Not exactly ridiculed nations but could you do a video on the contribution to the British Army by Indian and Sri Lankan (Ceylon) forces. As colonise these 2 nations supported Britain heavily but haven’t been mentioned too often.
Imagine capturing some James Bond Laprers in Scubasuits, interrogating them for hours and hearing "Well amigos, this shipa willa blow up in five minues, believa mi or die."
to be fair for them it made perfect sense. they where a country lacking a strong industrial support, so motorising their army to the extend their ally germany could was out of the question, and the terrain of itally and their colonies was ill suited for vehicles, all the while horses are both disponible in ample supply, mobile to the extreme and require functionally no supplies to run (as oposed to the gigantic supply lines needed to support motorized troops). it is a less powerfull but more adaptable style of fighting that require less resources made perfect fit for a country that simply didn't have the industrial lift of its allies and oponents.
@@andreataccone2564 of course, and this does not even sligtly alter the fact that italians had severe balls to do what they did (i mean charging a tank collum with a horse takes a special kind of courage). most of the nations in the second war can't be told to have made "stupid decisions" because most of them made compromises based on what they knew, and we only see some decisions as wrong in hindsight after we forgot the reality of the situation. people say the US were stupid with their sherman production being "inferior" to german heavy tanks, forgetting that the shermans performed admirably during the african campains against the panzers, and remain one of the most survivable tanks of the war due to great ergonomics and reliable construction. people say that france's decision to not extend the maginau line all the way to belgium was a mistake, forgetting that not only building a fortification line in front of one of a neutral country is *scuffed* at best, but the whole idea of the line was moslty to force any invasion force into neutral territory to gain international support (especially for the US) because everyone at that time expected a repeat of WWI. and i could go on and on and on for basically all sides. we like to oversimplify things for the sake of ease of understanding despite the constant reminder that this is a recipie for overconfidence and ultimately catastrophy.... which looking at this early 2020 look like to be repeating itself once more
Legio XXI Rapax So it’s the incompetence of the Germans that had Italians lose to an enemy numerically smaller and outgunned and outdated? Also the Germans did come to Italy’s help but only after 6 months not one and a half month later. So it would be descent to say that that Italians lost to their incompetence and not Germany’s. 1 vs 1 gives you better perspective than 1vs my thugs and me.
@Legio XXI Rapax I am afraid you read somewhere the wrong facts. British troops didnt came to Greece until January 1941. Germans with operation Marita invaded Greece on April 6, 1941. Italian troops were armed better and numerically were double the size of the Greek army. Around half a million italian troops to a quarter million greek. The only thing you can say about the better readiness of the greek army is that it's office have been fighting wars since 1912. So they had much more experience than the italians. Also I will repeat that 1vs 1 is what determines what somebody can do, not 2 by 1. What germans did in one month couldnt the italians do in 6. So again, italians were far more incompetent than the Germans. The only thing that saved Italian troops from being thrown to the sea, is the german invasion.
During the british expeditions to the River Plate, in 1806-1807, an english ship got stuck in the muddy basin of the River Plate next to Buenos Aires, and when the water tide receded it was boarded by a cavalry force led by Martin Miguel de Güemes. Yeah, that actually happened.
@@calvinfernandez1956 Here you are wrong, the airforce was pretty good, with some of the best airplanes of the axis, the navy was one of the best of the world, with dreadnought Littorio being the biggest ship of the world before Yamato, the only problem was oil and radar
my (Italian) grandfather told me that when we ran out of ammunition and without heavy weapons, the Italians attacked the English tanks by climbing on it and throwing incendiary bottles, discovering the trap door, rather than giving up ... The Italians lacked the means, not courage. I speak of the war in North Africa
I have Italian family though they fled to America to evade concentration camps (they were Jewish Italians) he ended up fighting in the invasion of Sicily and helped translate
they were actually called "pigs". if you ever go to venice, there's one in the naval museum. it looks so impossibly unwieldy and clumsy to work, and yet....
Never forget the sacrifice of El Alamein. Honour to Folgore, Ariete, and more. *"We must honour the men that were the Lions of the Folgore."* -Winston Churchill *"The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier."* -Erwin Rommel *"Mancò la fortuna, non il valore!"* "Luck was missing, not the valor!"
Everybody: heavy tanks, long-range planes, well supplied and well equipped infantry The italian army: what about... *C A V A L R Y* and *H U M A N T O R P E D O E S*
I mean all the axis powers had poorly supplied and equipped infantry late war, but the Italians admittedly were at least poorly equipped as soon as they entered the war
Artjom Koslow that’s completely wrong. The Germans had a slew of talented generals, from the iconic ones like Rommel and Guderian to the lesser known (though still pretty recognizable to those in the know) like Von Manstein and Kesselring. And, I’m sure it will traumatize you, Hitler’s decision-making, in retrospect, wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Out of all the decisions he made, most people can only point to a couple that were really terrible. The only reason the Germans lost was because they ran into a Soviet juggernaut that was an A+ to their A.
