History before World War II ,
Albania,
ASI, and
AOI are shown in green. The
Dodecanese islands are boxed in green. Mussolini's Under-Secretary for War Production,
Carlo Favagrossa, had estimated that Italy could not possibly be prepared for a war until at least October 1942. Although
Fascist Italy was considered a
major power,
Italian industry was relatively weak compared to other major powers in Europe. In 1940, Italian industry probably was no more than 15% of that of
France or of the
United Kingdom. The lack of a stronger automotive industry made it difficult for Italy to mechanize its
military. In the new
Italian Empire, Italy had used most of the economic and military resources available during the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War the conquest of Ethiopia, from 1935 to 1936, during the
Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, and during the
Italian invasion of Albania in 1939. In the early 1930s, the Italian Royal Army successfully fought an Arab guerrilla war in Italian North Africa (
Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI). The Italians fought another guerilla war in Italian East Africa (
Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI) between 1936 and 1940. The Italian Royal Army remained comparatively weak in armaments. The Italian tanks were of poor quality. Italian radios were small in numbers. Much of the Italian artillery and weapons dated from the First World War. Most important of all, the Italian generals were trained in the trench warfare of World War I and were not prepared at all for the new style of mechanized war based on the German "lightning war" model (
blitzkrieg). From 1936 to 1939, Italy participated on the side of Spanish
General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The 50,000 to 75,000 strong "
Corps of Volunteer Troops" (
Corpo Truppe Volontarie, CVT) was of significant assistance to the Spanish Nationalist cause and was involved in the
Aragon Offensive and the "March to the Sea." Unfortunately for the Italian Royal Army, a large number of Italian weapons and supplies were utilized by the CVT or provided to Spanish Nationalists forces during this conflict. In 1939, Italy conquered
Albania without difficulty and forced
King Zog to flee. As would be expected, Italy suffered few casualties. But this occupation stretched to the limit the resources of the Italian Royal Army. In spring 1940, the available oil resources for possible military operations (of the Army and Navy) were for only one year.
History during World War II Unlike the German
Führer,
Adolf Hitler, Mussolini was officially only the
Prime Minister of the
Kingdom of Italy. Victor Emmanuel III remained Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Armed Forces, until 11 June 1940 when the King delegated the power to Mussolini naming him as the "Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Operating on all Fronts". Mussolini needed the consent of the King (who always looked on France as the center of European politics) to declare war and enter the Second World War. Initially the King and his staff (conscious of the Italian lack of preparation for war) did not approve Mussolini's intentions, but when
France was clearly defeated in June 1940, the Italian Royal Army (
Regio Esercito) was abruptly sent to war. Mussolini made the mistake to believe that Britain would accept peace agreements with the Axis after France's surrender, and did not anticipate a long lasting war. Consequently, Italy entered the war inadequately prepared.
Initial campaigns Italy declared war on 10 June 1940 and began the
Italian invasion of France against the French army. But the French were not quickly defeated on this front and all advances came at a high cost to the Italian army. Only in July, after the French surrender to Germany, did the Royal Army initiate a limited campaign from Italian colonies in
Africa (Libya and Italian East Africa) against
British possessions in Africa (
Egypt,
Kenya and
Sudan). Italian forces invaded Egypt. In August, the Italian Royal Army obtained Italy's only major victory in World War II without German assistance when it
conquered British Somaliland. In the first six months of war Italy obtained only minor territorial gains, as Mussolini mistakenly waited for a quick end of the war. In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces initiated Operation Compass which, by February 1941, had occupied
Cyrenaica and destroyed the Italian 10th Army. In January 1941, other British Commonwealth forces launched an invasion of Italian East Africa. By November of that year, at the conclusion of the
East African campaign, the last organized Italian troops surrendered with military honors in
Gondar while some Italian officers started a
guerrilla war, mainly in
Ethiopia and
Eritrea. In Europe, Mussolini wanted to imitate the rapid German victories of 1939 to 1940. Mussolini began the
Greco-Italian War by invading Greece from Albania in October 1940. The advances of the Royal Army were blocked by the Greek Army and bad weather. Soon Greek counter-attacks forced the Italians onto the defensive inside Albania. In March 1941, prior to the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia, the Italian Royal Army launched
an offensive against the Greeks which ended in failure, despite meaningful gains and at high costs. A few weeks later the Axis forces of Germany, Italy and Hungary defeated the Yugoslavian army in few days, and German and Italian forces defeated Greece. The Axis victory was swift: on April 17, 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered after only eleven days, while Greece was fully occupied in May and was placed under
the triple occupation of Italy, Germany and Bulgaria.
