Italy has been losing battles since the German blitzkrieg against Poland, and when Germany first fought Poland and Norway, Italy did not participate, otherwise it would have lost several more battles. When Germany invaded France in May 1940, Italy also came to join in the fun, sneaking into France ten days before France surrendered, only to be beaten back by France, and Italy suffered more than ten times as many casualties as France, which was still in the case of France being defeated by Germany.
Italian troops invading France
When Italy attacked Greece from Albania, the battle was also collapsed, and the Greek fight almost lost Albania, and finally Germany sent troops to occupy Greece.
In East Africa, there is an Italian colony, which was when Britain and France pursued an appeasement policy before the outbreak of World War II, France instigated Italy to invade East Africa, Italy was initially unable to defeat, and then used poison gas to barely take East Africa, and as a result, after the outbreak of World War II, it was directly robbed by Britain.
Flag of the Kingdom of Italy captured by South African troops in East Africa
The most fundamental reason for the low combat effectiveness of the Italian army is that it does not want to fight, and the anti-war sentiment in the country has always been very high, especially Italy is still losing the war, in this case, the Italian army must not have a big loss, otherwise under the pressure of domestic anti-war, it may really directly withdraw from World War II.
Although Italy was defeated by France, but when France surrendered to Germany, France gave Italy a occupied area, so Italy still ate the sweetness, when the East African colonies were lost, Germany had captured Yugoslavia and Greece, allocated several pieces of italian occupation as compensation, and the Allies had the upper hand until this time, so although italy had anti-war sentiments, it still did not withdraw from the war.
Prime Minister of Italy and Head of State of Germany
By the end of 1942, it was not possible, for a month the German-Italian coalition army lost the entire North Africa, the Soviet-German battlefield on the eastern front entered a stalemate, in July 1943 the Soviet-German battlefield on the eastern front began to be pushed back, the Anglo-American coalition began to organize the landing on the Italian mainland, and on July 9 began to land in Sicily in southern Italy, the Psychological Defense Line of the Italians completely collapsed, originally anti-war, how could it continue to fight in the mainland.
Italians captured by the British in Sicily
It was widely believed in Italy that the Allies would inevitably attack the Italian mainland, and the whole country was shrouded in fear. King Emanuele III of Italy also wanted to depose Mussolini to ask the Allies for peace, and the King of Italy summoned the Minister of Justice, Grandi, to do some work to remove Mussolini from the post of Prime Minister, and Grandi had opposed Mussolini before he came to power, so Grandi was naturally willing to take on this responsibility.
Grandi then lobbied the committee, and in the process of lobbying, Grandi found that a very large number of people had the idea of an armistice and allied peace.
Site of the Italian Commission during World War II
On 24 July, at a committee meeting, Grandi severely accused Mussolini of being primarily responsible for the crisis of The Destruction of Italy, demanding that he return the power of command and the decision-making power of the state to the King and resign as Prime Minister. Grandi proposed the dismissal of Mussolini as Prime Minister, which was adopted by 19 votes in favour, 8 against and 1 abstention. Grandi has been remembered by future generations as a result.
Although the Commission decided to remove Mussolini from the post of Prime Minister, it had no legal effect because, under the Italian Constitution at the time, only the king had the power to appoint or remove the prime minister. At the same time, King Emanuele III of Italy summoned Mussolini to inform him that he had been removed from office, and then arrested him with the use of national gendarmes, a coup d'état in Italy, the appointment of a new prime minister, and the beginning of the reorganization of the commission.
King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy
The new government began to seek an armistice with the Allies, but at this time Germany did not intervene, Italy was Germany's closest comrade-in-arms, a sudden coup, said surrender, surrender, although the new government promised Germany that it would not turn its back on Germany, but the new government was formed because it wanted to armistice, so Germany began to mobilize troops on the German-Italian border to prepare for the invasion of Italy.
On September 8, Italy and the United States and Britain reached an armistice agreement, the news was announced, the German army immediately invaded Italy, occupied two-thirds of Italy's territory, the southern United States and Britain allied forces in time to establish a defensive line to make southern Italy survive, the German-occupied area set up a puppet government, continue to be Mussolini as prime minister, the previous Italian newly formed government actual control area is only the south, accounting for about one-third of the country.
The grey part was controlled by the Anglo-American-Italian coalition
The new government of southern Italy then became a member of the Allies and continued to fight against Germany. Initially Italy's intention was an armistice, and although Italy's ideals of an armistice were shattered, Italy had become a member of the Allies until it finally won World War II.
From the history of World War II, Italy's ability to overthrow Mussolini's government and join the Allied camp was Italy's biggest victory in World War II.
The Fuehrer's anger