Mussolini's fleet vs Brits

Fascists got banged and mashed.

Hitler studied Mussolini vigorously. He stole/ mimicked Mussolini’s fascist system, brown shirts (Mussolini’s black shirts), and even borrowed il duce’s fascist salute —- the “heil Hitler” extended arm

The Italians had some really good capital ships. Their problem though was a lack of fuel oil for training and a complete lack of radar.

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They were more a liability for the Axis powers than an asset

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The story of Germany’s allies in both world wars. The Austrians and Ottomans were even worse in WW1

The USA used the Bellamy Salute pre-WWII which was basically the same thing

"Italians had some really good capital ships."
The Italians had some really good mountains.....

Italy was a joke in WW2. Germans constantly bailed them out
They were more a liability for the Axis powers than an asset

---Thank God for that!

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To be fair, Mussolini stole that from the Romans

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Would it be stealing since you know the Romans started in Italy?

The Italians rebuilt their fleet and put glass bottoms in their ships so their sailors could get a view of the old fleet.

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Having spent a bit of time in modern Italy, I always thought it was weird that they were allegedly a big part of the WW2 opposition. You don't get military juggernaut vibes.

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Because they weren’t. Italy was wholly unprepared for WW2. Even Mussolini knew that and figured it would take a few more years to build up their arms and train their soldiers.

But they didn’t get to decide on the timeline and got thrust into a war with a weak military, virtually non existent logistical capabilities and it showed.