I was recently just thinking that, for the most part, the Italian troops during WWII were poorly under equipped, often using weaponry from WWI, and were poorly undertrained. There are, of course, several examples where this was not the case, and there were several Italian units whose performance was on par with that with other elite troops during World War II.
So, my question is this: How different would things have been if the Italian Armies were on equal footing as the German Warmachine in regards to a universal level of training and quality of equipment?
Now, this topic is not open to the debate that 'the Italians were never capable of producing such modern arms in time for their entry to WWII' etc - that is the beauty of the What If, that we can make believe and focus on the specific question at hand.
My own thoughts are the following:
-The Italians initial offensive in North Africa goes according to plan, quickly pushing the British back, rendering them incapable of forming a solid line of defense until Tobruk.
-The Italians do not get hung up for nearly as long in Greece, capable of dealing with everything the Greeks throw at them. (I am not as well versed into the British move to help the Greek, but would imagine this either hastens it or causes it to never occur).
-Reinforced by Rommels Afrika Korps for that final push, the Italians are able to pass Al Alamein and into Egypt, putting the Suez Canal at high risk.
Your thoughts?