When Germany attacked France during World War II, Italy also stabbed France in the back and broke the knife -
In May 1940, the Germans quickly took the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and then attacked France, and France, known as the "First Army of Europe", collapsed. Italy, seeing this great victory, thought that Britain and France had lost the war and that Germany was about to win the war, but that in order to share the fruits of the victory, it must immediately enter the war.
Italy immediately informed Germany of the imminent entry into the war, which was welcomed by Germany. On June 10, 1940, when the French government announced the abandonment of Paris, Italy declared war on Britain and France and officially entered World War II.
Italy immediately mobilized 300,000 troops to attack France, with Marshal Rudolf Graziani as the commander-in-chief, because Italy had always adopted a passive defensive attitude towards France before June 1940, so the Italian army was obviously ill-prepared, lacking motor vehicles and cold supplies, in addition to the most important thing, Marshal Rudolf Graziani's combat experience was only in Africa with absolute superiority in troops to fight the local natives, never fought on the European front and was not familiar with the terrain of the Alps.
Originally, France deployed 500,000 troops on the French-Italian border to defend, but because most of the troops in the war with Germany were transferred to the north to defend Germany, when Italy launched an attack, only 170,000 troops were left on the border, and they could only rely on the fortifications built before to resist the Italian army. On 20 June, Mussolini believed that the morale of the French army had collapsed, and in order to share the fruits of the victory with France after the war, Mussolini launched a full-scale offensive knowing that the Italian army was ill-prepared.
On June 21, the Italian army began to launch a full-scale attack on the French army, this area belonged to the end of the direction of Maginot, the fortifications and bunkers were very loose, and it was thought that it would be easy to break through the defensive line, but after the attack began, it did not expect to encounter stubborn resistance from the French army, and the French army relied on the topographical advantages of the Western Alps and the harsh climate to fight the Italian army. Until the Franco-Italian armistice on the 24th, the Italian army only occupied a very small number of French fortresses, while most of the French positions were still intact, and the Italian army did not achieve much success in the end.
Then, on 22 June, France and Germany signed an armistice, Mussolini turned to Germany for help, Germany put pressure on France, and France signed an armistice with Italy and ceded parts of the Franco-Italian border to Italy.
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