Italy a burden on Hitler in World War II
Several of Hitler's failures and fatal delays can be blamed directly on Mussolinis adventurism
LAHORE: (Web Desk) – Italy was one of the most problematic allies in the second world war for the German chancellor Adolf Hitler. Despite the fact that Germany was fighting against massive odds, and powerful Allies, Italy was a burden that continued to hold Germany back in many of the situations.
In a discussion on Q/A website Quora regarding the least important allies in World War II, a commenter named Jumare Jaeger said that Italy was probably the least important ally in World War II. He said that Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini remained a burden on Hitler throughout the war, as Hitler had to delay the invasion of Russia and also ‘siphoned off troops and equipment badly needed for Hitler s invasion of Russia’.
Moreover, Hitler was not the only person to have felt Mussolini’s burden. The Allies also had to take care of the Italian population in the winters of 1944 because they did not want the Italians to die of freezing and hunger just because of the mistakes of Fascist party leader Mussolini. In fact by 1945, America was supplying one-third of the total food eaten by the Italian population.
As a matter of fact, there were 250,000 Italian troops stationed in Sicily in 1943 but when the Allies invaded the island, 150,000 surrendered, leaving the total number to just 100,000.
And there is a history to the Italian foreign policy between the two world wars and before the first one too. Italy constantly changed sides between 1900 and 1945. It was a German ally at the turn of the century but by 1907, Italy had allied itself on the side of Britain and France. Later, after the break of First World War, Italy was undecided till 1915 and it was widely believed that it was on the German side but when it joined the war, it was on the Allies’ side. Italy actually joined the war on the Allies’ side only after receiving certain assurances from France and England. However, at the time of the Treaty of Versailles, Italy was openly offended as it claimed that the promises made with it were not fulfilled.
Mussolini continued to flip-flop between Hitler and his opponents from 1933 onwards till the break of Second World War. To gauge the level of ambiguity regarding the allegiance of Italy, take a look at this joke below, also shared by Jaeger in his comment on Quora:
“The joke at the time was that Ribbentrop approached Hitler and said, “Mein fuhrer, Italy has declared war.”
Hitler replied, “Send two divisions to the Italian border and attack immediately.”
Ribbentrop answered, “No Mein Fuher, Italy has declared war on our side.”
Hitler answered, “Oh. In that case send 10 divisions to the Italian border.”
