones. The next day Rommel gave him an Iron Cross 2nd class. He was then captured and held as a POW until 1947.
@@mangoandguavafruitsmoothie4352 your comment doesn't deserve a response, it's beyond foolish. Facts win, flip answers get bird droppings on rotten fruit.
I am really impressed, that somebody out of Italy is talking about Commander Devil, the regiment Savoia in Russia and the XX Mas (by the way, when the british captured "the italian guy" which was a nobleman, Durand de la Penne, they locked him in the ship, telling him that if the ship would sink, she would have sank together with him. The episode is well known...). Regarding the tactics of the division Folgore: when out of ammo, some paratroopers dug a hole in the sand and waited in the dark holding a magnetic mine, in the hope that the belly of the tank would pass over them, and not the wheels. This is documented. How much courage a man must have to do such a thing? The same tactic was shown in an american movie as performed by US marines against the germans, but as far as I know only the Folgore ever used it, in El Alamein, during the last stand. However, it is true that these were exceptions to a generally poor performance. The thing is: troops under dictatorships rarely, ever, fight well. Dictators always remove good officials and replace them with politically obedient amateurs. And as you reported, basically, the Italian army was not equipped to face a technological war against USA and the british empire. Italian ships were big and powerful but outgunned and did not have the radar (it means that shells suddenly fall upon you and you don't even know from where). Nevertheless, after the war italian forces had to bear an undeserved ridicule, because very often the disaster was no matter of cowardice or stupidity. And moreover, it was a war nobody wanted, troops had very poor motivation to wage war to Russia or Greece (why?) and for sure one can't fight WW2 with WW1 equipment, cavalry charges and courage. If you like the topic, look also about Federico Vallauri, a pilot of legendary courage that performed several war missions in Africa with his Fiat airplane made of reparations. Another example of an italian soldier deserving (at least) respect for his sacrifice. Thank you for the video, by the way. You are probably the least "politically correct" TH-cam historian, and this is why your videos are always interesting.
The only think I dissagree is the point that dictatoriships are always bad at making soldiers, you can think of Nazi-Germany and Japan in those years as mostly combat efective armies. I'm from south america and I'm aware that many of the dictatorships we had have been full of loyal soldiers that were effective. Dictatorships are bad at war when those soldiers don't belive in the cause or chance of succes, and after a hard enough adoctrination most people will continue such violence to the death
Italy was the only dicatorship that didn't create an effective combat force: Germany, Japan, and Russia managed to do so. Also, the movie probably showed American soldiers from the Army doing the thing with the mines, all the Marines went to the Pacific theater iirc. Either way, every army had courageous men doing extraordinary acts of valor, and plenty of poor soldiers more interested in surviving than killing. But i respect your comment for helping to fight the meme that is to make fun of Italy's combat prowess.
@@lautaromoyano5692 Dictatorships tend to create bad armies, because the only danger for the dictator comes from the army, so the dictator tend to fill the army with "yesmen" without initiative (and that excludes japan, since there wasn't a dictator there). That's true, IE, for both Italy and the Soviet Union in WWII. That's partially not true for Germany, but Hitler rose to power only in 1934. In five years he didn't have time to do much damage. Practically all the German high officers in WWII were high officers already in the Weimar Army. The branch that received the more attention from the nazi regime had probably been the Luftwaffe, and infact it had been probably the most disappointing of them (it's often forgotten, but the Luftwaffe already suffered huge losses during the French campaign).
I was thinking in more than WWII while talking about dictatorships. The only two problems that I'm aware dictatorships tend to face out of their oun nature are related to the comand chain and morale, but it doesn't mean they don't have some things to compensate: The chain of command tends to be more lineal and strict, so general orders are usually followed step by step. The problem related to this is when the general has a bad plan (usually out of lack of knowledge of the enemy or personal caracteristics of said general, such as excess of confidence). The problem of morale usually is regarding the fact that the soldier may ask "Is it worth to fight for a regime that I can not even change or vote against?", but in the other hand dictatorships tend to adcotrinate their subordinates and to put a high social pressure for not doing such thing (the far right will say "it's for your nation" while the far left will say "it's for the end of capitalism and a new socialist order"). The hability of the regime to do such things is, for how I see, what makes it combat effective or not
Yes it's always easy for British\Americans etc... to laugh about Italian soldiers in WW2 and even call them cowards, but I haven't seen many British cavalry charges in WW2, I haven't seen American troops fight in Russian winter without boots, I don't recall British soldiers having to fight in the desert with a quarter liter worth of water per day (even had freaking canned peaches!!). Who is the real hero? The one who goes in battle confident in his equipment, well supported by armor and powerful artillery and triumphs or the one who stands despite knowing the weapons at his disposal will be largely ineffective, trying to make do and stubbornly refusing to surrender, facing certain defeat?
My dad fought t against the Italians in North Africa and certainly certainly didn't call them cowards and did respect their efforts. If you just disregard an enemies abilities you cannot defeat them. Which was probably the problem with many the Italian commanders at the beginning of the war.
sadly many people dont give us (the italians) the respect that we should have i mean italy at the time was a very very young unified country with no resorces no colonies and well you know equip. but i must say thoose soldiers were brave may god bless there souls
Personally I think the best page of history of the Italian armed forces during WWII, was the battle of Culqualber, where 2900 Italians, with neither reinforcements nor resupplies, held off 22500 English soldiers and 100 aircrafts for approximately 4 months, always refusing to surrender. The battle ended after a final bayonet charge, in wich almost all of the soldiers died. 🇮🇹✋🏻 Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culqualber
@@giannizen3775 Actually, no, to my shame. But you set it up so well that I just had to go and look it up! There is SO much to history in general, military history included, that is just plain forgotten by the majority of people.
@@grantjohnson5785 unfortunately history is written by the winners, and we all know they never write anything that can cause them a loss of reputation... As an Italian, is is very sad that we were only remembered as inefficient soldiers, while in reality there were many many occasions were we did incredible things such as this... Trivia, The pass of Culqualber has actually been donated to Italy by Abissinia to commemorate the braveness of those soldiers
@@grantjohnson5785 yes I’m sure it’s the Brits who are ashamed, who won the war and African front. Whilst Italy was smacked about, expelled, then forced to surrender 1,000 casualties to nearly zero , lol
You should also consider that the Italian expeditionary force in Russia was originally intended to be used in the Caucasus. So they were mainly equipped as mountain units: light, portable guns, mules, and basically no anti-tank weapons. Only at the last moment, the German command decided that they should be used instead to protect German flanks in the Ukrainian plains, where their equipment was clearly not optimal.
Vero mancò la fortuna, oltre alla benzina, all'acqua, ai viveri, alle munizioni, all'artiglieria decente, a carri decenti, ad un servizio informazioni adeguato, ad una marina coraggiosa, e soprattutto a dei comandanti di teatro (almeno) decenti!
@@maurizioboggian6033 lo stato maggiore della marina disse al duce di avere nafta per 3 mesi. I convogli subirono perdite umane orripilanti. La marina fece quel che si poteva in una situazione impossibile
Parlando di fortuna ! L’Italia è stata sfortunata perche stava sotto una dittatura fascista , e peggio ancora la maggioranza del popolo Italiano aveva creduto alle palle e menzogne del dittatore
@@Rosariabianchi13567 I fascisti non ci arriveranno mai che il valore personale dei soldati non era né una buona ragione per scatenare una guerra contro il mondo né una garanzia di successo per un piano tanto ridicolo. Sono degli idioti.
Thank you. I'm proud to have served (many years later in 1993) in the Fologre Paratroopers Brigade. The square in our Camp was called El Alamein. I had the honor and the absolute privilege to have met, and spoken with some of the heroes who had fought in the African desert against overwhelming British forces. Like lighting from the sky... ...like thunderbolt in a storm Come Folgore dal cielo...come Nembo di Tempesta
Folgore ! Same here, when you serve in that unit there is so much history and lore and pride, it is actually an honor for many Italian people to have served in it and we always consider ourselves Folgore paratroopers for all our lives.
Is the propaganda machine to make extreme fun of the losers, if you do some research you could see how the most rediculized countries of the ww2 actually fought well, and lost for other factors.
@@Ardito3709 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Italy Italy is one of the nations with me most higher ratio of victories. Too bad Italy could not afford the resources and the equipments of major forces (Germany, Great Britain, Soviet Union and USA).
imagine if Italy had fought alongside the allies ... as certain heroic deeds would have been celebrated far and wide instead of being known only by a few ...
Which makes particularly interesting the fact that many actions between 1943-1945 from the remains of the Italian army under the King control are ignored by many. And this, as an italian, is particularly sad. Italy was a Kingdom with a democratic (not absolute democracy, but who had it back in 1920?) elected Parliament, who was turned into a dictatorship under Mussolini because he was seen as a way to be able to ignore many issues of the period and keep the country above the possible economic crashes and was such supported by the upper industrial class and permitted to obtain power by the government of the period, who later failed at recognizing the issue of what they did and taking control back. Essentially, we had no reason on a strategical level to go on a fascist rampage through Europe, but this was a result of an economical elite influecing the politics of the country and then losing control. Those who followed the King in the South were those who were, on a technical level, the true patrios, whatever bullshit the fascists may say. The Army swore fidelity to the King, not some random self-made dictator that wasn't shot dead only because he was a good tool to opposing the socialists in the country.
Italy *did* fight alongside the allies. After the fascists were deposed in 1943, the country switched sides. And they fought quite well all things considered.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 And after it surrendered, a lot of Italian soldiers formed up army units that fought alongside the Allies. Call it what you want, that's de fact a side switch.
@@sststr You don't call it what you want, you call it for what it is. Unconditional surrender is not "de facto" a side switch, it's a surrender. Hard to understand? In no way Italy was treated as a winner, like France. It didn't take part at the peace conference, it lost territories, it had to permantently change the government. Comparatively, Japan had a better treatment at the peace table. Some soldiers in the South chose to fight alongside the allies because after the armistice, Germans INVADED Italy, in some cases massacrated Italians (read up "Massacre of the Acqui Division), took prisoners and deported them to labor camps. What they were supposed to do? "Sure, dear former allies, feel free to storm into our cities, massacre our people, steal our industries, install a loyalist puppet state, send prisoners to fuel your war machine, we don't want you to see us like switching side".
The Italians had an entire battalion called "arditi" that used to banzai Austrian machine gunner position Armed with only knife during ww1. There was also a "samurai" in that battalion during the second world War, his name was "Harukichi Shimoi" it's funny to image Italians throwing a flying kick to the soviets.
Among the various lesser known episodes, I would also like to mention the battle of Culqualber. When 2900 Italian men, without ammunition, fiercely resisted for over a month the assault of 23000 British supported by a hundred planes. Finally immolating himself in a charge with bayonets. Without ever giving up.
I mean Italy never largely lost their homeland early in the war, they just hardly could mount an effective long-time invasion because they simply didn't plan for it. Italy also had effective mountaineers and an effective naval force in the Mediterranean, both just saw less battle than conscripted infantry.
The Best of the Best that’s correct. Wasn’t supposed to join 1943 but Mussolini surmised as did just about everyone at the time Britain was going to sue for peace.. it really came down to quick grab for spoils that ended up being a long war of attrition which Italy was not ready for what so ever.
