YOU are the most influent Mussolini advisor

Eurofed

Banned
We assume that YOU are an evil fascist, and the most heard advisor of Mussolini. Anything less than full loyalty to the Axis is unthinkable to you.

Starting in 1936, what advice would you give to the Duce to achieve all his goals?
 
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Talk Hitler into helping you take over all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The heck with the west. Go east. But stay out of war with Poland since France and England will help Poland. By going east into the Balkans will get you (Hitler) your war with the USSR. This will make you Mussolini loved by the west and a victor in the east.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Talk Hitler into helping you take over all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The heck with the west. Go east. But stay out of war with Poland since France and England will help Poland. By going east into the Balkans will get you (Hitler) your war with the USSR. This will make you Mussolini loved by the west and a victor in the east.

It goes against the boundaries of the scenario. Nothing less than "full loyalty to the Axis" is allowed. If Germany is at war with the west, so goes Italy.
 
Have to agree - if you start this late, and lock Italy into backing Germany no matter what, there's no point to your scenario, as history will go pretty much as it did in real life.

Try cranking it back to, say, 1933 - what would YOU, Il Duce's most trusted advisor, recommend to him as a five-year plan?
 

nbcman

Donor
Try cranking it back to, say, 1933 - what would YOU, Il Duce's most trusted advisor, recommend to him as a five-year plan?

If you want to keep Mussy in power:

1. Recommend that he does not invade Abyssinia
2. Recommend that he supports the Stresa Front and try to stop Hitler from starting the whole war.

But for Eurofed's question, there is not too much that can be done different than OTL.

1. Try to evacuate as many troops from Ethiopia prior to declaring war.
2. Recommend that he does not invade Greece
3. Recommend that the invasion of Egypt is backed by mobile troops such that the entire Italian army is not captured.
4. Ask the Germans for design plans for their equipment (tanks/Aircraft/weapons) and hope that the Italian industry can switch to some decent weapons to support your forces.
 
my advice to Mussolini

keep away from little mad man in Germany
offered various kinds of support to Franco Spain
take a neutral position during WW2
except take several territory in "Protection" in the Balkans and French border.
and keep them after WW2
also look for Ol in Lybia
 
Well Eurofed, you said in the OP that 1939, so i´ll say to him: do not enter the war, do not enter the war, and also DO NOT ENTER THE WAR ...

but after that you changed that its in war in 39 ( in OTL in 40 ) so I try to depose him and try to make a separate peace ... ( Italy has nothing to win and too much too loose so ... )
 
I tell Benny to preposition the mass of the army in Africa before DOW... no point in attacking the French alps... nothing to be gained there.

I tell Benny to preposition two divisions and a major naval escort of the coast of Malta, the second we are ready for war, we land and eliminate the base by surprise

I tell Benny to come clean to Hitler, and admit a lot of our army and industry neeeds help.... and request the help whilst Hitler holds us in high regard; ie a panzer corps for Africa, and air group for Africa, weapons licenses, and setting up joint familiarizations and exercise training grounds in Poland or Austria so the Italian army can be brought up to a higher standard

Offer to subordinate our armies to German commanders I know are civil and effective with multinational forces (Rommel, Kesselring, Manstein, Kleist, Paulus, Balck etc)

Tell Benny not to mess with Greece, nobody gained anything screwing around there in WW1 and they aren't going to in this conflict either
 
Tell him to, when he gets to meet Hitler, pack an electric-shock buzzer up his sleeve. Only a lethal one. (Or, if this isn't practical in the 1930s, something else which could take out the little man with the toothbrush moustache.) When you shake hands, give him his final nasty surprise, and (if you escape his bodyguards) live out your days as the most beloved Fascist Dictator in history.

And, just before that, deploy your troops on the Italo-German border, dig in (especially around the Alps-the Italians learned the hard way in the Great War what happens in mountains when troops are told to attack, and this will be doubly the case when said troops are trained for fast moving Blitzkriegs), and prepare to hold out against the inevitable German onslaught.

Implausible?
 
