Italy wants no part.....

What if Mussolini was happy just to strut his stuff in Italy and no intentions to invade anyone or even enter WW2?

What could have happen in the Med?

Would Germany had stayed out of North Africa?

How would the Allies handle Italy?

 

Oh yes, Germany had no intentions of getting involved in North Africa. It would have and did take resources best needed in the Eastern Front. As for the allies, Facist Italy would have survived the war just like Facist Spain. The only area that the Germans may have invaded would have been Greece. Hitler could not afford to have the Brits use Greece as a spring board for offensive operations.

 

Even Greece would be off the table. The Greeks had no problem with the Germans and had no inclination to invite British armys in. If Musolini has sense enough to stay out of the Battle of France and not decalre war on France & Britian in june 1940 perhaps he will not attack Greece either. Ironiclly Greece had been something of a friend to Italy.

A nuetral Italy can make a lot of money as a conduit for trade between Germany & other nuetral nations. They can also sell Germany industrial goods for large Lira. for instance all those trucks Italy sent to Africa for Rommel to use for free could be sold to Germany to use in Russia. but now Germany would be paying with gold, coal, ect...

Initially this actually helps Germany, but in the longer span Hitler is still in a impossible economic situation. As the war progresses Italy would be under pressure from the British & US to cut off Germany, and eventually could. That Hitler would at some point be unable to pay for Italian trucks or imports from South America would force the Italians to stop deliverys.

Who knows. Perhaps in the closing days Mussolini would have 'Joined the Rightious Allied Crusade' and sent his army to occupy some Austrian towns as the German armys collapsed.

 

Wasn't Greece part of the commonwealth? If so, then what the Greeks wanted would be of no consequence to the British.

 

I think the biggest problem for Italy was exactly the fact they did not want to enter the war in the first place ( even if Mussolini got greedy once Germany had beaten France 1940 ). Mussolini had said their army was not ready for years ( ca 1938 ) and Hitler had promised he´d wait until 1943-44 before the war would start. Dont´know if Mussolini had done anything to improve his army for that though.

 

I wonder if Mussolini was aware of Hitler's war plans of the 30s where Germany would be rearming for war in 43'/44'. If so, I can see how Mussolini would parallel Hitler thinking him to be in the same state armament wise yet was beating the allies. Thus, he took the plunge and paid the price.

 

No. Greece was an entirely independant nation. It had been controled by the Ottoman Turk empire for several centuries, but had won its independance in a series of revolts in the 19th Century. It had declined to join in WWI. Although it allowed a combined French & British army to pass through its port of Thesalonika and use it for supply to invade Bulgaria.

 

Yes, definitely. Hitler had told everyone starting from his financial partners to Military allies that war would not come into picture until 1942-43 at the earliest. However I think Benito was pretty shocked to see Hitler start war in 1939 already.

 

I thought Hitler said later in the war that he'd originally wanted to invade Russia in 1940.