@@OhCrxzeh you are right. The RAF was arguably the weakest airforce out there unlike the praise they get, as their national team is never worth the hype
A big part wasn't that the Italian army was all around bad, soldiers have individual statements of fighting very well despite the odds. The issue was they lacked the infrastructure to adapt to the changing tides of ww2. Germany if they fielded a tank and the Battlefield changed like they're coming across bigger tanks with stronger guns, Germany had the infrastructure where they can ship the tank back by rails to a tank factory to be upgraded to combat the new threats. Italy didn't have this power so they struggled to adapt to the war and suffered for it.
They didnt even have the industry to start the war. Thats why you see so many "bad" italian tanks. Yeah, they could have made a better tank akin to a sherman, t34, cromwell or panzer 3 but it would be the worst tank they ever built because they couldnt maintain it, build it in sufficent numbers or build it with sufficent quality. This effect can be seen in the russians where they produced so mant low quality t34s and absolutely suffered for it. The war timr and ppst war t34s were drastically different in quality.
@@Sandwich13455 just because the quality of the tank was bad doesnt mean that a) the tanks dont work b) the design was bad or c) the red army was ineffective.
Inability to adapt was its problem. They actually took a detailed review of Germany’s push into France and it’s tactics then higher ups said it would be reviewed after the war.
That's crazy wow. Maybe they did that though because they though doing a formal review would lower moral if they all realized they were insufficiently prepared, and decided to wing it without the possible damage to morale and see how far they could go. Not saying I agree but maybe that's what they thought personally. Morale is a very big and calculated part of any military, and even moreso when someone is trying to form his own Empire.
@@pharaohsmagician8329 I think it was the generals rivalry between Italian generals was very high I believe they done whatever they could to make each other look bad. Not the men you realistically want running your military. Same how Japanese army didn’t work with the Japanese navy a rivalry that crippled Japans capability realistically.
@@zivo9453 If Japan hadn't of bombed Pearl Harbor when they did, they probably would've won. Hitler's plan was to win the War in the European theater, then the Axis would attack the US on both the east and west coast, then work their way inward.
@@robertgadling7217 Nah. American military precence only made fall of Germany faster but after 1942/43 Soviets were strong enough to beat Germany without Americans. But without American equipment Soviets wouldnt have made it through first 2 years of war. USA paid largest role against Japan.
The funniest part is that how when Allie’s landed in Italy to capture it, the citizens just allowed them through because they hated Mussolini by the end
America actually used lucky Luciano to persuade cosa nostra not to resist when the army landed on the island of Sicily. Then f***ed him over by banning him from returning home to the states.
Incorrect, there was a very very big movement of liberation inside of Italy, look up for "Partisans" Mussolini was hated from beginning, the problem is that he had an army and the government did nothing to stop him, Italians fought against Mussolini long before the allies arrived
When things where looking bleak in North Africa Mussolini dispatched one of the best Italian comander of World War 2 Italo Balbo but as his plane was coming to land Italian AA crews didn't have proper identification training so they shot him down and killed him.
Keystone cops huh? Either you see your enemy lining up for a bombing run, or you see an airplane on approach, I wonder who dropped the ball when it came to the password, and what happened to the putzes that shot them done.
You should watch one of his speeches, his hand gestures and the way he talks are absolutely ridiculous, but apparently people back then saw it as some sort of display of authority.
@@lolk4530 I don't belive the soldiers had a choice in the matter /don't understand it, that's why I.e. example nazi soldiers near the end of the war instead of defending Berlin helped civilians escape across the river elm along with a general who helped
The Italians fought most of WW1 with the Allies in mountainous terrain of the Alps. much of the Italian tanks and equipment were designed to be able to fight on mountain trails. Italy had colonial troops in Libya. When led by competent commanders the Italians fought very well. Competent commanders were not common in a caste based system full of political favor.
@@gurjeetsingh-gd1wr A caste based system is a system where you are chosen for your political connections and well connected and powerful you family is, whether or not your of "noble blood".
The Italians were dragged into WW2 totally unprepared. Rommel said when the Italians had good equipment and leadership (often under the Germans) they actually performed well.
@@mikegarcia8412 or maybe no one remembers because they were swept under the rug after the switch :p its like only the axis did anything wrong in the war lol
Also their equipment was just garbage half the time. They started the war with the Breda 30, for example, which was noted as one of the worst machine guns of that war.
I see your Breda and raise you a Nambu Type 11 LMG. It was chambered to use the same 6.5mm round the Arisaka rifle used. The round was too big for a rapid fire weapon and deteriorated the weapon at a breathtaking rate. It had jamming problems that came from its loading system that I'll get to in a moment. To fix the jamming, they coated the rounds in oil, which made the problem worse. See, the type 11 used a hopper feed. Most guns used a magazine feed, the Type 11 was not most guns. You would lift up the lid (which was held down via spring tension) and place 6 stripper clips in the hopper totaling up to 30 rounds. I don't need to tell you how bad a weapon with exposure to internal parts will do in a battlefield situation. Jams and catches galore. To top it off, the ended up changing the clambering of the barrel, eliminating its original strong point as sharing ammo with standard infantry rifles. The Japanese got as far as they did off of sheer ruthlessness and their immediate enemies having shittier weapons than they did. Call of Duty is a lie. The Type 100 SMG you find in World at War was never widely issued. Around 8,000 were made in total. Japanese brass was stuck in its ways, and submachine guns were too meta for them.
Also, didn't that gun have a weird "magazine" feed that was attached to the weapon itself? I thing you folded it forward towards the barrel and loaded it with stripper clips, then pulled it back in place and primed the action. But if the magazine broke, the entire weapon was now a misshapen club at best.
The Carcano rifles were as good as the bolt action used by other nations, but Mussolini ordered to change them to a new caliber just some year before the war (1936/37 I think) and in 1939 they were stuck with two different rifle calibers in use, and that was a nightmare for logistics. The Breda 30 is notorious for being garbage, and was probably a product of corruption. The MAB38, the Italian smg, is considered the best of the time. Infantry equipment wasn’t really bad, the problem where tanks and aircraft. When fascist Italy capitulated in 1943 they were still producing CR.42, a biplane, and the only really good and up to date Italian fighters were produced in small quantities.
Yeah. The army suggested Mussolini to join the war in 1942 as the army was not fully recovered from the ethiopian war and the spanish civil war in which italy had a major involvement. The italian army was quite feared indeed(in 1936 Mussolini avoided the Anschluss to happen by placing his troops in the austrian border) but it was severely outdated. They werent even using guns from the first world war, but even from the late XIX century. The air force, despite being the largest at the end of WWI, was left behind and was outdated. While the fleet was extremely good even tho outdated, it was definetely the second strongest fleet behind the brits in europe but it lacked Carriers therefore couldnt do much damage. The italian soldiers were extremely brave tho, they were litterally charging tanks with the cavarly, succesfully, and there are reports of soldiers fighting with one arm till they finished the bullets. But the major problem wasnt the supply already low, or the outdated equipment. But as you mentioned in this video, poor leadership, the generals were picked among Mussolini's friends and had no skills whatsoever(whereas Germany produced some of the best). The only good military leaders died in weird circumstances(ie, killed by the secret services) or were not in the right place, like the duke of savoy who fought against the brits in ethiopia for so long
Unfortunately wrong on some aspects, but the rest of the post remain legit. Italy's air force was 4th in line by the end of WWI, and 3rd within the Entente in both aircraft production and aircraft in active service: most sources mention around 20.000 Italian crafts built, and about 60.000 French builds; similarly, it is believed that 1.200 aircraft were active in the Italian Air Corps while estimates place Britain at more than 3.000, and the French at 4.000. Infact both nations (especially France) indebted themselves to hell for total war, so much that Italy probably couldn't afford to do the same. At the start of WWII, the French navy was also superior in tonnage and probably sheer scale - a relic of WWI - it had more battleships, an aviso/carrier and several modern battlecruisers built in response to Italian vessels. Although things would change when France fell and the French navy scuttled itself or remained inactive/neutral, and Italy took its place for a time before Britain did a British thing and wrecked a bunch of ships from everyone.