Relatively inferiour, small arms were better than you'd think, tanks were the major let down, Navy and Airforce were absolutely good, most of the time even better than their counterparts.
The Italians were some of the best soldiers of the war, up there with Germany easily. The only difference was the Germans actually had an industrial base to support said soldiers, and some of the best leaders in history to command them. The Italians had 1/4 of the industry, and leaders that were put in their positions for political loyalty rather than actual talent.
Most of the soldiers also had close to zero training. You were a farmer and a month later you are fighting against elite British units. It's a shame that they are ridiculised
I don't know where are you from, but I fully agree with your words. As italian I have to admit that, except for few units like the paratroopers of Folgore, our soldiers might be brave, but with very poor training and equipment, especially compared with Germans or British.
Admiral Cunningham was so impressed by the courage of the Italian frogmen at Alexandia that he insisted on having the dinner with those who had been captured.
Alan Moore it was the one area where they were way ahead... set the path for SBS in U.K. and SEALS in US. Unfortunately history books in English lack coverage which is a shame for serious historical knowledge
@@englishalan222 Armada "Invincible" defeated by the English myth, never mention the English Armada (114 ships) far worse that was actually destroyed in combat, not by a storm, by only 5 Spanish warships and small merchant ships.
The story of Amedeo Guillet is among the most interesting of ww2. It's like if it came straight out of an adventure book. After the fall of Italian east africa he organized an eritrean rebellion, using their fear of Ethiopian annexation, too keep as many british troops as possible away from north africa, where the core of the conflict was. To strengthen his alliance with locals, he even married the daughter of a tribal chief. When he get sick from malaria and the British get closed to catch him, he disguised himself as a Yemenite, read the quran and learned about islam (he was already proficient in arab) and his trasformation was so good that when allied soldiers found him his servant convinced them that he was just an arab and to stop bothering him as he was praying. He later even get a permit from the governor to travel to Yemen as the son of a camel s breeder. But the yemenites thought that he was a british spy, so they arrested him. But when the Imam learned that Amedeo was an enemy of the UK, which asked the Yemen to extradite him, he set him free and invite him to live in his palace, where he worked as a groom for more then one year. In late 1943 he finally reach back to Italy, hiding in a Red Cross Navy. He later worked for the Italian inteliggence and after the war became a diplomat. While he was working as ambassador in Morocco, in 1972, he saved the life of many other diplomats during an attempted coup, and for saving his ambassador, West Germany granted him the Great Cross with Star and Sash (If I do not mistake). And these are only extracts of his life. It's sad how even in Italy only few knows about him. He died in 2010.
@@alyssinclair8598 To make an historical comparison, I've always been impressed at how, from historical accounts, Scipio Africanus was one of those guys. Everyone he talked with, Iberian tribesmen or African kings, became a friend and an ally. He was even frowned upon in Rome, for all this relationships he had with foreigners.
Mortato Doesnthaveasurname If you are interested here is Amedeo Guillet’s extended bio: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AEbEpFAm1gk.html
I knew some old boys in my local pub who fought the Italians and the Germans. They both claimed that the Italians fought much harder. The Italian soldier was formidable but was let down by equipment and leadership issues
@Mock Harris He mentioned one last stand but didn't go on talking about it, it was in AOI, Ethiopia, Prince Amedeo di Savoia resisted the english and they were allowed to go with flags and weapons: "On 31 January, the Duke of Aosta reported that the Italian military forces in East Africa were down to 67 operational aircraft with limited fuel stocks. With supplies running low and with no chance of re-supply, the Duke of Aosta opted to concentrate the remaining Italian forces into several strongholds: Gondar, Amba Alagi, Dessie, and Gimma. He himself commanded the 7,000 Italians at the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi. With his water supply compromised, surrounded, and besieged by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, the Duke of Aosta surrendered Amba Alagi on 18 May 1941. Due to the gallant resistance of the Italian garrison, the British allowed them to surrender with honours of war." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Amedeo,_Duke_of_Aosta#World_War_II from Fuller, J.F.C. (1993). The Second World War, 1939-45 : a strategical and tactical history. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 102.
Leadership only. They had brilliant designers and were among the leading technological powers. They lacked industrial capacity and resources. And poor *PARTY* leadership had made it an order of magnitude worse. But if we talk about officer core, it also wasn't as bad as people imagine. There were a lot of great commanders. Italy had gotten a reverse of Germany. Germans had a leader, who understood economics, but generals, who believed that USSR will collapse if they take Moscow. Italians had generals, who knew what to do, but a leader, who was borderline mad:(
@@gongologiocaggio El alamein itself and besides, The Italian armed forces fought bravely and suicidally in many occassions, the problem was a cronic lack of resources, lack of radar and an overall incompetent high command.
