The Italian War

In 1941, Italy invaded Greece against Hitler’s advice. On October 28, 1940, similar to Albania, Italy issued Greece and ultimatum, which was rejected by the Greek dictator Metaxas and soon after the Italian forces invaded Greece. Italy later invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, joined the invasion of the USSR without declaring war, and finally, declared war on the USA on December 11, 1941. But rather then this being Italy’s decision, all the choices are said to be Il Duce’s: it was Mussolini’s

The first world war was one of the most brutal and remorseless events in history; ‘the global conflict that defined a century’. Over nine million soldiers and a large amount of innocent civilians lost their lives. Empires crumbled, revolution engulfed Russia and America rose to become a dominant world power. Huge armies deployed new weapons of devastating effect from rifles and pistols to torpedoes and flame throwers. These weapons were used not only in the trenches but by tanks too. This was an advantage to those who were able to access such machinery as they could easily launch bullets and missiles at nearby enemy bases. The downfall of the tank was the fact it was unable to cross the trenches. Tanks were not the only pieces of equipment that could access this machinery but U boats and planes too. The British carried ‘bolt action rifles’ in which fired 15 rounds per minute at a minimum range of 1,400 metres away. This allowed the British to take out foes at a far greater range. By using machinery in which rules out the need for getting up close to the enemy was a great advantage during world war one. Soldiers ran from trench to trench attacking with all that they had. This resulted in a massacre as the soldiers running toward the trenches were shot down. Machinery such as machine guns and heavy artillery were the weapons used in the trenches. In modern day society, machine guns are the main weapons used by soldiers. This wasn’t the case around the 1914s. They took four

As the war broke out in Europe in 1940, Mussolini did his best to stay away from the fighting. He preached to his people that his army was ready to fight in the war, and was prepared to defend himself, and conquer land for his country. (6) Benito Mussolini’s main objective in the war was to gain land, and claim the land for Italy. His idea was to create the ultimate empire, and rule over millions of people. "As World War II approached, Mussolini announced his intention of annexing Malta, Corsica, and Tunis." (7) His intentions increased as he captured Albania in April of 1939. His rise to the

The Italian Campaign put Allied troops in Europe. Lesser objectives of the invasion included a chance to capitalize on the collapse of Italian resistance; to immediately use Allied forces; to engage German forces that could be sent to Russia and northern France; to take control of airfields that could be used for bombing missions; and to gain control of the Mediterranean.

The “D-Day Dodgers” was the name given to a group of soldiers who were accused of avoiding the supposedly harsher battle in Normandy by fighting in Italy. The Italian Campaign of World War II further proved that Canadians were capable of fighting for themselves. The numerous victories after the battles in Italy can be attributed to the military tactics used and created during the campaign. The Italian Campaign derailed German focus from the Normandy and Soviet battles which aided other European Campaigns. By examining the contributions of the “D-Day Dodgers”, the accusation that those involved in the Italian Campaign were avoiding the war in the rest of Europe was not justified.

The Battle of Anzio was a good plan executed poorly, which led to a stalemate resulting in one of the highest concentrations of field artillery in history. The Battle of Anzio or Operation Shingle would turn into a bloody stalemate lasting nearly four months. The Battle of Anzio happened during World War II. World War II was the largest, most destructive war ever fought. Fought all over the world, World War II resulted in an estimated fifty to seventy million deaths. (Gibson) World War II began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Upon the invasion of Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Battles would rage for the next two years before America entered the war when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and immediately following the attack Germany declared war on the United States.

On September 9, 1943, the American army invaded southern Italy. With this invasion, the Italian government officially announced its surrender to the Allies. On the same day, German forces poured into Italy with orders to disarm the Italian army. A few days later, German Special Forces rescued Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, and restored him to power. Most of the Italian Peninsula was now under German occupation. Some Italian forces were able to stage slight resistance, but many crumbled from lack of Allied support. The resulting chaos led the Italian army to dissolve within days. The German army had taken around 800,000 Italian prisoners, and Italy now joined the rest of Europe beneath the heel of Nazi oppression.

The outbreak of the war prompted the formation of numerous women’s voluntary organizations, and a number of women worked to extend women’s role. In 1942 defense ministers and others finally considered to form WAAC to substitute men in the army. The bill took a year to pass. The WAAC only lasted until 1943 because of the newly founded group WAC. The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps benefited women’s rights, how women got to be accepted in society , and most importantly what the women did to help make the country stronger.