I'd tell Benito to liaise extremely closely with the Germans and not to undertake any military venture without their participation. Additionally, send Ciano to Buenos Aires as permanent Italian Ambassador to Argentina.
 

Eurofed

Banned
OK, folks, in order to give more breath to the scenario, I've changed the PoD to 1936. But please no smartass answers that involve betraying Hitler. The purpose of the exercise is to make Italy more efficient at what it tried to do IOTL.
 
If you have to steer il Duce, you have to deal with his needs for self affirmation both from the psychological and the propaganda sides.
In other words you have to advice him something with both satisfy his ego as well as being useful from the material/stategical/economical point of view.

So things like "do not invade ethiopia" or "let's stay neutral" has little chance of being considered.

Organizing some munich-like congresses is more like it, since il Duce would be exposed to propaganda limelight (good for internal politics) and could dream of playing as a major player (good for his ego), while at the same time keeping the situation less volatile (good for italy).

also "our army is bullshit" would just not be heard by the Duce.
"Let's organize an elite corp" would be something more agreeble on, expecially if we add flashing new black shirts and some reference to the Duce in the name.
This could be:
an elite marine corp or
an paratrooper corp or
an elite mountain corp.
The last one would be the most useful (defence against france), but it would be the least probable to be agreed on.
Paratrooper/marines wold me more "cool", and would probably be preferred.
While the territorial (traditional) army would be kept on garrison duty at home, priority would be to develop transport veichles for the corps (transport aircrafts for paratroopers / swift landing craft for marines).

Regarding economy, giving the situation, I'm not sure there was spare resources to improve it significantly
 

nbcman

Donor
How about

1. Improve Tobruk and Bengazi's port facilities and building a rail line from Tripoli to the Libyan border with Egypt. If you know you are going to war with the Brits it would be a good idea to have a decent infrastructure for supply.
2. Install torpedo nets in Taranto.
3. Have an elite invasion force ready to take Malta on June 10th, 1940.
4. Train more frogmen and have them ready to strike Gibraltar, Alexandria, and Toulon on June 10th.
 
Step one would be to request that Mussolini shape up and stop acting like Hitler's pet monkey. Loyalty to the Axis is one thing, but that doesn't mean we have to do the grunt work. Focus on Italy and Italy's goals, instead of trying to be Germany Lite.
 
Anything less than full loyalty to the Axis is unthinkable to you.

Starting in 1936, what advice would you give to the Duce to achieve all his goals?
Sorry to put a halt to the Italy-wank train, but in 1936 Italy was not part of the Axis. It didn't take it's first step towards a formal Axis until 1937. Further in 1936 serving Mussolini/Italy might have been better served by not joining the Axis.

Assuming I am a loyal fascist rather than a useful tool, I would suggest that Mussolini try to maintain the Stresa Front. By 1936 Italy is already in Ethiopia which is unfortunately, but perhaps a compromise solution to that crisis with the western powers would be a good move. Use the threat of an expansionist Germany as pressure in that deal. This attempts to create a sort of counter Fascist bloc (Austro-facists and Italy). Going along with Germany didn't make a lot of sense, because it threatened a conflagaration in Europe, while bringing Italy's enemy from WWI right to their borders. Pissing off the west made no sense, and in practice delivered a kick to the guts of an already problematic Italian economy.

Even if the Stresa front fails (Austria's position was pretty weak), Italy is still in a better position. Italy can bargain from a stronger position with Germany, since it didn't just do whatever was asked of them by Hitler and has an alternative network of allies. Even if the German thing doesn't work out, there is still the western allies as an option. The objective should be what benefits Italy, which even provides another option: neutrality. Neutrality could still accomplish Mussolini's objectives in that it lets him finish his 'revolution', rather than encourage him to look outside Italy for a challenge.

Stretching things even further, involvement in the Spanish Civil War is still desirable. It let's the militant fascists have their fun, it defeats 'Communism' and it nets a possible ally in Franco. If this could be done seperately or even without Nazi Germany, so much the better. It would be even better if come WWII Italy 'pulls a Spain' and sits it out. Freakishly unlikely but also of benefit would be to join the Allies at a later date in the war (say 1942).
 
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