WW2 (1940-43) Flashcards
What was Italy and Germany’s plan in the war?
- They would fight a ‘parallel war’; Italy would fight in the Mediterranean and North Africa
- The Germans would fight in northern, central and eastern Europe
How did the first stage of the war go for Italy? Give 4 details.
- On the 21st June France announced they would sign an armistice with Nazi Germany
- On the same day, Italy launched an offensive into the French Alps
- They advanced a few kilometres into France before they were stopped by the French army
- Hitler and Marshal Pétain signed an armistice on 22nd June
What were 4 issues/ consequences the invasion of France had?
- Troops didn’t have the right clothing for an Alpine war
- The Italian Air Force didn’t have the bombs needed to destroy French fortifications
- Mussolini insisted on using tanks that were unsuitable for the terrain
- 631 men died, of which many died from frostbite
What gains did the Italian army make from its attack on France?
- They gained the 2 towns they had captured in their offensive
What had Mussolini hoped to gain from the invasion of France, and why didn’t he?
- Tunisia, Corsica and south France
- Hitler felt that Italy had not significantly contributed to the defeat of France, so they didn’t deserve more
What did Mussolini do as a result? Give 4 details about it.
- He wanted to make his own gains in North Africa and Greece while Germany was busy fighting the Battle of Britain
- He sent troops into British Somaliland, Sudan and Kenya
- In September 1940 he ordered an invasion of Egypt and the Suez Canal
- In October 1940 he delivered an ultimatum to the Greek government requesting the right to occupy key areas of Greece in return for being neutral
- When Greece refused, Italy invaded 2 days later
How close did Mussolini get to his goal of controlling the Mediterranean? Why was this important?
- Mussolini had not had a strategy to deal with British positions in the Mediterranean
- The Italian navy had been crippled by a British air attack in November 1940
How did the British counter-attack in North Africa go? Give 3 details.
- The Italian army was 4 times as large as the British force
- By January 1941 125,000 Italians were taken prisoner
- By April 1941 the British forces had taken Abyssinia
What happened after the defeat of Italy in Abyssinia?
- Hitler sent German forces led by General Rommel to prevent a disorderly retreat from North Africa
What happened in North Africa during the rest of the war? Give 4 details.
- Axis forces were on the retreat in North Africa in 1942
- Rommel’s forces were halted at El Alamein in June 1942, which made it very unlikely for them to be able to seize the Suez Canal
- In the second battle of El Alamein in October 1942 the Axis were forced to retreat
- They surrendered in May 1943 (this allowed an Allied invasion of Sicily from Tunisia)
Give 3 details about the start of the invasion of Greece.
- 70,000 troops were sent to Greece
- They invaded from Albania
- The Italian air force had complete air superiority
How was the invasion of Greece expected to go?
- It was expected to take 2 weeks
List 5 issues the Italians faced when invading Greece.
- The invading force was small since Mussolini believed there would only be 30,000 Greek troops, while in reality there was 300,000
- It was poorly led
- The Greek Army knew the terrain well
- The Greek Army was determined, which kept the conflict going into the winter, which the Italians were not prepared for
- Mussolini hadn’t coordinated the attack with the navy or the air force despite the fact that it was a seaborne invasion
What happened in Greece after the invasion of Italy? Give 3 details.
- A Greek counter-attack in December 1940 pushed the Italians back into Albania
- Although Marshal Badoglio was replaced and reinforcements were sent, the Greeks couldn’t be beaten by the Italians
- In spring 1941 the Germans came and invaded Greece within weeks
What were 2 impacts of the failed invasion of Greece?
- Mussolini’s dictatorship was shown to be weaker than Greece, which lost him popularity in Italy
- It confirmed Italy’s subservience to Germany, and ended any hopes of a parallel war
List 3 ways in which Mussolini himself caused military weaknesses.
- He had made himself Minister of War, Minister of the Navy, Minister of the Air Force, Supreme Commander of the Italian armed forces and head of 5 separate ministries, which limited Italy’s military effectiveness as he often took major decisions without consultation
- Without his input, the government could not function as no major decisions could be made
- He himself did not have a plan to defend Sicily, and asked one of his generals if one had been prepared after Sicily had already been invaded, and one hadn’t since he was in charge
What 3 weaknesses had the military had even before the war had began?
- There were 75 divisions, but only enough equipment to support 35 of them
- There were language barriers between peasant conscripts and the officer class
- Outdated tactics and equipment
Give 4 examples of Italy having outdated tactics/ equipment.
