Keywords: two world wars Italy Fascism
Italy as an imperialist country, it is a participant in the two world wars, in the fierce wars the Italian army repeatedly lost, and other countries' armies formed a stark contrast, what are the factors that led to the Italian in the war so weak, unbearable that. This paper tries to interpret the reasons for Italy's repeated defeats in the two world wars by combining the factors of Italy itself with the international environment at that time.
One, economic factors --- economic backwardness, lack of resources
Modern war, whether to ensure the supply of strategic materials is one of the important factors in the war victory or defeat. Once the source of strategic materials dried up, the army will lose the ability to act, the fatal weakness of fascist Italy, precisely the weak economic foundation and lack of resources. Almost all the raw materials needed for the military industry were dependent on imports.
Internationally in the early 20th century, Britain, France and other capitalist countries had already begun their colonial expansion everywhere, and their spheres of influence were spreading rapidly. They plundered a lot of wealth for the development of capitalism. At this time, the real economic development area in Italy was only concentrated in a very small area in the north, and the vast agricultural area in the south was not only more populous and less productive, but also became a sales place in the north, with an unbalanced economic development of the region. The domestic rulers not only failed to take measures, but also transferred the financial difficulties caused by years of war to the working people. Social unrest emerged and grew. The commercial liberal bourgeoisie in Italy not only wanted to push their products from the narrow market to the international market, but also wanted to obtain raw materials from the vast overseas for the development of capitalism. Italy started colonial expansion under the pretext of economic interests, but Italy was not as economically powerful as Britain, France and so on. However, Italy's economic strength was not as strong as that of Britain and France. Italy's fatal weakness was precisely its weak economic foundation and lack of resources, and it was bound to be defeated when it embarked on the road of colonial expansion without making good economic preparations. In the First World War, Italy paid a great price, but at the Paris Peace Conference, Britain and France were unwilling to strengthen Italy's power in the Mediterranean and the Balkans and refused to fulfill their promises. At the "President Wilson's Arbitration" conference (Orlando), most of the spoils of war were seized by Britain and France, and Italy was given a total of 100,000 square miles of land, compared to Britain's 2.5 million and France's 1 million.
After the First World War, Italy was in economic recession, political chaos, and near paralysis of the central government. the economic crisis of 1929-1933 added to Italy's woes. Italy in order to get rid of this passive economic situation, as early as 1937 decided to implement the "self-sufficiency program" but the implementation of this plan failed to narrow the gap between Italy's raw material production and other large countries, the production of coal, iron and steel, and oil and other important strategic materials as an example, l938 Italy only produced poor quality coal 1.48 million tons, while the same year the United States, Britain, France, Germany, four countries of coal production were 406 million tons, 230 million tons, 46 million tons and 159 million tons; copper production that year, Italy for 237.7 million tons. The United States, Britain, France and Germany were 50 million tons, 14 million tons, 6 million tons and 23 million tons. Italy's oil production is worse. l938 it only produced l53265 tons of crude oil, while the usual annual consumption of 4 million tons of oil, the oil industry in Italy. Wartime 8 million tons. Almost all of the oil consumed to be imported from abroad. In sharp contrast, the same year, the United States crude oil production of 170 million tons, Britain, France are gradually formed due to the rich reserves of oil fields, and thus crude oil production is also very high. In addition, Italy's copper, nickel, lead, tin and other non-ferrous metal resources are also scarce. Tin and other non-ferrous metal resources are also very scarce. One of the better copper．In 1938, only 2,963 tons of production, while the United States in the same year, copper production of 580,000 tons.
The lack of raw materials makes Italy's industrialization level is far behind other European and American powers. For example, in 1938, the fascist leader Mussolini in order to realize the mechanization of the army and fast, take all kinds of ways to increase the production of automobiles, thus promoting the development of the Italian automobile industry, but still can not be compared with the above countries of the automobile production. l939 September 1 when the outbreak of the Second World War, Italy's reserves of the main strategic materials have been exhausted. At that time, steel is still enough for 14 days, coal is only enough for 50 days, the situation is better iron ore is only enough for 180 days in order to solve the problem of shortage of strategic resources.
