WW2: Italy invades Ethiopia | South African History Online South African History Online Home » WW2: Italy invades Ethiopia WW2: Italy invades Ethiopia italy_ethiopia_big.jpg Thursday, 3 October 1935 In 1935, the League of Nations was faced with another crucial test. Benito Mussolini , the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia ) the African country situated on the horn of Africa. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa in the nineteenth century (1896), which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonisation. Another justification for the attack was an incident during December 1934, between Italian and Abyssinian troops at the Wal-Wal Oasis on the border between Abyssinian Somaliland, where 200 soldiers lost their lives.

Both parties were exonerated in the incident, much to the disgust of Mussolini, as he felt Abyssinia should have been held accountable for the incident. This was used as a rationale to invade Abyssinia. Mussolini saw it as an opportunity to provide land for unemployed Italians and also acquire more mineral resources to fight off the effects of the Great Depression . References: What country did Italy invade in 1935 - My wiki My wiki What country did Italy invade in 1935 Answer Ethiopia In 1935 Italian soldiers commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono invaded Ethiopia in what is known as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The war lasted seven months before an Italian victory was declared. The invasion was condemned by the League of Nations, though not much was done to end the hostility. During the conflict, Italy used mustard gas, ignoring the Geneva Protocol that it had signed seven years earlier. The Italian military dropped mustard gas in bombs, sprayed it from airplanes, and spread it in powdered form on the ground. 150,000 chemical casualties were reported, mostly from mustard gas.

In the aftermath of the war Italy annexed Ethiopia, uniting it with Italy's other colonies in eastern Africa to form the new colony of Italian East Africa, and Vittorio Emanuele III adopted the title Emperor of Abyssinia. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on the United Kingdom and France, as France was in the process of being conquered by Germany at the time and Benito Mussolini wished to expand Italy's colonial holdings. An Italian invasion of British Somaliland in August 1940 was successful, but the war turned against Italy afterward. Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia from England to help rally the resistance. The British began their own invasion in January 1941, and the last organized Italian resistance in Italian East Africa surrendered in November 1941. The British restored Ethiopia's independence. Why did Italy invade Ethiopia and how? - Google Groups Why did Italy invade Ethiopia and how? Showing 1-8 of 8 messages What exactly did Italy hope to gain by invading Ethiopia? Did Ethiopia have any natural resources of note? Also, where did Italy launch its invasion of Ethiopia from? Where was their jumping off point?

I'm assuming it wasn't an amphibious invasion launched from Italy. Was Italy forced to pull its military forces out of Ethiopia in WW2 with the invasion of the Soviet Union or alternatively, when the UK began contesting axis control of N. Africa? --- Posted via news:// freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ne...@netfront.net --- "FragSinatra" < per...@not.com > wrote in message news:XnsA0798189E8C04perhapsnotcom@202.177.16.121... > What exactly did Italy hope to gain by invading Ethiopia? Did > Ethiopia have any natural resources of note? None compelling or suggesting invasion. But Mussolini had a (fairly popular) programme of establishing an overseas empire first in the Greek islands and Libya ("pacified" in the 1920s, and already held Italian Somaliland on the Horn of Africa, cf. > Also, where did Italy launch its invasion of Ethiopia from? >From Italian Somaliland (both 1895 and 1935) which abuts Ethiopia.

> Was Italy forced to pull its military forces out of Ethiopia in WW2 > with the invasion of the Soviet Union or alternatively, when the UK began > contesting axis control of N. Africa? No: Italy captured British Somaliland in 1940 and invaded Kenya. Britain defeated Italian forces in 1941 (one of the UK's first victorious campaigns, involving Wavell, Wingate, Sudan Camel Corps, biplane fighters, the King's African Rifles and sundry exotica) (but Wikpedia says Italian guerillas fought on until 1943.) -- > What exactly did Italy hope to gain by invading Ethiopia? Did > Ethiopia have any natural resources of note? It was mostly an ego thing - Italy seeking it's "place in the sun" by expanding its African colonial empire. There was a bit of historical revenge involved as well - Ethopia rather soundly defeated an Italian invasion attempt in 1896 and Mussolini wanted to reverse that particular Italian humiliation. > Also, where did Italy launch its invasion of Ethiopia from? Where > was their jumping off point? I'm assuming it wasn't an amphibious invasion > launched from Italy.

It was launched from Italian Eritrea which had been an Italian colony since the late 19th century.. > Was Italy forced to pull its military forces out of Ethiopia in WW2 > with the invasion of the Soviet Union or alternatively, when the UK began > contesting axis control of N. Africa? Italian forces weren't pulled out - they were defeated and ultimately surrendered to the British during the east African campaign. Some of the Italian Ethiopian forces retreated to Eritrea and Somolia where they ultimately met the same fate. I believe the last holdouts surrendered in late 1941. On Jun 21, 5:16 pm, "Don Phillipson" wrote: > "FragSinatra" wrote > > > Was Italy forced to pull its military forces out of Ethiopia > > in WW2..... > No: Italy captured British Somaliland in 1940 and invaded > Kenya. Britain defeated Italian forces in 1941 (one of the UK's > first victorious campaigns..

(but Wikpedia says Italian guerillas > fought on until 1943.) I'd say that, in effect, most Italian regular forces were forced out of Ethiopia during early World War II by a three-prong British campaign which started in the winter of 1940-41. The campaign was composed of the forces of Generals Wavell, Cunninghham, and Wingate who attacked from Eritrea, Kenya, and Sudan. Wingate led an irregular force accompanied by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Sellassie who had been deposed by the Italians six years earlier, but was back in Addis Ababa by June of 1941. The last Italians surrendered in November of 1941 and, although a few Italian guerrillas may have hung around after that, the Ethiopian constitution was restored in 1942 and Haile Sellassie was back on the throne. As an aside, a little background: The Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1935 and I can clearly recall that at that time in the U.S. there was the expectation that the League of Nations would take action to throw them out.