Their navy would have been a bigger challenge for the British if they had enough oil to power all the ships often. Navy is not of much use when it sits in port because you don't have enough fuel.
Kevin Conrad definitely.. they didn’t even conduct night action training and lacked gunnery training because the fuel was so precious they couldn’t spare it. Really put there ships and sailors at disadvantage especially when going against the most well trained fleet in the world.
You forgot 2 battles: 1) The Battle of Médenine, the last victory of Axis in North Africa when General Messe before being captured forced Allies stopping their advance and undertake defensive strategies,. 2) Navy Battle of Middle June, 12-16 june 1942 when Italian Navy destroyed 2 different british convoys codenamed Harpoon and Vigorous leading to Malta contemporary from East and from West in order to resupply Maltese Garrison despite of presence of 2 British carriers and their advantage of being equipped with Radars that Italian Navy lacked of.
@@Reagan1984 u.s army vs viet cong : humiliation for you u.s. army vs north korean :humiliation for you u.s army vs taeban : humiliation for you u.s army vs iraqi rebels :humiliation for you u.s army vs somali militias (restore hope): humiliation for you us. delta force vs iranian force(American Embassy in Iran 1979 hostages):humiliation for you I must continue???
@@occhiodisauron25 How the hell was the Korean War a humilation? We kicked the North Korean's asses, it wasn't until China came and created a stalemate.
@Hoàng Nguyên wow! That's surprising! In Italian già has several meaning, in this case it mean "Yes, you're unfortunately right" replying to a comment about ignorance and how it affects communication
@@Wes-g2l because being encircled by a 3 to 1 superior foe because of pressure from the politicians in rome, while also glossing over the fact that we were winning every battle untill adowa can be atributed it as something that can resume our millitary history
In Russia at Rossosh there is the only one museum of the nation dedicated to Axis and it is for an Alpini regiment of Italy: the only one enemy regiment never won in Soviet Union
I bollettini di guerra Sovietici recitavano cosi' : gli Alpini si ritirano IMBATTUTI ! La vera ''piaga '' per tanti uomini non è la povertà , ma l ' ''Ignoranza pervicace '' difesa cone fosse una VIRTU' !
even during the German retreat from Stalingrad, Italians not only held the supply line for Germans, but also inflicted a rather heavy casualties to a already-stronger Red Army with cavalries.
Italy:have a small industrial power, small amount of resourses and wrong vision of the modern war tattic. World:Whi yOu CaN't Be LiKe GeRmAnY? yOu ArE aLsO BiG
Britain: undervalues the Italian army Italy: wins the battle 2021: England: undervalues the Italian soccer team Italy: beats England England *AH S'T! HERE WE GO AGAIN!*
As an Italian, thanks! Is beautiful to see a video telling the truth and not making fun of Italy and the italian army for once... We had nothing and as you showed did the impossible sometimes! Thanks a lot! Hope to see a video on the winter war and continuation war :)
@@dillonblair6491 the point is that a country is not a clock, and history isn't a movie, to show how soldiers behaved in heroic ways whithout having the adeguate equipment is getting them the respect they deserve instead of sitting on a sofa ansd shitting on way better men (boys actually) than you who died fighting ill equiped and worse leaded on the wrong side of a war they and their country didn't want to fight. It's not to say that Italy is a wormongering country, we are not and I'm happy about it, we are scientists, artists, writers, not warriors, it's to be true to what happened to our grandfathers.
As i said before, Italy as country didnt have industry or oil or food to fight that kind of war and to arm themselves properly. Only USA had those things in plenty so they armed british and russians, and starved germans out of fuel and resources and defeated them .
History is often written by the Victors. But even the supporting cast of smaller or Minor nation's often get overlooked. Sometimes it was to the smaller nation's who manages to save the skins of others, gave them a fighting chance, ETC. That is no different for the Italians. Though they didn't win, and they weren't one of the few nation's upon the pedestal of glory, it was sheer Ingenuity and good faith in each other that saw the Italians make do with their weapons, utilizing them even if they were nothing but flawed. I am Italian of descent, but that has never given me a Biased outlook. And mostly the Blunders of Italy was posted and remembered, for many people to laugh at, overshadowing the Italians courage, determination, and loyalty even when they were tired of war, had pretty mediocre equipment, and the likes.
just for your knownledge,the italian "human torpedoes" were not suicidal devices like japanese "kaiten" they were basically something between a seascooter and a minisubmarine,transporting an explosive charge on the front once the two-man team got close enough to their target,they detached the charge from their vessel,set the timer,and then get out as quickly as possible of course,this involved a lot of training and courage,since the typical targets of these units were capital ships docked in highly guarded areas this style of warfare impressed so much the allies,at the point that the u.s. navy recruited some of these naval commandos to fight against japan,only that the war ended before they could be deployed
They also had a fast motor boat loaded with explosives on the front of the boat. They pilot the boat towards a ship and jump out with a life raft at the last few seconds.
@Legio XXI Rapax Italian and Latin are still REALLY similar. Just google translate a few sentences from english into italian and latin. Youll see what I mean.
@@EinFelsbrocken google translate with Latin? Are you serious? Also, the Romans were a Latin tribe in modern-day Lazio. Therefore not the whole of Italy was Roman. Not even today there is ethnic homogeneity.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 no, the only thing Italian culture has taken from Rome is the public corruption and political intrigues. Rome was Martial, with Mars as the main god, and with a Martial spirit. There is nothing martial about the modern Italian.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 I suppose you have a point. Still, Roma was pretty much 'war only', at least while it was still Roman. Once the empire started ossifying much of that was lost of course.
iirc, the poles launched a cavalry charge against a force made primarily out of infantry to cover the retreat of their own forces, which was only then countered with a german armoured force
My understanding is that it was a Polish Cavalry unit, but they were equipped with anti-tank rifles and they dismounted prior to engaging German armour.
It wasn't a feasible thing for the italian economy under Mussolini's regime. Italy's economy was too reliant on agriculture and small companies to even be competitive at that point, and the big industrial conglomerates of the time were waaaay behind the competition in terms of output. To put it onto perspective: the most produced tank for the Italians numbered around 3000 units, it was a tankette and its production began in 1933. The american produced around 50.000 Shermans since 1942.
Riccardo Bossi He focuses the industry of the country to build up the nations agriculture, given time he would’ve built up the military industry too but he never saw it as a necessity or a desired target.
E invece è una cazzata perché le guerre non si vincono né solo con la fortuna, né solo col coraggio. L'Italia era, anche solo industrialmente, del tutto impreparata per la guerra. Non aveva le carte in regola per vincere e difatti non ha vinto. Che poi la narrativa odierna sia assolutamente non obiettiva e ottusa, è innegabile. Ma non neghiamo l'evidenza
il problema era l'uomo in carica. Se avessimo concentrato tutte le divisioni SOLO sulla grecia, avremmo potuto prenderla. Avevamo la marina più forte del mediterraneo, rivaleggiavamo con gli inglesi. Ma noooooooo, papa Smurf Benitino voleva espandersi in africa, poi manda anche truppe in russia, e poi dove altro? A già, manda i soldati a morire inutilmente contro la Francia che già si è arresa. Potevamo competere con i paesi alleati più piccoli, ma abbiamo fatto i fighi (o meglio, il cogl*one pretendeva di fare lo splendido) e ne abbiamo pagato le conseguenze.
@Eugenio Cavallo Che non sei figo solo perchè i romani abitavano qui. Sono gli individui ad avere meriti. Non è che se nasci in Italia sei "migliore" degli altri. ANZI. Tendenzialmente noi italiani siamo pigri, ladri, bugiardi e invidiosi. Altro che "roman ancestors".
@Eugenio Cavallo E ridaje, sempre a ripetere le stesse cose...ma ti rendi conto che queste supercazzole suio "migliori studiosi" le ripetono SOLO GLI ITALIANI ahahah in pratica ti stai AUTOPROCLAMANDO migliore degli altri solo perchè nel passato abbiamo avuto personaggi importanti COME TUTTI? Pensi che in francia , Spagna, CIna etc non abbiano avuto figure del genere? No, sei un ignorante del cazzo quindi pensi che l'Italia sia il centro del mondo. In realtà siamo lo ZIMBELLO del mondo. E comunque non hai risposto alla mia domanda: Il fatto che Da VInci sia nato in Italia 500 anni fa...rende l'italiano medio migliore? L'italiano medio disoccupato con reddito di cittadinanza che non ha mai finito la terza media e che vive in una casa popolare a spese dello stato? Quella persona è "migliore" perchè Da Vinci è vissuto qui? RISPONDI.
In Greece, Italian soldiers are regarded as some of the good ones of ww2 because it's widely known over here that is wasn't that the soldiers fault for the bad performance but the fault of the high command and that Italian soldiers were forced to fight in situations that were totally miscalculated and badly planned but still fought with bravery
*Yes, I would VERY MUCH like to hear more about additional Italian WWII victories and accomplishments; before, during and after their Axis relationship. Thank You!*
There are actually far better examples than folcloristic cavalry charges or even the spectacular success of the frogmen. IE the two battles of Bir El Gubi demonstrated that, if they could fight in parity, or only slight inferiority, on material terms, regular Italian troops could win vs. their corresponding Allied troops.
My grandfather has been in africa 3 times 1932, 1935-37 and 1940-1942 when he was captured by Brits, moved(i don't know if it's the right term) in India as prisoner until 21/4/1946, than come back to italy safe. My mother has never heard a single bad word about brits.
Spygineer the Folgore division, at the time consisting of only 3,500 men, held back an army of circa 50,000, destroying or disabling 150 tanks, 200 armoured cars and an unknown number of trucks. The allied army was made up by the British 7th armoured division (the Desert Rats), the British 44th and 50th infantry (or mechanized) divisions, one french division, the British 44th RECCE Regiment and many attached units (Greek brigades, Newzealander and Australian special assault units with an approximate 350 tanks and 250 armoured cars). Add to this some 1,000 artillery pieces. Folgore lost 1,000 men. The allied 2,500-3,000 in addition to the tanks, armoured cars and trucks. The enemy was repelled and retreated north where they had more luck in the area of the front where mainly German forces were located.
well thing is that the germans fought to the absolute last and doing the utmost to ensure that literally everything at their disposal is used whereas the italians threw their spaghetti in fright when sicily saw a medium sized invasion
A cousin of my grandmother was one of the “maiale” divers, he died during the siege of malta. They were so poor that we don’t have any pictures of him, just a rusted pen and a medal. My grandma always had teary eyes when she told us kids the stories about the partisan struggles in the alps and the russian campaign. So many people died, so many families left behind with almost no money. Italians never gave up tho, they never lost hope, not even the women (they were the true backbone of our society during the world wars). I’m a staunch and fierce antifascist, I HATE Mussolini and all those donekeys that made up the ruling class during WW2, but I’ll always have the outmost respect for the italians that died during the struggles, I’m here because of them and also because of my family strongwill. My grandma died november of last year, she remembered EVERY SINGLE THING of the war, she made the solemn pact in front of God that she would teach her grandkids what the war was for common people if she survived. She upholded it 100%. Onore ai caduti.
what about Ariete at Bir el Gubi, where italian tanks smashed the 22nd armoured brigade, causing them to loose half their tanks (Blood, Sweat and Arrogance: The Myths of Churchill's War) somewhere between 40 and 50, inexchange for around 34 tanks. the italians were also successful during the greatest after operation cursader, capturing over 1000 british empire (Indian) prisoners during a counter attack. the italians also captured Rugbet Al Atasc (along side another 1000 Indians)and replused british armoured counter attacks during the battle of Gazala.
