Rommel's jokes about Italy

Italy has always been called "poor China imperialism", and all the enthusiasm of Italians seems to be used in opera, football and other activities. Fighting is not their strong suit. To quote a German officer at that time:

If Italy is the enemy of Germany, then Germany only needs 10 divisions to defeat him;

If Italy remains neutral, then Germany needs to send 20 divisions to guard against him;

If Italy is an ally of Germany, then Germany will send 30 divisions to defend it.

In my impression, the Italian army never won a battle without relying on the Germans in the battlefield of World War II.

Although Italy was a member of the Axis and signed the Iron and Steel Covenant, it did not abide by the treaty at first, and finally went to war with Germany, but launched the Axis. Before the war broke out, Mussolini was told that even if all the Italian military factories got all the raw materials and started working day and night, the preparations for the war would not be completed until 1943. Therefore, when Italy fought Poland in Germany, it was not involved in the war. It just sent laborers to Germany, and it went well in Germany. It seemed that it was almost time to declare war on Britain and France and drive ducks to the shelves.

Before the declaration of war was over, it was hit on the ground by France and hit in the sea by Britain, and there was no strength to fight back; In the captain's mandolin, the Greeks have a classic saying, "We would rather surrender to the German captain's dog than to the Italians". Who wants to surrender to an opponent who has been defeated by himself? Before the Germans intervened in North Africa, Churchill even planned to transfer some troops from North Africa to support other battlefields. His original words were "considering Italy's great defeat in North Africa, it should not be a problem to deploy these troops" ... After Italy surrendered, the Italian army was brutally killed by the German army at will, and there was no strength to fight back. Even Tito's Italian army, which was adapted into Garibo Division, only made an important "sacrifice" in the battle with the Germans.

In a battle in North Africa, more than 10 thousand troops stopped fighting, just like thousands of allies surrendered, on the grounds that they could not find a screwdriver to open the ammunition box.

In the face of Ethiopia, a country with only 200 machine guns, 4,000 rifles, and even some only equipped for the Royal Guard, actually held off the Italian army for half a year, forcing the other side to use chemical weapons to win, and finally paid the price of 6,543,800 casualties. Even their ally, the Germans, looked down on them. When fighting in North Africa, the Germans had not yet entered, but there were 500,000 Italian troops. The British organized 50,000 Indian troops and hundreds of tanks driven by the British army to launch a surprise attack on the Italian army. The result is shocking. 500,000 Italian troops were defeated by 50,000 British and Indian soldiers, lost the bloody sand in the important town, and captured100,000 people. When Rommel first arrived in North Africa, he saw the Italian fleeing in panic. Long Shuai dispersed his German officers and men into some Italian armies as commanders, and these soldiers soon became the backbone of the Italian army and won the counterattack. The fighting capacity of the German army is really terrible. Grassroots soldiers can also become excellent officers in the Italian army. At the same time, it can be seen that the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is low. ) Long Shuai's evaluation of the Italian army has always been very low. He said: "Italians cringe on the ground when they fight and charge, but they should hide." Once, because the malta island in the Mediterranean posed a strong threat to the supply lines of African troops (when the island was strong, two-thirds of the Axis transport ships were sent to the bottom of the sea, while when it was weak, more than 95% of the ships could pass safely), when we were discussing how to deal with it, an Italian officer said that he could send airborne troops, but he seized the island. Long Shuai retorted on the spot: "Is it possible for the Italian army to always show this?" .

What is even more ridiculous is that1On June 30th, 940, the plane of Marshal Barbo, the Italian governor in Libya, was shot down by Italy's own anti-aircraft gun over the northeastern port of Tubrugg, and the Marshal was killed on the spot. In order to cover up this serious incident, the Italian army announced that the marshal was killed in an air battle with the British army. Poor Barber became the highest-ranking commander who was accidentally injured in World War II. 1941February 16, Rommel, commander of the German African Corps, arrived in North Africa for rescue on Hitler's orders. At this point, the Italian army was already in flight and fled in haste. A colonel reported to Rommel that Italian soldiers had left their weapons and ammunition in the desert, and the officers were packing their bags, hoping to return to Italy as soon as possible.

1940 in may, the Germans quickly invaded France and approached Paris. 10 In June, Mussolini thought that the time had come and ordered Prince umberto, commander of the Western Army Group, to command 325,000 troops to be stationed on the Italian-French border for standby. /kloc-in 0/7, the newly established French petain government called for a truce, and Hitler invited Mussolini to meet in Munich. Mussolini succeeded in acquiring part of the ceded land in France. Interestingly, Mussolini felt that such a victory was beneath his dignity and suddenly decided to launch a blitzkrieg against the French army on 2 1 22 before the armistice agreement was formally signed. As a result, in the Alps, the lightning attack of the Italian army did not make the weak six French divisions take a step back, but was hit head-on by the French army and suffered heavy losses. 63 1 person died, 5,206 people were injured and 626 people were missing. Prince umberto was forced to declare a truce. Strasser, former general secretary of the Italian National Fascist Party, said with emotion that it is really sad that so many people died in vain because of fighting two days before the armistice.

In order to change his supporting role in the fascist axis countries, 1940, 10/October 28th, Mussolini launched an all-round attack on Greece with 87,000 troops, 163 tanks, 686 cannons and 380 planes. However, the Italian army did not meet Mussolini's expectations. 165438+1October 4th, the Greek government assembled only 15 divisions, and it took a week to drive the Italian army out of the border. 2 1 day, Mussolini temporarily changed his command and sent 14 division to launch a new round of general attack. The Greek army skillfully used the terrain and fought tenaciously, but the Italian army never recovered. Mussolini was in a hurry, blaming the general staff for the fiasco, then replacing the general staff, and at the same time demanding a truce in Greece through Hitler. But it was too late, the Greek army had launched an attack on all fronts, and the Italian army suffered heavy casualties. All ace divisions were wiped out, 5 generals were captured and 1 generals were killed. Italians are fooled. They don't know what happened. Mussolini rushed to Germany and sat nervously in front of Hitler, asking for help like a schoolboy who made a mistake. Hitler agreed to send troops and spent two hours teaching Mussolini strategy and tactics. Interestingly, after Mussolini returned to China, he still hoped to defeat Greece on his own before Germany and save face. He ordered the urgent recruitment of new recruits and the formation of a 500,000-strong reinforcement force. 194 1 on March 2, 2008, he personally supervised the war as the supreme commander, but he still failed. Mussolini couldn't figure out why the Italian army, which was superior in numbers and weapons, couldn't break the Greek defense. The World War I in Greece further exposed the weakness of the Italian fascist regime, and also made Italy a second-rate country in the Axis Group, which could only play a "supporting role" in the subordinate war with the German army.

After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Hitler wanted to "go it alone". Mussolini thought that the Germans would win, and if they fought together, they would get trophies. So he begged Hitler to allow the Italian army to participate in the war against the Soviet Union. As a result, the 220,000 Italian elite troops sent to the Soviet Union were equally vulnerable. Half of the soldiers were killed, injured or captured, and the other half fled back to Italy early. Most of the soldiers lost more than 80% of all kinds of weapons.