- Many of the rifles and the cannons the army was using dated from WW1
- Naval ships had no radar
- The airforce was outdated and they had no long-range bombers to attack British positions in Egypt or the Mediterranean
- They were still using 19th-century charges that were practically suicidal in WW2
What were 3 issues soldiers had?
- They had low morale, which was shown by the fact that the British took 380,000 prisoner in North Africa
- Rations were low
- Clothing was worse than it had been in WW1
What 3 issues did Italy’s war economy face?
- Italy could only import half as much oil as they needed in times of peace, so they relied on Germany for coal, but Germany could only spare 1 million tonnes a month
- Many factories lacked basic raw materials, so Italian steel production actually fell to 1.7 million tonnes in 1943, while Britain, for example, produced 14 million tonnes
- When production had been improved in 1942, they were set back again by Allied bombing raids of Italy’s industrial cities
In what 2 other ways did Italy’s war economy lag behind the rest of the powers in WW2?
- Italy was the only country involved in the war that didn’t increase its GDP between 1940 and 1942
- Italy still had tens of thousands of unemployed workers, while most other countries were at almost 100% employment
What were 5 domestic impacts of the war?
- Rations were very low; adults only had around 1000 calories a day
- Coffee and soap became luxury items
- Poorer Italians found it difficult to get bread or pasta
- This led to the development of a black market, which in turn caused price rises (in 1943 eggs were sold at 15 times their original price, and bread 8 times)
- Allied bombing raids caused mass discontent as at least 25,000 homes were destroyed in Turin by the end of 1942, and 500,000 workers fled Milan
What did the poor living and working conditions in Italy cause?
- A week of strikes in March 1943 that started with 100,000 workers in Turin, but then spread to other areas
- The strikes were organised by communists
What were 2 reasons why the strikes were so concerning?
- They were the first within 18 years of fascist rule
- It showed that communism and socialism were still able to influence workers
How did the strikes end?
- The government agreed to increase the money given to evacuees
What other political development was there around the time of these strikes? Give 2 details.
- Antifascist groups began to resurface
- The illegal communist newspaper L’Unita reappeared
- In April 1943, communists, socialists and Catholics all agreed to work together (for the first time in Italian politics) against fascism
Give 2 examples of antifascist groups that were formed. List details on when they were formed, whose support they had and who they contained.
- The ‘Party of Action’, which was a group of republicans, radicals and left-wing liberals
- The Christian Democrats were formed with the Church’s backing in 1942
What did the fascist regime do in response to the increasing amount of antifascist political activity?
- Mussolini’s secret police arrested 1400 between the March and June of 1943
Which other group turned against Mussolini, which was much more concerning for him?
- Conservative elites
What were the conservative elites attempting to do? What was the issue with this?
- They wanted to depose Mussolini and remove Italy from the war
- They wanted to do this without provoking the Germans into occupying Italy, so didn’t take action for 6 months
What forced the conservative elites to act?
- The Allied invasion of Sicily
When did the Allies invade Sicily, and what were 2 reasons why?
- July 1943
- They wanted this to cause the fascist regime to collapse, so that Italy would withdraw from the war
- They also wanted to open up another front to divert German troops from France
Describe 4 aspects of the Allied invasion of Sicily.
- It took them a week to conquer the western half of Sicily
- Mussolini hadn’t put into place a plan to defend Sicily
- German and Italian troops had been ordered to withdraw to defend the mainland when defeat became inevitable
- The Allies had control of the island by mid-August
Who had begun the plan to depose Mussolini, and when? Give 2 details.
- Grandi, who also made contact with Ciano
- Late 1942
- They contacted the Allies, who made it clear that they would only offer an armistice if Mussolini was removed
- Only the king could do this, so throughout early 1943 Grandi discussed this with the king
How did Grandi respond to the invasion of Sicily? Give 5 details.
- A week after it happened, he convinced Mussolini to call for a Grand Council meeting
- He drew up a resolution calling for Mussolini to be removed and for the king to be in charge of the government
- He tried to gain the support of other fascists so that the resolution would be passed
- He also told the army and police, as without their support Mussolini could not be deposed
- He convinced the king to support this
When had been the last time the Grand Council had met up, and why?
- September 1939
- It was Mussolini’s organisation as he always had the final say anyway
What happened at the Grand Council meeting?
- They voted on Grandi’s resolution
- It was 19:7 in favour of Mussolini’s removal
- Mussolini was still calm
Why was Mussolini unbothered by the result of the vote?
- He believed the king wouldn’t dismiss him
What happened after the Grand Council meeting?
- The next day (25th July) Mussolini met with the king
- The king told him that he had decided to dismiss him, and replace him with Marshal Badoglio
- Mussolini was arrested and taken away as a prisoner
