MUSSOLINI'S WAR

Italy’s role in World War II receives an expert’s full attention.

Veteran British historian Gooch reminds readers that until 1940, figures from Churchill to Hitler looked at Mussolini as the charismatic leader of a great power. In this skillful analysis, the author reveals that there was less there than meets the eye. Like Hitler, a veteran of World War I, Mussolini was arrogant, ruthless, unnecessarily confident in his military talents, and hungry for war. What he lacked was wealth to support his ambitions. At the time, the Italian economy was one-third the size of Germany’s. Few experts praise Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia after 1935, which was extremely expensive. Italian troops did much of the fighting for Franco in Spain’s Civil War (1936-1939); Italy contributed about 75,000 soldiers, which may have turned the tide. As in Ethiopia, however, the effort was expensive. Impressed at Germany’s swift defeat of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940, Mussolini yearned for his own empire. The choices were invading Egypt from his Libyan colony or conquering Greece. Making the worst possible decision, he chose both. By 1941, his poorly organized and supplied armies were retreating, and his appeals for aid made it clear that Italy was “slipping towards a subaltern position.” Hitler’s forces crushed Greece, and he also sent a mechanized division, led by Erwin Rommel, to Africa. Rommel’s energy and superior armor produced impressive victories, but Italians made up most of his forces. With America’s entry in December 1941, Gooch enters a period more familiar to readers. “As European war turned into world war,” writes the author, “there was only one way in which Fascist Italy’s military could keep fighting—by getting ever more in hock to Nazi Germany.” There followed defeat in North Africa and Sicily and the July 1943 coup that removed Mussolini only to have German troops take over and continue a war that devastated the nation.

A fine history of Italy’s attempt to punch above its weight.