Quick Note: I got several things wrong in this video and hopefully this comment should sort things out. Thanks to all who spotted them! 1. Operation Pedestal had a more significant impact on the war and I kinda skipped it 2. I totally goofed on the Littorio bit, Battleship Roma was sunk instead, not Littorio and Littorio was not renamed to Roma 3. I also skipped over the 1st battle of Sirte Hope this clears some things up!
The part where Roma was renamed is sort of true. In reality, it was Littorio that was renamed. When Italy surrendered to the Allies, Littorio was renamed to Italia, as the word "Littorio", was an Italian currency, but more imporantly, a symbol of fascism. It makes sense why they would rename it, as Italy, well the Kingdom of Italy, was fed up with fascism and Mussolini, and wanted to get rid of it. The battle fleet where Roma sank had all three Littorio ships in it, as before Italy surrendered, they were planning to attack British ships. I wonder how the battle would go with three of Italy's most powerful warships. Even though this video has some mistakes, it is still a good video though!
Well, there are a some errors, for example the italian ships were more modern than the british ones, for example most of the british battleships were WW1 era ships and most of them didn't had radar. Also the aftermath of Taranto wasn't so bad, only a few ships were hitted and they were all refloated, only one, the Conte di Cavour never came back in service because the armistice stopped the work on her (she was almost finished). The first battle of Sirte was a success because it saw to the british that the italian battle fleet can easily engage them. The Littorio wasn't sank, her sister, the Roma, was, Littorio was renamed Italia
Its the other way around,italian warships were not equiped with radar unlike their british counterparts,in fact this and their lack of aircraft carriers were what made them not as effective
@@poikoi1530The Royal Navy could only do something against the Regia Marina at night. Since Italy had no radar and therefore the Italian ships were practically blind at night. After the radar was installed in 1941, the British were not successful even at night. And in fact every time the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina fought. Cunningham and all the Royal Navy ran away when they saw the Littorio or the Vittorio Veneto. Or the Royal Navy was kicked in the ass by the Regia Marina, just think of the first and second Battle of Sierte or the Battle of mezzo Giugno. You have to study history before you write crap
Pal, the Littorio wasn't renamed Roma, nor did it sink. Italy had four Littorio-class battleships; Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Roma and Impero (never completed). By the time the Italian fleet made the run to surrender at Malta, there were the Littorio (renamed Italia), Veneto and Roma. Only the Roma was sank by the Fritz, and it's not the same ship as the Littorio/Italia.
Also Dunkerque were battle cruisers and Trento class cruiser were not the reply. More likely the Littorio class which were not really super dreadnoughts thats more of a WW1 term but fast battleships. The statement that the Royal Navy Ships were more modern is not true. The UK Med Fleet battleships all originated before or during WW 1 unlike the Littorio class, both sides older battleships were modernised. The Royal Navy did have radar and used aircraft carriers effectively. To be honest this piece is riddled with mistakes.
Great video, as an Italian I appreciated that somebody did a pretty accurate video without joking about switching sides (we DIDN'T SWITCH, there was a civil war, goddamnit)
@@DaCubanCrokodilevisto che hai detto che sei italiano allora uso l'italiano. Già solo il fatto che all'inizio del video ha detto che sono veri gli stereotipi sulla distruzione in Grecia, sui generali italiani incompetenti, sul fallimento in Francia o sui carriarmati italiani che facevano schifo. Quando in realtà basta studiare la storia per sapere che sono tutte cavolate. Poi sul fatto che gli italiani ogni volta che i Francesi creavano una nave gli italiani copiavano le loro navi in risposta, quando in realtà è tutto il contrario basti pensare alla classe Richelieu che è stata costruita in risposta alla classe Littorio. Poi ha detto che l'Italia per conquistare l'Etiopia c'ha messo 2 anni, quando in realtà erano solo 7 mesi (per di più l'Italia non è mai stata sconfitta dall'Etiopia Poi un'altra ca**ata che ha detto è che la Royal Navy nel Mediterraneo all'inizio era in inferiorità numerica. Cosa non vera dato che la maggior parte della Royal Navy operava nel Mediterraneo per cercare di fermare la Regia Marina. Poi non furono i comandanti della Regia Marina a non dotare le navi di sonar (fino al 1941 quando venne introdotto. Per di più era di molto superiore a quello tedesco o giappo), ma fu quel covo di traditori