The myth of Polish cavalry charging German Panzers is known by many (even though it never really happened) yet few speak of the actually succesful Italian charges against enemy tanks/strongpoints.
it happened, and sometimes it was quite succesful, the polish won a minor victory against german tank units; a victory that triggered into sending another division anf luftwaffe to annihilate them which they did
We still have something like 24 on going trial for violation of international rights in Afghanistan, that is what happen when we have equipment and good commanders, we pretty much smash and mowe everything on our path
@@Darthevo99 Uhm uhm... San Marco Battalion... Uhm uhm... Introducing our most hated unit, just a bunch of fascists, incompetent, extremists; did a terrible job defending refugee camps in peace keeping operations, and thats not all!
@@iono5556 The polish charge was actually effective because the Poles used AT rifles which can penetrate the panzers of the time and bought the poles enough time to consolidate ay Warsaw.
In Russia the fact that Italian "frogmen" became the blueprint for naval diversion operatives around the globe is pretty well known. To be fair, had USSR suffered some humiliating defeats from them things may have been different.
It's all fun and games until you hear "avanti Savoia, carica!" And a madlad with mounted askaris starts gallopping towards your tanks. Lt Guillet is the definition of a madlad. We have our very own Lawrence of Arabia. He died in 2010 at 101 years old. Even Death itself was afraid of him.
Sono nativo di Asmara e ho vissuto in Eritrea fino all'età di 19 anni ! Mio Padre fu uno dei poche ''reduci '' di quella ''EPICA '' battaglia : 13000 soldati Italiani guidati dal Generale Carnimeo a fronte dei 50.000 della ''Coalizione Britannica '' guidati dal Gen, William Platt , composta da Inglesi , Indiani di tre ''etnie '' Sudanesi , Francesi della '' francia libera '' , ma solo i ''quadri '' erano Francesi , la truppa era composta da Senegalesi . Resistettero fino alla fine del '41 . E' uscito dalla piazzaforte dopo che il fronte si era letteralmente '' consumato '' con l'ONORE delle Armi , onore che da sempre i cavallereschi Inglesi riservano solo al nemico VALOROSO . Gli Ufficiali Britannici vollero stringere la mano a ognuno di loro ! Sono nato nel dopoguerra ma conosco le gesta di Amedeo Guillet per bocca di mio padre .Avevano posto una taglia su di lui di mille sterline pa averlo vivo o morto . Questo leggendario personaggio he parlava correttamente l'Arabo e pregava indifferentemente secondo il rito Musulmano e Cristiano , avendo v bisogno di denaro per alimentare la sua ''guerra personale '' fatta di ''IMBOSCATE '' , travestito da Arabo andò di persona a ''INCASSARE '' la taglia senza che NESSUNO tra gli Ufficiali Britannici se ne fosse accorto . Alla sua morte , per suo volere la sua salma venne trasferita nel ''CIMITERO degli Eroi '' di Cheren. Sulla sua lapide volle fossero incise queste parole '' L'Italia non potrà mai fare quello che gli Eritrei hanno fatto pen noi '' . Annoto . Mio Padre è escito dalla Piazzaforte con un SACARO morente , volle stringere la mano di Giovani prima di rendere l'anima a Dio , nell'altra stringeva il ''Gagliardetto di combattimento '' Nel ''CIMITERO degli EROI ''di Cheren , giacciono gli uni accanto all'altro 18.000 soldati , 10.000.Italiani metropolitani e 8.000 ASCARI ITALIANI ! Questo è ciò che scrisse di quella battaglia , il Signor Compton Mc Kenzie , corrispondente di guerra della Eastern Epic :'' La battaglia è ancora oggi ricordata come una delle migliori prove di forza della storia militare italiana recente, nonostante il risultato; questo grazie al coraggio dei soldati italiani e degli Àscari e alla strategia militare del generale Carnimeo. Nel resoconto della battaglia dato nella Eastern Epic, Compton Mackenzie scrisse: «Cheren è stata una delle più dure battaglie di fanteria mai combattute in questa guerra e ciò per l'ostinazione mostrata dai battaglioni Savoia, dagli Alpini, dai Bersaglieri e dai Granatieri, in una maniera composta e decisa, cosa mai mostrata dai tedeschi in nessuna battaglia recente. Nei primi cinque giorni di battaglia gli italiani hanno contato 5000 soldati colpiti (1135 di questi, mortalmente). Lorenzini questo giovane e coraggioso generale, è stato praticamente decapitato da una serie di colpi sparatigli dall'artiglieria britannica. Egli è stato un grande comandante delle truppe italiane in Eritrea. L'infelice propaganda di guerra del tempo ha permesso alla stampa britannica di rappresentare gli italiani come soldatini di ventura; ma se escludiamo la divisione paracadutisti tedesca operante in Italia e i giapponesi attivi in Birmania, nessun esercito nemico col quale le truppe britanniche ed indiane hanno dovuto scontrarsi, ha saputo ingaggiare una battaglia più acre ed efficace di quella dei battaglioni Savoia a Cheren. Oltre ciò, le truppe coloniali italiane, fino al momento di capitolare sulle ultime postazioni, hanno combattuto con valore e coraggio e la loro lealtà in campo è stata testimone della eccellente amministrazione italiana e della valida preparazione militare operata in Eritrea.» !
