WI: Italy was more enthuisastic about the war

Chimera0205

Banned
What if Mussolini managed to sell the idea of a Roman restoration to the Italian people so they actually support the war and will fight with similar morale to the Germans.
 
Individual Italian soldiers fought no better or worse than your average Joe or Franz; there's plenty of proof, for example the somewhat notorious quote by Erwin Rommel:

"The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier."

His Papers, published in 1953, expand on that and help focus on the true problems of the Royal Italian Army: training, morale and leadership.

"The Italian command was, for the most part, not equal to the task of carrying on war in the desert, where the requirement was lightning decision followed by immediate action. The training of the Italian infantryman fell far short of the standard required by modern warfare. … Particularly harmful was the all pervading differentiation between officer and man.While the men had to make shift without field-kitchens, the officers, or many of them, refused adamantly to forgo their several course meals. Many officers, again, considered it unnecessary to put in an appearance during battle and thus set the men an example. All in all, therefore, it was small wonder that the Italian soldier, who incidentally was extraordinarily modest in his needs, developed a feeling of inferiority which accounted for his occasional failure and moments of crisis. There was no foreseeable hope of a change for the better in any of these matters, although many of the bigger men among the Italian officers were making sincere efforts in that direction."
 
What if Mussolini managed to sell the idea of a Roman restoration to the Italian people so they actually support the war and will fight with similar morale to the Germans.

German public opinion by all accounts was far from enthusiastic about the war in 1939.
 
It was the inefficiency of product, leadership and ideology, not the Italian soldier and worker that made Italy do bad in the war.
 
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