Haile Sellassie went to Geneva and made a heart-rending personal appeal in a speech to the General Assembly of the League of Nations, (carried on U.S. newsreels) but to no avail. The League did nothing. Meanwhile, Mussolini's son--in-law (IIRC his name was "Count" Ciano) did a lot of bragging to the press and newsreels about the Italian "victory," At one point he was quoted as saying words to the effect that the sight of the Italian aircraft bombing a group of Ethiopian soldiers on horseback was like a beautiful blooming flower whose petals opened up to the light of the sun as the bombs fell on the horsemen. This was four years before the start of WWII in Europe, but a prelude of things to come. WJH "FragSinatra" < per...@not.com > ha scritto nel messaggio news:XnsA0798189E8C04perhapsnotcom@202.177.16.121... > What exactly did Italy hope to gain by invading Ethiopia? Did > Ethiopia have any natural resources of note?

Nominally, the intention was to gain territory. The Ethiopian highlands were reasonably fertile, and Italy wanted "a place in the sun" were to send farming colonist families. Note that there might have been some economic potential to the region. The French had achieved economic penetration from their Somaliland, and built a rail line from Djibouti up the highland. Additionally, as others mentioned, there was the issue of avenging the defeat of a half century earlier. But most importantly, Mussolini wanted that. > You can look up Wikipedia for such basic factual questions. Note that while another poster wrote that the League of Nations did nothing about the Italian aggression, actually economic sanctions were approved. They had an impact on the italian economy, but more importantly they cemented the Italian population support for the regime. France and Britain were depicted as wealthy empires because they already had colonies, who did not want to let Italy conquer her own. Approval for fascism had been stagnating in the early 30s, but now it grew. > > Was Italy forced to pull its military forces out of Ethiopia in WW2 > with the invasion of the Soviet Union or alternatively, when the UK began > contesting axis control of N. Africa?

Italian forces were defeated in a sideshow campaign that lasted until the end of 1941, by British forces moving in from Sudan and Kenya. The Italian troops down there had been not prepared for war, were cut off from the motherland and from supplies, lacked transportation while having to defende an immense territory. The British forces conquered Somalia and Eritrea first. Somaliland, being open country along the coast, went first and quickly. Eritrea was more difficult; the British forces had to advance from inland Sudan through mountain country. There was an extended battle at Keren in western Eritrea. When Keren fell, the British quickly overran most of Eritrea, including the Red Sea port of Massawa. Clearing Eritrea was the first priority of the British forces, because the supply line to Egypt ran through the Red Sea. There were Italian ships and submarines at Massawa which threatened this route. Once Eritrea and Somaliland were secured, the British marched on Ethiopia from north and south. Addis Ababa fell to the Somaliland column on 6 April. The main Italian force withdrew northward to Amba Alagi. In May this force was besieged, and surrendered 18 May.

Assab, a port in eastern Eritrea, was taken from the sea on 10 June. Various Italian detachments in outlying areas held out for several additional months. The last force to surrender was at Gondar in NW Ethiopia, on 27 November. -- ethiopia From ~history/dictators/Mussolini_Ideology_Page.htm In 1922, an Italian journalist named Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy. With his new position, Mussolini also brought the beliefs of fascism to power. Fascism is the direct opposite of socialism and communism, and an opponent of democracy. It calls for stern leadership, and it was a growing type of government during the years preceding World War II. An unofficial dictator is usually the leader of a fascist government, which is what Mussolini served as. According to fascism, the state rules all, and the best country is one that follows orders of the state. Mussolini believed that his fascist state must lead Italy to dominance, and beginning in 1922, he began to build up Italy's military. Benito Mussolini.

Pictured on the cover of Time Magazine, Mussolini, the Prime Minister of Italy, was the one who ordered the attack on Ethiopia. Referred to as "Il Duce", Mussolini played a crucial part in the events preceding World War II. His fascist government was the model for future governments of the same kind. Haile Selassie Tafari Makonnen was born near the Ethiopian (then, Ethiopia was known as Abyssinia) city of Harer in 1892 to an advisor of Menelik II, the Ethiopian leader at that time. At a young age, Makonnen took an interest in learning. When his father died in 1906, Makonnen replaced him as an advisor to Menelik II. Under Menelik, Makonnen became more aware of the world around him. Although Makonnen did not win the throne following Menelik's death in 1913, Makonnen had created a centralized bureaucracy, courts of law, printing presses, and brought other modernizations to Ethiopia, including its admittance to the League of Nations, by 1923.

In 1930, Makonnen finally won the throne from Menelik's ancestors and took the name of Haile Selassie. The Causes The year is 1935 and Mussolini has turned Italy into a power to be reckoned with. According to Mussolini, "war is to man as maternity is to woman". Still, there were other reasons to attack and conquer another country, even if the Age of Imperialism was nearly over. Mussolini was facing stressful affairs at home and felt that a war would divert attention. He also felt he needed to boost the regime's popularity and provide an outlet for over-population in Italy. Ethiopia was a prime target because it was still an independent country, one of only two in Africa. In 1896, neighbors Britain and France assisted Ethiopia in resisting an Italian attack, but they did not want to interfere with Italy in 1936. Ethiopian army was poorly equipped, and any resistance against it would end quickly. Haile Selassie (middle with hat) exits from a meeting room in Geneva on June 30, 1936.

That day, Selassie pleaded to the League of Nations in Geneva to take action against Italy. He told the League that their two choices were support for collective security or international lawlessness. Despite loud, crude remarks from Italian journalists in the crowd, Selassie's speech was powerful and was a sign he was an emerging figure in the world. A famous remark from the speech summarizes the feelings around the world prior to World War II: "It is us (Ethiopia) today. It will be you tomorrow." From League of Nations The League of Nations, which was known for its inaction, did nothing to prevent Italy from attacking Ethiopia. One of the major problems for the League of Nations prior to World War II was its inaction to prevent aggression of any kind. This problem existed because many members of the League of Nations were the warring nations themselves. Both Ethiopia and Italy were League members at the time of the war. Two countries who could have figured prominently in the Italian-Ethiopian War, Britain and France, did their best to stay away from the War. While each nation owned land neighboring Ethiopia (and long treated Ethiopia as a buffer state), neither nation wanted to get on the bad side of a powerful fascist leader in Mussolini.

