Italy during WWII

There were many countries that were affected by the Second World War, Italy just happened to be one of them. During the Second World War, Italy had a long military history. Italy joined the war in June 1940, when the French government declared Paris as an open city when German armies invaded. Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, didn’t think that the war was going to last very long when he had declared war on France and Britain. Italy’s first attack happened on France in June, 1940. France later surrendered to Germany and Italy had captured some areas of France along the Italian-French border. During the first week of declaring war, the British had seized Fort Capuzzo in Libya. Italy tried to force their was across the Libyan-Egyptian border against a small British army. Things didn’t go very well for them, it was pretty much a disaster. By December of 1940, the Italian forces in North Africa were on the verge of collapse. In February of 1941, a German Field Marshall by the name of Erwin Rommel got together a light division of German troops to help the Italians with firepower needed to defeat the British. Italy suffered many set backs during this time and had to ask Germany for help from their forces. The combined forces between the two had 6949 troops, 163 tanks, 36 field guns 61 antitank guns and another infantry division. By this time Rommel had 100,000 Italians, 7,000 Italian trucks, 1,000 Italian guns and 151 Italian aircrafts under his command. The Italians Most of the artillery used by Italy during the war were outdated. Some of their equipment dated all the way back to the first world war. They didn’t really have the money to train their troops, and most of their troops training was on the front line. Along with inexperienced troops, their leadership wasn’t any better. Back in 1936 the Italians fought against a, not so good, armed Ethiopian army in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s Capital). On April 6th 1941, the Italian army was driven out from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Also in 1941, Germany and Italy announced that they were at war with the United States. America immediately responded by declaring war on the two. Adolf Hitler made an announcement in Reichstag in Berlin and said that he wanted to avoid getting involved with the United States. But under the Tripartite Agreement they had signed, that Germany was going to join Italy and defend their ally Japan. He also stated that after they win the war that Germany, Italy and Japan would establish a new order. By the end of 1941 Italy was a dependent on Nazi Germany. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Galaezzo Ciano, didn’t like the was that Mussolini was running the country. After a few argument with him, Ciano resigned in February of 1943. At a Conference between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, they talked about the finding a way of taking Italy out of the war. They decided the best way was to launch an invasion of Sicily, which is a island in the Mediterranean Sea on the south-west of Italy. They was to take the island and hoped that Mussolini would be fired. With loss of Sicily, that created problem for Mussolini. They were worried that the Allies would use the island as a base for building up their army to invade Italy. In a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, Galaezzo Ciano had an idea that Italy should sign a separate peace treaty with the Allies. The next day, Victor Emmanuel III told Mussolini that he was being dismissed from office. His successor, Pietro Badolio then placed Mussolini under arrest due to martial law. While the Allies were gathering in Italy, Adolf Hitler sent Otto Skorzeny and a group of commandos to rescue Mussolini, who was being held in the Apennines. Mussolini was soon freed and Skorzeny flew him to safety. After a short spell in Germany, Mussolini was sent to Gargagno in German-occupied northern Italy where he established the fascist Salo Republic. On September 23 of 1943, Pietro Badoglion and