Mussolini / Italy stayed neutral?

I think the point is, however, while Italy's fighters may have been able to compete with British antiquated Gladiators over Malta, Italy's involvement in the war was not limited to malta, and they could certainly not compete with even obsolescant British fighters like the Hurricane.

I think when we are speaking of a nation's ability to 'compete with malta' a rock the size of a small city, we get an idea of just how ill-prepared they were for a wider war.

 

I think we all agree here that despite a few exceptions, Italy was ill-prepared for war and even with a rearmament in depth - which would have taken ages and was not even possible with such a poor industrial base- Italy just couldn't have made any significance contribution to either side in WWII.

 

Mussolini said alot of stupid things like that. Makes me wonder if he was "all there" at times.
When the pact of Steel was signed, it pretty much allowed Germany to walk all over Italy. I think it would have been much wiser for the ol' DUCE to simply stay out of it. Then again, his plans on a "New Roman Empire" sure wouldn't have gotten very far with that mentality.
....wait a minute, it didn't get very far anyways...

Ciao,
DUCE