Britain and France also feared that if they supported Ethiopia and angered Italy, Mussolini could ally with German chancellor Adolf Hitler, which could have had a devastating impact on World War II. The only action the League of Nations took was an oil boycott of Italy, which many countries disobeyed. The War "It will be you tomorrow" Native Ethiopians were angry that Selassie "abandoned" Ethiopia, accusing Selassie of being a coward. Although Selassie wouldn't return until 1941, he did not stop fighting for his country. On June 30, 1936, Selassie made one last plea to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, warning the League that Italy was not going to stop with Ethiopia and had its eyes set on the world. Throughout the speech, Selassie had to speak over the scoffing of Italian officials in the audience. Among the solutions that Selassie suggested was support for collective security, which would ensure that members of the League would support another nation of the League if that nation were attacked.

This proposal was hard to work with because if a war broke out between two nations, most likely those two nations would be members of the League of Nations (both Italy and Ethiopia were League members). Despite this and many other difficult to meet pleas proposed by Selassie, his speech was overly emotional and it transformed him from a little-known leader of a little-known country to a symbol of resistance overnight: "If a strong government finds it can destroy a weak people, then the hour has struck for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment." "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow." The League did nothing as a reaction. A cartoon patronizing the Italian approach towards attacking Ethiopia. In late 1935, all Italy lacked in attacking Ethiopia was an excuse for it. In December, a border incident in the city of Wal Wal gave Italy its much needed excuse. On the whole, Italian forces vastly outnumbered Ethiopian forces. Of the 500,000 Italian soliders, less than 2,000 actually died.

Important Dates in Italian-Ethiopian War 1892 Italy Invades Ethiopia | Globerove Globerove > Italy > Italy Invades Ethiopia Italy Invades Ethiopia By Globerover on March 29, 2010 in Italy , Military Want to learn more about Italy invading Ethiopia? Read on for a historical overview of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935… The Italian invasion of Ethiopia was initiated in the month of October 1935. It was a brief colonial war that is also remembered in history as the second Italo-Abyssinian war. Mussolini, who was the leader of Italy, had his eye set on annexing Ethiopia into Italy’s newly created colony of East Africa. Although the Italian military was successful in occupying Ethiopia, the Abyssinians did not capitulate or surrender to the Italian forces. In the context of political history this colonial war is remembered for exposing the weak bond on which the League of Nations was found. It was quite clear following this event that the League of Nations was a total failure in terms of accomplishing the objectives for which it was established.

This is because both Italy as well as Ethiopia were members of the League of Nations yet the League was not able to prevent Italy from forcefully violating the rights of Ethiopia as well as acting outside of the League’s articles. Another important element of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia is the fact that it was the first time that mustard gas and phosgene was used as illegal weapons by the Italian armed forces. The invasion did bear fruit. People respected the fact that Mussolini’s fascist regime has reached its zenith and the new era which is known as the age of consensus in Italian history was born. Mussolini attracted the praise of notables like Churchill for achieving his objectives despite the fact that much social, political and human loss had been caused in the process. The fact that Mussolini wanted to rebuild an Italian Empire reminiscent of the glorious Roman Empire of the past was no secret by this point in time. In order to do this Italy would have to take over the Mediterranean and the North African regions. This was one of the primary objectives of invading Ethiopia. Mussolini also wanted to settle the score with Ethiopia as the latter had defeated the Italians in the past during the battle of Adowa that took place in 1896.

Then Italy invaded Ethiopia based on the promise by Mussolini that he would acquire a place in the sun for his country so that the Italian Empire could match the colonial giants like France and Britian. There were a number of factors that made the country of Ethiopia a prime candidate for the expansion of the Italian empire. The European imperialists had already engaged in the scramble for Africa as a result of which only a few places were left for the taking. Ethiopia was one of these countries. Furthermore by taking over Ethiopia Italy would be able to draw a unified connection between Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. Along with this it was believed that Ethiopia had a relatively weak army that consisted of indigenous tribal forces that were still making use of basic weapons such as spears and shields, whereas their air force consisted of only 12 fighter planes. Ethiopia - Mussolini's Invasion and the Italian Occupation Mussolini's Invasion and the Italian Occupation Ethiopia Table of Contents As late as September 29, 1934, Rome affirmed its 1928 treaty of friendship with Ethiopia. Nonetheless, it became clear that Italy wished to expand and link its holdings in the Horn of Africa.

Moreover, the international climate of the mid-1930s provided Italy with the expectation that aggression could be undertaken with impunity. Determined to provoke a casus belli, the Mussolini regime began deliberately exploiting the minor provocations that arose in its relations with Ethiopia. In December 1934, an incident took place at Welwel in the Ogaden, a site of wells used by Somali nomads regularly traversing the borders between Ethiopia and British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland. The Italians had built fortified positions in Welwel in 1930 and, because there had been no protests, assumed that the international community had recognized their rights over this area. However, an Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission challenged the Italian position when it visited Welwel in late November 1934 on its way to set territorial boundary markers. On encountering Italian belligerence, the commission's members withdrew but left behind their Ethiopian military escort, which eventually fought a battle with Italian units. In September 1935, the League of Nations exonerated both parties in the Welwel incident. The long delay and the intricate British and French maneuverings persuaded Mussolini that no obstacle would be placed in his path.

An Anglo-French proposal in August 1935--just before the League of Nations ruling--that the signatories to the 1906 Tripartite Treaty collaborate for the purpose of assisting in the modernization and reorganization of Ethiopian internal affairs, subject to the consent of Ethiopia, was flatly rejected by the Italians. On October 3, 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland without a declaration of war. On October 7, the League of Nations unanimously declared Italy an aggressor but took no effective action. In a war that lasted seven months, Ethiopia was outmatched by Italy in armaments--a situation exacerbated by the fact that a League of Nations arms embargo was not enforced against Italy. Despite a valiant defense, the next six months saw the Ethiopians pushed back on the northern front and in Harerge. Acting on long-standing grievances, a segment of the Tigray forces defected, as did Oromo forces in some areas. Moreover, the Italians made widespread use of chemical weapons and air power. On March 31, 1936, the Ethiopians counterattacked the main Italian force at Maychew but were defeated.