You could also analize the success of Italy in intelligence and espionage, like when a group of Carabinieri (if I recall correctly) was able to stole the decription codes used by the Allies in North Africa, basically helping Rommel building his reputation as an infallible general. They knew every single move of the Allies, and were stopped only when some prisoners (it's said that they were germans) revealed that Rommel had the decritpion codes.
Yes it were some Carabinieri under the orders of the Italian Secret Service (SIM- Servizio Informazioni Militare) that stole the encription codes from an US Embassy. And yes it was the capture of a German communication vehicle that let the Allies know of the breach of security
They stole the "black code", the US diplomatic code, that the US Consul in Alexandria used for his communications to Washington, telling them (and to the italians at that point) precious informations about the British movements in N.Africa and the Med. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Italian Intelligence, Mussolini handed some decrypted page of communications to Hitler. At that point, having the originals and the decryptions, the Germans broke the code, and were able to read the US communications as well. Unfortunately for the Axis, the Germans had the idea to transmit the decrypted messages through Enigma, that the Brits were already capable to read. Reading the messages the Brits understood that they were written by a third party that had a deep knowledge of what was going on in Alexandria, so the USA embassy, alerted the Americans that changed the code.
The world: we have Tanks Italy: hold my chavalry Thanks for this video I really love the figure of Amedeo Guillet and X MAS Also Messe was a pretty good general
Hai perfettamente ragione, e messe non era solo un buon generale, lui era il migliore del nostro esercito. È riuscito a dare buoni esito con utilizzo di pochi uomini, con poche perdite e massimo rendimento, lo ha dimostrato a Tripoli (guerra Italo-turca) sul monte grappa (ww1) in Grecia (ww2) e, quando è finalmente diventato generale, in unione sovietica e in Tunisia contro Patton e Montgomery. Se fosse nato prima, sarebbe potuto diventare generale prima dello scoppio della guerra e Mussolini avrebbe potuto farlo capo del regio esercito al posto di cavallero e badoglio (sto solo ipotizzando). P.S: di dove sei?
@@martinperini7441 già sarebbe stato molto meglio mandare Messe in Libia piuttosto che sprecarlo in quell'inutile campagna di Russia dalla quale l'Italia non aveva nulla da guadagnare Comunque io sono Sardo visto che me lo chiedi Tu?
@@casteddu6740 giustissimo, sono assolutamente d'accordo. La Russia non era nei nostri interessi, con quei 200.000 uomini, carri, cavalleria, artiglieria e il generale messe in africa avremmo potuto almeno prendere l Egitto. Comunque sono trentino, ma non chiamarmi tedesco o austriaco sennò mi offendo. Grazie regno di Sardegna per l unificazione italiana ;)
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Use codeword: history
Do Canada even though it wasn't ridiculed
Didn’t NordVPN get hacked?
Not exactly ridiculed nations but could you do a video on the contribution to the British Army by Indian and Sri Lankan (Ceylon) forces. As colonise these 2 nations supported Britain heavily but haven’t been mentioned too often.
@@xXxKAMIKAZExXx and it took them like a year to disclose it
Tough times fot Nordu V P N
Fun Fact: Guillet died in 2010 at the age of 101. He was and probably will always be the last cavalry commander to live on this planet
th-cam.com/video/Pt7mm1vrC_U/w-d-xo.html
What if we were to colonize other planets and bring our horses with us
Yeah, unless a major revolt of tribes unfamiliar with modern tech then technology has made them outdated.
Technically horses aren't the only type of cavalry. Tanks, for inatance, also fall under that category.
Technically the last Cavalry charge in history was led by US special forces in Afghanistan less than 15 years ago lol
Immagine chillin on your warship in Alexandria and than hearing the waves speaking Italian
or a mandolino playing in background
and you see a diver holding a bomb inbetween three fingers...
IT WAS THEIR FAULTO, THEY PUTTA PINEAPPLES ON THE PIZZA, MAMMA MIA!
I ain't no il duce's son
Imagine capturing some James Bond Laprers in Scubasuits, interrogating them for hours and hearing "Well amigos, this shipa willa blow up in five minues, believa mi or die."
I honestly never thought the Italians were bad. It was just they weren’t prepared for war and most of their leadership was quite incompetent.
You forgot to mention their outdated armament, planes, ships
... In short EVERYTHING.
@@calvinfernandez1956
Here you are wrong, the airforce was pretty good, with some of the best airplanes of the axis, the navy was one of the best of the world, with dreadnought Littorio being the biggest ship of the world before Yamato, the only problem was oil and radar
@@feden6840 what about the zero plane?
@@localextremist2839
I said some of the best airplanes, not the best from all the axis, good planes from Gemrnay, Italy and Japan
@@calvinfernandez1956 Thats the point they were not PREPARED and still on a WW1 Mobilization Style
Italy: *uses cavalry charges against tanks and succeeds*
Poland: "is it possible to learn this power"
Italy: *Not from a Pole*
@@pma281 star wars😂😂😂
@@alexbox8967 yup man
You got it goddamn right
@@pma281 heheheh
Love that thing from Star Wars from italy!
everybody laughs until Italy brings out the horses
to be fair for them it made perfect sense. they where a country lacking a strong industrial support, so motorising their army to the extend their ally germany could was out of the question, and the terrain of itally and their colonies was ill suited for vehicles, all the while horses are both disponible in ample supply, mobile to the extreme and require functionally no supplies to run (as oposed to the gigantic supply lines needed to support motorized troops). it is a less powerfull but more adaptable style of fighting that require less resources made perfect fit for a country that simply didn't have the industrial lift of its allies and oponents.
@@mobiuscoreindustries i know it made sense, and that just makes me more proud of being a MF Italian.
@@andreataccone2564 of course, and this does not even sligtly alter the fact that italians had severe balls to do what they did (i mean charging a tank collum with a horse takes a special kind of courage). most of the nations in the second war can't be told to have made "stupid decisions" because most of them made compromises based on what they knew, and we only see some decisions as wrong in hindsight after we forgot the reality of the situation.
people say the US were stupid with their sherman production being "inferior" to german heavy tanks, forgetting that the shermans performed admirably during the african campains against the panzers, and remain one of the most survivable tanks of the war due to great ergonomics and reliable construction.
people say that france's decision to not extend the maginau line all the way to belgium was a mistake, forgetting that not only building a fortification line in front of one of a neutral country is *scuffed* at best, but the whole idea of the line was moslty to force any invasion force into neutral territory to gain international support (especially for the US) because everyone at that time expected a repeat of WWI.
and i could go on and on and on for basically all sides. we like to oversimplify things for the sake of ease of understanding despite the constant reminder that this is a recipie for overconfidence and ultimately catastrophy....
which looking at this early 2020 look like to be repeating itself once more
@@mobiuscoreindustries hell yeah my brother, free pizzas for you.
@@mobiuscoreindustries I ever wondered what happened to the horses if they survived an engagement
Italian general: We need 6 months to prepare for an invasion of Greece.
Mussolini: I'll give you 2 weeks, we got this, ok;
Proceeds to loose
John Carbone yeah but he means near on two weeks
Argyrus 47 that’s so true! Musalini was also very unhelpful to the North African campaign
Legio XXI Rapax So it’s the incompetence of the Germans that had Italians lose to an enemy numerically smaller and outgunned and outdated? Also the Germans did come to Italy’s help but only after 6 months not one and a half month later. So it would be descent to say that that Italians lost to their incompetence and not Germany’s. 1 vs 1 gives you better perspective than 1vs my thugs and me.
@Legio XXI Rapax I am afraid you read somewhere the wrong facts. British troops didnt came to Greece until January 1941. Germans with operation Marita invaded Greece on April 6, 1941. Italian troops were armed better and numerically were double the size of the Greek army. Around half a million italian troops to a quarter million greek. The only thing you can say about the better readiness of the greek army is that it's office have been fighting wars since 1912. So they had much more experience than the italians. Also I will repeat that 1vs 1 is what determines what somebody can do, not 2 by 1. What germans did in one month couldnt the italians do in 6. So again, italians were far more incompetent than the Germans. The only thing that saved Italian troops from being thrown to the sea, is the german invasion.
"Cavalry Charges are not effective in naval combat"
Atlantis has entered the chat.
I forget what battle bt in real life a knightly caverly charge deafted a fleet for the only time in history when the water froze trapping the fleet
@@Yingyanglord1 Nepolionic, not sure when, i think it was against the Dutch, during one of the multiple wars of the 1st 2nd 3rd etc... coalition.
Caligula has entered the chat
During the british expeditions to the River Plate, in 1806-1807, an english ship got stuck in the muddy basin of the River Plate next to Buenos Aires, and when the water tide receded it was boarded by a cavalry force led by Martin Miguel de Güemes. Yeah, that actually happened.
@@peterd3330 23. January 1795 128 French Hussars vs a dutch Fleet in the Ice.
Germans: Calvary cannot stand against tanks.
Italians: Hold my wine.
Germans making fun of Polish Cavalry but admiring Italian Cavalry
U mean hold me pasta
Tanks is cavarly too, you mean horses
@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 welcome to propaganda
Well they fight Russian ofc they’re gonna win all Russia got are number anyway
Imagine being a British tanker getting wrecked by cavalry.
Image me thinking someone is offending Britain but realising it too late and get bombarded by r/wooshs
david hacckerman lol the salt is real in that comment
Although the charge did delay the British, I'm not sure that it caused as many casaulties (especially in tanks) as is made out.
@@The_Gerry_Man Actually if usa never trade stuff to Uk they would lose ww1 too
Galactic Prince thats indirect help though, on the other hand the lend lease definitely wasnt
Messe is one of the most underrated generals in WW2.
Hi hunter
Known also for being the only Italian general allowed to command german troops
messe is not underrated
yeah, he's my top general in HOI4
@@captainstag8189 and World Conqueror 3
The bravery of Italian soldiers was let down by stupid commanders and inferior weapons
Relatively inferiour, small arms were better than you'd think, tanks were the major let down, Navy and Airforce were absolutely good, most of the time even better than their counterparts.
*less weapons
TheOtakuComrade Ehh Navy was good Air Force was ok but it took awhile to become good
hita techi some of there weapons we’re actually pretty good
@@CaptainGrief66 A pity that they lacked the fuel to function...
Never forget the sacrifice of El Alamein.
Honour to Folgore, Ariete, and more.
*"We must honour the men that were the Lions of the Folgore."* -Winston Churchill
*"The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier."* -Erwin Rommel
*"Mancò la fortuna, non il valore!"* "Luck was missing, not the valor!"
Churchill and Rommel never said those words...
@@Emily_666-s3h they did
in El Alamein there is a plaque left in honor of the battle, where this quote from Rommel is written.
