The Second World War was a war of aggression launched by the Axis power group with Germany, Japan and Italy as the main three fascist countries, and the scope of the war spread to the whole world, and it was the largest world war in human history, which brought great disasters to the people of the world and had a far-reaching impact. In the three Axis countries of Germany, Japan, and Italy, the Italian army was widely ridiculed for its many clumsy performances on the battlefields of World War II, and now there are many jokes about the Italian army circulating on the Internet, which are regarded as magical existences.
Famous jokes about Italy in World War II include hundreds of thousands of Italian troops lost to tens of thousands of French troops, thousands of Italian troops surrendering to dozens of British troops, the navy shooting down its own marshal, losing to Greece, etc. Some of these jokes are exaggerated, some are rumors, but there is no doubt that the performance of the Italian army in world war II was indeed not good, but the Italian army also performed well, such as the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force led by General Giovanni Messer.
In 1941, Italy formed the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force (C.S.I.R.), which initially consisted of the Ninth Pasubio Semi-Motorized Division, the Fifty-second Turin Semi-Motorized Division, the Third "PricipeAmedo Duca D'Aosta" (a famous general of the Savoy Royal Family of Italy) Rapid Division, and the "ValTagliamento" Blackshirt Regiment, with a total strength of 62,000 troops. Barbarossa was sent to Ukraine shortly after the launch of Operation Barbarossa.
Although not very well-equipped, the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force was very successful in the war against the Soviet Union, capturing 100,000 Red Army soldiers, capturing Stalino (present-day Donetsk, Ukraine) at the Battle of Kiev, and repelling the attack of the Soviet Red Army in the winter of 1941, and the commander of this army was the famous Italian general Giovanni Messer.
A native of Puglia, Italy, Giovanni Messe fought in the conquest of Libya and World War I in his early years, and commanded a motorized brigade during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia before World War II. After the outbreak of World War II, the troops led by Giovanni Messer were a well-behaved Italian army that invaded Greece, achieved certain victories, and later served as the commander-in-chief of the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force.
The outstanding performance of the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force in Ukraine was inseparable from the command of Giovanni Messer, who was awarded the German Knight's Cross. In July 1942, Giovanni Messer was transferred out of the Soviet Union and in early 1943 succeeded Rommel as commander of the German-Italian Panzer Army (later renamed the Italian First Army), which blocked the British offensive. On 12 May 1943, Giovanni Messer was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal of the Italian Army, but on 13 May he had to lead the German-Italian army to surrender after the defensive line was breached.
Of course, Giovanni Messe was not a believer in Mussolini but a so-called royalist, and after turning the gun in Italy, Giovanni Messe served as chief of staff of the Italian United Belligerent Army and retired in 1945. All in all, Giovanni Messer was one of Italy's most prominent generals during World War II.