By early April 1936, Italian forces had reached Dese in the north and Harer in the east. On May 2, Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland and exile--a move resented by some Ethiopians who were accustomed to a warrior emperor. The Italian forces entered Addis Ababa on May 5. Four days later, Italy announced the annexation of Ethiopia. On June 30, Haile Selassie made a powerful speech before the League of Nations in Geneva in which he set forth two choices--support for collective security or international lawlessness. The emperor stirred the conscience of many and was thereafter regarded as a major international figure. Britain and France, however, soon recognized Italy's control of Ethiopia. Among the major powers, the United States and the Soviet Union refused to do so. In early June 1936, Rome promulgated a constitution bringing Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland together into a single administrative unit divided into six provinces. On June 11, 1936, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani replaced Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who had commanded the Italian forces in the war.

In December the Italians declared the whole country to be pacified and under their effective control. Ethiopian resistance nevertheless continued. After a failed assassination attempt against Graziani on February 19, 1937, the colonial authorities executed 30,000 persons, including about half of the younger, educated Ethiopian population. This harsh policy, however, did not pacify the country. In November 1937, Rome therefore appointed a new governor and instructed him to adopt a more flexible line. Accordingly, large-scale public works projects were undertaken. One result was the construction of the country's first system of improved roads. In the meantime, however, the Italians had decreed miscegenation to be illegal. Racial separation, including residential segregation, was enforced as thoroughly as possible. The Italians showed favoritism to non-Christian Oromo (some of whom had supported the invasion), Somali, and other Muslims in an attempt to isolate the Amhara, who supported Haile Selassie. Ethiopian resistance continued, nonetheless.

Early in 1938, a revolt broke out in Gojam led by the Committee of Unity and Collaboration, which was made up of some of the young, educated elite who had escaped the reprisal after the attempt on Graziani's life. In exile in Britain, the emperor sought to gain the support of the Western democracies for his cause but had little success until Italy entered World War II on the side of Germany in June 1940. Thereafter, Britain and the emperor sought to cooperate with Ethiopian and other indigenous forces in a campaign to dislodge the Italians from Ethiopia and from British Somaliland, which the Italians seized in August 1940, and to resist the Italian invasion of Sudan. Haile Selassie proceeded immediately to Khartoum, where he established closer liaison with both the British headquarters and the resistance forces within Ethiopia. Custom Search Italy in the Second World War Italy in the Second World War ▼ Primary Sources ▼ Italy in the Second World War The independent state of Italy emerged from a long nationalist struggle for unification that started with the revolution of 1848.

The southern kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily joined in 1866 and by 1914 only the Vatican and San Marino retained independence within Italy. However, a large Italian population remained within Austria-Hungary in the Trentino and Trieste regions. By 1911 Italy had a population of 34.7 million. Although primarily an agricultural economy, there was considerable industry in the northern areas of the country. To feed its growing population, Italy needed to import some foods, notably grain from Russia and Germany . Italy was a constitutional monarchy. Victor Emmanuel III had been king since 1900. People were appointed to the upper house of the National Assembly but the lower house was elected by universal adult male suffrage. The prime minister was Giovanni Giolitti but after the 1913 elections when socialists and radicals did well, he had a greatly reduced majority in the National Assembly. Italy had been members of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1882. However, this alliance was unpopular with large numbers of Italians and there was some doubt about Italy's military involvement in event of a war with members of the Triple Entente ( Britain , France and Russia ).

The Italian Government introduced military conscription in 1907. However, only about 25 per cent of those eligible for conscription received training and by 1912 there were only 300,000 men in the Italian Army . Over 5.2 million men served in the Italian Army during the First World War . Italy's total wartime casualties was 420,000 killed and almost 955,000 wounded. After the war Benito Mussolini attacked Vittorio Orlando for failing to achieve Italy's objectives at the Versailles Peace Treaty and helped to organize the various right-wing groups in Italy into the Fascist Party . The next prime minister, Francesco Nitti , also came under attack and he was forced to resign in 1920. After a series of riots in 1922 King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Benito Mussolini in an attempt to prevent a communist revolution in Italy. Mussolini headed a coalition of fascists and nationalists and parliamentary government continued until the murder of the socialist leader, Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. Left-wing parties were suppressed and in 1929 Italy became a one-party state.

Mussolini carried out an extensive public-works programme and the fall in unemployment made him a popular figure in Italy. Italy controlled Eritrea and Somalia in Africa but had failed several times to colonize neighbouring Ethiopia . When Benito Mussolini came to power he was determined to show the strength of his regime by occupying the country. In October 1935 Mussolini sent in General Pietro Badoglio and the Italian Army into Ethiopia. The League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and in November imposed sanctions. This included an attempt to ban countries from selling arms, rubber and some metals to Italy. Some political leaders in France and Britain opposed sanctions arguing that it might persuade Mussolini to form an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany . Over 400,000 Italian troops fought in Ethiopia . The poorly armed Ethiopians were no match for Italy's modern tanks and aeroplanes. The Italians even used mustard gas on the home forces and were able to capture Addis Ababa, the capital of the country, in May 1936, forcing Emperor Haile Selassie to flee to England . Adolf Hitler had been inspired by Mussolini's achievements and once he gained power in Germany he sought a close relationship with Italy.

In October 1936 the two men signed a non-military alliance. In 1939 Italy invaded Albania and soon afterwards Benito Mussolini signed a full defensive alliance with Nazi Germany (the Pact of Steel). However, Mussolini did not declare war on Britain and France until 10th June 1940. Mussolini already had over a million men in the Italian Army based in Libya. In neighbouring Egypt the British Army had only 36,000 men guarding the Suez Canal and the Arabian oilfields. On 13th September, 1940, Marshall Rodolfo Graziani and five Italian divisions began a rapid advance into Egypt but halted in front of the main British defences at Mersa Matruh. In October 1940, Benito Mussolini declared war on Greece . Attempts by the Italian Army to invade Greece ended in failure. The war was also going badly in North Africa . Although outnumbered, General Archibald Wavell ordered a British counter-offensive on 9th December, 1940. The Italians suffered heavy casualties and were pushed back more than 800km (500 miles).