@@p.f.886 but the plaque was placed there after the war by the Italian government, dude
Rommel's quote is true. Churchill's quote is just a fake endorsed by extreme-right parties.
As an Italian i really want to thank you for give some justice to our fallen soldiers.
esattamente onore a loro
@@ascaro1885oh Dio, la leggenda.
The fallen soldiers who fought for a fascist...
@@Noidonteatbabiesstopasking he probably meant the resistence soldier Who are basically forget by the history
Si fra, dopo che a 1:04 dice "si, sono stari efficaci" detto come se non avessero mai fatto niente durante tutta la guerra
The Italians were some of the best soldiers of the war, up there with Germany easily. The only difference was the Germans actually had an industrial base to support said soldiers, and some of the best leaders in history to command them. The Italians had 1/4 of the industry, and leaders that were put in their positions for political loyalty rather than actual talent.
Most of the soldiers also had close to zero training. You were a farmer and a month later you are fighting against elite British units. It's a shame that they are ridiculised
Holy words my friend, thank you ❤️
I don't know where are you from, but I fully agree with your words. As italian I have to admit that, except for few units like the paratroopers of Folgore, our soldiers might be brave, but with very poor training and equipment, especially compared with Germans or British.
@@leopitrelli th-cam.com/video/Bmc9NFfhx74/w-d-xo.html
The german soldiers were all drugged up and high on crystal meth.
The Italians made arguably the most important invention in WWII, after the British embargo stopping chocolate imports, the Italians invented Nutella.
If this is fr then i send healthy vibes to the blockade
@Stellvia Hoenheim but they can still ingest other pastas, and none of them are either.
@@weirddudes5543 Isn't all pasta a kind of spaghet?
I am not %100 sure what is more important: Nutella or Fanta (invented by Germans for similar reasons).
@@cattraknoff spaghetti are a kind of pasta my dude
my (Italian) grandfather told me that when we ran out of ammunition and without heavy weapons, the Italians attacked the English tanks by climbing on it and throwing incendiary bottles, discovering the trap door, rather than giving up ... The Italians lacked the means, not courage.
I speak of the war in North Africa
Astonishing… wow 😯
The fact your Italian grandfather fought in North Africa and lived to tell the tale is astonishing. Cudos to your family!
I have Italian family though they fled to America to evade concentration camps (they were Jewish Italians) he ended up fighting in the invasion of Sicily and helped translate
@@predatxr7624my grandfather from Molise fought in North Africa too. I still have his bayonet and his flask at home. Mad stuff.
well, we italians are good fighters... Unfortunately we suffer from an endemic strain of inefficent leadership...
You are right.
For leadership you mean mussolini, the generals or those 2 together?
Generals. Mussolini was scared of Hitler and warned about him in 1934 and heavily in 1936? And what do allies do? They put sanctions on him :/
Be the general they need then
@@martinperini7441 I have heard only 2 generals were kinda good. Meese and badgolio
why is this a common threat in the latin countrys
"We cant use horses on water"
Italians:*make sea horses that are manned by humans*
they were actually called "pigs". if you ever go to venice, there's one in the naval museum. it looks so impossibly unwieldy and clumsy to work, and yet....
*Jet skis and contact mines on lance poles*
????????
@@eugenio5774 i also saw one in a public park in sicily, i don't remember where though
they removed the explosive warhead from the torpedo and strapped it to the keel of the ships
"Some of the best in the world yet led by the worst"
History is strange in the way it works.
Thats why Giovanni Messe was successful, a decent general leading decent men.
Could be the german Army aswell... The Germans always had very good soldiers but most time awful leadership.
How about good leaders leading bad soldiers?
@Hoàng Nguyên Ohh good example
Artjom Koslow that’s completely wrong. The Germans had a slew of talented generals, from the iconic ones like Rommel and Guderian to the lesser known (though still pretty recognizable to those in the know) like Von Manstein and Kesselring. And, I’m sure it will traumatize you, Hitler’s decision-making, in retrospect, wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Out of all the decisions he made, most people can only point to a couple that were really terrible. The only reason the Germans lost was because they ran into a Soviet juggernaut that was an A+ to their A.
Germany: here, contemplate the Tiger heavy tank!
Italy: behold my CAVALLO
The story of Amedeo Guillet is among the most interesting of ww2. It's like if it came straight out of an adventure book. After the fall of Italian east africa he organized an eritrean rebellion, using their fear of Ethiopian annexation, too keep as many british troops as possible away from north africa, where the core of the conflict was. To strengthen his alliance with locals, he even married the daughter of a tribal chief. When he get sick from malaria and the British get closed to catch him, he disguised himself as a Yemenite, read the quran and learned about islam (he was already proficient in arab) and his trasformation was so good that when allied soldiers found him his servant convinced them that he was just an arab and to stop bothering him as he was praying. He later even get a permit from the governor to travel to Yemen as the son of a camel s breeder. But the yemenites thought that he was a british spy, so they arrested him. But when the Imam learned that Amedeo was an enemy of the UK, which asked the Yemen to extradite him, he set him free and invite him to live in his palace, where he worked as a groom for more then one year. In late 1943 he finally reach back to Italy, hiding in a Red Cross Navy. He later worked for the Italian inteliggence and after the war became a diplomat. While he was working as ambassador in Morocco, in 1972, he saved the life of many other diplomats during an attempted coup, and for saving his ambassador, West Germany granted him the Great Cross with Star and Sash (If I do not mistake). And these are only extracts of his life. It's sad how even in Italy only few knows about him. He died in 2010.
Oki damn this guy sounds impressive. The ability to adapt to different cultures and make friends in them is rare but this shows how usefull it can be
@@alyssinclair8598 To make an historical comparison, I've always been impressed at how, from historical accounts, Scipio Africanus was one of those guys. Everyone he talked with, Iberian tribesmen or African kings, became a friend and an ally. He was even frowned upon in Rome, for all this relationships he had with foreigners.
Mortato Doesnthaveasurname If you are interested here is Amedeo Guillet’s extended bio: th-cam.com/video/AEbEpFAm1gk/w-d-xo.html
@@arnaldoteodorani277 thanks
@@neutronalchemist3241 that is a good example. Outside of the obvious Lawrence of arabia tho I can't think of many others
I knew some old boys in my local pub who fought the Italians and the Germans. They both claimed that the Italians fought much harder. The Italian soldier was formidable but was let down by equipment and leadership issues
@Mock Harris He mentioned one last stand but didn't go on talking about it, it was in AOI, Ethiopia, Prince Amedeo di Savoia resisted the english and they were allowed to go with flags and weapons:
"On 31 January, the Duke of Aosta reported that the Italian military forces in East Africa were down to 67 operational aircraft with limited fuel stocks. With supplies running low and with no chance of re-supply, the Duke of Aosta opted to concentrate the remaining Italian forces into several strongholds: Gondar, Amba Alagi, Dessie, and Gimma. He himself commanded the 7,000 Italians at the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi. With his water supply compromised, surrounded, and besieged by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, the Duke of Aosta surrendered Amba Alagi on 18 May 1941. Due to the gallant resistance of the Italian garrison, the British allowed them to surrender with honours of war."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Amedeo,_Duke_of_Aosta#World_War_II
from Fuller, J.F.C. (1993). The Second World War, 1939-45 : a strategical and tactical history. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 102.
Leadership only. They had brilliant designers and were among the leading technological powers. They lacked industrial capacity and resources. And poor *PARTY* leadership had made it an order of magnitude worse. But if we talk about officer core, it also wasn't as bad as people imagine. There were a lot of great commanders.
Italy had gotten a reverse of Germany. Germans had a leader, who understood economics, but generals, who believed that USSR will collapse if they take Moscow. Italians had generals, who knew what to do, but a leader, who was borderline mad:(
Legio XXI Rapax
Chad Hannibal vs Virgin Rome
@Mock Harris If you want an Italian last stand in North Africa there's the battle of El Guettar in Tunisia in 1943
@@gongologiocaggio El alamein itself and besides, The Italian armed forces fought bravely and suicidally in many occassions, the problem was a cronic lack of resources, lack of radar and an overall incompetent high command.
The myth of Polish cavalry charging German Panzers is known by many (even though it never really happened) yet few speak of the actually succesful Italian charges against enemy tanks/strongpoints.
It happened. Polish cavalry charged german infantry and continued attacking, when the germans got tank reinforcements.
it happened, and sometimes it was quite succesful, the polish won a minor victory against german tank units;
a victory that triggered into sending another division anf luftwaffe to annihilate them which they did
True
"the myth?"
It's all fun and games until you hear "avanti Savoia, carica!" And a madlad with mounted askaris starts gallopping towards your tanks.
Lt Guillet is the definition of a madlad. We have our very own Lawrence of Arabia. He died in 2010 at 101 years old. Even Death itself was afraid of him.
Sono nativo di Asmara e ho vissuto in Eritrea fino all'età di 19 anni ! Mio Padre fu uno dei poche ''reduci '' di quella ''EPICA '' battaglia : 13000 soldati Italiani guidati dal Generale Carnimeo a fronte dei 50.000 della ''Coalizione Britannica '' guidati dal Gen, William Platt , composta da Inglesi , Indiani di tre ''etnie '' Sudanesi , Francesi della '' francia libera '' , ma solo i ''quadri '' erano Francesi , la truppa era composta da Senegalesi . Resistettero fino alla fine del '41 . E' uscito dalla piazzaforte dopo che il fronte si era letteralmente '' consumato '' con l'ONORE delle Armi , onore che da sempre i cavallereschi Inglesi riservano solo al nemico VALOROSO . Gli Ufficiali Britannici vollero stringere la mano a ognuno di loro ! Sono nato nel dopoguerra ma conosco le gesta di Amedeo Guillet per bocca di mio padre .Avevano posto una taglia su di lui di mille sterline pa averlo vivo o morto . Questo leggendario personaggio he parlava correttamente l'Arabo e pregava indifferentemente secondo il rito Musulmano e Cristiano , avendo v bisogno di denaro per alimentare la sua ''guerra personale '' fatta di ''IMBOSCATE '' , travestito da Arabo andò di persona a ''INCASSARE '' la taglia senza che NESSUNO tra gli Ufficiali Britannici se ne fosse accorto . Alla sua morte , per suo volere la sua salma venne trasferita nel ''CIMITERO degli Eroi '' di Cheren. Sulla sua lapide volle fossero incise queste parole '' L'Italia non potrà mai fare quello che gli Eritrei hanno fatto pen noi '' . Annoto . Mio Padre è escito dalla Piazzaforte con un SACARO morente , volle stringere la mano di Giovani prima di rendere l'anima a Dio , nell'altra stringeva il ''Gagliardetto di combattimento '' Nel ''CIMITERO degli EROI ''di Cheren , giacciono gli uni accanto all'altro 18.000 soldati , 10.000.Italiani metropolitani e 8.000 ASCARI ITALIANI ! Questo è ciò che scrisse di quella battaglia , il Signor Compton Mc Kenzie , corrispondente di guerra della Eastern Epic :'' La battaglia è ancora oggi ricordata come una delle migliori prove di forza della storia militare italiana recente, nonostante il risultato; questo grazie al coraggio dei soldati italiani e degli Àscari e alla strategia militare del generale Carnimeo. Nel resoconto della battaglia dato nella Eastern Epic, Compton Mackenzie scrisse:
«Cheren è stata una delle più dure battaglie di fanteria mai combattute in questa guerra e ciò per l'ostinazione mostrata dai battaglioni Savoia, dagli Alpini, dai Bersaglieri e dai Granatieri, in una maniera composta e decisa, cosa mai mostrata dai tedeschi in nessuna battaglia recente. Nei primi cinque giorni di battaglia gli italiani hanno contato 5000 soldati colpiti (1135 di questi, mortalmente). Lorenzini questo giovane e coraggioso generale, è stato praticamente decapitato da una serie di colpi sparatigli dall'artiglieria britannica. Egli è stato un grande comandante delle truppe italiane in Eritrea.
