Mussolini was hostile to Hitler. (Historic animosity between Germany and Italy!) Almost mobilized agianst Germany over the Nazi takeover of Austria. If he just cooled his jets and just concentrated on being a bustard in Africa his regime might have survived the war like Franco’s did in Spain. Also Hitler might have invaded Italy which would have made some interesting team ups!
Mussolini was hostile to Hitler. (Historic animosity between Germany and Italy!) Almost mobilized agianst Germany over the Nazi takeover of Austria.
Count Ciano was begging Mussolini to turn against Hitler the whole time.
Hitler demanded the unification of Austria with Germany and the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia, but he never made Mussolini return the South Tyrol (German-speaking areas given to Italy after WWI which had been part of Austria until then).