Italians in WWII

Jeffin;
of course you know the song of the video that you have linked "faccetta nera" do you know the words? it talks about the italian conquest of ethiopia. If you listen you can understand that there is no racism in those words: little black face, beautiful Abyssinian.. you will be part of an empire ecc ecc...
The racial laws (against the jews) of 1938 were the biggest mistake of Mussolini, a thing made only to became friends of germany.... bulls**t!

 

Jack;
Racism is NOT a Traditional Italian conceit-my Italianos accept me as one of their own despite my decidedly North European heritage. It is all about family, friendship, trust, and honor-emphasis on the Trust issue. I have trusted my best friend "Mario" with my life and visa versa.
The anti Jewish laws must have come from the Third Reich. And just where did Italianism fit in in Hitler's mad view of the universe? Well they were certainly considered some "junior partners" in the Axis alliance. My Italians would never tolerate such disrespect-and it seems that the larger Italian nation of the WWII era did not either.
JeffinMNUSA

 

indeed we don't tolerate to be considered as inferior.. like anyone i suppose. but hitler's plan of "grandeur" were only for germany of course not for his allies... for this reason all in Italy ask why we became germany ally.

Mussolini is blamed for only two reasons: racial laws and republic of Salò. as you wrote, racism is not an italian concept, so this kind of laws are so far from italian mind that still today are cause for shame for italian people.

 

My understanding is that at one point when the Italian army was ordered to round up Jews they didn't protest. They did however simply ignore the order. I don't have any details and it would be interesting to know more or if it even happened.

 

AFAIK the italian racal laws did not include the rounding up of jews, this did happen in Italy but was done by Germans in occupied Italy after the armistice so any "italian" forces invoved would be RSI. What they did was exclude jews from public office including teaching positions and high military rank.
Many top Italian scientists went to work in the US either because they had lost their jobs because of race or for solidarity with their colleagues.
One interesting military trivia is that general Umberto Pugliese, the naval architect resposible for the underwater protection design of Italian battleships, that had been forced to resign because of race was called back after the Taranto raid to oversee the repairs to "his" creations.

I would not be so quick to completely absolve Mussolini of "mass murders" some of the things that happened in Libia and Ethiopia come pretty close though you can probably find similar episodes for all colonial powers. IMO his biggest "crime" was simply being fooled by his own propaganda and not recognizing Hitler for the madman he was and so causing the disaster WW2 was for Italy.
Italy entered a war it could have avoided with no plans, a totally unready military and no strategic reserves essentialy because Mussolini believed that it would be over in a few months and wanted a stronger position at the negotiation table.

 

I totally agree whit TiredOldSoldier

Also i think that could be usefull open a little chapter about invasion of Ethiopia. This war is always considered as a struggle beetween a small "David" (Ethiopia) against a bigger and invincible "Golia" (Italy). In which war, the perfidious Golia used gas and aerial bomb against the little poor David. This is an half-truth. Italy was a very poor nation, deploy 500.000 men thousands km from motherland and maintain them in combat is a huge effort now, and much more in 1935. So, this kind of war for Italy is not so easy as for England or USA. To pay this war, Mussolini asked "Gold for the Country" and in response of this, thousands of italians give their values:
Gold: 36.895 kg
Silver: 115.131 kg
Money: 1.543.000 L
Foreign currency: 296.000 L
Other: 14.000.000 L
So, we have a great effort of all Italy in order to avenge Adua and gain a colony like any other european country.
On the other side we have a secolar empire, of course poor and divided, but not so divided when someone tries to invade Ethiopia... an empire whit at least 500.000 soldiers, all armed whit rifle, some trained by foreign istructors and all whit a great knowledge of the territory and very combat skilled.. Is not an easy enemy... and of course is not an easy enemy for Italy. Indeed the victory of italian army was far from obvious, lots of european and US newspapers and also military analysts or historian such as Sir Basil Liddell Hart spoke about the impossibility for Italy to win the war. But the war was win, despite the incompetence of some generals and whit relatively few casualities (almost 2.000 killed in action, 10.000 for all causes).

About the gas question: first of all every european empire used gas in the colony, second, USMC captain Pedro A. Del Valle, who follows italian troops like observer, write that gas mask is not part of the italian soldier equipement, and confirmed the use of Iprite only in response to the mutilations of some italian POWs like air force aviator Minniti. So, the gas was used, but very few times and is not decisive for the campaign.

 

Many brave italian frogmen sunk four ships in Alexandria.

Raid on Alexandria (1941) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And against Germans in La Spezia.

Luigi Durand de la Penne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

So where there any brits ib the fight at filotrano or just nembo battalions that were revamped for the allies

 

What about the Guadalajara Battle in the Spanish Civil War? No one learned any thing, I suppose.

Battle of Guadalajara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The net sources about it are so poor. I would like to read anything better than the Wiki, The Links are bullshit and the article doesn’t have any cittations.

I read the Musso´s generals argued against attack the British Empire. So he ordered to attack. Is that true?