Fascist Italy

This article covers a topic that, by its very nature, is a magnet for flamewars. Try not to get too assmad at what you're about to read.

"It is better to be a lion for one day then a sheep for a hundred."

– Benito Mussolini

"Well, at least he made the trains run on time!"

– Everyone missing the fucking point, [https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/did-mussolini-really-keep-trains-running-on-time.htm

...Totally not a sheep eh?

Facist Italy is generally used to describe the nation of Italy and it's colonies during the first three years of second world war, followed by Northern Italy and the Italian Socialist Republic during the final year of the conflict (and before you ask, no it was in no way socialist OR a republic...). It is also known for it's UTTERLY HORRIFIC FAIL in everything it ever attempted to do. Seriously, you ever see old school propaganda cartoons where the Germans were portrayed as bumbling idiots who couldn't think their way out of a paper bag? That was JUST Italian high command. While Italy did excel in certain areas as touched on below, It was significantly better known for the countless disasters on every conceivable level from command, weapons, supplies, moral, manpower and manufacturing. We cannot stress this enough people Italy had significant trouble dealing with impoverished African nations during the age of colonialism. It's primary armored vehicle, it's version of the Panzer IV, was the CC33...A TANKETTE! And yet, the certainty of Mussolini that he would usher a new Roman empire was absolute. How the FUCK did this happen? How come seemingly every battle had Italy failing against forces ten times their size? Were the Italian soldiers just THAT bad or is this a case of the French being cowards again? Well buckle up kids it's gonna be a bumpy right...

Overview

In the aftermath of The Great War much of Europe was an utter mess. Those areas which were not devastated by the fighting or caught up in the Russian Civil War were hit hard by economic collapse. The governments had wracked up massive debt, agriculture had declined, millions of workers had been killed, there were shortages of everything and in a lot of places social order had broken down with the Russian Empire collapsing into civil war and the German and Austrian Empires being abolished by the Entente. There was a lot of uncertainty, nationalist sentiment that had be riled up in the war, a lot of communist and socialist agitation and the Red Scare was in full effect. In that enviroment stepped Benito Mussolini. He rallied a collection of nationalist toughs, beat up a bunch of Communists and Socialists and projected an image of strength and certainty in chaotic times and marched on Italy as a show of strength. King Victor Emmanuel III and the old-school conservatives saw him as a solution to his Communist/Socialist/Anti-Monarchist Liberal problems and made him Prime Minister. He further secured his position by negotiating a treaty with the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy. By rolling several sixes and being in the right place at the right time Mussolini became the Champion of the European Far-Right boasting about how he'd rebuild the Roman Empire. At least until Hitler stole his thunder in the 30s.

Now although the nature of Germany's sudden wealth and power after the Nazi takeover is explored in depth on their own page, the overall point is that Hitler acquired resources, public support, finances and a well trained well equipped fighting force before deciding to start invading place. This wasn't just in regards to the army, but using propaganda and public works to win the public over to his side. While he had many issues in regards to actually fighting a war, something Hitler understood was that you need a strong nation (even if it was temporary) in order to support a strong armed force. Ill Duce on the other hand while also mimicked Hitler's giant ponzy scheme it was to support the economy in general, rather then infrastructure and industry. Italy was a mostly agricultural state with very little natural resources or even stockpiles. Worst still, after the economical disaster of WW1 very few people had knowledge and experience in more then just farming. While Germany was experimenting with armored warfare Italy was struggling to scrap enough metal together to even make them in the first place! Ultimately Italy's weapons were often of WW1 vintage despite many (especially their rifles which were still using ROUND TIPPED BULLETS) with new weapons that had horrifically bad issues (LMGs being the best example) being manufactured to the very end of the war since there simply wasn't enough resources to develop replacements.

