For most of World War II, Italy was an ally of Adolf Hitler. But it seemed that overnight, the Italians betrayed him. They would pay a high price for such rudeness, but why would Italy betray Hitler? In fact, from entering the war to betraying the Nazis, Italy's involvement in World War II is bizarre. For several reasons, Italy's entry into World War II was a bit gloomy. When Italy entered the war, it looked like Germany was going to win.
Italy has been holding out for some time and seems to be hedging their bets. It wasn't until Mussolini and other members of the Italian government thought Hitler would win the war that they decided to support the Nazis. When France fell, joining the Germans in conquering Europe seemed like a safe bet. Italy's leaders hope that by joining the seemingly winning side, they will receive land and loot. It seems that Italians are more interested in gaining power for themselves than in the morality of fighting for it during World War II.
However, this can be said to be true for many countries involved in conflict. If the circumstances at the start of World War II had been different, with the Allies having the upper hand at the outset, Italy's decision to join could have been very different. But this was not the case, and in 1939 Italy signed the "Steel Treaty" with Germany, making them part of the Axis powers. Four years later, on October 13, 1943, the Italians would betray their former allies and instead fight alongside the Allies to defeat Hitler. But how did they go from supporting the Nazis to joining the Allies?
There are several key factors, most of which have to do with the way Italians see themselves. As soon as Italy entered World War II, they were in trouble. Benito Mussolini ruled the country as a dictator, and many people at the time were in favor of this. Italians seem to want a strong Italy most. Mussolini was the one who promised that he could offer this, so a lot of people agreed with his fascism. One of mussolini's many problems in governing the country and fighting wars was that he was more concerned with loyalty than experience when appointing generals and military leaders. This had some terrible consequences for Italy during World War II, and was the first step that eventually led to their betrayal of Hitler and the Axis powers.
Italy entered the war and immediately sent troops to invade Greece, the Balkans and North Africa. The only problem is that Britain has deployed military forces in much of these areas. Britain would defend the Suez Canal at all costs and protect oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. If they lose this vital resource, Britain will be in real danger of falling into the Axis. An Italian army of more than 100,000 men entered North Africa and was welcomed by some 36,000 British soldiers. The situation was favorable to Italy, but due to the lack of adequate training and leadership, the British were able to repel the Italian army.
In fact, by the end of italy's campaign in North Africa, the Allies had captured about 130,000 Italian soldiers. This was not only a huge defeat for Italy at the beginning of the war, but also demoralized Italy. The situation in North Africa was so bad that Hitler had to send his own troops into the region to help Italy. Having lost so many soldiers in such a short period of time, Mussolini and the Italian leadership outside his inner circle began to question whether they had chosen the right side. This disagreement among the Italian leaders later led them to betray Hitler and the Nazis. Embarrassment manifested not only in the army, but also in every Italian who supported Mussolini. Many citizens supported the war, hoping that their country would be stronger and that it would have more land and resources for the country. However, if the military cannot work together, this will not happen.
While Mussolini may have kept trains running on time, the rest of the Made in Italy infrastructure lags far behind the rest of the world. Factories had a hard time getting the materials they needed, and when they did, the Allies would bomb their buildings and take the Italian war machine a step further. Basically, Italians have slowly realized that it has gone too far. Although Hitler's Germany was a force to be reckoned with, Germany was unable to send the personnel and resources needed to re-engage Italy in the war after several defeats. Hitler's armies were now fighting on multiple fronts, and if the Axis powers were to win, they needed Italy to start working. Even before the decision to betray Hitler was made, there were clear signs of unrest among the ordinary Italian population.
In 1943, just a few months before Italy betrayed its allies, factories in Milan and Turin went on strike. All workers want is an evacuation allowance for their families. The Italian people are starving, and hundreds of thousands of citizens have fled the cities and affected areas to the countryside. It is clear that morale in Italy is low and many working classes now want to withdraw from the war. Not everyone in Italy initially supported joining the Nazis, but the vast majority supported their dictators, even if they disagreed with hitler's actions. However, when it became clear that Italy would not end up becoming a powerful country whose leaders wanted to ally with Germany, everything changed. Citizens were demoralized, disgruntled, the army was in a mess, and Mussolini himself seemed increasingly unconcerned about the outcome of the war. It is at this point that Italy's leaders are aware of the need for change. It's time to get rid of Mussolini and join the winning side. Italians are now on the cusp of betraying the Nazis, but there is still one more thing to do.