@@ncblizzard1527 yeah you're right. I wanted to say that italy was the first nation to develop an air force. Also about the fleet, keep in mind that France had half of his fleet in the english channel, making the italian fleet the dominant in the mediterranean(excluding the brits). As it is today(both nations have fairly advanced fleets and better than the brits, but i think the italian one is slightly better). The italian fleet was the only thing the allirs feared of Italy, many sailors that served in the German submarines were also picked from the italian Regia Marjna. Anyways the fleet was also quite outdated and had not enough ammo to compete with the astonishingly superior royal navy and the US navy. Honor to the X flottiglia mas. Anyways as you said as soon as france was lost the british navy sank the french one or the french themselves did it. The vichy france navy tried going against the brits and got annihilated(if i remember correctly the french admiral was a descendant of the french admiral in the battle of Trafalgar)
How dare you two make good arguments, get corrected on a few points, and graciously accept the gentle criticism. This is the Internet damn it. Where's the flaming? The logically flawed arguments? The total toxicity? Such a disappointment.... (Kudos to you both 🙂)
Well they were defeated and even lost ground when they retreated in the Albanian borders when fighting against the much smaller and immensely underequiped Greek army at 1940 (they barely had weapons for all their soldiers) so yeeeah dunno if they were as brave as you say
Keep in mind that moral plays a big part in wars. Attacking far from home and without a proper supply inflicted low moral in Italian lines. The Greeks were attacked on they’re land and when they realised the Italians weren’t able to breakthrough I don’t even imagine how proud were they.
The relationship between the Italian Air Force and the Italian navy was ridiculous. When a fleet asked for air support, it would often arrive hours later, only if they actually choose to help. That’s also the reason why Italy never had an aircraft carrier.
@@tacticalterminator9477 for most navies that’s true, but for the Italian air force of the time, the Regia Aeronautica, and the Italian navy, the Regia Marina, it was different. The air force owned every aircraft and the navy owned every ship.
My grandpa had to flee Italy after the fascists killed his family. Came to the us at 15. Learned English. Enlisted by 17. Was a tank mechanic. Got in a tank. Became a tank Sergeant by 20. Got his payback and blew up Nazis and fascists. He was the only survivor of three attacks. The last one left him disabled and losing his eye, ear, foot, etc. That's where he met my grandmother who was a combat nurse. Married 54 yrs until a heart attack took him. Rip grandpop.
Mussolini was NOT the "father of Fascism"; it was a man named *Giovanni Gentile* . You should really investigate as to why almost no one knows who this guy is... (spoiler alert: it's all by design)
@@3dcomrade typical. Socialists never seem to cope with the intolerant collectivism that comes with ideology. When socialists murder, it’s a far-right thing. Right!
Why was the Italian army so useless? Logistics! Logistics! Logistics! Italian divisions had more different rifle calibers per division than any other (European) army. From pistols to heavy artillery, Italian divisional supplies were extremely diverse. Think what you want about human diversity, but know that in logistics and manufacturing diversity is not a strength. Even German, Soviet or American industry would have one hell of a time trying to supply the Italian army - let alone Italian industry. Western allies, so USA, UK and the Commonwwealth went as far as not only to standardize production and streamline logistics within their own nations (or Commonwealth when it comes to Britain), but they standardized production even amongst themselves so that the Americans could supply the British, Canadians could supply Americans, Australians could supply Canadians, British could supply Australians etc.
What you said is true but you left some things out, part of the reason Italy's military was so bad was Italy didn't have the production power like Britain Germany and the USA did, so they couldn't build tanks, planes or ships in the same scale as the Allies. Italy at that time was also a largely agricultural based country.
the italian paratroopers were admired by the british army, so much so that the british let the captured italian officers keep their knives in pow camps.
Since fascism was based on honesty and honor they knew the italians would play by the rules, that why every single campaign italy did was foiled by tactics
@Chase Scott A Movie Was Made Based on True Events, That British Army Allowed German POWs Enough Bullets to Have a Firing Squad For a Traitorous Fellow Soldier!
@@rocketassistedgoat1079 What a fool. Go down to the Mexican border and tell us how well you leftists are running this country. Go to the cities you leftists burned down and talk to the people there whose businesses were ruined. Get a clue.
In grade school I had to do a report for memorial day. My grandfather served in WWII in the 87th Mt. Infantry against the Italians. My neighbor also served in WWII but for the Italians. I came up with a set of questions then asked both of them the same questions. My neighbor's response absolutely shocked me. Every Italian man of fighting age was forced to fight or die themselves. He had no choice, if he or his fellow soldiers were found to be pulling their shots, their commanding officer would execute them. The same went for the officers, if they didn't execute the men who weren't following orders, they would be executed by their higher-ups. It was a chain of command built on the fear of death. It was literally kill or be killed. My neighbor really wanted to do this report with me, but we had to take several breaks because of how emotional it was for him to relive it. He hated that he had to kill men whom he shared their values, but he was young and afraid. After WWII ended for the Italians, he got on the first ship he could and left for America. I really appreciated him as a neighbor, even though I was just a kid, he and I would hangout outside and talk about which super hero could beat another super hero in a race or an arm wrestle, etc.
My granpa brother served in Italian WWII infantry and he witnesses the exact opposite of your neighbour. Morale was high, they have to build new units due to high levels of voluntary recruits, and no one has EVER been killed for not join the military, there was the jail for those who didn't comply with conscription, but so they did in America or UK, i mean it was war. So please stop spreading fake news. Morale decreased a lot after the retreat from Russia, that's true, but hundred of thousand of people join the fascist forces in northen Italy after the 1943 armistice, knowing it was all lost at that point, but wanting to protect their nation till the end.
@@19mike88 we're talking about the same Mussolini? Did you're great Uncle ever give you a black shirt as a child, or any pamphlets to read? Did your great uncle also volunteer to invade Ethiopia where some 382,800 civilians were killed, or did he also uphold the anti-Jewish laws that were enacted? While I don't doubt many Italians did volunteer, it's my understanding, from my neighbor's first-hand account that it was a different story for him. Thank you for incorrecting me, but based on contextual historical facts, I'll take his word for it.
@@j22mattones he wasnt even joining the fascist party till 1943 when became mandatory for being in the army. Did your neighbor gave you a red shirt as a child? Or maybe he came to US because he supported the anti black laws that USA had till mid 70s? Yeah, cause you are the ones that doesn't let black sit on the same bus...during fascism there where thousand of black people (and also jews, yes, jews) fighting in black shirt. Does he blame the fascist for every bad things that happens in the world? I mean, as you say there's many point of views, but living in Italy i can tell you your neighbor isn't telling the truth, but his truth.
Thanks for sharing. Do not exist any allegations about what you wrote. My father went to France, Yugoslavia and Russia ( Armir), and there is no story about that. Maybe, after the Armistice 8 September 1943, with a civil war, some episodes might be related to this. But this is another story.
Had a friend from Italy who told me about his grandfather who served in the Italian army during the war. He told me that at one point the regiment his grandfather was assigned to were supposed to get new rifles, but for some reason they only received the bayonets, so for several weeks they only had bayonets to practice/fight with until the Italian military could find a way to get the rifles they actually ordered.
At least he has the decency of being nervous of German fascism. Then again, Hitler did tell Mussolini in his face that Italians were lesser than Germans…
“So Useless”… the italian army covered the german retreat from El Alamein and gave an important contribution in Russia. Almost all general were useless but not the army…
So were the brits and Yanks they asked to stop at Berlin 90% of germany and america were happy with the Democratic vote to destroy the Jews aistraliia destroye a 70000 yr old culture you keep your mouth shut
When Italian soldiers where under german command it was said they preformed extremely well, the issue is most Italian higher up where fighting each other and not the enemy
Not so much the officers but the intendance, overly corrupted. Rommel said in Lybia than the Italian soldiers were super resistant, fighting without ammo, without food, without orders. No German soldier would endure so much he said.
@@dominiquecharriere1285 The Germans let themselves be invaded as soon as the frontier started touching Germany. It was comical how little the Germans can endure. Their was a officer who was disappointed in the pathetic short gurrila warfare so he left and trained Middle Easterners on how to make cells and targeted hits and slipping away strategies still in use today by actually people who can endure.
@@scout1858if you are a bad driver but you have a ferrari, you will still be outrun by schumacker driving a fiat punto. I hope the example helps you too understand
@@sebastianw.1492 It would have been a hard fight also for the Germans if they had attacked Greece from Albania, a poor country without infrastructures and full of mountains on the front. Maybe would have not failed as Mussolini did but I think they’re blitzkrieg tactic would have been useless and they’re tanks impossible to use. When Mussolini asked for help, hitler didn’t send his army in Albania but he invaded Yugoslavia to attack from a better position, probably what Mussolini should have done to win.
@@okuyasu1066 Don't get me wrong, I don't want to insult the British but I want to be realistic. Assuming that in North Africa only Italians and English would remain to fight (excluding French, Americans and Germans), the consequences would have been for: 1) Italian: - Pro = Italian numerical advantage since Italy's main campaign in WW2 was in Africa. - Pro = Excellent Infantry Soldiers - Con = Logistical problems - Con = Problems of incompetent officers 2) British: - Pro = formidable coordination between the British units. - Pro = good logistics - Pro = excellent officers - Con = Tanks for the most part obsolete such as the Vickers light tanks Mk.IV and Vickers medium tank Mk.II and a few Crusaders and Matilda as America did not give you the M3 Lee, M4 Sherman and M2 Stuart or other means of american origin. - Con = With the lack of American money it would have been too difficult to finance the war in Africa so the British would have focused on the European conflict. Fun fact: The major WW2 nations also had armies armed with WW1 weapons as most of the rifles were good and it was also too expensive to replace all the old weapons with new ones.