Is the propaganda machine to make extreme fun of the losers, if you do some research you could see how the most rediculized countries of the ww2 actually fought well, and lost for other factors.
@@Ardito3709 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Italy Italy is one of the nations with me most higher ratio of victories. Too bad Italy could not afford the resources and the equipments of major forces (Germany, Great Britain, Soviet Union and USA).
@@mangoandguavafruitsmoothie4352 your comment doesn't deserve a response, it's beyond foolish. Facts win, flip answers get bird droppings on rotten fruit.
Personally I think the best page of history of the Italian armed forces during WWII, was the battle of Culqualber, where 2900 Italians, with neither reinforcements nor resupplies, held off 22500 English soldiers and 100 aircrafts for approximately 4 months, always refusing to surrender. The battle ended after a final bayonet charge, in wich almost all of the soldiers died. 🇮🇹✋🏻 Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culqualber
@@giannizen3775 Actually, no, to my shame. But you set it up so well that I just had to go and look it up! There is SO much to history in general, military history included, that is just plain forgotten by the majority of people.
@@grantjohnson5785 unfortunately history is written by the winners, and we all know they never write anything that can cause them a loss of reputation... As an Italian, is is very sad that we were only remembered as inefficient soldiers, while in reality there were many many occasions were we did incredible things such as this... Trivia, The pass of Culqualber has actually been donated to Italy by Abissinia to commemorate the braveness of those soldiers
@@grantjohnson5785 yes I’m sure it’s the Brits who are ashamed, who won the war and African front. Whilst Italy was smacked about, expelled, then forced to surrender 1,000 casualties to nearly zero , lol
I miss when RU-vid cared for small creators and welcomed all kinds of content. Now if you say or do something they don't like they take away lively hood.
The Italians had an entire battalion called "arditi" that used to banzai Austrian machine gunner position Armed with only knife during ww1. There was also a "samurai" in that battalion during the second world War, his name was "Harukichi Shimoi" it's funny to image Italians throwing a flying kick to the soviets.
You should also consider that the Italian expeditionary force in Russia was originally intended to be used in the Caucasus. So they were mainly equipped as mountain units: light, portable guns, mules, and basically no anti-tank weapons. Only at the last moment, the German command decided that they should be used instead to protect German flanks in the Ukrainian plains, where their equipment was clearly not optimal.
imagine if Italy had fought alongside the allies ... as certain heroic deeds would have been celebrated far and wide instead of being known only by a few ...
Which makes particularly interesting the fact that many actions between 1943-1945 from the remains of the Italian army under the King control are ignored by many. And this, as an italian, is particularly sad. Italy was a Kingdom with a democratic (not absolute democracy, but who had it back in 1920?) elected Parliament, who was turned into a dictatorship under Mussolini because he was seen as a way to be able to ignore many issues of the period and keep the country above the possible economic crashes and was such supported by the upper industrial class and permitted to obtain power by the government of the period, who later failed at recognizing the issue of what they did and taking control back. Essentially, we had no reason on a strategical level to go on a fascist rampage through Europe, but this was a result of an economical elite influecing the politics of the country and then losing control. Those who followed the King in the South were those who were, on a technical level, the true patrios, whatever bullshit the fascists may say. The Army swore fidelity to the King, not some random self-made dictator that wasn't shot dead only because he was a good tool to opposing the socialists in the country.
Italy *did* fight alongside the allies. After the fascists were deposed in 1943, the country switched sides. And they fought quite well all things considered.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 And after it surrendered, a lot of Italian soldiers formed up army units that fought alongside the Allies. Call it what you want, that's de fact a side switch.
@@sststr You don't call it what you want, you call it for what it is. Unconditional surrender is not "de facto" a side switch, it's a surrender. Hard to understand? In no way Italy was treated as a winner, like France. It didn't take part at the peace conference, it lost territories, it had to permantently change the government. Comparatively, Japan had a better treatment at the peace table. Some soldiers in the South chose to fight alongside the allies because after the armistice, Germans INVADED Italy, in some cases massacrated Italians (read up "Massacre of the Acqui Division), took prisoners and deported them to labor camps. What they were supposed to do? "Sure, dear former allies, feel free to storm into our cities, massacre our people, steal our industries, install a loyalist puppet state, send prisoners to fuel your war machine, we don't want you to see us like switching side".