British troops moved along the coast and on 22nd January, 1941, they captured the port of Tobruk in Libya from the Italians. By the end of 1941 Italy was totally dependent on Nazi Germany . The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Galaezzo Ciano , became increasingly dissatisfied with the way Mussolini was running the country. After a series of heated arguments with Mussolini, Ciano resigned in February, 1943. At the Casablanca Conference Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed ways of taking Italy out of the war. It was eventually decided to launch an invasion of Sicily , an island in the Mediterranean Sea, south-west of Italy. It was hoped that if the island was taken Benito Mussolini would be ousted from power. It was also argued that a successful invasion would force Adolf Hitler to send troops from the Eastern Front and help to relieve pressure on the Red Army in the Soviet Union . The operation was placed under the supreme command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower . General Harold Alexander was commander of ground operations and his 15th Army Group included General George Patton (US 7th Army) and General Bernard Montgomery (8th Army).

Admiral Andrew Cunningham was in charge of naval operations and Air Marshal Arthur Tedder was air commander. On 10th July 1943, the 8th Army landed at five points on the south-eastern tip of the island and the US 7th Army at three beaches to the west of the British forces. The Allied troops met little opposition and Patton and his troops quickly took Gela, Licata and Vittoria. The British landings were also unopposed and Syracuse was taken on the the same day. This was followed by Palazzolo (11th July), Augusta (13th July) and Vizzini (14th July), whereas the US troops took the Biscani airfield and Niscemi (14th July). General George Patton now moved to the west of the island and General Omar Bradley headed north and the German Army was forced to retreat to behind the Simeto River. Patton took Palermo on 22nd July cutting off 50,000 Italian troops in the west of the island. Patton now turned east along the northern coast of the island towards the port of Messina.

Meanwhile General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army were being held up by German forces under Field Marshal Albrecht Kesselring . The Allies carried out several amphibious assaults attempted to cut off the Germans but they were unable to stop the evacuation across the Messina Straits to the Italian mainland. This included 40,000 German and 60,000 Italian troops, as well as 10,000 German vehicles and 47 tanks. The loss of Sicily created serious problems for Benito Mussolini . It was now clear that the Allies would use the island as a base for invading Italy. A meeting of the Fascist Grand Council was held on 24th July and Galaezzo Ciano got support for his idea that Italy should sign a separate peace with the Allies. The following day Victor Emmanuel III told Mussolini he was dismissed from office. His successor, Pietro Badoglio , declared martial law and placed Mussolini under arrest. On 3rd September, 1943, General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army landed at Reggio. There was little resistance and later that day British warships landed the 1st Parachute Division at Taranto.

Six days later the US 6th Corps arrived at Salerno. These troops faced a heavy bombardment from German troops and the beachhead was not secured until 20th September. While the Allies were arriving in Italy, Adolf Hitler sent Otto Skorzeny and group of airbourne commandos to rescue Mussolini, who was being held in the Abruzzi Apennines. Mussolini was soon freed and Skorzeny flew him to safety. After a short spell in Germany Mussolini was sent to Gargagno in German-occupied northern Italy where he established the fascist Salo Republic. On 23rd September 1943, Pietro Badoglio and General Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Italian surrender aboard Nelson off Malta . The German Army continued to fight ferociously in southern Italy and the Allied armies made only slow progress as the moved north towards Rome. The 5th Army took Naples on 1st October and later that day the 8th Army captured the Foggia airfields. In danger of being captured by the German forces, Badoglio and the Italian royal family were forced to escape to Pescara where a government was set up under the protection of the Allies.

On 13th October the Italian government declared war on Germany . General Albrecht Kesselring now withdrew his forces to what became known as the Gustav Line on the Italian peninsula south of Rome. Organized along the Garigliano and Rapido rivers it included Monte Cassino , a hilltop site of a sixth-century Benedictine monastery. Defended by 15 German divisions the line was fortified with gun pits, concrete bunkers, turreted machine-gun emplacements, barbed-wire and minefields. In December 1943, the Allied suffered heavy loses while trying to capture the monastery. In January 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Harold Alexander , Supreme Allied Commander in Italy , ordered a new Cassino offensive combined with an amphibious operation at Anzio , a small port on the west coast of Italy. The main objective of the operation was to cut the communication lines of the German 10th Army and force a withdrawal from the Gustav Line. Attacks on Monte Cassino on 17th January resulted in the Germans reserves moving to the Gustav Line and on 22nd January troops led by General John Lucas landed at Anzio .

Lucas decided not to push straight away to the Alban Hills. This enabled General Heinrich Vietinghoff to order the 14th Army to return to the area and contain the 6th Corps on the Anzio bridgehead. On 12th February the exhausted US Army at Cassino were replaced by the New Zealand Corps. Alexander now decided to use these fresh troops in another attempt to capture Cassino. General Bernard Freyberg, who was in charge of the infantry attack, asked for the monastery be bombed. Despite claims by troops on the front-line that no fire had come from the monastery, General Harold Alexander agreed and it was destroyed by the United States Air Force on 15th February, 1944. Once the monastery had been bombed, the German Army moved into the ruins. As Basil Liddell Hart pointed out later in his book The Other Side of the Hill the bombing "turned out entirely to the tactical benefit of the Germans. For after that they felt free to occupy the ruins, and the rubble provided mud better defensive cover than the Monastery would have been before its destruction.

As anyone with experience of street-fighting knows, it is only when buildings are demolished that they are converted from mousetraps into bastions of defence." On 18th May, 1944, Allied troops led by General Wladyslaw Anders (Polish Corps) and General Alphonse Juin (French Corps) captured Monte Cassino . This opened a corridor for Allied troops and they reached Anzio on 24th May. The German defence now began to disintegrate and General Harold Alexander ordered General Mark Clark to trap and destroy the retreating 10th Army. Clark ignored this order and instead headed for Rome and liberated the city on the 4th June. After the capture of Rome Pietro Badoglio resigned and Invanoe Bonomi formed a new government. In an attempt to unite the country against Benito Mussolini , Bonomi's government included long-time campaigners against fascism such as Carlo Sforza , Benedetto Croce and Palmiro Togliatti , the leader of the Italian Communist Party.