Nepotism Trust me everyone does that. You would get hired based on your height, face, status, family connections and so on. It’s not a “problem” it’s evolutionary wired in humans.
It isn't the same now, the military is significantly stronger, actually top 3-4 in Europe. The economical and political situation isn't very stable though...
@@aureliano_37 those who fought against italians they remebered what kind of lions italians are.... Bad equiplment, zero steel resources, old amd obsolete tank and artillery and still they managed to be a pain in the butt of UK and allies... Keep underrating Italy... hoping for you that you will never have to find yourself fighting them.
Time for my favorite Italian WW2 joke: A generall is speaking to Hitler :" My Führer Italy joined the war." Hitler replies :" Send one Panzer battalion and we win" "But they are on our side" " God damit send them 30 Panzer Battalions as help".
@@Astrocat-od5cy yes. The trains really did not but thst was something he took credit for. That the post WW1 government started before he seized power.
Neither did mine. 18 years old and fought in Normandy at D-Day. Later, his company fought under General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge. Decorated veteran. Sargeant in the U.S. Army Artillery division. RIP HL "Sarge"/ "Papa" Waldrop. 1923-2009.
My grandfather fought in the Italian army during WWII but from what I've been told his division was almost instantly captured before they could do anything🤷
There are instances of Italian Soldiers fighting tooth and nail against both the British and the Russians. Their elite Units, like the Bersaglieri and Alpini were generally well regarded and gave a good account of themselves. And there was some well designed and useful Military Equipment, like the Beretta Submachine Gun, the Semovente Self Propelled Gun and several types of Fighter Planes, so there is that. It had the numbers, it had the potential, but with exceptions, it didn’t have the leadership.
@@deutchesbrotistwunderbar His navy was completely incompetent and lost almost every battle they were in during WW2. That's what this joke's referencing.
@@applescruff1969 funny coming from a probably yank or breton who literally came from 100 years of lost wars ahahahahaha the level of coping and seething is reaching the sky ahahahaha no one will ever be even close to as good as Italy 🇮🇹 🦅
Yeah that's about right, but the craziest thing was that a big part of the population was supportive of him, just because he was a good crowd pleaser and very good with speeches, while 80% of the nation and also the army was starving to death
He was a Socialist and from a family very closely associated with Garibaldi, Italian nationalism, Freemasonry and Socialism. His government was similar to most, if not all, Italian governments since the Resorgimento. Look at the current Italian government and its recent actions. They're certainly reminiscent of Mussolini and yet Italians still support them. I expect God is still punishing Italy for stealing the Papal States and Rome, then exiling and imprisoning the Popes in the Vatican while denying them their just place in international relations. Italians still haven't learned their lessons and support Socialists and Communists in very significant numbers.
@@brianmccarthy5557 I don’t know what you mean when you say he was associated with Garibaldi or freemasonry. He was initially socialist, then he was expelled from his party since he wanted Italy to join WWI. He was completely different form any government before, and that’s literally why he could take control of the country. No government after WWII was ever similar to him. We didn’t steal form the pope, we took back what was our form a corrupted tyrant. Italy was never governed by communists. In a single comment you managed to get the entire history of my country completely wrong… For the next time, it would be nice if you studied or at least looked at what actually happened before commenting anything, thanks.
all political wishwash. What was the real issue was that italy had no modern industry and mostly focused on agriculture. they simply had not the capacity to put out military equipment
Ethiopia defeated Italy twice 1st in 1896 & then again during WWII era Italy was humiliated & this played a significant role in their 2nd attempt against the African Lion
Also, Germany had no empire. It was a highly populated nation all compacted into one small area compared to the allies. It allowed for mobilisation and industrialisation at an incredible speed. Italy had already begun its attempts in Abyssinia before it had reached any high level of militarisation. Italy wasn’t necessarily useless it was just the sheer strength of the British empire that dwarfed it. An empire spanning 1/4 of the globe and all its seas managed to reasonably defend itself and crush Europe’s soft underbelly. The Brits also mobilised most of the Russians until the Americans joined once the tide was already turned. Italy was just embarrassed by the rapidness of Germany, the strength of Britain and the size of the Russians. Japan and the US are outliers in the discussion as both can’t be compared to the European powers
Greece was literally broke and had major internal conflict. Their army was pretty awful and were squished between Facist Turkey and Italian Albania. If the Allies couldn’t support Greece through Cyprus or the Middle East, they woulda fell pretty easily.
@@gizmodud7267 Bullshit. Yes the support of Britain was crucial for such a prolonged war, but you're underestimating some factors here. First of all, Greek High command consisted of mostly veteran officers, who had fought in the Balkan Wars, WW1 and the Greco Turkish War. Greek soldiers had an extremely high morale and were effective, despite their poor equipment. There are accounts of battles fought hand to hand in ww1 like scenarios (like Hill 732). So no, your oversimplification of "Greece would have fallen easily without Britain's help" is false.
@@PBandas This. Greece had a good war-ready army. Maybe less we’ll equipped than the Italians, but a good army that even stood up to the Germans for a while. I think Italy had many issues with morale, logistics, strategy, leadership…
Ethiopian here , they came to avenge the 1896 defeat which was the first European defeat in the hands of Africans. On the second world war, Italy came with full power invading and controlling the capital killing form 300k to 500k Ethiopians by tanks , planes, bombs and even toxic gases. One time, 2 Ethiopian nationalists threw a bomb and attacked Mosoloni's commander, 'Rodolfo Graziane ' , what followed was a blood bath in the Capital 20k to 30k youths and adults were killed in 3 days. (Read "Yekatit 12" for more info) The Italians Literally raided a lot of artifacts from ancient books to 25+ meter 2000+years old Axum obelisk and many more. They also divided and set a poisonous regional system, cutting societies and dividing land carelessly. I think they thought they could easily conquer and rule it like the 1800s and early 1900s ፡ they did a lot misdeeds especially, politically, indirectly leading to multiple civil wars including the current ongoing one. But whatever happened happened. Nothing we can do to change the past.
Italy is one of the European nations that has less to do with colonialism, if talking about the crimes of other European nations or America is material for weeks
@@carlvonclausewitz3027 Libya , Eritra , Ethiopia & Somalia were Italian colonies and only Libya has had a little to no civil war in the past century apart the Arab uprising ( also I know little about their internal affairs) But the rest Ethiopia Eritra Somalia are literally cut halfway like a cake intentionally to be ruled by the Italians. We got 7 to 10 mill Somalis in Ethiopia and another 15 in Somalia. We got 6 to 8 mill Tegrians in Eritra and 7 to 9 in Ethiopia , even internally in Ethiopia there were lands given to opposite regions as the natives were then to fight for their fathers land. Land locking Ethiopia and killing what ever educated man power we had. That alone had caused great mis trust and huge scale civil wars in the past century. We basically have a full blown civil war every generation. My parents were directly involved in one. My mother on Ethiopian side and my uncles in the Eritran. This is the north side the same thing goes down on the Eastern Somali border. I wish they the EU came up clean on their plots so we can mend, forgive and move on from this curse.
@@theethiopian2305 Italy has never been a colonizing nation like England, Spain, the U.S. and other nations for centuries, during the twenty years, fascist Mussolini pushed for this war that no Italian wanted, that said the Italians have long since left Africa and do not have Commowealth like the English one, or they still impose the currency as France does on former African colonies, Ethiopia is now doing well, from the economic point of view it is growing, from the point of view of national unity it is a disaster because of how the borders were disgenic (a problem that was disastrous throughout Africa at the time colonial, with perfectly straight lines that divided peoples or brought together others who have nothing to do with each other), the Tigray rebels are just a tip of the iceberg, or should divide into small nations like a federation or have need a strong man who unites all the people as was the negus
My father fought in WWII for U.S. as a tank commander. He hated Italy as they joined Hitler....but changed their position when they saw how powerful the Allies were. He wouldn't trust them for a million dollars.
@@Jack-mf5lw not sure what he is talking about but in the sopranos series they go and visit Italy. With high expectations they are let down because italy is almost like a poor shitty country compared to America.
@@H3Row I was looking at some pictures from my grandparents and it literally looked like the middle ages up until the early fifties... but now especially here in the north I guess it looks like a very rich version of America (for the most part)
My grandfather served in the Italian Army during WW2 he was in Infantry. Sadly none of the family know much about his service. He only told them about him being in Infantry. He never talked about the war a lot of vets didn’t.