In short, by the time Italy entered the war in June 1940, the Italian economy was far from ready for war. Italy's economy was far from ready for war. This can be confirmed from the diary of the Italian Foreign Minister Ciano.
The Italian economy was far from being ready for war by the time Italy entered the war in June 1940. Accompanied by General Favagrosa, who was in charge of military production in Italy, Ziano inspected the strategic stockpile. Ziano wrote in his diary that day: "I walked around with him to investigate the situation of our metal reserves. The results were very disheartening." But even more disturbing to him was Favagrosa's report that. "Italy is losing all its foreign markets． Even with our pitifully small gold reserves we cannot buy the metals we need". In addition, from a domestic point of view Italy's "resources are extremely scarce． The collection of scrap metal has also reached its limit. Everything is finished". And, "As far as material reserves are concerned, we are actually in a worse position than we were in September last year. There are only enough supplies to fight for a few months". After hearing these words from Favagrosa, Ciano wrote in his diary, "How can we dare to go to war when we are in such a state!?" Italy's domestic resources were scarce, its economic base was weak, and it could not be compared internationally with countries such as Britain and France. The fact that Italy rushed into the war without preparation was the root cause of its defeat in the war.
Second, the military factor ---- equipment backward, low quality of the army
The lack of strategic materials and economic weakness of Italy's military forces were greatly affected. After the start of World War II, Nazi Germany's lightning military victory gave Mussolini unlimited hope, and he regarded World War II as a good opportunity to gain power.In June 1940, Germany attacked France, and on June 10, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France despite repeated warnings from the United States. Thirty-two divisions of the Italian army attacked the French army, and France was caught in the middle of a dilemma.
While the Italian defense minister boasted that he could mobilize 10 million people． But because of the lack of weapons and equipment, by June l 0, 1940 when Italy entered the war, the total number of its army was only 450,000 people, organized into 74 two-two army divisions. According to Field Marshal Badolio, then Chief of General Staff of any army, said afterwards: "On the day of Fascist Italy's entry into the war, only 19 of the 74 two-two army divisions were fully staffed. Only 19 divisions were fully staffed and fully armed." At the time. The infantry was the mainstay of the Italian Army. It accounted for about 80% of the Army's total teaching. But the backwardness of its weapons and equipment is surprising. Soldiers still hold in their hands mostly for the first attack on the world war when the use of 9l type rifles. Although automatic rifles have begun production, but the number is extremely limited. The backwardness of the infantry is also reflected in the lack of motorized vehicles. Soldiers are required by regulations to carry a backpack weighing 35 kilograms each. As a result, the speed of marching was very slow, with an average of only 30 kilometers per day. After Italy decided to enter the war, the infantry divisions began to implement the so-called "small mechanization", that is, each division was equipped with a small number of cars and bicycles as "supplementary equipment". The bicycles were used to carry backpacks, and the soldiers took turns marching in the cars. In this way, the speed of marching was slightly increased. However, it increased inter-team conflicts, and disorganized the discipline of the troops. The main armaments of the infantry division were 34 100-millimeter field guns, 30 81-millimeter mortars, and 8 47-millimeter anti-tank guns. A significant portion of these guns were captured from the Austrians during WWI. The rest were mostly assembled with old parts produced before and after the First World War. It is not difficult to see. The artillery used by the Italian army could no longer meet the requirements of modern warfare. The worst armament was the engineers. At that time, the main equipment of the engineer department was the old-fashioned searchlight with backward function. The spade and pickaxe were in the hands of the soldiers. The army was slightly better equipped with 3 tank divisions. The total number of tanks is 1200. Nearly 1,100 of them are 3-ton 13 light tanks. The armor is very thin. Rifle bullets can also penetrate. Its most important feature is not installed guns, carrying the main weapon is a machine gun. Soldiers in some people jokingly called this has long been eliminated by the British, French and German