Does anyone know much on PreWar Italy (IE. Economy, Standing Army, Naval Force, Colonial conflicts, etc)?
What about? The major point to make about the Italian Army in 1939 was that Italy had spent massive amounts of money re-equipping almost their entire army in the early thirties. Their machine guns, field pieces, trucks, even tanks and aircraft were almost all obselete at the start of the war. Italy attempted to address this problem but their production capacity was too small to replace all this equipment fast enough.
The Italian Army was very good. Mussolini wanted Italy to become a new Rome and he did so. He did Italy a great military nation which was a superpower during the late twenties and early thirties ( because all the other powers were in Economic crisis , but he forgot that The Roman Empire was also corrupt and full od thieves. he achieved that too! All the weaphon's factories in Italy were directed by tipical Romans; corrupt people who spent all their money in rich houses in Tripoli and whores, instead on making the weaphons they were doing with quality. The officers of the Italian army were officers just because the benefits of it, but they never kept officer's responsabilities. However, during the 1930s Italy was a military power. That is why they nearly won the Schneider cup, or made intrepid trips like Marshall Italo Blabo's trip to Brasil... The Italian aeroplanes showed themselves worth it in the Spanish Civil War and in the early stages of the war. They could face even Brittish Hurricanes! The Italian navy was amazing and the Italian soldiers were very brave. What everybody remembers are filthy cannons like the Italian 75 ( an awful copy of the 75 French from Verdun ), the 1870s rifles and tanks like the M13... The Italian could never achieved huge victories because of the lazy officers! Not for the most of the weaphons or the soldiers! When Italians were re-equiped with German weaphons in Russia they achieved victories as good as any of the Waffen SS! Ground weaphons were very bad. Aeroplanes were good. And their ships were awesome. But Italian people could not bear such a war, because of their nature. Let's remember the brave divisions Brescia, Trento, Trieste, Ariete, Folgore!
Italy did not start to seriously rearm until the 30's. Problems quickly emerged. The adventures in Abyssinia and Spain sucked dry the Italian army and showed up weaknesses that were to be magnified in North Africa. The Italian offensive at Guadaljara was a disaster and gained the Italians nothing but contempt from Franco. In modernising their army they faced serious problems with equipment. Although having borrowed the excellent Bohler 47mm AT gun and designing new artillery pieces, the Italians still went to war in 1940 with Skoda guns taken from the Austrians in 1918. Their steel industry was poor, early armout plate had a tendency to shatter like glass. In the air Italy clung to the biplane because the Spanish civil war showed that their CR32 was a good dogfighter. By 1940-41 air combat had changed to higher altitudes and heavier armament. Equally the engine industry failed to produce a high-power liquid-cooled engine which condemned Italian designers to the second division until the Germans let them build their engines under licence. Mussolini talked big, but was unwilling or unable to see how weak his armed forces were. Abyssinia and Spain sapped their strength at a time when they should have been conserving it. Politically older fascists like Balbo were strongly suspicious of Germany, hence his exile to North Africa and support for Germany amongst the Italian people was at best muted, but more often non-existent. All in all it was not a good preparation to take on Britain and France in the Med'. Jumbo