Gentlemen you have fought like lions and have been led by donkeys, or something along those lines is what Erwin Rommel said to the Italian troops he was sent to aid in the North African campaign where the Italian troops showed bravery and capability way beyond of what they were known for. Most of the ineffectiveness of the Italian military came from it's leadership and the lack of cooperation between officers and branches, the rest came from the bad industry and equipment and towards the end of the war the low morale of the troops to the point that during the invasion of Sicily the Italians abandoned their posts and surrendered without resistance.
Best condition to win ww2 Have equipment made from Germany Have british summer clothes Have USSR winter clothes Have USA supply system Have Italy in enemy
The Italian army wasn't always useless, there were times when they were effective, I suggest looking up a video made by "The front" where they describe many useful facts that Italy was strong and another video made by "The armchair historian" titled "Times Italy was effective" so no Italy wasn't entirely useless, I suggest looking things up before saying random things
there's a reason he said they were mostly useless, yes at times they were useful which is why the video you say to watch is called "times Italy was useful", because them because useful is uncommon and being useless is the average
You have to admit though that the army wasn't as effective as it could have been on a large scale,war is not won by small successes it is won by grand victories, during the invasion of Greece for example the Italian army lost to the small and ill equipped Greek force which makes me wonder how? Italy had some of the finest mountain troops in Europe with light tanks suitable for the terrain but Benito sent his elite alpine regiments to the Soviet Union and Egypt where there training didn't help them
There are many heroes in the Italian army that served their country well and to say that those soldiers that laid down their lives for their country were useless is bad. That's what you said. That the Italian soldiers who died for their country were useless.
They were not useless. It's wrong to say this and to approach it like this. They were extremely formidable in the terrain they were fighting in, just because they fought a defensive war does not mean they would not useful. Some of the soldiers were actually some of the more equipped soldiers in the army at the time.
Even thought we lost the war we had the bravest soldiers. In fact Adolf H1tl3r said "I would have won the war if i had had german officiers, but italians soldiers" we just lost the war because we had weakers weapons and tanks.
Its either having a country with strong military might but has high chance of changing its leaders constantly Or Having the same leaders for a long period of time but has a high chance to become a weak military might country
The Italian military's biggest weakness was equipment. Their equipment was either poorly designed or simply outdated. The soldiers themselves fought quite well many times throughout the war.
The REAL REASON Hitler Lost The Battle Of Britain ⬇
th-cam.com/video/ZOUZkmWmMxs/w-d-xo.html
YES
The battle of Britain was not lost? They just stopped fighting because there were other fronts that needed their military force
@@anonnieman: thank you 😌 the brits would have faced a situation similar to the last European cup 👀😂
@@OhCrxzeh you are right. The RAF was arguably the weakest airforce out there unlike the praise they get, as their national team is never worth the hype
Real
"My hand is a helicopter, your argument is invalid."
-Benito Mussolini
This should not have been that funny🤣
Helikopter Helikopter parakofer parakofer
@@extremistterrorist cringe
@@donaldbestkorea2248 then don't reply to him
@@NapoleonBonaparte-of4sl i did it to notify him about the cringiness of his comment
A big part wasn't that the Italian army was all around bad, soldiers have individual statements of fighting very well despite the odds. The issue was they lacked the infrastructure to adapt to the changing tides of ww2.
Germany if they fielded a tank and the Battlefield changed like they're coming across bigger tanks with stronger guns, Germany had the infrastructure where they can ship the tank back by rails to a tank factory to be upgraded to combat the new threats.
Italy didn't have this power so they struggled to adapt to the war and suffered for it.
They didnt even have the industry to start the war. Thats why you see so many "bad" italian tanks. Yeah, they could have made a better tank akin to a sherman, t34, cromwell or panzer 3 but it would be the worst tank they ever built because they couldnt maintain it, build it in sufficent numbers or build it with sufficent quality. This effect can be seen in the russians where they produced so mant low quality t34s and absolutely suffered for it. The war timr and ppst war t34s were drastically different in quality.
Yup I think at the time there was only one 7 or 9 km railroad or none at all
@@snugglecity3500 Why did they win at the Kursk battle?
@@Sandwich13455 just because the quality of the tank was bad doesnt mean that a) the tanks dont work b) the design was bad or c) the red army was ineffective.
@@snugglecity3500 I see!
Inability to adapt was its problem. They actually took a detailed review of Germany’s push into France and it’s tactics then higher ups said it would be reviewed after the war.
"Hey, those tactics seem useful to us-"
"Shut up we're in a war right now, we don't have the time!"
@@thesampion628 probably how it went down 😂
The exact same thing could be said of the British in both World Wars.
That's crazy wow. Maybe they did that though because they though doing a formal review would lower moral if they all realized they were insufficiently prepared, and decided to wing it without the possible damage to morale and see how far they could go. Not saying I agree but maybe that's what they thought personally. Morale is a very big and calculated part of any military, and even moreso when someone is trying to form his own Empire.
@@pharaohsmagician8329 I think it was the generals rivalry between Italian generals was very high I believe they done whatever they could to make each other look bad. Not the men you realistically want running your military. Same how Japanese army didn’t work with the Japanese navy a rivalry that crippled Japans capability realistically.
To be fair, Mussolini knew that his army wasnt ready and urged Hitler to wait atleast 3 years before declaring war in 1939.
It was actually France and Britain that declared war on Germany, 3. September 1939.
@@TobiasQuintavalle in response to German aggression towards Poland
@@rian9283 "aggression" being a whole ass invasion.
@@coh2conscript851 in fairness, invasions do tend to be aggressive
@@rian9283 yeah, I just think it's funny as it's just referred to as aggression. I imagine border skirmishes instead of a full on undeclared war.
I feel like if italy joined the allies the axis powers might have won
🤣🤣🤣😂 I like this comment
axis couldve won if italy wasnt useless and if soviets didnt fight back
@@zivo9453 If Japan hadn't of bombed Pearl Harbor when they did, they probably would've won. Hitler's plan was to win the War in the European theater, then the Axis would attack the US on both the east and west coast, then work their way inward.
@@robertgadling7217 Nah. American military precence only made fall of Germany faster but after 1942/43 Soviets were strong enough to beat Germany without Americans.
But without American equipment Soviets wouldnt have made it through first 2 years of war.
USA paid largest role against Japan.
They would of actually gotten in the way of the allies
The funniest part is that how when Allie’s landed in Italy to capture it, the citizens just allowed them through because they hated Mussolini by the end
America actually used lucky Luciano to persuade cosa nostra not to resist when the army landed on the island of Sicily. Then f***ed him over by banning him from returning home to the states.
Incorrect, there was a very very big movement of liberation inside of Italy, look up for "Partisans" Mussolini was hated from beginning, the problem is that he had an army and the government did nothing to stop him, Italians fought against Mussolini long before the allies arrived
@@edgarego5813 as an anarchist, based af.
@Riccardo bruh, partisans fought since the beginning of the dictatorship, they were hiding people in the mountains, helped Jews to escape and so on
Wow, I was really wrong. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said something I wasn’t 100% sure about. Thanks for educating me though!
When things where looking bleak in North Africa Mussolini dispatched one of the best Italian comander of World War 2 Italo Balbo but as his plane was coming to land Italian AA crews didn't have proper identification training so they shot him down and killed him.
And Mussolini really thought Italy could reform the Roman Empire
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
lmao
Keystone cops huh? Either you see your enemy lining up for a bombing run, or you see an airplane on approach, I wonder who dropped the ball when it came to the password, and what happened to the putzes that shot them done.
That says it all, thats why there all useless
When it showed him talking like an Italian with all the hand and arm movements I died
Helicopter
You should watch one of his speeches, his hand gestures and the way he talks are absolutely ridiculous, but apparently people back then saw it as some sort of display of authority.
@@albero319 he had the military, thats all that mattered
¡PASCHETTI! ✋
@@albero319 no its just how us Italians talk. Theres a joke. How do you get an Italian to shut up. You tie his hands together.
Italian men who died fighting: I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
Aye those who died should still be honoured even if there higher ups were useless idoits
@@forwarduntodawn1000 for sure
@@forwarduntodawn1000 why should fascists be honored?
@@lolk4530 I don't belive the soldiers had a choice in the matter /don't understand it, that's why I.e. example nazi soldiers near the end of the war instead of defending Berlin helped civilians escape across the river elm along with a general who helped
@@lolk4530 the higher up no they shouldn't be honoured at all death to em all but the average soldiers yes
The Italians fought most of WW1 with the Allies in mountainous terrain of the Alps. much of the Italian tanks and equipment were designed to be able to fight on mountain trails. Italy had colonial troops in Libya.
When led by competent commanders the Italians fought very well. Competent commanders were not common in a caste based system full of political favor.