pocket tanks is "rouge box", there are also crowd of people as. "sardine can box", in fact, it can not be used in combat. It could only be used as a wartime aid for the transportation of ammunition. In addition there are about 100 6-ton 16 medium tanks. This tank could not go to the front for a while because its gun sights were faulty and needed overhauling. At that time, most of the British tank units were equipped with medium tanks of more than 13 tons, so it seems that these tank divisions were also in vain. 1939, Field Marshal Graziani was appointed Chief of General Staff of the Army, and found that the Army's standard of equipment and combat was very poor. Mussolini told him not to worry and said that on the battlefield the army was just a show and a gesture and that the war was not fought by the army. The situation of the Italian navy and air force was different from that of the army. Mussolini attached great importance to the expansion of the navy and air force after he came to power, so after much boasting by the fascist propaganda machine. The Italian public considered its navy and air force to be world-class. Mussolini saw the navy as an important tool for realizing his expansionist ambitions. Italy, he said, was a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean. Hegemony over the Mediterranean is an Italian requirement, said Gen. Favagrosa, who is in charge of military production, adding that in terms of weaponry, Italy can only afford to fight a two- to three-month war.
Third, political factors ---- Mussolini good and great, command incompetence
Italy is one of the origins of the Second World War, but its position in the Great War is far less than the German Nazi bloc and even militaristic Japan, Italy's fascist head Mussolini ambition is quite large and limited strength. Like to show off the actual combat ability and quite empty, headstrong and less resourceful, Mussolini's incompetence in command is an important factor in Italy's defeat in the war.
In 1923, Mussolini to determine the expansion of steps, the big and weak Ethiopia as the primary goal of expansion, clamor must be conquered in Ethiopia, in order to build a veritable colonial empire. However, it was not until 1935 that Mussolini, who was hesitant to do anything, decided to go to war.On October 2, Mussolini declared a general mobilization for war in the Palazzo Venezia, arrogantly proclaiming, "We have endured for thirteen years ...... and can endure no more!" 8 The well-equipped Italian army committed more than 200,000 troops, hundreds of tanks, and a large number of airplanes on both the northern and southern fronts, preparing to take the EEAS in one fell swoop. At that time, the weapons of the Egyptian army were only rifles, thousands of machine guns and hundreds of old light artillery, and there were no tanks or combat-capable airplanes at all. There was no tanks or airplanes capable of fighting. The difference in strength between the two countries was enormous. However, things went beyond Mussolini's expectations. After quickly capturing several cities, the Italian army was successively blocked by the Egyptian army, so much so that the Italian Foreign Minister at the time, Ziano, said pessimistically, "It is impossible to win this war." In May 1936, the crazy Italian fascists even with gas bombs, mustard gas bombs and other chemical weapons, to the Egyptian rivers and lakes and fields pouring poison, the effort to occupy the Egyptian capital of Addis Ababa, the establishment of a short-lived "East African empire".
In September 1939, Nazi Germany's "lightning" attack on Poland led to the outbreak of a full-scale war in Europe. Italy first cited domestic economic difficulties and insufficient military preparations, waiting for a favorable time to fight. Before Mussolini could recover, Nazi Germany's "Lightning" campaign swept through Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, etc. In May 1940, the German army rapidly invaded France and approached Paris. On June 10, Mussolini decided that the time had come and ordered Prince Umberto, commander of the Western Army Group, to station 325,000 troops at the Franco-Italian border. 17 On June 17, when the newly formed French government of Pétain called for an armistice, Hitler invited Mussolini to a meeting in Munich. Mussolini was successful in getting part of the French ceded lands. However, Mussolini felt that such a victory was undignified and suddenly decided to launch a blitzkrieg on the French army on the 21st and 22nd before the armistice was officially signed. As a result, in the Alps, the Italian blitzkrieg attack, instead of making the six weak French divisions take a step back, was met by a head-on attack by the French, with heavy losses, 631 killed, 5,206 wounded and 626 missing, forcing Prince Umberto to declare an armistice.