The Allied armies now pursued the German 10th Army and took Grosseto (16th June), Assisi (18th June), Perugia (20th June), Florence (12th August), Rimini (21st September), Lorenzo (11th October) until being held on the Gothic Line in the northern Apennines. The arrival of winter weather meant that a renewed offensive did not begin until 9th April, 1945. On 23rd April the 8th Army began to cross the River Po at Mantua. German resistance now began to collapse and Parma and Verona were taken and partisan uprisings began in Milan and Genoa. With Allied troops approaching, Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, attempted to escape to Switzerland . They were captured at Lake Como by Italian partisans on 27th April, 1945. The following day they were shot and their bodies displayed in public in Milan. German resistance came to an end on 29th April and General Karl Wolff , who had unofficially been negotiating with the Allies for some time, signed a treaty of unconditional surrender at Caserta on 29th May.

Two days later General Heinrich Vietinghoff , commander of all German troops in Italy, agreed to the terms signed by Wolff at Caserta. (1) Benito Mussolini , speech (1929) In the creation of a new State which is authoritarian but not absolutist, hierarchical and organic - namely, open to the people in all its classes, categories and interests - lies the great revolutionary originality of Fascism, and a teaching perhaps for the whole modern world oscillating between the authority of the State and that of the individual, between the State and the anti-State. Like all other revolutions, the Fascist revolution has had a dramatic development but this in itself would not suffice to distinguish it. The reign of terror is not a revolution: it is only a necessary instrument in a determined phase of the revolution. (2) Francesco Nitti , speech (1929) The ignoble phenomenon of a dictatorship is a shameful blot on European civilization. Reactionary minds, which are indignant at red dictatorships, have only sympathy with 'white' dictatorships, which are equally, if not more bloodthirsty, no less brutal and unjustified by any ideal, even a false one.

The Fascist government abolished in Italy every safeguard of the individual and every liberty. No free man can live in Italy, and an immoral law prevents Italians from going to a foreign country on pain of punishment. Italy is a prison where life has become intolerable. Everything is artificial - artificial finance - artificial exchange - artificial public economy - artificial order - artificial calm. Without a free parliament, a free press, a free opinion and a true democracy, there will never be peace. (3) Henry (Chips) Channon , diary entry (30th July, 1935) I am bored by this Italian-Abyssinian dispute, and really I fail to see why we should interfere. Though, of course, the League of Nations will stand or fall by it. But I am a little uneasy that the destinies of countless of millions should be in the exquisite hands of Anthony Eden, for whom I have affection, even admiration - but not blind respect. Why should England fight Italy over Abyssinia, when most of our far flung Empire has been won by conquest?

(4) Benito Mussolini , letter to Adolf Hitler (August, 1939) If Germany attacks Poland and the conflict is localised, Italy will give Germany every form of political and economic aid which may be required. If Germany attacks Poland and the allies of the latter counter-attack Germany, I must emphasize to you that I cannot assume the initiative of warlike operations, given the actual conditions of Italian military preparations which have been repeatedly and in timely fashion pointed out to you. (5) Benito Mussolini , speech declaring war on the Allies (10th June, 1940) Fighters of the land, the sea and the air, Blackshirts of the revolutions and of the legions, men and women of Italy, of the Empire, and of the kingdom of Albania. Listen - the hour marked out by destiny is sounding in the sky of our country. This is the hour of irrevocable decision. The declaration of war has already been handed to the Ambassadors of Britain and France. We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the West, who have hindered the advance and often threatened the existence even of the Italian people.

The events of quite recent history can be summarized in these words - half-promises, constant threats, Blackmail and finally as the crown of this ignoble edifice the League siege of the 52 States. This reference was to sanctions. Our conscience is absolutely tranquil. With you the whole world is witness that the Italy of the lictor has done what was humanly possible to avoid the hurricane which is overwhelming Europe, but all was in vain. It would have been enough to revise the treaties to adapt them to the vital demands of the life of nations, and not to regard them as infrangible throughout eternity. It would have been enough not to have persisted in the policy of guarantees which have shown themselves to have been above all fatal for those who accepted them. It would have been enough not to have rejected the proposal which the Fuhrer made last October when the Polish campaign came to an end. But all that belongs to the past. We are to-day decided to face all the risks and sacrifices of war. A nation is not really great if it does not regard its undertakings as sacred, and if it recoils them those supreme trials which decide the course of history.

We are taking up arms after having solved the problem of our land frontiers." he went on. We want to break off the territorial and military chains which are strangling us in our sea for a people of 45.000.000 inhabitants is not truly free if it has no free passage over the ocean. The gigantic struggle is only a phase of the logical development of our revolution. It is the struggle of peoples poor, but rich in workers against the exploiters who fiercely hold on to all the wealth and all the gold of the earth. It is the struggle of the fruitful and young peoples against the sterile peoples on the threshold of their decline. It is the struggle between two centuries and two ideas. Now that the die is east and we have our own will burned the bridges behind us. I solemnly declare that Italy does not intend to drag into the conflict other peoples who are her neighbours by sea and land. Let Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece take note of these words of mine, for it will depend entirely on them whether they are fully confirmed or not. At a memorable meeting that in Berlin - I said that according to the law of Fascist morality when one has a friend one stands by him to the end.

We have done that and we shall do it with Germany, with her people, and her victorious armed forces. On the eve of this event of historic importance we address our thoughts to his Majesty the King emperor and we salute equally the head of a allied Greater Germany. (6) Wilhelm von Thoma was interviewed by Basil Liddell Hart after the war for his book The Other Side of the Hill (1948) Hitler thought that the Italians were capable of holding their own in Africa, with a little German help. He expected too much of them. I had seen them in Spain, 'fighting' on the same side as we were. Hitler seemed to form his idea of their value from the way their commanders talked when he met them at the dinner-table. When he asked me what I thought of them, I retorted: 'I've seen them on the battlefield, not merely in the Officers' Mess.' I told Hitler: 'One British soldier is better than twelve Italians.' I added: 'The Italians are good workers, but they are not fighters.

