MUSSOLINI’S ARMY
The Italian campaigns in Africa sought to end British rule over Egypt and control of the Suez Canal, strengthening Mussolini’s dominance over the Mediterranean
By the time Benito Mussolini declared war against the Allies in June 1940, the Second World War looked like it would soon be over. Nazi Germany had already swept through most of Western Europe, France was teetering and once it fell Britain, isolated and alone, would surely capitulate too. Keen to exploit the situation by grabbing French and British possessions in North and East Africa, including the Suez Canal, Mussolini sent his armies across the Mediterranean to start a conflict that they were in no fit state to fight.
The Great Depression and decades of financial mismanagement under Mussolini had left Italy industrially and economically weak. His fascist crusades in East Africa and Spain, meanwhile, had burned through vast amounts of military materiel. As a result, his armed forces were ill-equipped, under-resourced and poorly trained. The shortcomings of his war machine were particularly evident when it came to Italy’s armoured army.
At the outbreak of hostilities, Italy had three armoured divisions, the Ariete, the Littorio and the Centauro. Each consisted of 8,600 troops, 189 M-type medium tanks, 40 armoured cars, 20 self-propelled guns and 70 pieces of artillery. They also included 1,120 assorted vehicles, primarily tankettes. As the name suggests, these were very small tanks. Developed in the inter-war period, these experimental lightweight fighting vehicles had been largely dismissed by other nations as unsuitable for modern warfare. The limited success they’d enjoyed during the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, however, led the Italian high command to overvalue them. As a result, the two-man L3/33 was the most ubiquitous armoured vehicle in the Italian army at the outbreak of hostilities. With 0.47in-thick (12mm) welded armour that could withstand little more than small-arms fire and twin 0.31in (8mm) machine guns, it would prove entirely inadequate against almost every Allied armoured vehicle it ever went up against.
The Italians’ main battle tank at the start of the conflict, meanwhile, was the M11/39. With its 1.2in (30mm) riveted armour and 1.46in (37mm) anti-tank gun, it was no match for the heavier, more powerful British tanks that it would encounter, especially the Matilda with its 3.1in-thick (78mm) armour and a 1.6in (40mm) gun. Technically unreliable, the M11/39’s combat effectiveness was also compromised by often poorly trained crews and a lack of radio equipment. But Mussolini was convinced the numerical advantage his armies enjoyed would bring him victory in Africa, so he rolled the dice.