In June 1940, the British expeditionary force of more than 200,000 people in Dunkirk, lost armor, retreat to the British Isles. At this time, Mussolini thought the time had come to seize the British African colonies. At that time, the main force of the British army was in Europe, and there were only more than 100,000 British troops in Africa and the Middle East, while Italy had nearly 600,000 troops in Africa. The Italian army attempted to attack British Somalia with troops from East Africa to control the southern outlet of the Red Sea; and to attack Egypt with troops from North Africa to seize the Suez Canal. Once the goal was achieved, the Mediterranean Sea could become "the inner lake of the new Roman Empire". However, Mussolini completely overestimated himself. In less than half a year, tens of thousands of British troops stationed in North Africa captured more than 300,000 Italian troops, including more than a hundred generals, with several beautiful battles. After the loss of the battlefield in North Africa, Mussolini, instead of introspection, blamed Germany for the untimely rescue, cursing that "they (Germans) should remember that they are the ones who made us lose an empire".
In order to change his position as a supporting actor among the fascist axis, on October 28, 1940, Mussolini launched an all-out attack on Greece with 87,000 troops, 163 tanks, 686 artillery pieces, and 380 planes. However, the Italian army failed to live up to Mussolini's expectations. on November 4, the Greek government assembled only 15 divisions and took a week to drive the Italian army out of the border. on the 21st, Mussolini temporarily changed the command and sent 14 additional divisions to launch a new round of general attack. The Greek army skillfully utilized the terrain and resisted tenaciously, and the Italian army never reversed the defeat. Mussolini was so anxious that he blamed the General Staff for the fiasco and replaced the Chief of the General Staff, while at the same time he demanded an armistice from Greece through Hitler. However, it was too late, the Greek army had already attacked on all fronts, and the Italian army suffered heavy casualties, with all the ace divisions wiped out, five generals captured and one killed. The Italians were all baffled, they did not know what was going on. Mussolini eagerly ran to Germany and sat in front of Hitler like a schoolboy who had made a mistake, asking for help. Hitler agreed to send troops and spent two hours teaching Mussolini strategy and tactics. When Mussolini returned home, he still hoped to save face by defeating Greece on his own before Germany did. He ordered the recruitment of new soldiers and the formation of a 500,000-strong reinforcement force, and on March 2, 1941, he personally supervised the battle as supreme commander, but it still ended in failure. Mussolini could not figure out why the Italian army, which was superior in numbers and weapons, could not break through the Greek defenses. The Battle of Greece further exposed the weakness and incompetence of the Italian Fascist regime, and also reduced Italy to a second-rate country in the Axis Group, which could only play a "supporting role" in the subordinate war with the German army. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Hitler wanted to "go it alone". Mussolini believed that the German army will win, such as coordinated combat can also share the spoils of war, so, begged Hitler to agree to Italian troops to participate in the war against the Soviet Union. As a result, the 220,000 Italian elite troops sent to the Soviet Union was equally unbeatable, half of the soldiers were killed, wounded or captured, the other half fled back to Italy early, and most of the various weapons losses amounted to more than 80%.
The Italian army's successive defeats on the battlefield led to a serious political, economic and social crisis in the country, and the people's anti-war and anti-fascist sentiments were unusually high.
In a coup d'état in Italy on July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini was arrested, and the fascist regime collapsed. Mussolini never admitted his mistakes and attributed his defeat to "the weakness of the Italians". In fact, the main reason for the repeated defeats of the Italian army, which was called "the most elite colonial army in the world", was the incompetence of the Italian leaders. Mussolini headstrong, indecisive, lack of command ability, do not trust the army command, but also do not listen to the advice and admonition of the combat problem, but often as supreme commander deprived of the military decision-making power of the General Staff, often suddenly change the military plan, arbitrary. On top of that, the Italian generals were mediocre and incompetent. In this way, the premature collapse of Italian fascism is conceivable.
