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10: Italian Foreign Policy (WW2) - Coggle Diagram
10: Italian Foreign Policy (WW2)
Impact of the Second World War 1940-43
Entry
Germany successfully attacked France (May 1940)
Mussolini declared war on Britain and France in attempt to have a say in carve ups of the Balkans/ Africa/ Med
He didn't want Germany to have total control of Europe so instead wanted a 'parallel war'
Failure in France
22nd June French armistice was signed between Hitler and Petain but Mussolini wasn't invited
Italy launched an offensive of the alpine front but was stalled due to lack of proper clothing and lack of arial bombardment
Mussolini was only given 2 small towns they had captured but he had hoped for Corsica, Savoy, Nice and Tunisia etc
Failure in North Africa
Sent troops from Abyssinia in British Somaliland, Sudan and Kenya
In September he ordered the invasion in Egypt including the Suez Canal
Even though Italian forces were 4x larger GB took Tobruk in Libya, Eritrea Somalia and Abyssinia in April 1941
By January 1941 over 125,000 Italian soldiers were captured by the British
Germany had to come and reinforce in Libya which was humiliating for Mussolini (end of parallel war)
Axis forces struggled in North Africa in 1942 (occupation of Malta created a supply issue
Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 forced Axis forces to retreat
Axis forces surrendered in May 1943
Failure in Greece
Sent 70,000 troops from Albania into Greece on the 28th of October 1940 after an ultimatum was issued
Hitler wasn't impressed by the idea or the execution of the 2 week takeover plan
Greeks resisted more than expected, there was heavy rain, lack of coordination, Bulgaria didn't join Italy as planned so by December a counter had drive Italian back into Albania
Badoglio was removed and reinforcements sent (1/2 million sent in total) but was still unsuccessful with 32,000 dead and 100,000 wounded
British successfully took Cape Matapan (March 1941) with 5 ships sunk, Malta and Gibraltar were also safely in British hands
Spring 1941 Germany quickly took over Greece in weeks, Mussolini was just given control of the Croatian coastline
Failure in the East
Most of the 230,000 Italians sent to fight in the USSR were killed or captured and by the end of February 1943 he began to withdraw
Huge blow to popularity as he was blamed for defeat due to being badly equipped and trained
War Economy
Far from prepared in 1940 'geared to the First World War'
25% of Italian GDP spent on war whereas 64% in Italy
Lack of weapons, clothing and food (US could build more aircraft in a week than Italy could in a year, Fiat couldn't keep up)
Dependent on Germany, was sending their maximum of 1 million tonnes of coal per month to Italy but this still wasn't enough so weapons production wasn't adequate until 1942
Bombing raids
Steel production fell and unemployment persisted
Autumn 1942
In Turin 25,000 houses were destroyed and 50,000 workers left Milan by the end of 1942
More than 100,000 workers on strike in March 1943 due to the poor 'evacuation allowance' (first protest in Axis nations)
No efficient centralised system geared for war (ways to avoid conscription) and lack of self sufficiency
Domestic impact
Italians had big food shortages of rice and olive oil, milk crisis in 1943, harvests fell by 1.5 million tonnes between 1938-43
Cars requisitioned from 1942
Rations on bread form 1941 (150g a day) and 400g of meat a month
People were fainting in factories due to living of 1000 calories a day
Black market meant bread was charged at 8x original price by June 1943
Propaganda was ineffective and evacuations were mismanaged
Military Weaknesses
Mussolini lacked coherent strategy and command structures as 'Supreme Commander'
Air force bombed own ships at Punta Stilo in July 1940, the army had 600 generals by 1939 (too many) and they had poor communication with peasants
Training was no adequate and the military academies were outdated (army still used WW1 charges)
Morale was poor because they kept on losing but they still fought with courage
75-80 divisions in a field but only enough equipment to supply 30-35 divisions, only 1,500 tanks and 1941 estimated that 1/3 were getting lost in transit
Navy lacks carriers, planes, radar and oil and planes didn't have long-range bombers which needed to attack in Egypt
Soldiers only got around 3,000 calories a day
Political tensions
By 1943 diverse opposition groups were becoming united against Mussolini and the war and anti-war posters appeared
Workers were striking for the first time in 18 years (March 1943) over pay, hours and prices
Fascist unions were becoming infiltrated with older anti-fascist workers and communists alarming Mussolini
Communist newspaper L'Unita reappeared in 1942 and left leaning 'Party of Action' was formed
Christian democrats formed in 1942 which had Church backing
By April 1943 all groups (bar the Republicans) agreed to work together against fascism (first time)
Soldiers coming home from tuberculosis were critical, 200,000 dead at Stalingrad
Committed fascists were questioning with party members falling, only 800 of the 4,600 squadristi attended the 30 year celebration of the March on Rome
Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky)
Allied landed in Sicily on the 10th July 1943
Using air and sea invasion allies defeated Germany and Italy after only 38 days but Hitler had refused to redeploy from the USSR
25th July Mussolini deposed and arrested (triggered from invasion)
Italian troops withdrew from Sicily and successful evacuation to the mainland with 100,000 men plus vehicles
Mussolini deposed
Party cause by the King and also the Fascist Grand Council opposition
Grandi, Bottai and Ciano pushed for a vote of no confidence or for Mussolini to be replaced by the King
They were sick of the defeats, being subversive to Germany and wanted a deal with the Allies which they couldn't get if Mussolini was in charge
Grand Council meeting on the 24th July 1943 there was a vote 19 to 7 against Mussolini
Mussolini ignored the vote but the King backed it on the 25th so Mussolini was removed and arrested and replaced with Badoglio