DBWI: Mussolini allies with Hitler

Well, there's always that perennial aspect of the Third Republic, namely domestic instability that could lead Hitler to do something really ballsy like re-occupy the Rhineland, but OTOH that would require at least averting a crisis with Mussolini. Or the Italians could do something to intervene in the British sphere of influence and that whole Stresa Front thing collapse.

If there's one thing that can put an end to domestic instability in the Third Republic, it's a resurgent Germany. We've seen it in 1938, and again in 1953--every time the Germans look like they're getting up, all the French politicians except the Communists make sure to preach national unity in the face of unnamed threats.
 
Remember even us the Belgian would not have liked the German re-occuping the Rhineland. We invaded the Rhur in 1923 with the french entering the Rhineland would not pose any problem especially when it is still under the rule of our badass King Albert I.:D

True, and if the Italians, even at a staggering price, could defeat Germany.....:eek:

If there's one thing that can put an end to domestic instability in the Third Republic, it's a resurgent Germany. We've seen it in 1938, and again in 1953--every time the Germans look like they're getting up, all the French politicians except the Communists make sure to preach national unity in the face of unnamed threats.

And even the Communists in 1953, not least because Moscow had a minor upheaval what with Stalin dying and all. Fair point.
 
I'm pretty sure Mussolini hated Hitler and Hitler though Mussolini was an idiot. The only thing they had in common was a political ideology. An interesting question would be, how would Germany has done in Abyssinia :p
 
As much fun as one can have with those wacky Nazis, some of their ideas did pay off in the long run despite their best efforts. Germany being the largest economy in Europe since the 'economic miracle' in the late 50's was built on the stupidity of the 30's and 40's... namely the whole 'Nazi youth' movements and the massive birthrate in a first world nation which meant lots of skilled labor.

The same thing happened in the US with the 'Long Boom' after the Pacific War.

As for the WI... I can see Mussolini allying with Hitler if the Nazis weren't such failures in diplomatic and political prowess. Seriously, they had built up a massive first rate army by 1939 to fight a war with anyone... If they had unleashed that army on Austria or Poland before their 'Black Wednesday' there would have been trouble and I wonder if Il Dulche would want a piece of that action thinking he could play Hitler (which seriously wasn't that hard... Neville Chamberlain played him for the complete fool at the Munich summit.) Hitler had an irrational 'like/dislike' for certain nations like the UK and Italy and he dragged Germany along with him against his best interests.
 

Esopo

Banned
Given what a belligerent idiot Hitler was? Nah. OTOH, this is the only instance in Italian history of them *ever* winning a European war against any power. Hitler was really, *really* stupid to try to get a war over the Brenner Pass in 1934, OTOH it was a perfect moment of wonder and glory.....for the Italians. :D

It was indeed hitler's 1934 idiocy to make mussolini suddenly change his mind: before the day hitler lost his mind and decided to go in a war against the power which supported him before, during and after his movement's rise to power, Mussolini thought that hitler, while a bit ridicolous, was his best chance to obtain his foreign policy goals.
 
I wonder why the italian army was so bad? The german I can understand with the treaty of Versailles but Italy on the paper should be able to have a decent army.
 
I wonder why the italian army was so bad? The german I can understand with the treaty of Versailles but Italy on the paper should be able to have a decent army.

Poorly trained officers, mostly (some German officer in his memoirs said that the Italians had brave soldiers, but god-awful leadership), and Mussolini's own favoring of style over substance when building up Italy's military. This is the man who staged battleship races with the British in the Mediterranean--and ordered battleships stripped of armor in order to go faster so as to beat the British in a race in peacetime. Hardly a military-minded man--more a peacock or rooster than a hawk.
 
I wonder why the italian army was so bad? The german I can understand with the treaty of Versailles but Italy on the paper should be able to have a decent army.

Well, partially it reflected as in WWI that Italians weren't happy with military service under those conditions, partially it was limitations from terrain, and it also had something to do with the problem of fighting Germans in Europe that they had to be hit on the head after dying to ensure they fell over. Though whether or not that would have held up in a serious, sustained modern war as opposed to the Brenner War......
 
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