Plz explain caste based
@@gurjeetsingh-gd1wr A caste based system is a system where you are chosen for your political connections and well connected and powerful you family is, whether or not your of "noble blood".
The Italians were dragged into WW2 totally unprepared. Rommel said when the Italians had good equipment and leadership (often under the Germans) they actually performed well.
So useless that no one remember Italy was a enemy in WW2
Enemy to some, not all
The Germans were happy when Italy went over to the allied side, and quickly paid them back for all their previous "assistance".
Indeed so ineffective. No one remembers their wrongdoing lol
@@mikegarcia8412 or maybe no one remembers because they were swept under the rug after the switch :p its like only the axis did anything wrong in the war lol
Until 1943.
Also their equipment was just garbage half the time. They started the war with the Breda 30, for example, which was noted as one of the worst machine guns of that war.
Breda 30 the luckiest lmao, most of the soldiers had guns from 1890
I see your Breda and raise you a Nambu Type 11 LMG. It was chambered to use the same 6.5mm round the Arisaka rifle used. The round was too big for a rapid fire weapon and deteriorated the weapon at a breathtaking rate. It had jamming problems that came from its loading system that I'll get to in a moment. To fix the jamming, they coated the rounds in oil, which made the problem worse. See, the type 11 used a hopper feed. Most guns used a magazine feed, the Type 11 was not most guns. You would lift up the lid (which was held down via spring tension) and place 6 stripper clips in the hopper totaling up to 30 rounds. I don't need to tell you how bad a weapon with exposure to internal parts will do in a battlefield situation. Jams and catches galore. To top it off, the ended up changing the clambering of the barrel, eliminating its original strong point as sharing ammo with standard infantry rifles. The Japanese got as far as they did off of sheer ruthlessness and their immediate enemies having shittier weapons than they did. Call of Duty is a lie. The Type 100 SMG you find in World at War was never widely issued. Around 8,000 were made in total. Japanese brass was stuck in its ways, and submachine guns were too meta for them.
Also, didn't that gun have a weird "magazine" feed that was attached to the weapon itself? I thing you folded it forward towards the barrel and loaded it with stripper clips, then pulled it back in place and primed the action. But if the magazine broke, the entire weapon was now a misshapen club at best.
The Carcano rifles were as good as the bolt action used by other nations, but Mussolini ordered to change them to a new caliber just some year before the war (1936/37 I think) and in 1939 they were stuck with two different rifle calibers in use, and that was a nightmare for logistics. The Breda 30 is notorious for being garbage, and was probably a product of corruption. The MAB38, the Italian smg, is considered the best of the time. Infantry equipment wasn’t really bad, the problem where tanks and aircraft. When fascist Italy capitulated in 1943 they were still producing CR.42, a biplane, and the only really good and up to date Italian fighters were produced in small quantities.
"A beautifully crafted piece of crap"
- Gun Jesus
Yeah. The army suggested Mussolini to join the war in 1942 as the army was not fully recovered from the ethiopian war and the spanish civil war in which italy had a major involvement. The italian army was quite feared indeed(in 1936 Mussolini avoided the Anschluss to happen by placing his troops in the austrian border) but it was severely outdated. They werent even using guns from the first world war, but even from the late XIX century. The air force, despite being the largest at the end of WWI, was left behind and was outdated.
While the fleet was extremely good even tho outdated, it was definetely the second strongest fleet behind the brits in europe but it lacked Carriers therefore couldnt do much damage. The italian soldiers were extremely brave tho, they were litterally charging tanks with the cavarly, succesfully, and there are reports of soldiers fighting with one arm till they finished the bullets.
But the major problem wasnt the supply already low, or the outdated equipment. But as you mentioned in this video, poor leadership, the generals were picked among Mussolini's friends and had no skills whatsoever(whereas Germany produced some of the best). The only good military leaders died in weird circumstances(ie, killed by the secret services) or were not in the right place, like the duke of savoy who fought against the brits in ethiopia for so long
Unfortunately wrong on some aspects, but the rest of the post remain legit.
Italy's air force was 4th in line by the end of WWI, and 3rd within the Entente in both aircraft production and aircraft in active service: most sources mention around 20.000 Italian crafts built, and about 60.000 French builds; similarly, it is believed that 1.200 aircraft were active in the Italian Air Corps while estimates place Britain at more than 3.000, and the French at 4.000. Infact both nations (especially France) indebted themselves to hell for total war, so much that Italy probably couldn't afford to do the same.
At the start of WWII, the French navy was also superior in tonnage and probably sheer scale - a relic of WWI - it had more battleships, an aviso/carrier and several modern battlecruisers built in response to Italian vessels. Although things would change when France fell and the French navy scuttled itself or remained inactive/neutral, and Italy took its place for a time before Britain did a British thing and wrecked a bunch of ships from everyone.
@@ncblizzard1527 yeah you're right. I wanted to say that italy was the first nation to develop an air force.
Also about the fleet, keep in mind that France had half of his fleet in the english channel, making the italian fleet the dominant in the mediterranean(excluding the brits). As it is today(both nations have fairly advanced fleets and better than the brits, but i think the italian one is slightly better). The italian fleet was the only thing the allirs feared of Italy, many sailors that served in the German submarines were also picked from the italian Regia Marjna. Anyways the fleet was also quite outdated and had not enough ammo to compete with the astonishingly superior royal navy and the US navy.
Honor to the X flottiglia mas.
Anyways as you said as soon as france was lost the british navy sank the french one or the french themselves did it. The vichy france navy tried going against the brits and got annihilated(if i remember correctly the french admiral was a descendant of the french admiral in the battle of Trafalgar)
How dare you two make good arguments, get corrected on a few points, and graciously accept the gentle criticism.
This is the Internet damn it. Where's the flaming? The logically flawed arguments? The total toxicity?
Such a disappointment....
(Kudos to you both 🙂)
Well they were defeated and even lost ground when they retreated in the Albanian borders when fighting against the much smaller and immensely underequiped Greek army at 1940 (they barely had weapons for all their soldiers) so yeeeah dunno if they were as brave as you say
Keep in mind that moral plays a big part in wars. Attacking far from home and without a proper supply inflicted low moral in Italian lines. The Greeks were attacked on they’re land and when they realised the Italians weren’t able to breakthrough I don’t even imagine how proud were they.
To be fair saying that they were useless Is a massive overstatement. It’s not really fair to the soldiers who fought like lions for every victory.
The only useful fascist is dead fascist
@@arhamshahid5015 Not all of the soldiers who fought believed in the evils of fascism.
@@manboymanchild2521 you fight for fascists then you are one ,no further questions needed
@@arhamshahid5015 that’s not how it works when your country has conscription.
@@manboymanchild2521 tell that to the partisans
The relationship between the Italian Air Force and the Italian navy was ridiculous. When a fleet asked for air support, it would often arrive hours later, only if they actually choose to help. That’s also the reason why Italy never had an aircraft carrier.
Aircraft carrier isn’t joint between the navy and Air Force, the navy buys its own planes
@@tacticalterminator9477 for most navies that’s true, but for the Italian air force of the time, the Regia Aeronautica, and the Italian navy, the Regia Marina, it was different. The air force owned every aircraft and the navy owned every ship.
Italy was not ready with a supermarina at that time. That's why there was not such of organisations .
Its almost like Japan, where they hated each other…
Source?
My grandpa had to flee Italy after the fascists killed his family. Came to the us at 15. Learned English. Enlisted by 17. Was a tank mechanic. Got in a tank. Became a tank Sergeant by 20. Got his payback and blew up Nazis and fascists. He was the only survivor of three attacks. The last one left him disabled and losing his eye, ear, foot, etc. That's where he met my grandmother who was a combat nurse. Married 54 yrs until a heart attack took him. Rip grandpop.
THAT is heroism.
Pretty impressed with Grandma, too. 👍👏
Your grandfather was a communist traitor
Musso he fled Musso. What was he a red or mafia
@@tsadrertewrt1439
He did a h*ll of a lot more for this country than you ever dreamed of.
@@tsadrertewrt1439 Being hostile to fascists doesn't make you a Communist necessarily.
Mussolini was NOT the "father of Fascism"; it was a man named *Giovanni Gentile* . You should really investigate as to why almost no one knows who this guy is... (spoiler alert: it's all by design)
As lots of people don’t know Mussolini was a editor for Italy’s biggest marxist paper, they deny the basic fact he and A H were socialists…
@@RB-tl8cf socialists that thought equality sucked and turn so far right people thought of them as bringing colonial practices to home
@@3dcomrade typical. Socialists never seem to cope with the intolerant collectivism that comes with ideology. When socialists murder, it’s a far-right thing. Right!