L'infelice propaganda di guerra del tempo ha permesso alla stampa britannica di rappresentare gli italiani come soldatini di ventura; ma se escludiamo la divisione paracadutisti tedesca operante in Italia e i giapponesi attivi in Birmania, nessun esercito nemico col quale le truppe britanniche ed indiane hanno dovuto scontrarsi, ha saputo ingaggiare una battaglia più acre ed efficace di quella dei battaglioni Savoia a Cheren. Oltre ciò, le truppe coloniali italiane, fino al momento di capitolare sulle ultime postazioni, hanno combattuto con valore e coraggio e la loro lealtà in campo è stata testimone della eccellente amministrazione italiana e della valida preparazione militare operata in Eritrea.» !
@@aldolamberti3855 le tue parole mi hanno rinfrancato il cuore
@@samuele5802 Anche le tue , James Sei una persona profondamente onesta ! Un abbraccio sincero .
@@aldolamberti3855 grazie mille 🙏🏻
Anche a te , James . Buona Serata ! @@samuele5802
"Muh Italy bad"
Bersaglieri, Alpini and Folgore: bruh hold my grappa
Grappa per veri uomini
Solo per uomini veri
Wtf
Paolo Luckyluke explain yourself
Arditi...ho detto tutto
Here before it’s demonetized
Yep
facts
And now is not
Clutch McKaiser a second time
Here too late already
Everybody: heavy tanks, long-range planes, well supplied and well equipped infantry
The italian army: what about...
*C A V A L R Y* and *H U M A N T O R P E D O E S*
I mean if it aint broken u aint fixin it
Not like they were the only ones that worked in italy right? Right?!?!
Germany had several cavalry divisions and relied significantly on horses for its logistics...
@@HingerlAlois Yes of course, for its logistics as you said! Not for assaluts on enemy armoured divisions!
I mean all the axis powers had poorly supplied and equipped infantry late war, but the Italians admittedly were at least poorly equipped as soon as they entered the war
Sorry to say this, but it's cavalry*
If you give Italians proper equipment and commanded by smart commanders, they are just as competent as their axis counterparts.
Humans are humans. Basic nature dictates that we can all fight, we just need the context to do it.
We still have something like 24 on going trial for violation of international rights in Afghanistan, that is what happen when we have equipment and good commanders, we pretty much smash and mowe everything on our path
They were even better
@@Darthevo99 Uhm uhm... San Marco Battalion... Uhm uhm...
Introducing our most hated unit, just a bunch of fascists, incompetent, extremists; did a terrible job defending refugee camps in peace keeping operations, and thats not all!
That's true for any army, though. And what gives the victory to the better army.
Imagine charging with horses against tanks and actually winning
"Wow that *worked* ?"
If you come from italy you can win
If you come from poland....
@@iono5556 The polish charge was actually effective because the Poles used AT rifles which can penetrate the panzers of the time and bought the poles enough time to consolidate ay Warsaw.
@@iono5556 LOL! Poor Poland.
I don't think the charge against the tanks worked.
It's kind of sad that he has to put "EDUCATIONAL CONTENT" in all caps for the title.
armchair historian team should've added the "GONE SEXUAL" and stuff
Don't think that even helped
TH-cam is a privately owned platform, it has always been a dictatorship, like every privately owned business.
More comments he gets, the more TH-cam will prioritize the video. We need comments in the thousands!
Me me wants some comments.
No, millions...
Ok
Algorithm food
I just found out today that replies to comments apply to the overall comment count
Admiral Cunningham was so impressed by the courage of the Italian frogmen at Alexandia that he insisted on having the dinner with those who had been captured.
Alan Moore it was the one area where they were way ahead... set the path for SBS in U.K. and SEALS in US. Unfortunately history books in English lack coverage which is a shame for serious historical knowledge
History books are biased. British and Americans always appear as the good ones when they got tons of skeletons in the closets..
@@belladesa91 Not the history books I read. They tell of the battles that the Italians fought in and emphasis their courage.
@@belladesa91 It is a myth that British and American books are biased. I have not noticed any biasedness in 48 years of studying military history.
@@englishalan222 Armada "Invincible" defeated by the English myth, never mention the English Armada (114 ships) far worse that was actually destroyed in combat, not by a storm, by only 5 Spanish warships and small merchant ships.
i can only hear "AVANTI SAVOIA"
"avanti isavoia"
hahahaha
Should have name it "neo Roman empire prank, gone wrong" so TH-cam doesn't demonetized it
@rommel4844
Post-Fall Roman/Italian Empire?
@rommel4844 c'mon it's not like the word neo is associated with skin jackets and early sings of allopecia
Hahahahaha😂😂
neo-Roman Empire gone wrong(gone sexual)
@@worsethanjoerogan8061 wtf😂😂
Whoa basically Italy invented Navy Seals way before anyone else
In Russia the fact that Italian "frogmen" became the blueprint for naval diversion operatives around the globe is pretty well known. To be fair, had USSR suffered some humiliating defeats from them things may have been different.
@Legio XXI Rapax LOL!
@Legio XXI Rapax No, Canadian. But it made me laugh to read 'Italian' and 'Special Forces' in the same sentence.
Michael James Yeah bro, keep on being childish and studying history on Internet memes and you never stop to laugh! 😁
@@vonvikken memes? I know my history. Don't need memes.
Italy had some underrated moments in WWII.
So true
pretty much everything good that Italy did in ww2 was so underrated that theyre just unknown by the great majority
«Carri nemici fatta irruzione sud Divisione Ariete. Con ciò Ariete accerchiata. Trovasi circa 5 chilometri nordovest Bir el Abd. Carri Ariete combattono!»
(Ultimo comunicato radio dell'Ariete prima della sua distruzione ad El Alamein, ore 15:30 del 4 novembre 1942)
«Enemy tanks broke south Ariete Division. With this Ariete is surrounded. Is about 5 kilometers northwest Bir el Abd. Ariete tanks fight! "
(Last radio statement of Ariete Division before its destruction at El Alamein, 3.30 pm on 4 November 1942)
155 pantere nere?
@@armor-cladfool8764 si? sono giubbi
@@giubgiubbi3409 hahahah sono alefava, piacere di trovare un uomo di cultura
Say what?
@@thebecks6356 ?
The story of the Regia Marina Decima MAS is unbelievable, everything about them is epic, starting from their motto: Memento Audere Semper.
Real History: Italy defending colonies.
Hoi 4: Zero supply in Africa.
Fk jl Just puppet Ethiopia instead of annexing it
Michele Vogliardi Maybe even return Eritrea
@@tjb_6203 Nah, there's a civ there.
@@arianas0714 that one civ makes a difference!
Šimon Ťapaj every civ matters
I'm italian, and my great grandfather fought all the way through Africa as Captain in the 132nd Artillery Regiment, from our colonial wars to El Alamein, where he got captured. On the night of February the 10th 1943, he stole a few cannons from the British, allowing his unit to replace their broken Italian ones. The next day Rommel gave him an Iron Cross 2nd class. He was then captured and held as a POW until 1947.
So he fought with the Ariete armoured division?
@@thecommentaryking yup!
i'd love to see a video on the other minor axis nations, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
Me too
I wouldn't call italy a minor axis nation.
They were just concentration camp gaurds and other assorted filth.
@@mangoandguavafruitsmoothie4352 your comment doesn't deserve a response, it's beyond foolish. Facts win, flip answers get bird droppings on rotten fruit.
blah blah blah prove me wrong
I am really impressed, that somebody out of Italy is talking about Commander Devil, the regiment Savoia in Russia and the XX Mas (by the way, when the british captured "the italian guy" which was a nobleman, Durand de la Penne, they locked him in the ship, telling him that if the ship would sink, she would have sank together with him. The episode is well known...). Regarding the tactics of the division Folgore: when out of ammo, some paratroopers dug a hole in the sand and waited in the dark holding a magnetic mine, in the hope that the belly of the tank would pass over them, and not the wheels. This is documented. How much courage a man must have to do such a thing? The same tactic was shown in an american movie as performed by US marines against the germans, but as far as I know only the Folgore ever used it, in El Alamein, during the last stand.
However, it is true that these were exceptions to a generally poor performance. The thing is: troops under dictatorships rarely, ever, fight well. Dictators always remove good officials and replace them with politically obedient amateurs. And as you reported, basically, the Italian army was not equipped to face a technological war against USA and the british empire.
Italian ships were big and powerful but outgunned and did not have the radar (it means that shells suddenly fall upon you and you don't even know from where).
Nevertheless, after the war italian forces had to bear an undeserved ridicule, because very often the disaster was no matter of cowardice or stupidity.
And moreover, it was a war nobody wanted, troops had very poor motivation to wage war to Russia or Greece (why?) and for sure one can't fight WW2 with WW1 equipment, cavalry charges and courage.
If you like the topic, look also about Federico Vallauri, a pilot of legendary courage that performed several war missions in Africa with his Fiat airplane made of reparations.
Another example of an italian soldier deserving (at least) respect for his sacrifice.
Thank you for the video, by the way. You are probably the least "politically correct" TH-cam historian, and this is why your videos are always interesting.
The only think I dissagree is the point that dictatoriships are always bad at making soldiers, you can think of Nazi-Germany and Japan in those years as mostly combat efective armies. I'm from south america and I'm aware that many of the dictatorships we had have been full of loyal soldiers that were effective. Dictatorships are bad at war when those soldiers don't belive in the cause or chance of succes, and after a hard enough adoctrination most people will continue such violence to the death
Italy was the only dicatorship that didn't create an effective combat force: Germany, Japan, and Russia managed to do so. Also, the movie probably showed American soldiers from the Army doing the thing with the mines, all the Marines went to the Pacific theater iirc. Either way, every army had courageous men doing extraordinary acts of valor, and plenty of poor soldiers more interested in surviving than killing. But i respect your comment for helping to fight the meme that is to make fun of Italy's combat prowess.
@@lautaromoyano5692 Dictatorships tend to create bad armies, because the only danger for the dictator comes from the army, so the dictator tend to fill the army with "yesmen" without initiative (and that excludes japan, since there wasn't a dictator there). That's true, IE, for both Italy and the Soviet Union in WWII. That's partially not true for Germany, but Hitler rose to power only in 1934. In five years he didn't have time to do much damage. Practically all the German high officers in WWII were high officers already in the Weimar Army. The branch that received the more attention from the nazi regime had probably been the Luftwaffe, and infact it had been probably the most disappointing of them (it's often forgotten, but the Luftwaffe already suffered huge losses during the French campaign).