chiamato Supermarina. Poi il Mediterraneo non era l'obbiettivo dell'Italia perché Mussolini voleva ristaurare Impero Romano, ma perché aveva colonie in Africa e quindi ci doveva essere un collegamento via mare sicuro tra le colonie e l'Italia. E per far ciò bisognava controllare il Mediterraneotra, oltre al fatto che che l'Italia essendo una penisola doveva (ancora oggi e così) via mare e via aerea. Poi la Regia Marina ha attaccato più di una volta le navi della Royal Navy. Prendendoli a calci in culo agli inglesi. Infatti Iachino ha inflitto un sacco di umiliazioni a Cunningham, Basti pensare alla battaglia di mezzo Giugno. Senza contare che gli inglesi ogni volta che vedevano la Littorio o la Vittorio Veneto se la davano a gambe. Quindi il tizio del video è il classico idiota ignorante che studia la storia sui meme e sulla propaganda. Ma a quanto pare anche tu la storia non la conosci minimamente. Quindi ti conviene studiarla, dato che hanno rotto gli idioti che non conoscono la storia. Ma descrivono gli italiani come degli incompetente e dei codardi
Frank Joseph, Mussolini’s War, Fascists Italy’s Military Struggles from Africa, and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet Union 1935 - 1945. “Among the great misconceptions of modern times is the assumption that Benito Mussolini was Hitler's junior partner, who made no significant contributions to the Second World War. That conclusion originated with Allied propagandists determined to boost Anglo-American morale, while undermining Axis cooperation. The Duce's failings, real or imagined, were inflated and ridiculed; his successes pointedly demeaned or ignored. Italy's bungling navy, ineffectual army - as cowardly as it was ill-equipped - and air force of antiquated biplanes were handily dealt with by the Western Allies. So effective was this disinformation campaign that it became post-war history, and is still generally taken for granted even by otherwise well-informed scholars and students of World War Two. But a closer examination of recently disclosed, and often neglected, original source materials present an entirely different picture. They shine new light, for example, on Italy's submarine service, the world's greatest in terms of tonnage, its boats sinking three-quarters of a million tons of Allied shipping in three years' time. During a single operation, Italian 'human torpedoes' sank the battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, plus an eight-thousand-ton tanker, at their home anchorage in Alexandria, Egypt. By mid-1942, Mussolini's navy had fought its way back from crushing defeats to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean Sea. Contrary to popular belief, his Fiat biplanes gave as good as they got in the Battle of Britain, and their monoplane replacements, such as the Macchi Greyhound, were state-of-the-art interceptors superior to the American Mustang. Savoia-Marchetti Sparrowhawk bombers accounted for seventy-two Allied warships and one hundred-ninety-six freighters before the Badoglio armistice in 1943. On 7 June 1942, infantry of the Italian X Corps saved Rommel's XV Brigade near Gazala, in North Africa, from otherwise certain annihilation, while horse-soldiers of the Third Cavalry Division Amedeo Duca d'Aosta defeated Soviet forces on the Don River before Stalingrad the following August in history's last cavalry charge. As influential as these operations were on the course of World War Two, more potentially decisive was Mussolini's planned aggression against the United States' mainland. Postponed only at the last moment when its conventional explosives were slated for substitution by a nuclear device, New York City escaped an atomic attack by margins more narrow than previously understood. It is now known that Italian scientists led the world in nuclear research in 1939, and a four-engine Piaggio heavy bomber was modified to carry an atomic bomb five years later. These and numerous other disclosures combine to debunk lingering propaganda stereotypes of inept, ineffectual Italian armed forces. That dated portrayal is rendered obsolete by a true-to-life account of the men and weapons of Mussolini's War”.
That was a nice sweep trhough naval history and pretty good as that, notwithstanding the Littorio/Roma - stuff. The general idea is correct. However, one might add, that the Italians fought pretty well when led well. (True for any armed force; but good leadership, as you mentioned, lacked fometimes in the Italien forces.) As a rule of thumb: The smaller the ship, the better the fight. A class of its own, a remarkable feat of heroism, was the small destroyer Lupo defending a German convoy on its way to Crete against a British cruiser group. Or - you mentioned it - the daring actions of the Decima MAS frogmen. There´s no need to despise the Italian soldiers and mariners: My father, who knew them from Africa, always held to them.