Receiving order from the Allied Force Headquarters, The Italian Campaign’s first major plan of action involving Italy was to take North Africa and Sicily from Italy. Both Italian territories prevented the Allies access to the Mediterranean, which they needed in order to get to Italy. When they invaded both territories, not only did the Allies gain access to the Mediterranean Sea, they also were able to cripple the power of Italy. The Fascist regime was barely able to sustain itself as it was. With two major losses, Italy was left weak and vulnerable. Then, the air forces of the Allies was able to come in and blasted the impaired country to rubble, which disrupted the railroad system and worsened the conditions of the Italian army even further (Snyder 412). As a result, the citizens of Italy began to lose faith in Mussolini, and he gradually became less and less popular. The Allies furthered the decay of Mussolini’s pedestal of power on July 17, 1943 by dropping leaflets with messages written from President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill which underscored the flaws of their government leader and said that every effort that the Italians made only allowed Fascist and Nazi leaders a little more time to escape the inevitable consequences of their crimes. The Allies gave Italy a choice: either die for Mussolini and Hitler, or live for Italy, and for civilization (Snyder 412). With major signs of failure outlined by the Allies along with the pressure asserted by the Allies, Italians began to resent Mussolini. The actions of Mussolini and Hitler started to blend together in the eyes of the Italians because of the alliance between Germany and Fascist Italy, meaning the Italians also began to view Hitler as the cause for the destruction and grief that their country was going through. King Victor Emmanuel III was

The Italians had the best comeback independence story that there is. As Americans, we often think of independence as one war and then hoorah hoorah, we are finally our own nation. However, that fantasy is not true nor for America and for most of the world. In this essay, we are focusing on one country who really caught my eye, Italy. The Italians were strong, resilient and inspiring. They fit their rather new slogan, “Italy leaves it mark.”. Because of the actions they portrayed while fighting for their independence, I believe that the Italians had the best comeback story of them all.

Mussolini made the decision of allowing his country to enter World War II and hurt his country. When Mussolini decided his country would enter World War II, they entered to fight along side with Nazi Germany. Because of the weakness of the Italian army, Italy was in a tight situation fighting a losing battle. In June 1943, the King of Italy showed how he did not appreciate Mussolini’s beliefs and actions by arresting Mussolini, which resulted in the country capitulating in September 1943. “Italy entered the war in June 1940 when France was almost defeated. Mussolini hoped for a quick victory but Italy suffered from the very beginning from the poor training of its army and the lack of experience of its generals.” (“Italy”). Many citizens of

While Italy was first in triple alliance 1882 made up with Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy had signed the secret Treaty of London. In this treaty Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region – Tyrol, Dalmatia and Istria. Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up the south of the Western Front. As a result, Italy switched sides and started to fight against Central Powers. As the time transferred to WWII, Italy was criticized for their disappointing performance on every aspects of the war. Mussolini’s lack of leadership, key resources shortage, and lack of military force were the main causes. In my opinion, Italy entered World War II for economy

On September 18, 1931 Japanese forces invaded Manchuria (Northwest Region from Japan) stating that Chinese Soldiers had sabotaged the railway and therefore attacked the chinese army(who had just executed a Japanese spy), this was the start of a series of battles which would later be known as World War 2. Following Benito Mussolini’s election to the Prime Minister of Italy, Fascist Italy invaded, conquered and annexed Ethiopia. Nazi Germany then noticed that Italy could become a possible allies during this war and signed a treaty of cooperation on October 25; on November 1, the Rome Berlin Axis is announced. November 25, 1936; Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan became mutual allies both wanting the Soviet Union to be defeated. On July 7, 1937 Japan

In the early days of Mussolini’s regime (he came to power in 1922), Italian foreign policy seemed rather confused: Mussolini knew what he wanted, which was ‘to make Italy great, respected and feared.’ But he was not sure how to achieve this, apart from agitating for a revision of the 1919 peace settlement in Italy’s favour. At first he seemed to think an adventurous foreign policy was his best line of action, hence the Corfu Incident and the occupation of Fiume in 1923. By an agreement signed at Rapallo in 1920, Fiume was to be a ‘free city’, used jointly by Italy and Yugoslavia; after Italian troops moved in, Yugoslavia agreed that it should belong to Italy. After these early successes, Mussolini became

depiction of the daily lives of Italians in Nazi occupied Rome, and Visconti’s Rocco e