Doesn’t matter, Hitler admired Mussolini for the Fascism he implemented in Italy
Fascism is a jojo reference
Why was the Italian army so useless?
Logistics! Logistics! Logistics!
Italian divisions had more different rifle calibers per division than any other (European) army. From pistols to heavy artillery, Italian divisional supplies were extremely diverse.
Think what you want about human diversity, but know that in logistics and manufacturing diversity is not a strength.
Even German, Soviet or American industry would have one hell of a time trying to supply the Italian army - let alone Italian industry.
Western allies, so USA, UK and the Commonwwealth went as far as not only to standardize production and streamline logistics within their own nations (or Commonwealth when it comes to Britain), but they standardized production even amongst themselves so that the Americans could supply the British, Canadians could supply Americans, Australians could supply Canadians, British could supply Australians etc.
That was intelligent
What you said is true but you left some things out, part of the reason Italy's military was so bad was Italy didn't have the production power like Britain Germany and the USA did, so they couldn't build tanks, planes or ships in the same scale as the Allies. Italy at that time was also a largely agricultural based country.
Mostly the south was agricultural
They wouldnt hav had the money to build up to date weapons, mostly due to open corruption through out the entire goverment and military
If you read the Arrigo petacco book " la nostra Guerra " he explains very well why.
the italian paratroopers were admired by the british army, so much so that the british let the captured italian officers keep their knives in pow camps.
@Chase Scott you’re actually wrong. Sounds crazy but is true
@Chase Scott look it up
Since fascism was based on honesty and honor they knew the italians would play by the rules, that why every single campaign italy did was foiled by tactics
@Chase Scott A Movie Was Made Based on True Events, That British Army Allowed German POWs Enough Bullets to Have a Firing Squad For a Traitorous Fellow Soldier!
@@tunderstorm2769 honesty and honor? 😂😂😂😂😂
when ideology is your sole obsession, competancy and merit are very likely the first casualties.
Hmm, seems like the USA right now.
Almost like we can definitively say some politics are bad and wrong without question or falter. And yeah it's the right.
@@ItsMeBeeee Yup, the GOP is the party of stupid. I have NEVER met an intelligent Trump supporter. Ever. Not even once in the past six years.
@@rocketassistedgoat1079 What a fool. Go down to the Mexican border and tell us how well you leftists are running this country. Go to the cities you leftists burned down and talk to the people there whose businesses were ruined. Get a clue.
@@ItsMeBeeee based and breadpilled
In grade school I had to do a report for memorial day. My grandfather served in WWII in the 87th Mt. Infantry against the Italians. My neighbor also served in WWII but for the Italians. I came up with a set of questions then asked both of them the same questions. My neighbor's response absolutely shocked me. Every Italian man of fighting age was forced to fight or die themselves. He had no choice, if he or his fellow soldiers were found to be pulling their shots, their commanding officer would execute them. The same went for the officers, if they didn't execute the men who weren't following orders, they would be executed by their higher-ups. It was a chain of command built on the fear of death. It was literally kill or be killed. My neighbor really wanted to do this report with me, but we had to take several breaks because of how emotional it was for him to relive it. He hated that he had to kill men whom he shared their values, but he was young and afraid. After WWII ended for the Italians, he got on the first ship he could and left for America. I really appreciated him as a neighbor, even though I was just a kid, he and I would hangout outside and talk about which super hero could beat another super hero in a race or an arm wrestle, etc.
My granpa brother served in Italian WWII infantry and he witnesses the exact opposite of your neighbour. Morale was high, they have to build new units due to high levels of voluntary recruits, and no one has EVER been killed for not join the military, there was the jail for those who didn't comply with conscription, but so they did in America or UK, i mean it was war. So please stop spreading fake news. Morale decreased a lot after the retreat from Russia, that's true, but hundred of thousand of people join the fascist forces in northen Italy after the 1943 armistice, knowing it was all lost at that point, but wanting to protect their nation till the end.
@@19mike88 we're talking about the same Mussolini? Did you're great Uncle ever give you a black shirt as a child, or any pamphlets to read? Did your great uncle also volunteer to invade Ethiopia where some 382,800 civilians were killed, or did he also uphold the anti-Jewish laws that were enacted?
While I don't doubt many Italians did volunteer, it's my understanding, from my neighbor's first-hand account that it was a different story for him. Thank you for incorrecting me, but based on contextual historical facts, I'll take his word for it.
@@j22mattones he wasnt even joining the fascist party till 1943 when became mandatory for being in the army. Did your neighbor gave you a red shirt as a child? Or maybe he came to US because he supported the anti black laws that USA had till mid 70s? Yeah, cause you are the ones that doesn't let black sit on the same bus...during fascism there where thousand of black people (and also jews, yes, jews) fighting in black shirt. Does he blame the fascist for every bad things that happens in the world? I mean, as you say there's many point of views, but living in Italy i can tell you your neighbor isn't telling the truth, but his truth.
Thanks for sharing. Do not exist any allegations about what you wrote. My father went to France, Yugoslavia and Russia ( Armir), and there is no story about that. Maybe, after the Armistice 8 September 1943, with a civil war, some episodes might be related to this. But this is another story.
Had a friend from Italy who told me about his grandfather who served in the Italian army during the war. He told me that at one point the regiment his grandfather was assigned to were supposed to get new rifles, but for some reason they only received the bayonets, so for several weeks they only had bayonets to practice/fight with until the Italian military could find a way to get the rifles they actually ordered.
They might be having old rifles which were to be replaced,how can you send an army without giving them any rifles?
At least he has the decency of being nervous of German fascism.
Then again, Hitler did tell Mussolini in his face that Italians were lesser than Germans…
Funny, considering a lot of Italy is descended from Germanic tribes
@@slein1055 funny considering that for most of their history the germans claimed to be "romans"
@@blackpaint9093???
@@petersva The holy roman empire was mostly german, and was neither holy, roman, or an empire
@@blackpaint9093 they only claimed to be roman so that the pope would endorse their 'holy' wars
It's truly sad how a certain group of people love to call people fascists while not understanding fascism at all weird
They think esoteric naziism is fascism when mussolini didn't care for race
Agreed, almost everyone has Google but won't take the time to type in fascism and read for 2 minutes.
Fascism is bad tho
Ah the classic friendship/family/loyalty over Merit.
Some say this is Why every empire have fallen apart.
“So Useless”… the italian army covered the german retreat from El Alamein and gave an important contribution in Russia. Almost all general were useless but not the army…
So were the brits and Yanks they asked to stop at Berlin 90% of germany and america were happy with the Democratic vote to destroy the Jews aistraliia destroye a 70000 yr old culture you keep your mouth shut
@@jameswright2974 I don’t understand the answer… have a sense with mine? No
Thing is Italian soldiers consistently performed exceptionally well it was their officers that let them down
When Italian soldiers where under german command it was said they preformed extremely well, the issue is most Italian higher up where fighting each other and not the enemy
Not so much the officers but the intendance, overly corrupted. Rommel said in Lybia than the Italian soldiers were super resistant, fighting without ammo, without food, without orders. No German soldier would endure so much he said.
@@dominiquecharriere1285 The Germans let themselves be invaded as soon as the frontier started touching Germany. It was comical how little the Germans can endure. Their was a officer who was disappointed in the pathetic short gurrila warfare so he left and trained Middle Easterners on how to make cells and targeted hits and slipping away strategies still in use today by actually people who can endure.
Then why did they lost? lmfao
@@scout1858if you are a bad driver but you have a ferrari, you will still be outrun by schumacker driving a fiat punto. I hope the example helps you too understand
One sole, big reason.
Mussolini was convinced that the war was already over. He wasn't planning to fight for long, only a couple months at best.
@Japanese-Korean Empire He kinda asked for it tbh
They weren't useless they had some of the best fighters and were put into situations that fucked them up. Saying their useless is a bit harsh.
Exactly. Some of the harshest fighting of WW2, was in the so called "soft underbelly of Europe".
Bro they were useless face it
They didn't even won in Greece without German support...
@@sebastianw.1492 It would have been a hard fight also for the Germans if they had attacked Greece from Albania, a poor country without infrastructures and full of mountains on the front. Maybe would have not failed as Mussolini did but I think they’re blitzkrieg tactic would have been useless and they’re tanks impossible to use. When Mussolini asked for help, hitler didn’t send his army in Albania but he invaded Yugoslavia to attack from a better position, probably what Mussolini should have done to win.
Sometimes the truth is harsh.
Italy: "WE WILL WIN IN AFRICA!"
Germany: "Oh god..."
Japan: "Just don't."
British: *"Hunting time, lads."*
Well🤣
Great Britain was helped by Americans, just us the italians were helped by the Germans.
@@CriscCiaddu Oh no, we defaintly wrecked you in Egypt
@@CriscCiaddu Without the Americans.
