Posted on 05/07/2008 6:30:16 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The Italian armmy was effective at stopping Hitler in 1936 from annexing Austria but essentially entered WW2 with WW1 technology. On paper they had some good technology- one of the first jets, a B-24 type bomber, a heavier tank... but they never managed to produce anything in quantity to fight with. They were better at sea, having invented the frogman and having some powerful fast warships. Even the Brits didn’t attempt to fight them ship to ship but instead planned a pre-Pearl harbour style attack while the ships were at port. some of the warships were given to Russia as reparations and mnay aircraft were used by the Nazis after Italy capitulated.
Even during WWII some units of the Italian Army behaved very creditably, notably the Bersaglieri and the Alpini.
But most of the conscripts believed, quite reasonably and accurately, that they had no reason to be fighting alongside the Germans and against the Allies.
Aha! Okay, that’s something different.
From the title, I thought there was a facsist parade on Rte 70 in MD. Wouldn’t surprise me with all the lefty loonies there outside the Belt.
Very true. Mussolini was respected by FDR, Ghandi and Churchill prior to the “Pact of Steel” IMHO, M. believed that WW2 would have started later and ended with appeasement by the allies, and Italy would be able to make a quick land grab. The Frogmen (underwater demo) and the Tenth light division (MAS) and the submariners also performed very well. Of the Armored divissions, even Rommel had admiration for the valor in the face of superior fire power.
Check out my reply #4 on this thread. When I saw your title for today it rang a bell for me so I went back and looked up this thread. Turns out I learned what your word for today means thirteen months ago. I’ll bet you won’t see “legerdemain” used in many articles in 2009.
A+ for you!
Cool! That should get my GPA up to 0.9.
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