Yes it's always easy for British\Americans etc... to laugh about Italian soldiers in WW2 and even call them cowards, but I haven't seen many British cavalry charges in WW2, I haven't seen American troops fight in Russian winter without boots, I don't recall British soldiers having to fight in the desert with a quarter liter worth of water per day (even had freaking canned peaches!!). Who is the real hero? The one who goes in battle confident in his equipment, well supported by armor and powerful artillery and triumphs or the one who stands despite knowing the weapons at his disposal will be largely ineffective, trying to make do and stubbornly refusing to surrender, facing certain defeat?
My dad fought t against the Italians in North Africa and certainly certainly didn't call them cowards and did respect their efforts. If you just disregard an enemies abilities you cannot defeat them. Which was probably the problem with many the Italian commanders at the beginning of the war.
sadly many people dont give us (the italians) the respect that we should have i mean italy at the time was a very very young unified country with no resorces no colonies and well you know equip. but i must say thoose soldiers were brave may god bless there souls
I am really impressed, that somebody out of Italy is talking about Commander Devil, the regiment Savoia in Russia and the XX Mas (by the way, when the british captured "the italian guy" which was a nobleman, Durand de la Penne, they locked him in the ship, telling him that if the ship would sink, she would have sank together with him. The episode is well known...). Regarding the tactics of the division Folgore: when out of ammo, some paratroopers dug a hole in the sand and waited in the dark holding a magnetic mine, in the hope that the belly of the tank would pass over them, and not the wheels. This is documented. How much courage a man must have to do such a thing? The same tactic was shown in an american movie as performed by US marines against the germans, but as far as I know only the Folgore ever used it, in El Alamein, during the last stand. However, it is true that these were exceptions to a generally poor performance. The thing is: troops under dictatorships rarely, ever, fight well. Dictators always remove good officials and replace them with politically obedient amateurs. And as you reported, basically, the Italian army was not equipped to face a technological war against USA and the british empire. Italian ships were big and powerful but outgunned and did not have the radar (it means that shells suddenly fall upon you and you don't even know from where). Nevertheless, after the war italian forces had to bear an undeserved ridicule, because very often the disaster was no matter of cowardice or stupidity. And moreover, it was a war nobody wanted, troops had very poor motivation to wage war to Russia or Greece (why?) and for sure one can't fight WW2 with WW1 equipment, cavalry charges and courage. If you like the topic, look also about Federico Vallauri, a pilot of legendary courage that performed several war missions in Africa with his Fiat airplane made of reparations. Another example of an italian soldier deserving (at least) respect for his sacrifice. Thank you for the video, by the way. You are probably the least "politically correct" RU-vid historian, and this is why your videos are always interesting.
The only think I dissagree is the point that dictatoriships are always bad at making soldiers, you can think of Nazi-Germany and Japan in those years as mostly combat efective armies. I'm from south america and I'm aware that many of the dictatorships we had have been full of loyal soldiers that were effective. Dictatorships are bad at war when those soldiers don't belive in the cause or chance of succes, and after a hard enough adoctrination most people will continue such violence to the death
Italy was the only dicatorship that didn't create an effective combat force: Germany, Japan, and Russia managed to do so. Also, the movie probably showed American soldiers from the Army doing the thing with the mines, all the Marines went to the Pacific theater iirc. Either way, every army had courageous men doing extraordinary acts of valor, and plenty of poor soldiers more interested in surviving than killing. But i respect your comment for helping to fight the meme that is to make fun of Italy's combat prowess.
@@lautaromoyano5692 Dictatorships tend to create bad armies, because the only danger for the dictator comes from the army, so the dictator tend to fill the army with "yesmen" without initiative (and that excludes japan, since there wasn't a dictator there). That's true, IE, for both Italy and the Soviet Union in WWII. That's partially not true for Germany, but Hitler rose to power only in 1934. In five years he didn't have time to do much damage. Practically all the German high officers in WWII were high officers already in the Weimar Army. The branch that received the more attention from the nazi regime had probably been the Luftwaffe, and infact it had been probably the most disappointing of them (it's often forgotten, but the Luftwaffe already suffered huge losses during the French campaign).
I was thinking in more than WWII while talking about dictatorships. The only two problems that I'm aware dictatorships tend to face out of their oun nature are related to the comand chain and morale, but it doesn't mean they don't have some things to compensate: The chain of command tends to be more lineal and strict, so general orders are usually followed step by step. The problem related to this is when the general has a bad plan (usually out of lack of knowledge of the enemy or personal caracteristics of said general, such as excess of confidence). The problem of morale usually is regarding the fact that the soldier may ask "Is it worth to fight for a regime that I can not even change or vote against?", but in the other hand dictatorships tend to adcotrinate their subordinates and to put a high social pressure for not doing such thing (the far right will say "it's for your nation" while the far left will say "it's for the end of capitalism and a new socialist order"). The hability of the regime to do such things is, for how I see, what makes it combat effective or not
Vero mancò la fortuna, oltre alla benzina, all'acqua, ai viveri, alle munizioni, all'artiglieria decente, a carri decenti, ad un servizio informazioni adeguato, ad una marina coraggiosa, e soprattutto a dei comandanti di teatro (almeno) decenti!
