Italy and WW2

Italy was pissed at the allies because it didn't get a lot of what was promised it after world war one. Plus It had dreams of building an empire in africa and the adriatic, which would put in in conflict with England and France. Plus Mussolini knew he couldn't stand up to Germany on the continent so it was a question of being the right hand of the devil or in his path. Plus they were fascist and Germany was Nat. Soc., so it was a natural alliance.

Italy, Japan, and Germany formed an alliance in the 1930s. Romania and Hungary were also involved and later Finland joined but only as a way of resisting the Soviet Union. The alliance was called the "Axis Alliance" because the countries involved, other than Japan, occupied the central part, i.e., the "axis" of Europe. As someone mentioned, both Italy and Germany had fascist governments. Hitler modelled himself after Mussolini to some degree. Spain was also sympathetic to the Axis powers but stayed neutral during the war.

Italy never quite managed the military punch that Japan and Germany had. They invaded Ethiopia in 1936 hoping to acquire and empire. Eventually they managed to do so but it was very difficult for them despite the act that a considerable number of Ethiopian soldiers actually didn't have guns and Ethiopia had no air force or armored divisions. They also declared war on France in 1940 well after Germany had invaded rance and when France was only days from surrendering to Germany.

The Italians were the first of the Axis powers to surrender, which they did in 1943 ater the Allied invasion. At that point they re-entered the war on the side of the Allies though Germany occupied a good chunk of northern Italy and the Allies fought for the rest of the war to drive the Germans out.

All of this lead Churchill to say that, "In any war the Italians will cost you five divisions. If they're fighting against you, you'll need that many divisions to defeat them. If they're fighting with you, you'll need that many divisons to rescue them."

Anyone interested in WWII reading and italy in particular should get Rick Atkinson's new release "Day of Battle" which chronicles the U.S invasion of sicily and italy proper. A great read.