I was thinking in more than WWII while talking about dictatorships. The only two problems that I'm aware dictatorships tend to face out of their oun nature are related to the comand chain and morale, but it doesn't mean they don't have some things to compensate: The chain of command tends to be more lineal and strict, so general orders are usually followed step by step. The problem related to this is when the general has a bad plan (usually out of lack of knowledge of the enemy or personal caracteristics of said general, such as excess of confidence). The problem of morale usually is regarding the fact that the soldier may ask "Is it worth to fight for a regime that I can not even change or vote against?", but in the other hand dictatorships tend to adcotrinate their subordinates and to put a high social pressure for not doing such thing (the far right will say "it's for your nation" while the far left will say "it's for the end of capitalism and a new socialist order"). The hability of the regime to do such things is, for how I see, what makes it combat effective or not
@@lautaromoyano5692 no bro also Japan wasn’t an effective army because like the italian one was not good equipped
Literally Everyone: Italy Bad. Meatball Launchers. Pizza Pizza.
The Armchair Historian: IT'S TIME TO STOP! IT'S TIME TO STOP, OK!?!
Actually no. A big thank to the Armchair Historian but most of the italian history fan community cor years ( yust check under some IG posts)
This! THIS IS CANCER
STOP! In the name of love!
@Barrack Obama Vlogs yeah, but please, add another z, it's mozzarella
Lmao meatball launcher
Yes it's always easy for British\Americans etc... to laugh about Italian soldiers in WW2 and even call them cowards, but I haven't seen many British cavalry charges in WW2, I haven't seen American troops fight in Russian winter without boots, I don't recall British soldiers having to fight in the desert with a quarter liter worth of water per day (even had freaking canned peaches!!). Who is the real hero? The one who goes in battle confident in his equipment, well supported by armor and powerful artillery and triumphs or the one who stands despite knowing the weapons at his disposal will be largely ineffective, trying to make do and stubbornly refusing to surrender, facing certain defeat?
My dad fought t against the Italians in North Africa and certainly certainly didn't call them cowards and did respect their efforts. If you just disregard an enemies abilities you cannot defeat them. Which was probably the problem with many the Italian commanders at the beginning of the war.
sadly many people dont give us (the italians) the respect that we should have i mean italy at the time was a very very young unified country with no resorces no colonies and well you know equip. but i must say thoose soldiers were brave may god bless there souls
Che mona che sei
@@masneri97 Ma chi è chel mona che batte la porta e risponde ai commenti urlando!
@@simonexd3497
You had colonies (Libya, Eritrea, Somolia and Ethiopia), but your other points are correct.
Personally I think the best page of history of the Italian armed forces during WWII, was the battle of Culqualber, where 2900 Italians, with neither reinforcements nor resupplies, held off 22500 English soldiers and 100 aircrafts for approximately 4 months, always refusing to surrender. The battle ended after a final bayonet charge, in wich almost all of the soldiers died. 🇮🇹✋🏻 Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culqualber
Heh... "Commonwealth and Ethipian losses are unknown." I'm pretty sure the Brits know, they're just ashamed to say it.
@@grantjohnson5785 yeah, did you already know about this story?
@@giannizen3775 Actually, no, to my shame. But you set it up so well that I just had to go and look it up! There is SO much to history in general, military history included, that is just plain forgotten by the majority of people.
@@grantjohnson5785 unfortunately history is written by the winners, and we all know they never write anything that can cause them a loss of reputation... As an Italian, is is very sad that we were only remembered as inefficient soldiers, while in reality there were many many occasions were we did incredible things such as this... Trivia, The pass of Culqualber has actually been donated to Italy by Abissinia to commemorate the braveness of those soldiers
@@grantjohnson5785 yes I’m sure it’s the Brits who are ashamed, who won the war and African front. Whilst Italy was smacked about, expelled, then forced to surrender
1,000 casualties to nearly zero , lol
You should also consider that the Italian expeditionary force in Russia was originally intended to be used in the Caucasus. So they were mainly equipped as mountain units: light, portable guns, mules, and basically no anti-tank weapons. Only at the last moment, the German command decided that they should be used instead to protect German flanks in the Ukrainian plains, where their equipment was clearly not optimal.
Mancò la fortuna, non il valore.
Luck was missing, but not the valor.
Oltre ai soldi,l'artiglieria e uno stato maggiore competente
Vero mancò la fortuna, oltre alla benzina, all'acqua, ai viveri, alle munizioni, all'artiglieria decente, a carri decenti, ad un servizio informazioni adeguato, ad una marina coraggiosa, e soprattutto a dei comandanti di teatro (almeno) decenti!
@@maurizioboggian6033 lo stato maggiore della marina disse al duce di avere nafta per 3 mesi. I convogli subirono perdite umane orripilanti.
La marina fece quel che si poteva in una situazione impossibile
Parlando di fortuna ! L’Italia è stata sfortunata perche stava sotto una dittatura fascista , e peggio ancora la maggioranza del popolo Italiano aveva creduto alle palle e menzogne del dittatore
@@Rosariabianchi13567 I fascisti non ci arriveranno mai che il valore personale dei soldati non era né una buona ragione per scatenare una guerra contro il mondo né una garanzia di successo per un piano tanto ridicolo. Sono degli idioti.
Thank you. I'm proud to have served (many years later in 1993) in the Fologre Paratroopers Brigade. The square in our Camp was called El Alamein. I had the honor and the absolute privilege to have met, and spoken with some of the heroes who had fought in the African desert against overwhelming British forces.
Like lighting from the sky...
...like thunderbolt in a storm
Come Folgore dal cielo...come Nembo di Tempesta
Folgore ! Same here, when you serve in that unit there is so much history and lore and pride, it is actually an honor for many Italian people to have served in it and we always consider ourselves Folgore paratroopers for all our lives.
I have always thought that the Italians in WW2 were useless.
I apologize for my utter ignorance.
🇮🇹:Apologies accepted.
Is the propaganda machine to make extreme fun of the losers, if you do some research you could see how the most rediculized countries of the ww2 actually fought well, and lost for other factors.
It is also fault of propaganda if we Italians have become the classic stereotype of the classic nation that changes sides during a war.
@@Ardito3709 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Italy
Italy is one of the nations with me most higher ratio of victories. Too bad Italy could not afford the resources and the equipments of major forces (Germany, Great Britain, Soviet Union and USA).
you are perfectly right. that was not our war, but the war of the Germans, and of the Japanese, we were pulled into the middle, by a megalomaniac
imagine if Italy had fought alongside the allies ... as certain heroic deeds would have been celebrated far and wide instead of being known only by a few ...
That's the winners propaganda, make fun of who lose
Which makes particularly interesting the fact that many actions between 1943-1945 from the remains of the Italian army under the King control are ignored by many.
And this, as an italian, is particularly sad.
Italy was a Kingdom with a democratic (not absolute democracy, but who had it back in 1920?) elected Parliament, who was turned into a dictatorship under Mussolini because he was seen as a way to be able to ignore many issues of the period and keep the country above the possible economic crashes and was such supported by the upper industrial class and permitted to obtain power by the government of the period, who later failed at recognizing the issue of what they did and taking control back.
Essentially, we had no reason on a strategical level to go on a fascist rampage through Europe, but this was a result of an economical elite influecing the politics of the country and then losing control.
Those who followed the King in the South were those who were, on a technical level, the true patrios, whatever bullshit the fascists may say.
The Army swore fidelity to the King, not some random self-made dictator that wasn't shot dead only because he was a good tool to opposing the socialists in the country.
Italy *did* fight alongside the allies. After the fascists were deposed in 1943, the country switched sides. And they fought quite well all things considered.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 And after it surrendered, a lot of Italian soldiers formed up army units that fought alongside the Allies. Call it what you want, that's de fact a side switch.
@@sststr You don't call it what you want, you call it for what it is. Unconditional surrender is not "de facto" a side switch, it's a surrender. Hard to understand? In no way Italy was treated as a winner, like France. It didn't take part at the peace conference, it lost territories, it had to permantently change the government.
Comparatively, Japan had a better treatment at the peace table.
Some soldiers in the South chose to fight alongside the allies because after the armistice, Germans INVADED Italy, in some cases massacrated Italians (read up "Massacre of the Acqui Division), took prisoners and deported them to labor camps.
What they were supposed to do? "Sure, dear former allies, feel free to storm into our cities, massacre our people, steal our industries, install a loyalist puppet state, send prisoners to fuel your war machine, we don't want you to see us like switching side".
The german soldier surprised the world, the italian Bersagliere surprised the german soldier.
Call of war loading screen
@@normalgentleman106 What?
@@cespu_iv4519 what you said is on call of war loading screen
@@normalgentleman106 uhm... I don't know that game lol
@@cespu_iv4519 Google it
Americans: "these japanese banzai charges are like nothing youve ever seen."
British and soviet tankers: "oh you have no idea..."
LOL
Lmao
The Italians had an entire battalion called "arditi" that used to banzai Austrian machine gunner position Armed with only knife during ww1.
There was also a "samurai" in that battalion during the second world War, his name was "Harukichi Shimoi" it's funny to image Italians throwing a flying kick to the soviets.
When you hear the sand speaking spaghet... It's done.
Armchair Historian: Was Italy ever Effective in WWII? | animated mini documentary
TH-cam: "nope" * takes down *
Armchair Historian: Was Italy Ever Effective in WWIl? | Animated Mini-Documentary EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
Really?
Really.
@@matertua2272: So the video was actually taken down and not e.g. just demonetized?
@@seneca983 It was straight up taken down.
Everybody: Heavy tanks, efficient air support, better small guns...
Italians: Bravery and stubbornness.
Lol... Italians wanting to be the underdogs like they never used mustard gas on Ethiopia
Still, Ethiopia had it worse and the Italians were better at breaking international war laws.
@@frezeryilma5735 angry Germans noises
@@frezeryilma5735 Ethiopian broke international law too. The British gave them a banned type of ammos.
@@ilvolante6200 man, are u really comparing mustard gas bombs to illegal bullets? You must have fallen hard on your head when you were a child 🙄
History: WWI is the last time Calvary was used in warfare
Italy: Hold my pizza
Calvary is a hospital in Canberra.
And a city in Canada
100% ACCURATE
I'm pretty sure germans also used cavalry when they used blitzkrieg
@Jure Herman oh thanks for clearing my point i heard somewhere that they used cavalry in the poland invasion but thanks for the information
@Jure Herman didnt US irregular forces use them along with allied insurgents in the early stages in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Among the various lesser known episodes, I would also like to mention the battle of Culqualber. When 2900 Italian men, without ammunition, fiercely resisted for over a month the assault of 23000 British supported by a hundred planes. Finally immolating himself in a charge with bayonets. Without ever giving up.
As an italian I can say one of the greatest qualities of the Italian is the ability to innovate. And of course extreme passion.
Right
*I FREAKING LOVE PASTA*
I'd rather say "ability to find a solution in the darkest our".
@@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite ok boomer
@@fuciugaming4956 Actually, I'm an early zillennial, you troll.
