Mussolini's War: Fascist Italy’s Military Struggles from Africa and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet Union 1935-45Among the great misconceptions of modern times is the assumption that Benito Mussolini was Hitler's junior partner, who made no significant contributions to the Second World War. That conclusion originated with Allied propagandists determined to boost Anglo-American morale, while undermining Axis cooperation. The Duce's failings, real or imagined, were inflated and ridiculed; his successes, pointedly demeaned or ignored. Italy's bungling navy, ineffectual army - as cowardly as it was ill-equipped - and air force of antiquated biplanes were handily dealt with by the Western Allies. So effective was this disinformation campaign that it became post-war history, and is still generally taken for granted even by otherwise well-informed scholars and students of World War Two. But a closer examination of recently disclosed, and often neglected, original source materials presents an entirely different picture. They shine new light, for example, on Italy's submarine service, the world's greatest in terms of tonnage, its boats sinking nearly three-quarters of a million tons of Allied shipping in three years' time. During a single operation, Italian 'human torpedoes' sank the battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, plus an eight-thousand-ton tanker, at their home anchorage in Alexandria, Egypt. By mid-1942, Mussolini's navy had fought its way back from crushing defeats to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean Sea. Contrary to popular belief, his Fiat biplanes gave as good as they got in the Battle of Britain, and their monoplane replacements, such as the Macchi Greyhound, were state-of-the-art interceptors superior to the American Mustang. Savoia-Marchetti Sparrowhawk bombers accounted for seventy-two Allied warships and one hundred-ninety-six freighters before the Bagdolio armistice in 1943. On 7 June 1942, infantry of the Italian X Corps saved Rommel's XV Brigade near Gazala, in North Africa, from otherwise certain annihilation, while horse-soldiers of the Third Cavalry Division Amedeo Duca d'Aosta defeated Soviet forces on the Don River before Stalingrad the following August in history's last cavalry charge. As influential as these operations were on the course of World War Two, more potentially decisive was Mussolini's planned aggression against the United States' mainland. Postponed only at the last moment when its conventional explosives were slated for substitution by a nuclear device, New York City escaped an atomic attack by margins more narrow than previously understood. It is now known that Italian scientists led the world in nuclear research in 1939, and a four-engine Piaggio heavy bomber was modified to carry an atomic bomb five years later. These and numerous other disclosures combine to debunk lingering propaganda stereotypes of an inept, ineffectual Italian armed forces. That dated portrayal is rendered obsolete by a true-to-life account of the men and weapons of Mussolini's War. |
Contents
Foreword by Forrest P Patton Lieutenant Colonel United States Marine Corps Reserve Ret | 7 |
The First Casualty of War | 8 |
Crossing a 20th Century Rubicon | 11 |
Flying Rats | 29 |
A Modern Gallic War | 41 |
King Of Beasts By The Tail | 55 |
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory | 61 |
Desert Fox In A Henhouse | 72 |
Sunshine from Italy | 141 |
Middle Age Crisis | 150 |
North African Finale | 159 |
Mussolini Island | 166 |
The Ordeal of Blood | 177 |
Day of the Lion | 196 |
An Unlikely PenPal 18 The Italian Atomic Bomb 202 | 202 |
Could Mussolini Have Won His War? | 220 |
Mare Nostro | 79 |
The Duces Dolphins | 93 |
Hercules Spurned | 103 |
Unacknowledged Victory | 120 |
Notes | 224 |
236 | |
Common terms and phrases
aboard Admiral Cunningham aerial Afrika Korps Air Force aircraft Alexandria Allied American anti-aircraft armored artillery attack Axis Badoglio battalions battle battleships Benito Benito Mussolini bomb bombers Britain British Campaign capital ships captured Churchill commanders Commando Supremo convoy crews damage defenders Desert destroyer escorts Division Duce Duce’s enemy Ethiopian explosive Fairey Swordfish Fascist Fiat fighters fighting fire fleet freighters French German Gibraltar Graziani guns heavy cruisers Hitler infantry intercept invasion island Italian Army Italian submarines Italo-German Italy Italy’s kilometers later Libya Littorio London losses Luftwaffe machine-guns Malta Marshal Mediterranean meters military months Mussolini Memoirs naval North Africa offensive Operation Pantelleria Phoenix Press pilots planes port raid reconnaissance Regia Aeronautica Regia Marina Rommel Royal Navy Salo Republic sank Sicily soldiers Soviet Spanish Civil War squadron Stuka submarines success sunk Supermarina supplies tanks Taranto target Tobruk tons torpedo-boats torpedoes troops vessels victory warplanes warships weapons Wehrmacht World