By mid-1943, the Italians had been defeated in and around the battlefield. The once-proud country is slowly falling apart. The Allies had invaded southern Italy and taken control of Sicily. It is becoming increasingly clear that Hitler and the Nazis simply will not win the war. So the Italian government decided to jump ship and try to save everything they could save. In fact, everyone, from members of the government to ordinary citizens, has lost faith in Mussolini and his ideology.
An emergency meeting was held on July 25, 1943, and Benito Mussolini was voted deposed by his own Great Council. The moment he left the building to meet King Vittorio Emanuele, Mussolini was arrested. Surprisingly, Mussolini showed little emotion and did not seem to care that he was ousted from power. The Government of Italy appointed General Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister of the country. Badoglio was Mussolini's chief of staff, but he had very different ideas about what direction the country should take to regain some of its former powers. Badoglio immediately began negotiations with General Eisenhower. He wanted to surrender to the Allies and help them win the war against Nazi Germany. The agreement was that Italy would surrender and allow the Allies to cross the southern part of the country without any resistance. The remaining Italian troops would then help the Allies drive the Nazis out of their country.
When Mussolini was deposed and arrested, Hitler himself must have known that Italy was in trouble. The Nazi leader needed to move quickly, but even he may have underestimated the speed with which the Italians betrayed him. After being betrayed by Italy, Hitler did the only thing he could do; he sent his own army to invade the country. The Italian army was already so chaotic that Hitler had no problem securing a strategic position. He has deployed troops in the country to help his former allies defend against enemy forces. To ensure that the government that betrayed him would not gain more power, Hitler sent his army directly to Rome to capture the country's capital. The Nazi army successfully completed the mission, forcing the new government, including General Badoglio, to flee. But by this time much of Italy had betrayed him, and its citizens were more than willing to help the Allies defeat the Nazis.
Whether Hitler remained friendly to Mussolini or not, he felt that the former fascist dictator had some use for him. Hitler found mussolini's hill prison and sent troops to rescue him. Hitler then restored Mussolini as the new ruler of the Nazi occupation of northern Italy and named the territory the "Italian Social Republic". Mussolini once again became the leader of Italy's fascist government, but his rule would not last long. When the Nazi army fought the Allies, the Italians in the north captured and executed Mussolini. It would be the second time Italy had betrayed Hitler in months. To be fair, it was members of the Italian partisans who carried out the execution, but as 1943 progressed, Italy betrayed Hitler again and again.
Hitler began to do crazy things in Italy to express his displeasure. In nazi-controlled areas, Hitler pursued a vicious policy of forcing Italian citizens to support and work for the Nazi army. Hitler did not seem to accept the betrayal of his former allies very well, for what he did next was absolutely insane; and in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Hitler ordered one of his scientists to drop a biological weapon at the Italian population. Nazi scientist Erich Martini was in charge of the biological warfare project. Martini was a friend of Heinrich Himmler and a devout Nazi party member. At the time, Martini was one of Europe's leading epidemiologists, especially when it came to malaria viruses.
Hitler sent Martini to Italy, where his mission was to breed mosquito-carrying malaria and release it to the Italian population. The idea was that when the Allies advanced further north, they would encounter mosquitoes and contract malaria, which would lead to a massive reduction in their troops. Hitler didn't really care what the disease would do to the average Italian citizen, because they betrayed him, and he wasn't a tolerant man. During Mussolini's dictatorship, a drainage project was carried out in the Pontin Marshes to create more usable land for houses and farms in Italy. Everything went according to plan, and the marshlands were turned into fertile farmland. However, Hitler had his troops reverse engineer the Ponting Marshes, turning them into marshlands again. This provides the perfect breeding ground for Martini's malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. Martini released more than a million Anopheles larvae into the swamps. The Nazis then added salt water to make it less suitable for plants and animals, but mosquitoes could thrive in it.
This form of biological warfare had little effect on the Allies, but was devastating to the local Italian population. On October 13, 1943, when General Badoglio entered the next phase of his agreement with Eisenhower, Italy's betrayal of Hitler was completed. He provided troops and resources to help the Allies retake Rome. Surprisingly, as the war drew to an end, Badoglio resigned from power. This freed Italy from the authoritarian government that initially tied them to the Nazis and laid the groundwork for a more peaceful future for Italy.
The Italians' betrayal of Hitler was a tricky affair, and due to repeated military defeats, the demoralization of the Italian people, and the reversal of the situation in World War II, Italy decided to betray Germany. This helped the Allies eventually defeat Hitler and the Nazis.