Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Itay
Why don't we hear about the Italians in the war more often? What role did they play in the battles? I don't understand why the Germans would throw the Italian soliders who came to fight with them, into slave labor camps. I thought the pact that Hitler made with Mussolini was pretty strong. I also thought all of Italy sided with Hitler but today's lecture made it sound like Italy may have been slightly split in opinion.
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7 comments:
This class led me to wonder why particular parts of the war are not well known today. I agree that everything that happened in Italy once the Allies invaded is one of these aspects. I too don't understand Hitler's reasoning for not wanting to use the Italian forces for the defense of their own country. Sending them to slave camps further shows Hitler's cruelty.
Ya I was surprised Italy was more involved, it seems like they could have used more team work if they werent all so proud..
I don't think Hitler ever had any intention of any kind of teamwork with the Italians - I think he intended to "court" the Italians until they were no longer useful to him. He wasn't interested in sharing power at all.
"Itay" haha. Anyways, ItaLy was an integral part of the war fighting effort for the Axis. Italian industry, manpower, and supplies made German war efforts continue for the six year duration of the war. People seem to forget the fact that Italian industries in northern Italy were supplying and manufacturing war goods up to the last days of the war. Hitler had take over Italy in order to keep his steady supply flowing. WIthout it, Germany would have fell alot quicker.
I agree with Dawn that Hitler's overall drive was for European domination. Italy was only a pawn in his plan to help get Northern Africa and the Mediterranean.
I think the reason we don’t hear about Italy more is because their lack of any major military victories. To me Italy seems more like a burden to Germany and they probably could have done just as well without them.
It seems that the ally bond between Italy and Germany was weak. They did not have trust, and Italy did not seem to fully back Germany. How could Germany trust an ally that did not fully support them? And Germany was so invested in Hiltler's dream that it was almost over invested. They could not back out.
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