They don't like gun-fire.' (7) In his autobiography, Memoirs: 1940-1945 , General Harold Alexander wrote about the Anzio Campaign. Anzio played a vital role in the capture of Rome by giving me the means to employ a double-handed punch - from the beachhead and from Cassino - which caught the Germans in a pincer movement. Without this double-handed punch I do not believe we should ever have been able to break through the German defences at Cassino. Orders for the operation were issued on 2 January. The objective was defined as to cut the enemy communications and threaten the German rear. Fifth Army was ordered to make "as strong a thrust as possible towards Cassino and Frosinone shortly before the assault landing to draw in enemy reserves that might be employed against the landing forces and then to create a breach in his front through which every opportunity will be taken to link up rapidly with the seaborne operation". Despite the switch, in all, of five divisions from Eighth Army to the Fifth Army, German resistance on the main front remained stubborn; and during the early critical days the British and United States divisions at Anzio had to fight unaided for their own salvation.

Meanwhile, on the Adriatic sector. General Montgomery had continued with his attempt to break through the enemy's defensive system; but with even less success as the weather worsened and the enemy's strength increased. Against a less formidable foe an operation such as we had devised would have succeeded; but I think we may well have underestimated the remarkable resilience and toughness of the Germans, in expecting them to be frightened by such a threat to their rear. Hitler's orders to Kesselring were to hold on to Cassino at all costs, for political reasons, and to eliminate the Anzio landing. The withdrawal of the Hermann Goring division from Italy was cancelled, and Hitler told Kesselring that he would be reinforced by two motorized divisions, three independent regiments, two heavy tank battalions and some heavy and medium artillery units. Thus the enemy refused to weaken his battlefront at Cassino by drawing back formations to deal with the landings. Every time we attacked Kesselring in Italy we took him completely by surprise; but he showed very great skill in extricating himself from the desperate situations into which his faulty intelligence had led him.

I feel now that he would not, in these circumstances, have altered his dispositions on the main front to any great degree until he had tried every means to eliminate the threat to his rear. Nor need his determination be doubted. The forces under his command had been engaged in a continuous retreat for almost a year since November 1942, a retreat that had brought them just short of Alexandria to just north of Naples - and it was time to put a stop to it. (8) While in Italy in 1943, General Bernard Montgomery commented on the importance of air support during modern battles. I believe that the first and great principle of war is that you must first win your air battle before you fight your land and sea battle. If you examine the conduct of the campaign from Alamein through Tunisia, Sicily and Italy you will find I have never fought a land battle until the air battle has been won. We never had to bother about the enemy air, because we won the air battle first. The second great principle is that Army plus Air has to be so knitted that the two together from one entity. If you do that, the resultant military effort will be so great that nothing will be able to stand against it.

The third principle is that the Air Force command. I hold that it is quite wrong for the soldier to want to exercise command over the air striking forces. The handling of an Air Force is a life-study, and therefore the air part must be kept under Air Force command. The Desert Air Force and the Eighth Army are one. We do not understand the meaning of "army cooperation". When you are one entity you cannot cooperate. If you knit together the power of the Army on the land and the power of the Air in the sky, then nothing will stand against you and you will never lose a battle. (9) John Steinbeck covered the landings at Salerno in Italy . One of his reports appeared in the New York Tribune on 9th September 1943. There are little bushes on the sand dunes at Red Beach south of the Sele River, and in a hole in the sand buttressed by sand bags a soldier sat with a leather-covered steel telephone beside him. His shirt was off and his back was dark with sunburn. His helmet lay in the bottom of the hole and his rifle was on a little pile of brush to keep the sand out of it.

He had staked a shelter half on a pole to shade him from the sun, and he had spread bushes on top of that to camouflage it. Beside him was a water can and an empty "C" ration can to drink out of. The soldier said. "Sure you can have a drink. Here, I'll pour it for you." He tilted the water can over the tin cup. "I hate to tell you what it tastes like," he said, I took a drink. "Well, doesn't it?" he said. "It sure does," I said. Up in the hills the 88s were popping and the little bursts threw sand about where they hit, and off to the seaward our cruisers were popping away at the 88s in the hills. The soldier slapped at a sand fly on his shoulder and then scratched the place where it had bitten him. His face was dirty and streaked where the sweat had run down through the dirt, and his hair and his eyebrows were sunburned almost white. But there was a kind of gayety about him. His telephone buzzed and he answered it, and said, "Hasn't come through yet. Sir, no sir.

I'll tell him." He clicked off the phone. "When'd you come ashore?" he asked. And then without waiting for an answer he went on. "I came in just before dawn yesterday. I wasn't with the very first, but right in the second." He seemed to be very glad about it. "It was hell," he said, "it was bloody hell." He seemed to be gratified at the hell it was, and that was right. The great question had been solved for him. He had been under fire. He knew now what he would do under fire. He would never have to go through that uncertainty again. "I got pretty near up to there," he said, and pointed to two beautiful Greek temples about a mile away. "And then I got sent back here for beach communications. When did you say you got ashore?" and again he didn't wait for an answer. "It was dark as hell," he said, "and we were just waiting out there." He pointed to the sea where the mass of the invasion fleet rested. "If we thought we were going to sneak ashore we were nuts," he said. "They were waiting for us all fixed up. Why, I heard they had been here two weeks waiting for us.

They knew just where we were going to land. They had machine guns in the sand dunes and 88s on the hills. "We were out there all packed in an LCI and then the hell broke loose. The sky was full of it and the star shells lighted it up and the tracers crisscrossed and the noise - we saw the assault go in, and then one of them hit a surf mine and went up, and in the light you could see them go flying about. I could see the boats land and the guys go wiggling and running, and then maybe there"d be a lot of white lines and some of them would waddle about and collapse and some would hit the beach. "It didn't seem like men getting killed, more like a picture, like a moving picture. We were pretty crowded up in there though, and then all of a sudden it came on me that this wasn't a moving picture. Those were guys getting the hell shot out of them, and then I got kind of scared, but what I wanted to do mostly was move around. I didn't like being cooped up there where you couldn't get away or get down close to the ground.