On top of all that, Benito Mussolini never even held much support. While somewhat popular, he was nowhere near as loved as Adolf and his party was when they took over Germany. The King of Italy at the time believed that, being one of the last Europe monarchs, that the time of royalty was over and that it would be better to step down and form a constitutional monarchy then to wait until he got dragged into the streets and killed by a angry mob (which granted was pretty spot on.) Problem was when he looked out the window and saw Benito parading around he figured Fascism was the wave of the future handing over power without much of a fight. Granted he did admit he made a TERRIBLE mistake very quickly but by then his party had control of the government. Making matters worst while the Vatican, while not outright calling out Benito for obvious reasons, was VERY anti fascist to the point even the pope was helping resistance fighters behind the scene.

It didn't help that the Italy Fascist Party was not in any way Nazi (they did send away their minorities to Germany but that was more due to lack of caring) leading to widespread corruption and power struggles. While this also took place in Germany there were at the very least some in the German high command that had drunk the kool aid wholesale but in Italy it was more of a everyman for himself sort of deal. It says a lot that the Co-Belligerent government and it's armed forces (those in southern Italy that surrendered to the allies and declared war on Germany) were significantly successful compared to Mussolini's second government in the North despite the former initially having almost NO support from the allies while the latter was practically a vassal of Germany.

Fascist Italy Portrayals in Fiction

While it's very true that the Italians are vastly overshadowed by their German allies you'd be surprised how many tropes were inspired, often indirectly, by Italy's actions and performance in WW 2. Ever seen the trope where our heroes go to a small poor nation with a dictator who talks big shit about being some grand empire poised to take over the world? How about the big bad bringing in all representatives of the groups he controls, and there's one really shouty man who thinks he's big shit and often gets killed by the big bad to make a point? Hell, the Cardassians in Star Trek actually have a lot more in common with Fascist Italy, especially in Deep Space 9 then they do with Germany! If they themselves ever appear though it's either as the butt of a joke or to be the guys our heroes stomp in order to show how badass they are.

Facist Italy and /tg/

Well apart from Italian's being perfect fodder for level 1 characters in a WW 2 setting they are often injected into games as antagonists in groups that have a no Nazi rule, even as the villains. This often occurs if, in the past, the group has run a game with them as the enemies only for the bard equivalent or the party in general to try and blend in TOO well... A clever DM can even use this to their advantage. Since the Italian's weren't into the whole Arian thing a character that attempts to disguise himself by going full Nazi can be discovered immediately. You can also look at the list below to bring in Italians into a situation they may actually excel at.

Things Italy was ACTUALLY Good at

• Italian paratroopers performed amazingly in most battles they took part in, and were famously the last Axis force to resist the Allies during the breaking of the Tobruk siege.
• Italian sub-machine guns, especially from the Beretta company. In fact they were so good not only were they prime targets for trophies but the government decided to try and save some resources by asking the company to make their models WORSE.
• Manned torpedoes. They were actually to successful plans were being written up to sneak a team through the Atlantic and launch on attack on New York harbor, but was called off with the invasion of Italy
• Airforce (post 1943). Yeah despite little support from Germany and essentially having to fend of the Allied Airforce by themselves not only did they hold them off by actually ending up taking down an addition 500 planes over their enemies.
• Armored Cars. Oddly enough with their reputation in regards to tanks Italian armored cars were pretty top notch, even after the 1943 split Germany elected to spend resources to continue the Italian development program.
• It's soldiers. Yeah once they joined the allies were actually fighting for something while equipped with actual guns and bullets they performed so well they shocked the allies forces they fought beside. The Allies originally wanted nothing to do with the anti-fascist forces but after their first battle they were so impressed they did a complete 180 on the decision.
• Recycling! Resources were cut in every place they could be, and some weapons were even modified to catch ejected shells so they could be sent back to the factory.

See Also

• /pol/: For all your fascism goodness. Will rarely try to describe Italy as good actually back then.
• Communism: While not true Nazi the two were still very opposed to each other. Communists actually played a big part if the Italian resistance movement, but was quickly crushed after the war thanks to the whole Cold War thing going on.
• Nazi: The much more successful fascist government, for better or worse. Almost certainly worse.