@@fuciugaming4956 Troll spotted
I mean Italy never largely lost their homeland early in the war, they just hardly could mount an effective long-time invasion because they simply didn't plan for it.
Italy also had effective mountaineers and an effective naval force in the Mediterranean, both just saw less battle than conscripted infantry.
Romaniaball also it is worth mentioning the fact that Italy was just not prepared for war.
The Best of the Best that’s correct. Wasn’t supposed to join 1943 but Mussolini surmised as did just about everyone at the time Britain was going to sue for peace.. it really came down to quick grab for spoils that ended up being a long war of attrition which Italy was not ready for what so ever.
That’s literally why everyone calls them terrible.
Their navy would have been a bigger challenge for the British if they had enough oil to power all the ships often. Navy is not of much use when it sits in port because you don't have enough fuel.
Kevin Conrad definitely.. they didn’t even conduct night action training and lacked gunnery training because the fuel was so precious they couldn’t spare it. Really put there ships and sailors at disadvantage especially when going against the most well trained fleet in the world.
You forgot 2 battles:
1) The Battle of Médenine, the last victory of Axis in North Africa when General Messe before being captured forced Allies stopping their advance and undertake defensive strategies,.
2) Navy Battle of Middle June, 12-16 june 1942 when Italian Navy destroyed 2 different british convoys codenamed Harpoon and Vigorous leading to Malta contemporary from East and from West in order to resupply Maltese Garrison despite of presence of 2 British carriers and their advantage of being equipped with Radars that Italian Navy lacked of.
Also nikolajewka siege
Aye, all that’s impressive.
Taranto. :-)
@@jameswatt1987 X MAS Flottilla
@@jameswatt1987
>didn't even cripple the fleet
>Increased Axis shipping
kek, muh tarranto
Italy got savaged - just accept it.
Vivaldi sounding in the background while Italians bravely protect the retreat against overwhelming British forces was EPIC
Everyone: Italy sucked at WW2
Italy: Well yes but actually no
Well yes, but actually yes-
@@Reagan1984 well no, but actually yes
@@Reagan1984 u.s army vs viet cong : humiliation for you
u.s. army vs north korean :humiliation for you
u.s army vs taeban : humiliation for you
u.s army vs iraqi rebels :humiliation for you
u.s army vs somali militias (restore hope): humiliation for you
us. delta force vs iranian force(American Embassy in Iran 1979 hostages):humiliation for you
I must continue???
@@occhiodisauron25
How the hell was the Korean War a humilation? We kicked the North Korean's asses, it wasn't until China came and created a stalemate.
Mate, don’t take it personally - He has to live with the fact this country was an absolute joke during WW2
Its good to see some light throwed to eliminate the unjust stain in our glorious military history
GattoDelPiave Già
@Hoàng Nguyên wow! That's surprising! In Italian già has several meaning, in this case it mean "Yes, you're unfortunately right" replying to a comment about ignorance and how it affects communication
Pensate i francesi
*Cough* 1st ethiopan war
@@Wes-g2l because being encircled by a 3 to 1 superior foe because of pressure from the politicians in rome, while also glossing over the fact that we were winning every battle untill adowa can be atributed it as something that can resume our millitary history
In Russia at Rossosh there is the only one museum of the nation dedicated to Axis and it is for an Alpini regiment of Italy: the only one enemy regiment never won in Soviet Union
I bollettini di guerra Sovietici recitavano cosi' : gli Alpini si ritirano IMBATTUTI ! La vera ''piaga '' per tanti uomini non è la povertà , ma l ' ''Ignoranza pervicace '' difesa cone fosse una VIRTU' !
Ma cosa vatti a vedere cosa hanno fatto gli alpini
@@historyofitaly4364 ci fu un reggimento a rimanere imbattuto e lo stesso fu onorato con la costruzione di quel museo
@@ricibiribicci ahhhh scusa ho letto male bro
Si dice "went undefeated", perche' come l'hai scritto tu sembra che abbiano perso.
even during the German retreat from Stalingrad, Italians not only held the supply line for Germans, but also inflicted a rather heavy casualties to a already-stronger Red Army with cavalries.
The most elite unit in WW2 was Italy’s 10 MAS
Grazie
10 MAS was the Navy SEALs before the Navy SEALs
"X" Mas man, it's "tenth" not "Ten".. used to write the same, a sailor vet of "IX" yelled at me.. aged 90+......
Italy:have a small industrial power, small amount of resourses and wrong vision of the modern war tattic.
World:Whi yOu CaN't Be LiKe GeRmAnY? yOu ArE aLsO BiG
Esatto ahahah
@@ascaro1885 ma ciao
@@siro_8672 messer siro..
Continua comunque a usare la cavalleria e a vincere le battaglie con essa
@@giuseppenasca2091 ahhaja veramente, grandi Messe, Soddu e Guillet, gli unici grandi generali italiani
We needed this video, we really needed it. Thank you for showing the reality of history and when Italy fought well.
Britain: undervalues the Italian army
Italy: wins the battle
2021:
England: undervalues the Italian soccer team
Italy: beats England
England *AH S'T! HERE WE GO AGAIN!*
Britain: proceeds to invade Italy in retaliation
Italy: Proceeds to Push the British back to Egypt.
Adesso viene il bello...
ADESSO VIENE IL BELLO...
As an Italian, thanks! Is beautiful to see a video telling the truth and not making fun of Italy and the italian army for once... We had nothing and as you showed did the impossible sometimes!
Thanks a lot!
Hope to see a video on the winter war and continuation war :)
@@dillonblair6491 the point is that a country is not a clock, and history isn't a movie, to show how soldiers behaved in heroic ways whithout having the adeguate equipment is getting them the respect they deserve instead of sitting on a sofa ansd shitting on way better men (boys actually) than you who died fighting ill equiped and worse leaded on the wrong side of a war they and their country didn't want to fight. It's not to say that Italy is a wormongering country, we are not and I'm happy about it, we are scientists, artists, writers, not warriors, it's to be true to what happened to our grandfathers.
As i said before, Italy as country didnt have industry or oil or food to fight that kind of war and to arm themselves properly. Only USA had those things in plenty so they armed british and russians, and starved germans out of fuel and resources and defeated them .
But you still got rekt
@@_neededdwarf_3047
Show respect
@@feden6840 I thought it was a little bit funny but if it ofended you I not gonna do it again
History is often written by the Victors.
But even the supporting cast of smaller or Minor nation's often get overlooked. Sometimes it was to the smaller nation's who manages to save the skins of others, gave them a fighting chance, ETC. That is no different for the Italians. Though they didn't win, and they weren't one of the few nation's upon the pedestal of glory, it was sheer Ingenuity and good faith in each other that saw the Italians make do with their weapons, utilizing them even if they were nothing but flawed.
I am Italian of descent, but that has never given me a Biased outlook. And mostly the Blunders of Italy was posted and remembered, for many people to laugh at, overshadowing the Italians courage, determination, and loyalty even when they were tired of war, had pretty mediocre equipment, and the likes.
Too true! Man for man, the Finns were definitely the most effective fighting force on the whole Eastern Front.
history is not written by the victors
@@JosiahJS976 instead yes.
*NOW WE ALL KNOW WHERE US TOOK THE IDEA OF NAVY SEALS*
They are trained by italian goi special forces
@Jessey Hunt they are trained by italian goi lol, go search
@Jessey Hunt Navy SEALS eat a lot of pasta.
Pasta was the answer to make spec ops actually viable.
@Jessey Hunt bruh
@Jessey Hunt Bro chill that was Just a joke
just for your knownledge,the italian "human torpedoes" were not suicidal devices like japanese "kaiten"
they were basically something between a seascooter and a minisubmarine,transporting an explosive charge on the front
once the two-man team got close enough to their target,they detached the charge from their vessel,set the timer,and then get out as quickly as possible
of course,this involved a lot of training and courage,since the typical targets of these units were capital ships docked in highly guarded areas
this style of warfare impressed so much the allies,at the point that the u.s. navy recruited some of these naval commandos to fight against japan,only that the war ended before they could be deployed
They also had a fast motor boat loaded with explosives on the front of the boat. They pilot the boat towards a ship and jump out with a life raft at the last few seconds.
EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
hopefully that works
there's no ads, it didn't work?
Should try Morse code.
Green guy 9512 he is trying to keep it safe from the algorithm
Who would win?
A surrounding and massive army with deadly tanks,
Or a few horsey bois?
@Legio XXI Rapax Italian and Latin are still REALLY similar. Just google translate a few sentences from english into italian and latin. Youll see what I mean.
@@EinFelsbrocken google translate with Latin? Are you serious?
Also, the Romans were a Latin tribe in modern-day Lazio. Therefore not the whole of Italy was Roman. Not even today there is ethnic homogeneity.
Italy: gg,wp,ez
@Alfa&Omega 00000 no, the only thing Italian culture has taken from Rome is the public corruption and political intrigues. Rome was Martial, with Mars as the main god, and with a Martial spirit. There is nothing martial about the modern Italian.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 I suppose you have a point. Still, Roma was pretty much 'war only', at least while it was still Roman. Once the empire started ossifying much of that was lost of course.
There’s just something so epic about a cavalry charge winning the day against tanks
My granddad fought in North Africa. He never had a bad word to say about the Italians
a cavalry charge on tanks?
"hey I've seen this before"
The poles be like 🐎🗡
polska
poles cavalry charging on tanks is a myth
iirc, the poles launched a cavalry charge against a force made primarily out of infantry to cover the retreat of their own forces, which was only then countered with a german armoured force
My understanding is that it was a Polish Cavalry unit, but they were equipped with anti-tank rifles and they dismounted prior to engaging German armour.
Italy just wasn’t ready for the war I’m sure that if they had more industry and time to build up they could’ve been more effective
It wasn't a feasible thing for the italian economy under Mussolini's regime. Italy's economy was too reliant on agriculture and small companies to even be competitive at that point, and the big industrial conglomerates of the time were waaaay behind the competition in terms of output. To put it onto perspective: the most produced tank for the Italians numbered around 3000 units, it was a tankette and its production began in 1933. The american produced around 50.000 Shermans since 1942.
@@rosiello5100 exactly, and it Big - Chin's economicals decisions never helped the industry
Riccardo Bossi He focuses the industry of the country to build up the nations agriculture, given time he would’ve built up the military industry too but he never saw it as a necessity or a desired target.
exactly, even Mussolini himself didn't want to get into war immediately. When German allies attacked, he had no choice left.
@@reddyforlenny9389 Also most of the Military budget went in to la Reggia Marina.
The words "Mancò la Fortuna non il coraggio" are true
Avanti Savoia !
Forse l'unica cosa che avevamo era il coraggio
E invece è una cazzata perché le guerre non si vincono né solo con la fortuna, né solo col coraggio. L'Italia era, anche solo industrialmente, del tutto impreparata per la guerra. Non aveva le carte in regola per vincere e difatti non ha vinto. Che poi la narrativa odierna sia assolutamente non obiettiva e ottusa, è innegabile. Ma non neghiamo l'evidenza
il problema era l'uomo in carica. Se avessimo concentrato tutte le divisioni SOLO sulla grecia, avremmo potuto prenderla. Avevamo la marina più forte del mediterraneo, rivaleggiavamo con gli inglesi. Ma noooooooo, papa Smurf Benitino voleva espandersi in africa, poi manda anche truppe in russia, e poi dove altro? A già, manda i soldati a morire inutilmente contro la Francia che già si è arresa. Potevamo competere con i paesi alleati più piccoli, ma abbiamo fatto i fighi (o meglio, il cogl*one pretendeva di fare lo splendido) e ne abbiamo pagato le conseguenze.
