When it comes to Italy, it's hard to put into words. As a regular ally of Germany in provoking world wars twice, Italy has always been a joke in the eyes of its peers, and it is also the only country that can trap Germany twice in a row in two world wars.
If the French army was a group of rabble on the battlefield, then the Italian army of the same period was a super rookie chased and beaten by a group of rabble.
Italy started relatively late, and it was not until 1861 that the Kingdom of Sardinia completed its unification and established the Kingdom of Italy.
After its founding, Italy was eager to prove its strength in the world pattern of European power hegemony, while expanding more colonies. So, in 1895, Italy mobilized 17,000 troops and launched an attack on Ethiopia, in an attempt to forcibly occupy this semi-modern African country by force.
However, this war ended in a hurry in only three days. Although the Italian army had superior firepower, it was surrounded and divided by the Ethiopian army, and the bombardment of Italian artillery could not stop the charge of Ethiopian soldiers at all. An army of 17,000 men, 11,000 killed and wounded in three days, and 4,000 captured. After the war, Italy paid Ethiopia 10 million lire in reparations, setting a record for the first time a European signed a defeated treaty in Africa.
Later, when World War I broke out, Italy ostensibly established an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but Britain and France casually induced Italy to sell Germany and Austria-Hungary, turned to the Allies, and declared war on the Allies in May 1915.
At that time, Italy thought that instead of asking for land inch by inch from Austria-Hungary after the war, it was better to take the opportunity to help the Allies crush Austria-Hungary. In this way, the lands of Austria-Hungary could be divided in an open and honest manner.
However, after Italy defected to the Entente, Britain and France regretted it, because the Italian army was too pitted, and as soon as the war began, Italy shouted that it could not withstand it, and several troops were beaten and fled.
Eleven battles of the Isonzo River, the Italian army sent millions of troops in total, but the end was nothing. Later, in order to save the besieged Italian army, the Allies had to send nine divisions from the already not wealthy troops to help.
According to statistics afterwards, throughout World War I, Italy sent more than 5 million troops and suffered about 1.37 million casualties, but it achieved little substantive effect. Although Italy was a nominal victor, the territory promised to Italy before the war was basically nullified, and only some worthless islands and North African territories were allocated to Italy, which caused extreme dissatisfaction in Italy.
At the beginning of World War II, Hitler was keenly aware of Italy's small emotions and took the initiative to contact Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, saying that Germany was willing to abandon the past and lead Italy to the peak of life again.
Mussolini agreed to Hitler's request and declared himself a pawn of Germany again, helping Hitler realize his dream of a unified world. It's just that Italy's "pit virtue" attribute has not changed after twenty years.
In May 1940, the German army broke through the French defense line from the Ardennes Forest, a place considered by the Allies to be a graben, and soon the French army, which claimed to have 1.3 million men and the First European Army, was rubbed on the ground, and the defeated French army was forced to retreat south.
At this time, Mussolini believed that if the Italian army was dispatched at this time to defeat the French army, which had lost its fighting spirit. Taking the opportunity to seize the southern regions of France, even Hitler will certainly not have much to say.
So 300,000 Italian soldiers rushed day and night in the direction of France. Halfway through, the Italian army successfully met with 50,000 fleeing French troops, and the enemy was weak and strong. It stands to reason that Italy could easily grasp the victory of this battle, but strange things happened. The 300,000 Italian army not only failed to defeat the 50,000 French army, but was counter-killed by the French army and almost completely destroyed.
At sea, at sea, Italy met the British Royal Navy, which was then the number one in the navy. The Italian navy is also not bad, but compared with the British navy, it is really a younger brother. It is easy for Britain's giant ships and artillery to hit the Italian Navy, and it is not a shame to lose to Britain.
However, seeing Germany on the battlefield, Mussolini was very jealous in his heart, and he was eager to obtain a victory of the same magnitude to prove himself. Mussolini's men told him that Greece was a good place, "our ancestors the Romans conquered it." ”
Mussolini accepted this advice and decided to attack Greece. On October 28, 1940, Italy assembled eight divisions, about 87,000 men, 163 tanks, 686 guns and 380 aircraft, and began its attack on Greece.
At that time, there were only the Eighth Infantry Division and some militia regiments on the Greek front, with a total strength of no more than 30,000 people, and these people still lacked tanks, howitzers and other heavy weapons, and the air force basically did not have them. Even so, Italy failed to gain the upper hand, and within weeks it was expelled from Greece and large areas of southern Albania by the Greek army.
In addition to the extremely stretched battlefield performance, the Italian army also had many battlefield confusions, such as the Italians piling millions of tons of explosives in the church in order to avoid explosives being bombed by Allied bombers. As a result, during a thunderstorm, the church was struck by lightning and exploded, all the explosives disappeared in an instant, and one-fifth of the entire city was in ruins.
This incident can be considered a natural disaster and cannot be predicted, but have you seen the troops who shot anti-aircraft guns and sent their own marshals away?
In 1940, Italian Air Marshal Balbo was ordered to inspect Italian positions, but he had not yet reached his destination. Balbo's plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns and crashed, Balbo died on the spot, and it was later discovered that it was not the enemy who fired the anti-aircraft guns, but the Italians themselves. Balbo thus became the highest-ranking general to be taken out by the Italian army in World War II, but this was Italy's own family.