@@maurizioboggian6033 lo stato maggiore della marina disse al duce di avere nafta per 3 mesi. I convogli subirono perdite umane orripilanti. La marina fece quel che si poteva in una situazione impossibile
Parlando di fortuna ! L’Italia è stata sfortunata perche stava sotto una dittatura fascista , e peggio ancora la maggioranza del popolo Italiano aveva creduto alle palle e menzogne del dittatore
@@Rosariabianchi13567 I fascisti non ci arriveranno mai che il valore personale dei soldati non era né una buona ragione per scatenare una guerra contro il mondo né una garanzia di successo per un piano tanto ridicolo. Sono degli idioti.
«Carri nemici fatta irruzione sud Divisione Ariete. Con ciò Ariete accerchiata. Trovasi circa 5 chilometri nordovest Bir el Abd. Carri Ariete combattono!» (Ultimo comunicato radio dell'Ariete prima della sua distruzione ad El Alamein, ore 15:30 del 4 novembre 1942) «Enemy tanks broke south Ariete Division. With this Ariete is surrounded. Is about 5 kilometers northwest Bir el Abd. Ariete tanks fight! " (Last radio statement of Ariete Division before its destruction at El Alamein, 3.30 pm on 4 November 1942)
I'm italian, and my great grandfather fought all the way through Africa as Captain in the 132nd Artillery Regiment, from our colonial wars to El Alamein, where he got captured. On the night of February the 10th 1943, he stole a few cannons from the British, allowing his unit to replace their broken Italian ones. The next day Rommel gave him an Iron Cross 2nd class. He was then captured and held as a POW until 1947.
@@Reagan1984 u.s army vs viet cong : humiliation for you u.s. army vs north korean :humiliation for you u.s army vs taeban : humiliation for you u.s army vs iraqi rebels :humiliation for you u.s army vs somali militias (restore hope): humiliation for you us. delta force vs iranian force(American Embassy in Iran 1979 hostages):humiliation for you I must continue???
@@occhiodisauron25 How the hell was the Korean War a humilation? We kicked the North Korean's asses, it wasn't until China came and created a stalemate.
@Hoàng Nguyên wow! That's surprising! In Italian già has several meaning, in this case it mean "Yes, you're unfortunately right" replying to a comment about ignorance and how it affects communication
@@Wes-g2l because being encircled by a 3 to 1 superior foe because of pressure from the politicians in rome, while also glossing over the fact that we were winning every battle untill adowa can be atributed it as something that can resume our millitary history
Thank you. I'm proud to have served (many years later in 1993) in the Fologre Paratroopers Brigade. The square in our Camp was called El Alamein. I had the honor and the absolute privilege to have met, and spoken with some of the heroes who had fought in the African desert against overwhelming British forces. Like lighting from the sky... ...like thunderbolt in a storm Come Folgore dal cielo...come Nembo di Tempesta
Folgore ! Same here, when you serve in that unit there is so much history and lore and pride, it is actually an honor for many Italian people to have served in it and we always consider ourselves Folgore paratroopers for all our lives.
iirc, the poles launched a cavalry charge against a force made primarily out of infantry to cover the retreat of their own forces, which was only then countered with a german armoured force
My understanding is that it was a Polish Cavalry unit, but they were equipped with anti-tank rifles and they dismounted prior to engaging German armour.
Among the various lesser known episodes, I would also like to mention the battle of Culqualber. When 2900 Italian men, without ammunition, fiercely resisted for over a month the assault of 23000 British supported by a hundred planes. Finally immolating himself in a charge with bayonets. Without ever giving up.
Italy:have a small industrial power, small amount of resourses and wrong vision of the modern war tattic. World:Whi yOu CaN't Be LiKe GeRmAnY? yOu ArE aLsO BiG
I mean Italy never largely lost their homeland early in the war, they just hardly could mount an effective long-time invasion because they simply didn't plan for it. Italy also had effective mountaineers and an effective naval force in the Mediterranean, both just saw less battle than conscripted infantry.
The Best of the Best that’s correct. Wasn’t supposed to join 1943 but Mussolini surmised as did just about everyone at the time Britain was going to sue for peace.. it really came down to quick grab for spoils that ended up being a long war of attrition which Italy was not ready for what so ever.
Their navy would have been a bigger challenge for the British if they had enough oil to power all the ships often. Navy is not of much use when it sits in port because you don't have enough fuel.
Kevin Conrad definitely.. they didn’t even conduct night action training and lacked gunnery training because the fuel was so precious they couldn’t spare it. Really put there ships and sailors at disadvantage especially when going against the most well trained fleet in the world.