@@pr88189 ma è quello che si sta dicendo Ostia e Madonna.
Italians are really courageous people. Remember the Romans as their ancestors
Do you know how big rome was?
That's so retarded,..."ancestors" dont make you coragous...
@@freedomordeath89 ok bro non arrabbiarti troppo
@Eugenio Cavallo Che non sei figo solo perchè i romani abitavano qui. Sono gli individui ad avere meriti. Non è che se nasci in Italia sei "migliore" degli altri. ANZI. Tendenzialmente noi italiani siamo pigri, ladri, bugiardi e invidiosi. Altro che "roman ancestors".
@Eugenio Cavallo E ridaje, sempre a ripetere le stesse cose...ma ti rendi conto che queste supercazzole suio "migliori studiosi" le ripetono SOLO GLI ITALIANI ahahah in pratica ti stai AUTOPROCLAMANDO migliore degli altri solo perchè nel passato abbiamo avuto personaggi importanti COME TUTTI?
Pensi che in francia , Spagna, CIna etc non abbiano avuto figure del genere?
No, sei un ignorante del cazzo quindi pensi che l'Italia sia il centro del mondo.
In realtà siamo lo ZIMBELLO del mondo.
E comunque non hai risposto alla mia domanda:
Il fatto che Da VInci sia nato in Italia 500 anni fa...rende l'italiano medio migliore? L'italiano medio disoccupato con reddito di cittadinanza che non ha mai finito la terza media e che vive in una casa popolare a spese dello stato?
Quella persona è "migliore" perchè Da Vinci è vissuto qui?
RISPONDI.
The Horse Charges part in a Nutshell:
RAGE MY SOLDIERS!
SCREAM MY SOLDIERS!
FIGHT MY SOLDIERS!
Captain Valourous Erwin smith was just erwin rommels italian lost brother
O LA VITORIA, O TUTI ACCOPATO!
SAVOIA!
SAVOOOIAAAA!!!
SAAAAVOOOOOIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I will always be proud of being Italian
Go eat some spaghetti
Your food's amazing
Viva.... ⚔️⚡️⚡️Askari 1:55⚡️⚡️⚔️ ...Viva Amadeo
Cool story I made meatball sandwich for your mom
Jiu-Jitsu Dude Why do you still live lol? We’re all waiting for you to make that move
In Greece, Italian soldiers are regarded as some of the good ones of ww2 because it's widely known over here that is wasn't that the soldiers fault for the bad performance but the fault of the high command and that Italian soldiers were forced to fight in situations that were totally miscalculated and badly planned but still fought with bravery
*Yes, I would VERY MUCH like to hear more about additional Italian WWII victories and accomplishments; before, during and after their Axis relationship. Thank You!*
*"Pizza time."*
- Benito Mussolini, 1940, ordering the Invasion of Greece
His pizza burned harder down then the ad revenue from this channel(Joke)
That such a lame joke....
Razgriz Invicta omg if only
But the Greeks invented pinnacle pizza, while in Canada
Razgriz Invicta
donkey time
Never knew Italians were this effective throughout the war. Im sorry for my ignorance
There are actually far better examples than folcloristic cavalry charges or even the spectacular success of the frogmen. IE the two battles of Bir El Gubi demonstrated that, if they could fight in parity, or only slight inferiority, on material terms, regular Italian troops could win vs. their corresponding Allied troops.
We invented the Western civilization. U can't be THAT bad if u do such a thing
We succeded often as simple people. We have failed as a nation.
it's ok dude the fault of this is the propaganda
accetto le tue scuse
“I can take Greece” -A person who couldn’t take Greece
Hans of all the ww2 jokes this was the funniest
Ok could you invade greece with 6 divisions while Greece has around 14?
@@mogetius7337 depends on how good those divisions are ...but jokes aside italian divisions during ww2 were just painfully bad
@@simplymarshal1167 did you even watch the video???
@@mogetius7337 I know man, i feel the same way but you must admit it was stupid to invade.
Everybody Gangsta till you hear horses speaking italian coming towards you
Not going to lie, they did quite well against us Brits.
the Folgore division stopped a division composed of 10 british tanks only with granades and molotovs
The Brits would just lie about it afterwards like the guy who gets his ass beat and just flat-out denies it on social media afterwards.
My grandfather has been in africa 3 times 1932, 1935-37 and 1940-1942 when he was captured by Brits, moved(i don't know if it's the right term) in India as prisoner until 21/4/1946, than come back to italy safe. My mother has never heard a single bad word about brits.
@Mustafa Alam Opposite side of Italy.
Spygineer the Folgore division, at the time consisting of only 3,500 men, held back an army of circa 50,000, destroying or disabling 150 tanks, 200 armoured cars and an unknown number of trucks. The allied army was made up by the British 7th armoured division (the Desert Rats), the British 44th and 50th infantry (or mechanized) divisions, one french division, the British 44th RECCE Regiment and many attached units (Greek brigades, Newzealander and Australian special assault units with an approximate 350 tanks and 250 armoured cars). Add to this some 1,000 artillery pieces. Folgore lost 1,000 men. The allied 2,500-3,000 in addition to the tanks, armoured cars and trucks. The enemy was repelled and retreated north where they had more luck in the area of the front where mainly German forces were located.
To take over a country, I’d pick the Germans
To make a critical last stand, I’d pick the Italians
well thing is that the germans fought to the absolute last and doing the utmost to ensure that literally everything at their disposal is used
whereas the italians threw their spaghetti in fright when sicily saw a medium sized invasion
Italy fell in weeks when it was invaded by the Allies.
@@jamesmason8436 italy switched sides it didnt really fall
@@scruffmcgruff03 Italy switched sides because it fell...
@@maxtech226 RSI fought until the very last of the war, and we are talking about hundreds of thousands of men
British ships: thanks to our radar we will see italian torpedo bombers before they can hit us.
sm.79 sparviero: "laughs in damned hunchback"
A cousin of my grandmother was one of the “maiale” divers, he died during the siege of malta. They were so poor that we don’t have any pictures of him, just a rusted pen and a medal. My grandma always had teary eyes when she told us kids the stories about the partisan struggles in the alps and the russian campaign. So many people died, so many families left behind with almost no money. Italians never gave up tho, they never lost hope, not even the women (they were the true backbone of our society during the world wars). I’m a staunch and fierce antifascist, I HATE Mussolini and all those donekeys that made up the ruling class during WW2, but I’ll always have the outmost respect for the italians that died during the struggles, I’m here because of them and also because of my family strongwill. My grandma died november of last year, she remembered EVERY SINGLE THING of the war, she made the solemn pact in front of God that she would teach her grandkids what the war was for common people if she survived. She upholded it 100%.
Onore ai caduti.
Coward
@@isaacharkton6169 shut up
@@417Owsy cry
@@isaacharkton6169 waaaa im crying over some random guy on the internet
@@417Owsy lol well at least you admit you are
Now all I need is Sabaton to sing about these event
True dat. They made an entire album about last stands and no mention of Folgore and Ariete in El Alamein. Bit of a shame really...
@Jonathan really???
They said anything?
@Jonathan what did they say or do about it if i can ask?
I was thinking the same brother
@@martinguerra5152 I'm curious about it too.
It wasn't the Italian army that was incompetent it was the higher-ups commanding them.
Wtf is this profile pic?
@@subscribeorsus6862 it's your new God Figure
Obama Prism yes and no
And the poor equipment
"It actually happened, yes, more than once!"
That's a spicy meatball right there
Meatballs are from sweden ;P
Fun fact in Italy we don't eat meatballs in pasta
what about Ariete at Bir el Gubi, where italian tanks smashed the 22nd armoured brigade, causing them to loose half their tanks (Blood, Sweat and Arrogance: The Myths of Churchill's War) somewhere between 40 and 50, inexchange for around 34 tanks.
the italians were also successful during the greatest after operation cursader, capturing over 1000 british empire (Indian) prisoners during a counter attack.
the italians also captured Rugbet Al Atasc (along side another 1000 Indians)and replused british armoured counter attacks during the battle of Gazala.
You could also analize the success of Italy in intelligence and espionage, like when a group of Carabinieri (if I recall correctly) was able to stole the decription codes used by the Allies in North Africa, basically helping Rommel building his reputation as an infallible general. They knew every single move of the Allies, and were stopped only when some prisoners (it's said that they were germans) revealed that Rommel had the decritpion codes.
Yes it were some Carabinieri under the orders of the Italian Secret Service (SIM- Servizio Informazioni Militare) that stole the encription codes from an US Embassy.
And yes it was the capture of a German communication vehicle that let the Allies know of the breach of security
They stole the "black code", the US diplomatic code, that the US Consul in Alexandria used for his communications to Washington, telling them (and to the italians at that point) precious informations about the British movements in N.Africa and the Med.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Italian Intelligence, Mussolini handed some decrypted page of communications to Hitler. At that point, having the originals and the decryptions, the Germans broke the code, and were able to read the US communications as well.
Unfortunately for the Axis, the Germans had the idea to transmit the decrypted messages through Enigma, that the Brits were already capable to read. Reading the messages the Brits understood that they were written by a third party that had a deep knowledge of what was going on in Alexandria, so the USA embassy, alerted the Americans that changed the code.
The world: we have Tanks
Italy: hold my chavalry
Thanks for this video I really love the figure of Amedeo Guillet and X MAS
Also Messe was a pretty good general
Hai perfettamente ragione, e messe non era solo un buon generale, lui era il migliore del nostro esercito. È riuscito a dare buoni esito con utilizzo di pochi uomini, con poche perdite e massimo rendimento, lo ha dimostrato a Tripoli (guerra Italo-turca) sul monte grappa (ww1) in Grecia (ww2) e, quando è finalmente diventato generale, in unione sovietica e in Tunisia contro Patton e Montgomery. Se fosse nato prima, sarebbe potuto diventare generale prima dello scoppio della guerra e Mussolini avrebbe potuto farlo capo del regio esercito al posto di cavallero e badoglio (sto solo ipotizzando).
P.S: di dove sei?
@@martinperini7441 già sarebbe stato molto meglio mandare Messe in Libia piuttosto che sprecarlo in quell'inutile campagna di Russia dalla quale l'Italia non aveva nulla da guadagnare
Comunque io sono Sardo visto che me lo chiedi
Tu?
@@casteddu6740 giustissimo, sono assolutamente d'accordo. La Russia non era nei nostri interessi, con quei 200.000 uomini, carri, cavalleria, artiglieria e il generale messe in africa avremmo potuto almeno prendere l Egitto.
Comunque sono trentino, ma non chiamarmi tedesco o austriaco sennò mi offendo. Grazie regno di Sardegna per l unificazione italiana ;)
13:17 The Armchair Historian
: Today we are going to talk about times, when Italy was efective in WW.......
Microphone: NO