M4- Impact of the Second World War 1940-43 (econ+weakness) Flashcards
what were the four main problems with Italy’s involvement in WW2?
military unpreparedness
inadequate leadership
economic weakness
military defeats
what were the issues with the Italian Army?
numbers
arms
morale
tactics
how many troops had Mussolini claimed he had at the start of the war?
8 million
how many troops did Mussolini actually have?
800,000
the Battle for Births had failed to provide him with a large army
how many Italian Army divisions were there at the start of the war?
75
how many of these divisions were adequately armed
35
what weapons were the Italian troops armed with?
WW1 era rifles and artillery which were ineffective against the American and British weaponry
how many tanks were there in the Italian Army?
1500 armoured cars and light tanks
WW2 was supposed to be a mechanised war and so Italy was massively unprepared for this
what were the reasons for low morale in the Army?
again peasant conscripts did not understand why they were fighting so far from home
language barriers also played an issue with the peasant conscripts unable to understand orders from officers
what showed that Italian troop morale was so low?
100,000 Italians were taken prisoner in Africa
what was wrong with Italian tactics?
MASSIVELY OUTDATED
they were still doing charges against enemy positions
was suicidal in WW2
how much of Italy’s national income was spent on rearming from 1935-38?
11.8%
how much of Germany’s national income was spent on rearming from 1935-38?
6.9%
so Italy was investing more in their armed forces than Germany was
what were the issues with the Italian Air Force?
number of fighter aircraft
the quality of fighter aircraft
lack of long-range bombers
how many effective aircraft did the Italian Air Force have?
1000
what was the main Italian fighter aircraft?
the Fiat CR42 biplane
was too slow and under-armed
many were grounded due to reliability
was massively inferior to the British Spitfire
what reliability issues did the CR42 face?
it had no protection to sand so could not provide support for Italian troops in Africa
did Italy have any long-range bombers?
NO
therefore could not attack the strongly held British positions in Egypt and Gibraltar
what were the issues with the Italian Navy?
had no radar equipment
little oil
no aircraft carriers
why was the leadership in the Italian armed forces so poor?
were too obsessed with the defensive traditions of WW1
they were also suspicious over the use of armoured warfare and air support (completely different to German generals who adopted Blitzkrieg)
what were the issues with leadership in the Italian navy?
admirals were too reluctant to send Italian battleships to fight against the much superior British Mediterranean fleet
why was Mussolini at fault for the poor leadership in the Italian armed forces?
he made all strategic decisions as he made himself Minister for War and Supreme Commander of the Armed forces
he promoted officers based on loyalty not merit and experience
he was disinterested with war and found it boring, gave very vague orders to generals
by 1942 how many aircraft were the USA producing in comparison with Italy?
more in a week than Italy could in a year
what were the main resources Italy lacked?
fuel
raw materials
how much oil did Italy import from Romania?
1.5 million tonnes
still nowhere near enough to fuel military
which country did Italy rely on for coal?
Germany
how many tonnes of coal did Italy import from Germany a week?
one million tonnes
Germans did not want to give too much of their supply to Italy as they needed coal for their own military
what was the impact of lack of coal?
steel production fell by 20%
dropped to 1.7 million tonnes a year
rubbish compared to Britain’s 14 million tonnes a year
how many vehicles were Fiat and Spa producing in 1938?
5000 a month
how many vehicles were Fiat and Spa producing in 1941?
§2500 a month
why did Italian factories struggle?
they lacked the raw materials :
- oil
- steel
- iron
- rubber
- aluminium
meant that wartime production was limited
what was the unemployment like in wartime Italy?
thousands of Italians remained unemployed despite the wartime economy in place
major contrast to the other European countries where unemployment had been pretty much eradicated
what had caused major disruption to the Italian wartime economy?
allied bombing of Italian factories
how many calories were adults permitted with wartime rationing?
around 1000 calories a day