Four, the popular factor ---- demoralization, general war aversion
Mussolini believes that the failure of the Italian army is due to "the Italians are weak. Do not like bold action". They are not descendants of the ancient Romans, but of foreign slaves, serfs and mulattoes," he said. In fact, the main reason for the failure was not the low quality of the Italian people. The main reason for the defeat was not the low quality of the Italian people, but the low morale of the people. They had long been tired of the war. As the Greek Athenian newspaper "Scythesnos" commented: "It is incorrect to assert that the Italian army is not good at fighting. They are the warriors of the past, but perhaps this war has not aroused their enthusiasm. "The American expert on international issues, Sumner? Sumner Welles, an American international expert, visited Rome in the winter of 1939 as President Roosevelt's personal representative. He noticed that... In Italy. There are very few Fascist chiefs. Almost all influential forces were against the war. This was due primarily to the widespread fear and hatred of Nazi Germany, but also to the widespread belief that... No matter how great the artificial friction between Italy and England and France. A large part of public opinion was against the war． Because they realized that the war was even a big mistake. No matter who wins or loses. Italy would gain nothing and lose everything. on June 10, 1940． Mussolini declared war, Italy's general public but the most y disturbed. This night in the city of Rome, as if it had already foreseen the coming catastrophe. The streets were quiet and unusual, and in the evening. Every door was closed, and it was really scary. In the Albanian front with the Greek army on the ground fighting the Italian troops in a miserable situation, the Italian army morale is low. Demoralization. A captured Italian officer recorded this situation in his diary. Although this officer was a Fascist, he expressed in his diary his strong dissatisfaction and hatred for the Italian military cui¤. He complained that the Italian troops were told that the Greeks were cowards and would only dare to fight if they drank brandy. The troops were ignorant of what was going on in the outside world, and the propaganda machine claimed that the Italian army was marching victoriously into Yugoslavia． There was already a revolution in Greece. But the truth is different. Gradually, a fatal feeling grew: we are no match for the enemy. It is impossible to resist them."
V. Diplomatic Factors---Wavering Diplomatic Position
After the First World War, the political map of the world changed drastically Britain lost its past ability to arbitrate, and the October Revolution in Russia brought about the antagonism of the two systems of social institutions in Europe and in the world; as a result of the disintegration of Austro-Hungarian empire, the defeat of Germany, and the exclusion of Russia, the traditional parity of the great powers of Europe could not be re-established ; the upsurge of national liberation movements in the East first impacted the old European empires of traditional colonialism; the rise of the United States and Japan, two non-European powers, made the rivalry of the great powers more acute and complex.