@Legio XXI Rapax Italian and Latin are still REALLY similar. Just google translate a few sentences from english into italian and latin. Youll see what I mean.
@@EinFelsbrocken google translate with Latin? Are you serious? Also, the Romans were a Latin tribe in modern-day Lazio. Therefore not the whole of Italy was Roman. Not even today there is ethnic homogeneity.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 no, the only thing Italian culture has taken from Rome is the public corruption and political intrigues. Rome was Martial, with Mars as the main god, and with a Martial spirit. There is nothing martial about the modern Italian.
@Alfa&Omega 00000 I suppose you have a point. Still, Roma was pretty much 'war only', at least while it was still Roman. Once the empire started ossifying much of that was lost of course.
Britain: undervalues the Italian army Italy: wins the battle 2021: England: undervalues the Italian soccer team Italy: beats England England *AH S'T! HERE WE GO AGAIN!*
You forgot 2 battles: 1) The Battle of Médenine, the last victory of Axis in North Africa when General Messe before being captured forced Allies stopping their advance and undertake defensive strategies,. 2) Navy Battle of Middle June, 12-16 june 1942 when Italian Navy destroyed 2 different british convoys codenamed Harpoon and Vigorous leading to Malta contemporary from East and from West in order to resupply Maltese Garrison despite of presence of 2 British carriers and their advantage of being equipped with Radars that Italian Navy lacked of.
just for your knownledge,the italian "human torpedoes" were not suicidal devices like japanese "kaiten" they were basically something between a seascooter and a minisubmarine,transporting an explosive charge on the front once the two-man team got close enough to their target,they detached the charge from their vessel,set the timer,and then get out as quickly as possible of course,this involved a lot of training and courage,since the typical targets of these units were capital ships docked in highly guarded areas this style of warfare impressed so much the allies,at the point that the u.s. navy recruited some of these naval commandos to fight against japan,only that the war ended before they could be deployed
They also had a fast motor boat loaded with explosives on the front of the boat. They pilot the boat towards a ship and jump out with a life raft at the last few seconds.
It wasn't a feasible thing for the italian economy under Mussolini's regime. Italy's economy was too reliant on agriculture and small companies to even be competitive at that point, and the big industrial conglomerates of the time were waaaay behind the competition in terms of output. To put it onto perspective: the most produced tank for the Italians numbered around 3000 units, it was a tankette and its production began in 1933. The american produced around 50.000 Shermans since 1942.
Riccardo Bossi He focuses the industry of the country to build up the nations agriculture, given time he would’ve built up the military industry too but he never saw it as a necessity or a desired target.
E invece è una cazzata perché le guerre non si vincono né solo con la fortuna, né solo col coraggio. L'Italia era, anche solo industrialmente, del tutto impreparata per la guerra. Non aveva le carte in regola per vincere e difatti non ha vinto. Che poi la narrativa odierna sia assolutamente non obiettiva e ottusa, è innegabile. Ma non neghiamo l'evidenza
il problema era l'uomo in carica. Se avessimo concentrato tutte le divisioni SOLO sulla grecia, avremmo potuto prenderla. Avevamo la marina più forte del mediterraneo, rivaleggiavamo con gli inglesi. Ma noooooooo, papa Smurf Benitino voleva espandersi in africa, poi manda anche truppe in russia, e poi dove altro? A già, manda i soldati a morire inutilmente contro la Francia che già si è arresa. Potevamo competere con i paesi alleati più piccoli, ma abbiamo fatto i fighi (o meglio, il cogl*one pretendeva di fare lo splendido) e ne abbiamo pagato le conseguenze.
even during the German retreat from Stalingrad, Italians not only held the supply line for Germans, but also inflicted a rather heavy casualties to a already-stronger Red Army with cavalries.
There are actually far better examples than folcloristic cavalry charges or even the spectacular success of the frogmen. IE the two battles of Bir El Gubi demonstrated that, if they could fight in parity, or only slight inferiority, on material terms, regular Italian troops could win vs. their corresponding Allied troops.
In Russia at Rossosh there is the only one museum of the nation dedicated to Axis and it is for an Alpini regiment of Italy: the only one enemy regiment never won in Soviet Union
I bollettini di guerra Sovietici recitavano cosi' : gli Alpini si ritirano IMBATTUTI ! La vera ''piaga '' per tanti uomini non è la povertà , ma l ' ''Ignoranza pervicace '' difesa cone fosse una VIRTU' !
