That is the difference. France will fight hard before giving up, Italy... Well yeah.
I suppose that fighting for thirty-nine months does not count as "fighting hard"... while sitting on one's own butt for eight months doing absolutely nothing counts as "fighting hard"... (no disrespect intended, but this is kind of what happened during the "Phoney War").
Also keeping in mind that the former country had a GDP of $ 151 billion in 1939, a modest production of steel and few if any sources of energy and oil, while the latter had a GDP of $ 250 billion in the same year, copious amount of steel and energy and certainty of having the oil needed.
Not fighting very effectively, that is more correct.
I suppose that fighting for thirty-nine months does not count as "fighting hard"... while sitting on one's own butt for eight months doing absolutely nothing counts as "fighting hard"... (no disrespect intended, but this is kind of what happened during the "Phoney War").
Also keeping in mind that the former country had a GDP of $ 151 billion in 1939, a modest production of steel and few if any sources of energy and oil, while the latter had a GDP of $ 250 billion in the same year, copious amount of steel and energy and certainty of having the oil needed.
Not fighting very effectively, that is more correct.
*Pointing out that France, while having a larger GDP, had a larger military to fund and could not afford to even provide transportation for it's reserves
*Pointing out that the French army fought for the entirety of WWII (mostly as partisans in the resistance), it was only the Government that capitulated.
During the invasion of Sicily, the Italian Army began surrendering in such great numbers that, at one point, the Allies had to ask some of them to come back and surrender the next day because they were still processing their new POWs.
During the invasion of Sicily, the Italian Army began surrendering in such great numbers that, at one point, the Allies had to ask some of them to come back and surrender the next day because they were still processing their new POWs.
The Italians obliged.
Guess you never heard of the fight that the Divisione Livorno gave the Americans at Gela, while the Hermann-Göring Division spent all the first day sitting on their asses, getting lost or trying too little.
Read Rick Atkinson's The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943 - 1944. I didn't make this up.
Many Italians weren't enthusiastic about the war at the outset. By the time it had come to their shores, they'd suffered significant losses, gained nothing on any front, and morale was generally in the toilet. There's a reason that Mussolini was ousted after Sicily fell.
