September 8th Discussion

[Steel God]

I agree with what Peter has said in his post. I would also add that the Italian military in WWII suffered more from poor leadership and poor equipment than it did from ability or desire to achieve military greatness. In narrow cases the Italians, adequately equipped and led, performed as good as, and in some cases better, than comparable units in the Axis or Allied OOB. Overall certainly they did not, but the fact remains that some units in the Italian Military were not rubbish, and that opens the door to dispute the stereotype. It probably didn't help the Italians much that the people (as opposed to the Government), were always more inclined towards the Allied point of view. Italy, despite being the birthplace of Fascism, was never so much in love with it as other nations.