@@okuyasu1066 Don't get me wrong, I don't want to insult the British but I want to be realistic. Assuming that in North Africa only Italians and English would remain to fight (excluding French, Americans and Germans), the consequences would have been for:
1) Italian:
- Pro = Italian numerical advantage since Italy's main campaign in WW2 was in Africa.
- Pro = Excellent Infantry Soldiers
- Con = Logistical problems
- Con = Problems of incompetent officers
2) British:
- Pro = formidable coordination between the British units.
- Pro = good logistics
- Pro = excellent officers
- Con = Tanks for the most part obsolete such as the Vickers light tanks Mk.IV and Vickers medium tank Mk.II and a few Crusaders and Matilda as America did not give you the M3 Lee, M4 Sherman and M2 Stuart or other means of american origin.
- Con = With the lack of American money it would have been too difficult to finance the war in Africa so the British would have focused on the European conflict.
Fun fact: The major WW2 nations also had armies armed with WW1 weapons as most of the rifles were good and it was also too expensive to replace all the old weapons with new ones.
We still see the same problem today where people are being hired and promoted by race, religion, and ideals instead of competency
Dont want to have people at the top all smart and stuff. That gets stuff done.
Rather have good mouthpieces and gave the rest follow them
Nepotism
Trust me everyone does that. You would get hired based on your height, face, status, family connections and so on. It’s not a “problem” it’s evolutionary wired in humans.
Ah yes the soft underbelly of Europe
ALL Agree that the Italian Campaign Was Brutal.
Thanks For The 442.
It isn't the same now, the military is significantly stronger, actually top 3-4 in Europe. The economical and political situation isn't very stable though...
@@aureliano_37 those who fought against italians they remebered what kind of lions italians are....
Bad equiplment, zero steel resources, old amd obsolete tank and artillery and still they managed to be a pain in the butt of UK and allies...
Keep underrating Italy... hoping for you that you will never have to find yourself fighting them.
Time for my favorite Italian WW2 joke:
A generall is speaking to Hitler :" My Führer Italy joined the war." Hitler replies :" Send one Panzer battalion and we win" "But they are on our side" " God damit send them 30 Panzer Battalions as help".
Damn, that is really good lmao
That's a good one
They're really good at Bad breath competitions.
He got what he had coming to him, by the people themselves!!!! 2022
At least the trains ran on time
With the new hoi4 update I can finaly fully role play mussolini
Not really but it sounds good.
@@shawnr771 ran better than before
@@shawnr771 As I recall it was more of an ironic statement that everything was bad but "hey, at least the trains run on time" or something like that
@@Astrocat-od5cy yes.
The trains really did not but thst was something he took credit for.
That the post WW1 government started before he seized power.
Also, they were fighting my Grandad, and he didn’t mess about.
Neither did mine. 18 years old and fought in Normandy at D-Day. Later, his company fought under General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge. Decorated veteran. Sargeant in the U.S. Army Artillery division. RIP HL "Sarge"/ "Papa" Waldrop. 1923-2009.
Hey you killed in of my grandpas !!!!!!
They supplied the Germans with pizza, that was their true goal
The germans had one of the best military rations during the early days of the war
This give me laugh a lot 😂😂😂😂 lmao (Ps: I m italian)
😂😂😂
How could you forget the pasta!?
nice😂 this got me laughing loud
Because their meals took over four hours to prepare and eat
lmao that sauce is fire tho
But i am sure it was worthy
Italia As roman Empire:🦁🐻
Italia in WW2:🐱
Italia WWI: 🦁
My grandfather fought in the Italian army during WWII but from what I've been told his division was almost instantly captured before they could do anything🤷
My great great great grandpa was a facist Italian, apparently he might have got executed. Because he died in ww2 and his son survived.
There are instances of Italian Soldiers fighting tooth and nail against both the British and the Russians. Their elite Units, like the Bersaglieri and Alpini were generally well regarded and gave a good account of themselves. And there was some well designed and useful Military Equipment, like the Beretta Submachine Gun, the Semovente Self Propelled Gun and several types of Fighter Planes, so there is that. It had the numbers, it had the potential, but with exceptions, it didn’t have the leadership.
Why did Mussolini have a glass bottom boat?
He needed to keep
an eye on his Navy
What
@@deutchesbrotistwunderbar His navy was completely incompetent and lost almost every battle they were in during WW2. That's what this joke's referencing.
@@applescruff1969 got it now
@@applescruff1969 funny coming from a probably yank or breton who literally came from 100 years of lost wars ahahahahaha the level of coping and seething is reaching the sky ahahahaha no one will ever be even close to as good as Italy 🇮🇹 🦅
@@applescruff1969 explain the italian raid on alexandria
I fucking laughed at the title
For fought wars in Libya (1922-1932), Somalia (1922-1927), Ethiopia (1935-1936), Spain (1936-1939) and Albania (1939)
They're always late... Generals were talking to mama before going to war.
The man’s be like “basgetti” and get away with shit
Yeah that's about right, but the craziest thing was that a big part of the population was supportive of him, just because he was a good crowd pleaser and very good with speeches, while 80% of the nation and also the army was starving to death
That rapidly changed when Italy joined the war. No amount of propaganda could hide the clear lack of industries, manpower and equipment.
He was a Socialist and from a family very closely associated with Garibaldi, Italian nationalism, Freemasonry and Socialism. His government was similar to most, if not all, Italian governments since the Resorgimento. Look at the current Italian government and its recent actions. They're certainly reminiscent of Mussolini and yet Italians still support them. I expect God is still punishing Italy for stealing the Papal States and Rome, then exiling and imprisoning the Popes in the Vatican while denying them their just place in international relations. Italians still haven't learned their lessons and support Socialists and Communists in very significant numbers.
@@brianmccarthy5557 I don’t know what you mean when you say he was associated with Garibaldi or freemasonry. He was initially socialist, then he was expelled from his party since he wanted Italy to join WWI. He was completely different form any government before, and that’s literally why he could take control of the country. No government after WWII was ever similar to him. We didn’t steal form the pope, we took back what was our form a corrupted tyrant. Italy was never governed by communists.
In a single comment you managed to get the entire history of my country completely wrong… For the next time, it would be nice if you studied or at least looked at what actually happened before commenting anything, thanks.
@@brianmccarthy5557 what the fuck?
all political wishwash.
What was the real issue was that italy had no modern industry and mostly focused on agriculture. they simply had not the capacity to put out military equipment
Ethiopia defeated Italy twice
1st in 1896 & then again during WWII era
Italy was humiliated & this played a significant role in their 2nd attempt against the African Lion
I know why!..
F I A T !
Wasn't Italians useless. Greeks were determined
Also, Germany had no empire. It was a highly populated nation all compacted into one small area compared to the allies. It allowed for mobilisation and industrialisation at an incredible speed. Italy had already begun its attempts in Abyssinia before it had reached any high level of militarisation. Italy wasn’t necessarily useless it was just the sheer strength of the British empire that dwarfed it. An empire spanning 1/4 of the globe and all its seas managed to reasonably defend itself and crush Europe’s soft underbelly. The Brits also mobilised most of the Russians until the Americans joined once the tide was already turned. Italy was just embarrassed by the rapidness of Germany, the strength of Britain and the size of the Russians. Japan and the US are outliers in the discussion as both can’t be compared to the European powers
Actually Canada turned the tide in the war and is the sole allied force responsible for the toppling of Germany
@@mmmmm54321 no
I've still got a stockpile of Italian WW2 rifles for sale. They've never been shot and were only dropped once.
Italy had Greece to deal with and he greatly underestimated them. That was his mistake
HAHAHA. Greece was a joke mate. Don't get over confident, because Italy was a joke.
Greece was literally broke and had major internal conflict. Their army was pretty awful and were squished between Facist Turkey and Italian Albania. If the Allies couldn’t support Greece through Cyprus or the Middle East, they woulda fell pretty easily.
@@gizmodud7267 Bullshit. Yes the support of Britain was crucial for such a prolonged war, but you're underestimating some factors here. First of all, Greek High command consisted of mostly veteran officers, who had fought in the Balkan Wars, WW1 and the Greco Turkish War. Greek soldiers had an extremely high morale and were effective, despite their poor equipment. There are accounts of battles fought hand to hand in ww1 like scenarios (like Hill 732). So no, your oversimplification of "Greece would have fallen easily without Britain's help" is false.
@@PBandas This. Greece had a good war-ready army. Maybe less we’ll equipped than the Italians, but a good army that even stood up to the Germans for a while. I think Italy had many issues with morale, logistics, strategy, leadership…
@DanishTroll and we saw the Australians and new Zealanders run when they saw the panzers coming
Ethiopian here , they came to avenge the 1896 defeat which was the first European defeat in the hands of Africans.