*Yes, I would VERY MUCH like to hear more about additional Italian WWII victories and accomplishments; before, during and after their Axis relationship. Thank You!*
As an Italian, thanks! Is beautiful to see a video telling the truth and not making fun of Italy and the italian army for once... We had nothing and as you showed did the impossible sometimes! Thanks a lot! Hope to see a video on the winter war and continuation war :)
@@dillonblair6491 the point is that a country is not a clock, and history isn't a movie, to show how soldiers behaved in heroic ways whithout having the adeguate equipment is getting them the respect they deserve instead of sitting on a sofa ansd shitting on way better men (boys actually) than you who died fighting ill equiped and worse leaded on the wrong side of a war they and their country didn't want to fight. It's not to say that Italy is a wormongering country, we are not and I'm happy about it, we are scientists, artists, writers, not warriors, it's to be true to what happened to our grandfathers.
As i said before, Italy as country didnt have industry or oil or food to fight that kind of war and to arm themselves properly. Only USA had those things in plenty so they armed british and russians, and starved germans out of fuel and resources and defeated them .
You could also analize the success of Italy in intelligence and espionage, like when a group of Carabinieri (if I recall correctly) was able to stole the decription codes used by the Allies in North Africa, basically helping Rommel building his reputation as an infallible general. They knew every single move of the Allies, and were stopped only when some prisoners (it's said that they were germans) revealed that Rommel had the decritpion codes.
Yes it were some Carabinieri under the orders of the Italian Secret Service (SIM- Servizio Informazioni Militare) that stole the encription codes from an US Embassy. And yes it was the capture of a German communication vehicle that let the Allies know of the breach of security
They stole the "black code", the US diplomatic code, that the US Consul in Alexandria used for his communications to Washington, telling them (and to the italians at that point) precious informations about the British movements in N.Africa and the Med. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Italian Intelligence, Mussolini handed some decrypted page of communications to Hitler. At that point, having the originals and the decryptions, the Germans broke the code, and were able to read the US communications as well. Unfortunately for the Axis, the Germans had the idea to transmit the decrypted messages through Enigma, that the Brits were already capable to read. Reading the messages the Brits understood that they were written by a third party that had a deep knowledge of what was going on in Alexandria, so the USA embassy, alerted the Americans that changed the code.
In Greece, Italian soldiers are regarded as some of the good ones of ww2 because it's widely known over here that is wasn't that the soldiers fault for the bad performance but the fault of the high command and that Italian soldiers were forced to fight in situations that were totally miscalculated and badly planned but still fought with bravery
what about Ariete at Bir el Gubi, where italian tanks smashed the 22nd armoured brigade, causing them to loose half their tanks (Blood, Sweat and Arrogance: The Myths of Churchill's War) somewhere between 40 and 50, inexchange for around 34 tanks. the italians were also successful during the greatest after operation cursader, capturing over 1000 british empire (Indian) prisoners during a counter attack. the italians also captured Rugbet Al Atasc (along side another 1000 Indians)and replused british armoured counter attacks during the battle of Gazala.
History is often written by the Victors. But even the supporting cast of smaller or Minor nation's often get overlooked. Sometimes it was to the smaller nation's who manages to save the skins of others, gave them a fighting chance, ETC. That is no different for the Italians. Though they didn't win, and they weren't one of the few nation's upon the pedestal of glory, it was sheer Ingenuity and good faith in each other that saw the Italians make do with their weapons, utilizing them even if they were nothing but flawed. I am Italian of descent, but that has never given me a Biased outlook. And mostly the Blunders of Italy was posted and remembered, for many people to laugh at, overshadowing the Italians courage, determination, and loyalty even when they were tired of war, had pretty mediocre equipment, and the likes.
dambrosio891 And mostly also a way bigger industrial capacity. At the time the italians had the know-how to build tanks as good as the german ones, but they didn’t have any industry able to build them, so they could only try to be inventive creating ultra-light and very small tanks that were very fast but could be destroyed by antthing. Italy had also some of the best airplanes, but were few in numbers because of the limited industrial power. Same for the ships: the Italian navy was one of the best, but was far from the numbers of the English one and any loss hurt a lot, because there was no way to repair and build new ships fas enought. After pearl harbour the USA lost near half of their navy, and yet they would have been able to recover from a total loss in an year at worst, thank to their immense industrial power. For Italy any ship lost was simply not replaceable in short time. Basically Italy was simply not ready for a war, it needed at least 5-10 years to build an industrial power similar to the other main countries of the war. When Mussolini decided to enter in the war, was because he genuinely thought (as hitler) that the UK was going to surrender in months, and that he was just sending some hundreds of soldier to die so that they could sit on the table of victors. UK didn’t surrender. General “oh, crap”.
@@louispowermusic2539 Orgogliosi dell'Italia che eravamo, ma difficile esserlo ora quando l'unico coraggio che abbiamo avuto è stato quello di regalare la Libia alla Turchia, assurdo averlo fatto dopo aver ricevuto il nullaosta del mondo a fare i nostri interessi...Almeno Berlusconi aveva idee geopolitiche, ora ce ne sono 0. Intanto USA e Cina cercano di spartirsi l'Europa.. quello che paghiamo per rimanerci è anche troppo poco