The world is rising. However, the victorious powers, in concluding peace treaties with the defeated countries, only took advantage of the fact that they had survived the war or had gained some kind of an advantageous position through the war, and exhaustively tried to establish a post-war structure in their favor, without considering whether such a structure was suitable for the changed world situation. They fought with each other fiercely: Britain, with a complex balance of considerations, attempted to maintain the original world hegemony and dominate Europe, striving to weaken Germany while retaining an undismembered Germany; France attempted to vie for the leadership of Europe and desperately hoped to solve the German problem once and for all; Wilson's Fourteen-Point Plan was to Wilson's Fourteen-Point Plan was to take advantage of the economic superiority of the United States to compete for world leadership; Italy wanted to establish its dominant position in the Mediterranean neighborhood; and Japan's goal was to monopolize China and dominate Asia-Pacific. Italy in the Versailles pattern was a specific force that wanted to maintain the status quo as well as to revise it, and the European powers wished to pull it into their camp in the new round of struggle for world hegemony and the maintenance of hegemony, and Italy became a chosen object that seemed to be at odds with both the right and the left in the international arena. On the other hand, Italy's national strength was relatively weak, belonging to the second-class countries, no independent strength to realize its hegemonic goal, but can only rely on a certain group of powerful countries, using the destabilization of the great powers destabilized by the fissure in order to realize their own ambitions. The Treaty of London promised all its ambitions: the acquisition of Tyrol and Istria to complete the "national unity", the dominance of the Adriatic Sea, and the recognition of its status as a power in the Near East and in colonial affairs. However, Italy, which attended the post-war conference on the spoils of war as a victorious nation, was treated as an insignificant second-class player in Paris, and the Treaty of London was not recognized. Although Italy got Istria, Trieste, Trentino, some islands off the Dalmatian coast and South Tyrol through the Peace of St. Germain, and the Austro-Italian border was moved northward to the Brenner Pass, thus realizing most of the Italian territorial claims in Europe, Britain and France failed to satisfy Italy's aspirations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa: in Asia Minor, Italy gained nothing, and in Africa, not a single former German colony was appointed to Italy. In Asia Minor, Italy had nothing; in Africa, not a single former German colony was appointed to Italian rule. Versailles thus became synonymous with "deception" and a bitter memory in the minds of the Italians, who felt that Italy had gained a "crippled victory" "Italy won the war, but lost the peace. Italy won the war, but lost the peace. Italy, in spite of its gains, appeared at the peace conference as an unsatisfied nation". Versailles brought Italy a sense of shame and loss.
Mussolini took advantage of this sense of loss of the Italians to seize power under the banner of revisionism and with the promise of purging the shame of Versailles. The Versailles system contributed to this duality of policy choices in Italy, while the relative stability of the Versailles system in the whole of the 1920s dictated that Italy did not need to make any new choices. This peculiar and contradictory two-sided policy continued to permeate Italian diplomacy in the 1920s.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the whole world suffered from the violent oscillations of the economic crisis that shook the Versailles peace structure, the latent nationalist forces of the relative stability of the 1920s resurfaced with renewed energy, especially in Germany. The German government's demand for equal rights with other powers in the Conference on Disarmament, and the increasing calls for rearmament, followed by Hitler's rise to power and his policy of destroying treaties and expanding armies, made Europe under the Versailles system very uneasy. In the relatively stable Versailles system, Italy was only a second-class player, not enough for the Great Powers to pay attention to, but the turbulent Versailles system made it a target for the Great Powers to fight for. As early as in Mein Kampf and the Second Book, Hitler had made Italy an object of struggle and a useful ally. Britain thought that "at this stage, Italy did not seem to be a major threat", less aggressive and less pervasive than "Nazi rule in Germany", and should be fought for, and there were even some British politicians who saw Italy as being as far removed from the Franco-German conflict as they themselves were. There were even some British politicians who saw Italy as above the Franco-German conflict and called it "the key to peace in Europe". Although France and Italy were in conflict, and relations between the two countries had been difficult in the 1920s, they also wanted to win over Italy in the face of Germany's aggressive destruction of the treaty and the expansion of its army. Fascist Italy appeared to be at home on the European stage.
In the international arena, there is no permanent enemy and no permanent friend. Due to the limitations of its own strength, Italy has always tended to avoid direct confrontation with other major powers, and it is best at carefully choosing its alliance partners in order to profit from them. As Paolo Cremona, an expert on Italian foreign policy, put it in 1938, Italy's foreign policy has always been a very important factor in its development. Cremona put it in 1938, "Italian foreign policy has never been governed by abstract ideas, and nowhere has Machiavelli's aphorism been more widely applied to purely political art than in his native country." This kind of wall-riding diplomacy was really realized by Italy in the two world wars. This policy was also a major reason for Italy's inability to define its position in the two world wars and its eventual defeat and even withdrawal from the wars.