(10) Siegfried Westphal was interviewed by Basil Liddell Hart about the invasion of Sicily in his book The Other Side of the Hill (1948) The situation around Rome calmed down completely when the Commander of the Italian forces accepted in its entirety the German capitulation suggestion. This eliminated the danger to the supply of the 10th Army. At the same time the German Command in Italy was freed from the nightmare of having to use weapons against their former allies. The capitulation ensured for the Italian soldiers an immediate return to their homes. This concession had a repercussion because it infringed Hitler's order, according to which all Italian soldiers were to be made prisoners of war. But there can be no doubt that adherence to this order would have held out no inducement to the Italians to accept the German proposals. (11) General Rudolf von Senger fought under Albrecht Kesselring at Monte Cassino. Field-Marshal Kesselring had given express orders that no German soldier should enter the Monastery, so as to avoid giving the Allies any pretext for bombing or shelling it.

I cannot testify personally that this decision was communicated to the Allies but I am sure that the Vatican found means to do so, since it was so directly interested in the fate of Monte Cassino. Not only did Field-Marshal Kesselring prohibit German soldiers from entering the Monastery, but be also placed a guard at the entrance gate to ensure that his orders were carried out. (12) Franklin D. Roosevelt , radio broadcast, Fireside Chat (5th June, 1944) Yesterday, on June fourth, 1944, Rome fell to American and Allied troops. The first of the Axis capitals is now in our hands. One up and two to go! It is perhaps significant that the first of these capitals to fall should have the longest history of all of them. The story of Rome goes back to the time of the foundations of our civilization. We can still see there monuments of the time when Rome and the Romans controlled the whole of the then known world. That, too, is significant, for the United Nations are determined that in the future no one city and no one race will be able to control the whole of the world.

In addition to the monuments of the older times, we also see in Rome the great symbol of Christianity, which has reached into almost every part of the world. There are other shrines and other churches in many places, but the churches and shrines of Rome are visible symbols of the faith and determination of the early saints and martyrs that Christianity should live and become universal. And tonight (now) it will be a source of deep satisfaction that the freedom of the Pope and the (of) Vatican City is assured by the armies of the United Nations. It is also significant that Rome has been liberated by the armed forces of many nations. The American and British armies -- who bore the chief burdens of battle - found at their sides our own North American neighbors, the gallant Canadians. The fighting New Zealanders from the far South Pacific, the courageous French and the French Moroccans, the South Africans, the Poles and the East Indians - all of them fought with us on the bloody approaches to the city of Rome. The Italians, too, forswearing a partnership in the Axis which they never desired, have sent their troops to join us in our battles against the German trespassers on their soil.

The prospect of the liberation of Rome meant enough to Hitler and his generals to induce them to fight desperately at great cost of men and materials and with great sacrifice to their crumbling Eastern line and to their Western front. No thanks are due to them if Rome was spared the devastation which the Germans wreaked on Naples and other Italian cities. The Allied Generals maneuvered so skillfully that the Nazis could only have stayed long enough to damage Rome at the risk of losing their armies. (13) The Manchester Guardian (30th April, 1945) Mussolini, with mistress, Clara Petacci, and twelve members of his Cabinet, were executed by partisans in a village on Lake Como yesterday afternoon, after being arrested in an attempt to cross the Swiss frontier. The bodies were brought to Milan last night. A partisan knocked at my door early this morning to tell me the news. We drove out to the working-class quarter of Loreto and there were the bodies heaped together with ghastly promiscuity in the open square under the same fence against which one year ago fifteen partisans had been shot by their own countrymen. Mussolini's body lay across that of Petacci.

In his dead hand had been placed the brass ensign of the Fascist Arditi. With these fourteen were also the bodies of Farinacci and Starace, two former general secretaries of the Fascist party, and Teruzzo, formerly Minister of Colonies who had been caught elsewhere and executed by partisans. Mussolini was caught yesterday at Dongo, Lake Como, driving by himself in a car with his uniform covered by a German greatcoat. He was driving in a column of German cars to escape observation but was recognised by an Italian Customs guard. The others were caught in a neighbouring village. They include Pavolini, Barracu, and other lesser lights in Fascist world on whom Mussolini had to call in later days to staff his puppet Government. This is the first conspicuous example of mob justice in liberated Italy. Otherwise the partisans have been kept well under control by their leaders. The opinion expressed this morning by the partisan C.-in-C., General Cadorna, son of the former field marshal, was that such incidents in themselves were regrettable. Nevertheless, in this case he considered the execution a good thing, since popular indignation against the Fascists demanded some satisfaction.

The risk of protracted trials, such as has been taking place in Rome, was thus avoid. (14) The Manchester Guardian (4th May, 1945) New Zealand troops have occupied the Adriatic port of Trieste, which was not covered in the unconditional surrender, agreement providing for the ending of hostilities in Northern Italy and Western Austria on Wednesday. Marshal Tito's Yugoslav forces had already entered the port. Prisoners taken by the Fifteenth Army group in Italy before the German capitulation exceeded 230.000, it was announced from Allied headquarters in the Mediterranean zone. The reaction of the overwhelming majority of the British Eighth army troops to the Nazi surrender in the Italian theatre has been one of marked indifference, cables an Associated Press correspondent with the Eighth Army. The first British soldier to whom the correspondent spoke after peace was announced merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "The peace is good, but it's not getting me home any faster than if we were still fighting.

I don't know whether I shall like Austria very much." (15) Studs Terkel interviewed Irving Goff, who fought in the Spanish Civil War , about his experiences during the Second World War for his book, The Good War (1985) In Naples, the Communist Party had 150,000 members. All during the Mussolini time, twenty-two years, the railroad workers maintained an illegal, left-led union, underground. The Italian partisans, during the Nazi occupation, were slaughtering the Germans, especially as they were fleeing. Every sector of the front was commanded by a guy who fought with the Garibaldi Battalion in Spain. The guy that captured Mussolini and strung him up by his feet was Muscatalli. He fought in Spain.

Question: Where did Italy invade in 1935?
Answer: Ethiopia