"Liberation -The Sicilian Campaign - 1943" Topic

Of possible interest?

"Nobody ever commended George Patton for his tact, but he was one of the best "motivational speakers" of his day. The hapless Axis soldiers who found themselves in Sicily in the hot Summer of 1943 had only a vague idea of what awaited them, and it was far worse than what anybody – even Patton – could put into words.

Ill-advised and disastrous it may have been, but Italy's entry into the Second World War was no accident, nor did it reflect exclusively Fascist policies, though these were certainly involved. It was prompted by an expansionist foreign policy rooted in earlier nationalist aspirations to establish an "Italian Empire" at the turn of the century, thus (it was hoped) aiding the economy and making Italy a "great power" on a par with Russia, Germany, France and Great Britain. Italy had seized some east African territories beginning in the 1880s only to be checked by Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 – a landmark defeat for a European colonial power. In 1911, the Italians occupied Libya, formerly part of the fading Ottoman Empire, following unexpectedly heavy fighting against a ferocious enemy. The Italian occupiers subsequently undertook a civilian massacre. This action shocked even powers such as Great Britain and France, whose own colonial exploits often led to high civilian casualties. There's no escaping the fact that as colonialists the Italians were inept, and no great power took the "new" nation (united only in the 1860s) seriously, either militarily or politically. The First World War and its immediate aftermath led to acquisition of new territories in what is now northeastern Italy, but to this day the Germanic Tiroleans of "Trentino-Alto Adige" and the Slovenians of Trieste hardly consider themselves "Italians."…"
Main page
bestofsicily.com/ww2.htm

Amicalement
Armand