As USUAL more videos about Italy in WWII taken from memes/propaganda and mostly/BS. 1.Italy conquered Ethiopia in 7 months not 2 years 2.Ethiopia also used techniques outlawed, were aided by multiple European countries including Germany trying to stop Italian expansion before later allying. 3.The use of chemicals were strictly limited and experts stated Italy would have undoubtedly won without it and the Germans/Austrians used them in WWI & II. The first "war" with Ethiopia were battles all won by Italy except the final decisive one at Adwa where Ethiopians outnumbered Italian troops 10-1. 4. ITALY WON in Greece, not Greece, not the Germans as admitted by Hitler in a speech to the Reichtstag. 5. Only the antiFascist fought with the allies after Italy's surrender, Italian Fascist continued to fight with Germany. The Finn's switched 3X, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria of the Axis switched. Every allied occupied country switched to the Axis then switched back when the allies took control but only Italy gets stuck with this "switched sides" meme nonsense. Germans switched and betrayed Italy breaking the Pact of Steel causing the disasters of 1940 and beyond, before which Italy had won all it's battles and wars with multiple foes over the previous 30 years. In WWI, it was a defensive Pact and Italy's "ally" Austria was secretly contemplating invading Italy. 6. ITALY was the main contributor and victor in the Spanish civil war. 7. Italy's WW II Empire was larger than Germany's 8. Read other comments on the multiple errors about the Italian Navy.
I studied a lot my country history and we entered the capital of Ethiopia in 1936 (almost a year after the beginning of that war) not in 1937. Sorry for all; love this video
agreed wen your up agains the no 1 and no2 bigest navies in the world survival is a considerd a victory. the fact that italy didn't lose a single big battle ships until 1943 is a masive W
Good effort. Kinda wrong though. A bit. And operation pedestal was one of the most important events of the war and easily the most important convoy battle ever as well as being the best example of strategic victory and tactical defeat. So it needs more than 1.5 seconds.
@@TheGeekDoesHistory I. Enjoyed you video though. Italy and WWII is very nuanced. Plus they themselves really played the role post war - “yeah, we totally backed the bad guys and were totally sorry but hey! We were really crap and didn’t do any harm cos we were so baaaad!” I mean, where were the war crime trails for the Italians? There were certainly Italian war crimes, but no war crime trials.
You also said that they invaded Russia in the winter. This is simply not true. Operation Barbarossa began in June. It was also originally planned to start earlier but Italy"s failed invasions in the Balkans delayed the attack as German troops had to help. Thus, whilst they could have maybe started a month earlier, it is still clear that the myth of the winter invasion is just that, a myth. Hitler understood and feared the winter but was convinces that in the 4-5 months before the worst of the winter hit he could have destroyed Russia. So, whilst he underestimated the vastness of Russia and the will of the people to fight, he did not underestimate the winter and the axis never did invade Russia I'm the winter. Hope this cleats some things up :).
It is enough to study history to know that it is not true that Italy did not have good generals. There were a lot of very skilled Italian commanders. For example Bastico and Messe (one of the best commanders of the Second World War). In fact, most of the victories during the African campaign were obtained by Messe and Bastico and not from that overrated of Rommel
Not having radar gave the Italian Navy one advantage--British warships couldn't home in on the non-existent radar emissions. US Navy warships around Guadalcanal had radar but their captains didn't use their radars out of fear that the Japanese would home in on those radars and sneak up to torpedo range and sink the Americans.
@@MarcDufresneosorusrex Due to insufficient industrial base, Imperial Japan had a shortage of electronics. Japanese fighters often had no radio sets. At Midway, the lack of radar and fighter aviation radios cost IJN four aircraft carriers that they couldn't replace.
To make the comment involving the declaration of war on the US from my understanding it was more a requirment due to the signing of the triparte or however its called pact as Germany declared war on the us with a claim that the us had already been part of the war due to lend lease etc or something to that regard it would require me to go over the entire declaration and hope i don't mistranslate or otherwise mis understand statements (this is coming from me listening to a different history YT channel explaining Y hitler did declare on the US and as such Italy ethier could claim it was having to invoke or it was simply a situation where technically they are at war due to being at war with the rest of the allies etc)
As far as I know Italy did not have labour concentration camps but comrades like Marx, Lenin recommend to use labour armies-concentration camps. May be this is reason why Italian industry was so bad.
Italian industry was NOT so bad, it did not have time to update because of Germany's breaking the Pact of Steel which guaranteed Italy 3 years to prepare/upgrade, instead they invaded Poland and dragged an unprepared/depleted Italy into WWII. A complete betrayal, plus Germany had 20 years to build up it's industry, Italy was fighting/conquering those entire 20 years and was almost completely depleted for arming their military..