"This book tries to understand why the Italian armed forces and Fascist regime were so remarkably ineffectual at an activity - war - that was central to their existence. Military-economic weakness, Mussolini's ideological fantasies and strategic megalomania, and Hitler's failure in th...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Knox, MacGregor
Format:	Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schlagworte:	1922-1945 World War, 1939-1945 > Italy. Fascism > Italy. Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 > Italie. Fascisme > Italie. HISTORY > Military > World War II. Fascism Oorlogvoering. Tweede Wereldoorlog. Fascisme. Italy > History > 1922-1945. Italie > Histoire > 1922-1945. Italy Italië Electronic books. History
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
Zusammenfassung:	"This book tries to understand why the Italian armed forces and Fascist regime were so remarkably ineffectual at an activity - war - that was central to their existence. Military-economic weakness, Mussolini's ideological fantasies and strategic megalomania, and Hitler's failure in the wider war made Italian defeat inevitable. But those factors do not wholly account for the peculiarly undignified character of Fascist Italy's final ruin. The book offers an innovative analytical cross-section of the Italian war effort, from society and culture, through politics and war production, to strategy, operations, and tactics, and demonstrates the extent to which Italian military culture - a concept with applications far beyond Fascist Italy or its last war - and the blinkered approach of Italy's major industrial enterprises made humiliation inescapable. The result is a striking portrait of the military institutions and regime whose most significant - if temporary - conquest in 1940-43 was a dusty and useless corner of Africa, British Somaliland. The armed forces proved unable to imagine modern war, much less prepare or fight it. The industrialists, with the connivance of generals, admirals, and dictator, produced the least effective, least numerous, and most overpriced weapons of the Second World War. The regime failed miserably in mobilizing the nation's resources. Hitler's Italian Allies analyzes the resulting disasters, and explains why the Italian armed forces dissolved prematurely and almost without resistance, in stark contrast to the grim fight to the last cartridge of Hitler's army or the fanatical faithfulness unto death of the troops of Imperial Japan."--Publisher's description
Beschreibung:	1 online resource (xiv, 207 pages) : illustrations, map
Bibliographie:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-200) and index.
ISBN:	9780511613487 0511613482 0511014546 9780511014543 0511118937 9780511118937 9786610162376 6610162379 1107121310 9781107121317 0521747139 9780521747134 1280162376 9781280162374 0511046626 9780511046629 0511157258 9780511157257 0511304420 9780511304422