German and Italian cooperation After these setbacks, Mussolini accepted assistance from
Hitler and the Royal Army was reinforced (and in some cases even trained to modern military tactics and organizations) by the powerful
German Army. The Royal Army even started to receive better and more modern armaments from the Italian industry, after the pressures from Mussolini to activate to the maximum the Italian "war machine". The result was a combined German and Italian offensive during the spring and summer of 1941 throughout the entire
Mediterranean area: • In the
Balkans, the Italian Royal Army conquered coastal
Yugoslavia and, together with the Germans, finally defeated the remaining Greek forces in the region. On 3 May 1941, the Italian and German militaries held a military parade in
Athens to celebrate their victory in the Balkans. In this parade, Mussolini for the first time boasted of an Italian
Mare Nostrum, referring to the fact that the Mediterranean was becoming an Italian-dominated sea. Effectively, it remained practically Italian from December 1941 after the
raid on Alexandria by Italian frogmen under the command of
Luigi Durand De La Penne (which disabled two
Royal Navy battleships), until the
landings of Allied forces in
French Algeria in November 1942. • In
North Africa, the Italian Royal Army was joined by German General
Erwin Rommel and his
Afrika Korps. A combined German and Italian force started a series of offensives and counter-offensives that culminated with the
Axis victory of
Gazala and Tobruk. By 1942, the Germans and Italians were driving towards
Alexandria in
Egypt. Mussolini sent an Italian army against the
Soviet Union. In July 1941, the "
Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia" (
Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, or CSIR) arrived and assisted with the German conquest of
Ukraine. By 1942, Italian forces in the Soviet Union were more than doubled to become the "
Italian Army in Russia" (
Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR). This army, also known as the Italian 8th Army, was deployed in the outskirts of
Stalingrad where it was destroyed during the
Battle of Stalingrad. In November 1942, with the arrival of the American Army in the
Maghreb, the Italian Royal Army
occupied Corsica and the French
Provence up to the
Rhone river. This was the last military expansion of Italy.
Defeat The
Battle of El Alamein, lasting from July to November 1942, was the turning point of the war for the Italians and the Allies. Many Italians were killed, wounded or taken prisoner in the battle after heavy resistance.
Winston Churchill wrote in his
Memories: "...before El Alamein we had only defeats, after El Alamein we had only victories...". The Italian Royal Army fought this battle in a way that can be summarized by the sacrifice of the Division Folgore: the historian Renzo De Felice wrote that "...of the 5.000 "Folgore" paratroopers sent to Africa 4 months before, the survived were only 32 officers and 262 soldiers, most of them wounded. Before the surrender, they shot until the last ammo and the last hand-grenade...". After the defeat at
El Alamein, the Royal Army lost Libya in a few months.
Tunisia was occupied together with the German forces in November 1942 but was lost in May 1943. In July 1943
Sicily was invaded by the Allies and on 8 September 1943, Italy signed the
Armistice with the Allies.
Army of the Badoglio government Because of the chaotic way the Armistice was done, the Italian Royal Army (
Regio Esercito) suffered a terrible crisis of leadership between September and October 1943. The German occupation of Italy and of Italian positions in the Balkans and elsewhere was swift and often violent. There were 73,277 casualties in those months. With
King Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal
Pietro Badoglio in command, the Royal Army entered the war on the side of the
Allies. Fighting for what became known as the "Badoglio government," the
Italian Co-Belligerent Army, the
Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force, and the
Italian Co-Belligerent Navy were formed. Mussolini organized a new Fascist army in his "
Italian Social Republic" (
Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) in northern Italy. This army was called the
National Republican Army (
Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano, or ENR). While it lasted until April 1945, the RSI never amounted to being more than a
puppet state of
Nazi Germany. == Conscription and recruitment ==