On the second world war, Italy came with full power invading and controlling the capital killing form 300k to 500k Ethiopians by tanks , planes, bombs and even toxic gases.
One time, 2 Ethiopian nationalists threw a bomb and attacked Mosoloni's commander, 'Rodolfo Graziane ' , what followed was a blood bath in the Capital 20k to 30k youths and adults were killed in 3 days. (Read "Yekatit 12" for more info)
The Italians Literally raided a lot of artifacts from ancient books to 25+ meter 2000+years old Axum obelisk and many more.
They also divided and set a poisonous regional system, cutting societies and dividing land carelessly.
I think they thought they could easily conquer and rule it like the 1800s and early 1900s ፡ they did a lot misdeeds especially, politically, indirectly leading to multiple civil wars including the current ongoing one.
But whatever happened happened.
Nothing we can do to change the past.
He broke Ethiopia's independence streak 😭😭😭
Italy is one of the European nations that has less to do with colonialism, if talking about the crimes of other European nations or America is material for weeks
@@carlvonclausewitz3027 Libya , Eritra , Ethiopia & Somalia were Italian colonies and only Libya has had a little to no civil war in the past century apart the Arab uprising ( also I know little about their internal affairs)
But the rest Ethiopia Eritra Somalia are literally cut halfway like a cake intentionally to be ruled by the Italians.
We got 7 to 10 mill Somalis in Ethiopia and another 15 in Somalia. We got 6 to 8 mill Tegrians in Eritra and 7 to 9 in Ethiopia , even internally in Ethiopia there were lands given to opposite regions as the natives were then to fight for their fathers land. Land locking Ethiopia and killing what ever educated man power we had.
That alone had caused great mis trust and huge scale civil wars in the past century.
We basically have a full blown civil war every generation.
My parents were directly involved in one. My mother on Ethiopian side and my uncles in the Eritran. This is the north side the same thing goes down on the Eastern Somali border.
I wish they the EU came up clean on their plots so we can mend, forgive and move on from this curse.
@@theethiopian2305 Italy has never been a colonizing nation like England, Spain, the U.S. and other nations for centuries, during the twenty years, fascist Mussolini pushed for this war that no Italian wanted, that said the Italians have long since left Africa and do not have Commowealth like the English one, or they still impose the currency as France does on former African colonies, Ethiopia is now doing well, from the economic point of view it is growing, from the point of view of national unity it is a disaster because of how the borders were disgenic (a problem that was disastrous throughout Africa at the time colonial, with perfectly straight lines that divided peoples or brought together others who have nothing to do with each other), the Tigray rebels are just a tip of the iceberg, or should divide into small nations like a federation or have need a strong man who unites all the people as was the negus
@@theethiopian2305 ethiopia was occupied not colonized
It’s hard to accurately fire a rifle while talking with both hands.
As Italian I can tell you that it's not talking with hands, we practice how to roll the pizza bread before to bake it
My father fought in WWII for U.S. as a tank commander. He hated Italy as they joined Hitler....but changed their position when they saw how powerful the Allies were. He wouldn't trust them for a million dollars.
Everyone who’s been on vacation in Italy knows why the Italian army was useless in ww2. But that’s why I love the country.
what are you talking about?
@@Jack-mf5lw not sure what he is talking about but in the sopranos series they go and visit Italy. With high expectations they are let down because italy is almost like a poor shitty country compared to America.
@@H3Row bruh it was back then...
@@Jack-mf5lw you missed my point. The point is that perhaps Italy has a stereotype of being a shithole
@@H3Row I was looking at some pictures from my grandparents and it literally looked like the middle ages up until the early fifties... but now especially here in the north I guess it looks like a very rich version of America (for the most part)
"Choosing loyal people over competency" He is so Similar to Bolsonaro in this aspect
And trump...and any in Africa...and China, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, Nicaragua and Myanmar, Syria and...
@@eland65 Yep, but it hits harder when compared with someone closer to home.
Let’s go brandonnnn
My grandfather served in the Italian Army during WW2 he was in Infantry. Sadly none of the family know much about his service. He only told them about him being in Infantry. He never talked about the war a lot of vets didn’t.
He did an great job. I gave him a medal cuz He fought for his country like a man
Gentlemen you have fought like lions and have been led by donkeys, or something along those lines is what Erwin Rommel said to the Italian troops he was sent to aid in the North African campaign where the Italian troops showed bravery and capability way beyond of what they were known for.
Most of the ineffectiveness of the Italian military came from it's leadership and the lack of cooperation between officers and branches, the rest came from the bad industry and equipment and towards the end of the war the low morale of the troops to the point that during the invasion of Sicily the Italians abandoned their posts and surrendered without resistance.
You forgot that Mussalini also killed majority of his own people too
It’s always good to have trusted idiots by your side who can’t say no. Every organization that’s had this excels….all the time! Lol
Best condition to win ww2
Have equipment made from Germany
Have british summer clothes
Have USSR winter clothes
Have USA supply system
Have Italy in enemy
as an Italy main in war thunder, I can agree they are useless
Mussolini reminds me of a contemporary politician...I just can't put my finger on it....
The character of Italians is VASTLY different from the Germans. It's like night and day.
They got shit on horribly during world war 1 too
Mussolini was the Dollar General version of Hitler
ww2 Italy: New Roman Empire modern Italy: Pasta Empire
ww2 Japan: Banzai
Modern Japan: Hentai
In reality, they failed because the Penne noodles they were loading in their rifles weren't able to take down American armor
The breda 30 was basically a crossbow
Its pasta not noodles
The Italians are the tutorial bad guys in WWII video games.
"Why was it useless in ww2?" Because it was also useless in WW1
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Because they’re Italian. 😂
wut
L racist
Italians hardly ever won wars since the Decline of the Roman empire. Noisy perfumed hysterical army
Go study lol
That hand gestures though lol
They're Italian
The Italian army wasn't always useless, there were times when they were effective, I suggest looking up a video made by "The front" where they describe many useful facts that Italy was strong and another video made by "The armchair historian" titled "Times Italy was effective" so no Italy wasn't entirely useless, I suggest looking things up before saying random things
there's a reason he said they were mostly useless, yes at times they were useful which is why the video you say to watch is called "times Italy was useful", because them because useful is uncommon and being useless is the average
You have to admit though that the army wasn't as effective as it could have been on a large scale,war is not won by small successes it is won by grand victories, during the invasion of Greece for example the Italian army lost to the small and ill equipped Greek force which makes me wonder how? Italy had some of the finest mountain troops in Europe with light tanks suitable for the terrain but Benito sent his elite alpine regiments to the Soviet Union and Egypt where there training didn't help them
Because they were being led by Italy’s finest, Signore Mussolini.
Promote people based on loyalty and not competency. Sounds like a former US President.
Mussolini didn't even deserve that he became part of history, I mean it would be hard to work around thar but still
Year of Fascism 2022 Century of Fascism est. 1922 ✋🏴☠️🏴
Cope
@@Ahab2710 you'll never be a woman
@@imacolonelinbf2975 my brother in christ I'm transphobic
"Useless?" They killed many British, NZ and Australian soldiers, including wounding my father.
Yeah, the soldiers were good: just not the leadership.
There are many heroes in the Italian army that served their country well and to say that those soldiers that laid down their lives for their country were useless is bad. That's what you said. That the Italian soldiers who died for their country were useless.
Why don't you hear about the brave Italian paratroopers of WWII?
Cus it's hard jumping from basement windows
My dad fought the Italians in North Africa, he told me the Italians weren’t cowards, they had terrible kit and very bad logistics
Without every WW2 dictators ego, the result could have been quite different🧐
They were not useless. It's wrong to say this and to approach it like this. They were extremely formidable in the terrain they were fighting in, just because they fought a defensive war does not mean they would not useful. Some of the soldiers were actually some of the more equipped soldiers in the army at the time.
But bad planes though
The Technology on Italian Tanks during WW2 Was Decades ahead of the Allies, It had 5 Reverse gears and Two Forward .
They’ve never been good at fighting wars
Never???? We we’re unprepared
Useless?? Tell that to the families of the soldiers who were killed in northern Italy during their final stand.
They didn't have portable spaghetti back then. They ran out of energy by the second day
One of the best titles of history videos
Even thought we lost the war we had the bravest soldiers. In fact Adolf H1tl3r said "I would have won the war if i had had german officiers, but italians soldiers" we just lost the war because we had weakers weapons and tanks.
Its either having a country with strong military might but has high chance of changing its leaders constantly
Or
Having the same leaders for a long period of time but has a high chance to become a weak military might country
*Giovanni Gentile
Was the actual father of fascism
The Italian military's biggest weakness was equipment. Their equipment was either poorly designed or simply outdated. The soldiers themselves fought quite well many times throughout the war.