Was Italy weaker than China during World War II?

Just because of the poor performance of the Italian army in World War II, it cannot be assumed that Italy's comprehensive national strength is inferior to that of China.

Italy is an old capitalist country, and its industrial revolution was nearly a hundred years earlier than that of China. Although Italy was not as crazy as Britain, Spain, France and Portugal in the colonial era in grabbing resources and land, Italy was one of the first countries to accept the colonial concept. After Napoleon's coup d' é tat in Fog Moon, he constantly sent the French Revolution thoughts to European principalities. Italy became a strong core under his rule very early, adhered to universal values completely different from those of western countries, and continued to promote the continuation and development of the country in the war. It was not until Napoleon's fall that he returned to the capital camp again.

During World War I, Italy became allies with Germany and Austria-Hungary. At this time, Italy was far from being a powerful country. Although during the reign of Prime Minister Gioletti, Italy suppressed the extremist forces on the left and right wings and experienced economic take-off under a series of liberal social reforms, by the time Gioletti stepped down in 1914, Italy still had a huge gap with the first-class powers in Europe. However, the clever Italians soon saw that the Anglo-French-led Allies had more war potential, so they pretended to be false at both ends. Until the Allies met Italy's territorial requirements, Italy completely switched to the Allies camp and eventually became a member of the victorious country. Although Italy was a participating country in World War II, it was not ravaged by the war, and its heavy industry remained intact, which laid the industrial foundation for Italy's participation in World War II.

Before the outbreak of World War II, relying on the war compensation and countless other profitable resources obtained from World War I, Italy's economy has developed rapidly, and the gap between Italy and Britain has narrowed rapidly, especially in national defense and military affairs, which has become one of the forces that cannot be ignored. Take the Italian navy as an example, at this time, it already has 7 battleships, 12 heavy cruisers, more than 1 destroyers and more than 5 submarines. At that time, Italy was in power by the Mussolini government. After emulating Hitler's domestic bloodletting for centralized power, Mussolini became the supreme head of the party, government and army, and his ambition expanded with the day. Especially when the Nazi army swept across Europe, with his good personal relationship with Hitler, he was eager to play an important role in formulating and dominating the world order by joining the Axis countries, just like the victory of dividing the fruits in World War I.

Despite the people's wishes, Mussolini still forcibly crossed the parliament and kidnapped the Italians to rammstein. However, the Italian people were not as confused as he was. They saw through the nature of the war of aggression launched by the German fascists. Therefore, Italians who love peace and opera are not as keen on honor and war as the veteran German imperial soldiers. They tried their best to avoid the battlefield and even made many international jokes, which have made people mention it so far. For example, a British company can "capture" an Italian army compiled by the whole division; When the allies reported the Italian prisoners, they didn't use quantity, but often used how many acres they occupied to describe them. Attacking a small Greece with dozens of divisions, it was actually hit back to the original border by the opponents of several divisions, and finally had to ask Germany for support. However, Germany only sent two mountain divisions, and it was quite close to Athens, the capital of Greece, within a week ... Such jokes can be described as endless.

Compared with other countries during World War II, the Italian army was by no means incompetent and timid. On the contrary, they loved life, hated fascism, sympathized with the weak, and were unwilling to be cannon fodder for Mussolini's dictatorship. Therefore, from top to bottom, the army, from senior generals to soldiers, often adopted non-violent and non-cooperative means to passively cope with the war (a film called "Captain's Mandolin" is the best interpretation). It is impossible to avoid confrontation, and most of them will collapse at the touch of a button. If they can't run away, they will disarm in situ, and they will surrender in an orderly and organized manner, unlike the brainwashed Germans who fought to the end. With the advance of the late war, the Italian occupation troops in North Africa even surrendered without fighting, and even gave up their basic symbolic resistance. Faced with the collection of tons of weapons, the soldiers cheered instead of being depressed, thinking that as long as they became allied prisoners, they would be home just around the corner. By the end of World War II, Italy simply turned negative into resistance, and a "movement to pour Mexico" was launched all over the country, which eventually pushed down the government of Mussolini, and Mexico himself was killed by Italian guerrillas. It is precisely because of understanding the times that Italy successfully evaded the sanctions of the victorious countries after World War II.

Because of Italy's repeated political attitude and ridiculous battlefield performance in World War I and World War II, it was mistaken by the world for being weak and afraid of fighting, and its strength was poor, and then it was branded as a weak country and striving for strength. In fact, it was misinterpreted. The real strength of Italy should not be underestimated. Compared with China, its military strength is much higher. Except for the fact that the army does not have so many standing troops, Italy's land, sea and air equipment has basically achieved independent research, development, design and production, and troops are installed side by side. Although China's weapons are still using the World Card, it is superior in its vast territory and abundant human resources, unlike Italy, which has a small land area and limited room for manoeuvre in depth, so it has a huge potential for war, which Italy cannot reach.