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126-757: The Italian XXI Army Corps was a formation of the Italian army in World War II . The Corps fought in Northern Africa and took part in the Western Desert Campaign and Tunisian campaign between 1940 and 1943. It surrendered to the allies in Tunisia in May 1943, with the rest of Army Group Africa . Royal Italian Army (1940%E2%80%931946) The Italian Army of World War II was

252-526: A corporatist system of "National Councils" of experts, selected from professionals and tradespeople, elected to represent and hold legislative power over their respective areas, including labour, industry, transportation, public health, and communications, among others; and abolition of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy . The Fascist Manifesto supported the creation of an eight-hour work day for all workers,

378-590: A holistic -national radical Third Way ", while Walter Laqueur sees the core tenets of fascism as "self-evident: nationalism; social Darwinism ; racialism, the need for leadership, a new aristocracy, and obedience; and the negation of the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution." Historian Emilio Gentile has defined fascism thusly: [A] modern political phenomenon, revolutionary , anti-liberal , and anti-Marxist , organized in

504-460: A minimum wage , worker representation in industrial management, equal confidence in labour unions as in industrial executives and public servants, reorganization of the transportation sector, revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance, reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55, a strong progressive tax on capital, confiscation of the property of religious institutions and abolishment of bishoprics, and revision of military contracts to allow

630-783: A " Royal " army. The nominal Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Army was His Majesty King Vittorio Emanuele III . As Commander-in-Chief of all Italian armed forces, Vittorio Emanuele also commanded the Royal Air Force ( Regia Aeronautica ) and the Royal Navy ( Regia Marina ). However, in reality, most of the King's military responsibilities were assumed by the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini . Below Mussolini

756-465: A "proletarian nation" that needed to pursue imperialism in order to challenge the " plutocratic " French and British. Corradini's views were part of a wider set of perceptions within the right-wing Italian Nationalist Association (ANI), which claimed that Italy's economic backwardness was caused by corruption in its political class, liberalism, and division caused by "ignoble socialism". The ANI held ties and influence among conservatives , Catholics, and

882-542: A 'police state' and suppressed the media, as a forerunner of fascism. According to David Thomson , the Italian Risorgimento of 1871 led to the 'nemesis of fascism'. William L Shirer sees a continuity from the views of Fichte and Hegel , through Bismarck , to Hitler; Robert Gerwarth speaks of a 'direct line' from Bismarck to Hitler. Julian Dierkes sees fascism as a 'particularly violent form of imperialism '. Marcus Garvey , founder and leader of

1008-464: A captured Italian vehicle. The motorized divisions were similar to the "North Africa" type division, but they included a regiment of highly-mobile elite riflemen ( Bersaglieri ). The Bersaglieri appear to have actually received the motorcycles and trucks they were allocated. From the beginning of the war, some infantry divisions were theoretically fully mechanized and were designated as motor-transportable divisions. Again, in practice, few units had

1134-601: A constant struggle in which only the strongest would survive. Futurism was both an artistic-cultural movement and initially a political movement in Italy led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti who founded the Manifesto of Futurism (1908), that championed the causes of modernism, action, and political violence as necessary elements of politics while denouncing liberalism and parliamentary politics. Marinetti rejected conventional democracy based on majority rule and egalitarianism, for

1260-447: A critical part in economic production for the war effort and thus arose a "military citizenship" in which all citizens were involved to the military in some manner during the war. World War I had resulted in the rise of a powerful state capable of mobilizing millions of people to serve on the front lines or provide economic production and logistics to support those on the front lines, as well as having unprecedented authority to intervene in

1386-759: A defining characteristic of those ideologies. They refer to the combination of populism, authoritarianism and ultranationalism as "a marriage of convenience". Robert Paxton says: [Fascism is] a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion. Roger Eatwell defines fascism as "an ideology that strives to forge social rebirth based on

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1512-517: A demonized " Other ", such as Jews , homosexuals , transgender people , ethnic minorities , or immigrants . These ideas have motivated fascist regimes to commit massacres , forced sterilizations , deportations , and genocides . During World War II , the genocidal and imperialist ambitions of the fascist Axis powers resulted in the murder of millions of people. Since the end of World War II in 1945, fascism has been largely disgraced, and few parties have openly described themselves as fascist ;

1638-595: A difference. By design, an armoured division included one tank regiment, one artillery regiment, one highly-mobile infantry ( Bersaglieri ) regiment, a divisional support and a mixed engineer company. The tank regiment could have between three and five tank battalions. At full strength, each battalion had 55 tanks. Once sufficient numbers of the M13/40 tanks and its upgrades were available, Italian armored divisions began to possess some offensive capability. The Italians also developed several self-propelled 75 mm guns on

1764-449: A divisional headquarters, two Alpini regiments, a mountain artillery regiment, a mixed engineer battalion, a chemical warfare company, two reserve Alpini battalions, and divisional services. The divisional headquarters included an anti-tank platoon. Each Alpini regiment included a headquarters company, with a platoon of flamethrowers . Each regiment also included three Alpini battalions and the service support units assigned. At full strength,

1890-563: A few days the Yugoslavian army and invaded Greece. The Axis victory was swift: on April 17, 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered after only eleven days, while Greece was fully occupied in May and was placed under the triple occupation of Italy, Germany and Bulgaria . After these setbacks, Mussolini accepted assistance from Hitler and the Royal Army was reinforced (and in some cases even trained to modern military tactics and organizations) by

2016-742: A few months. Tunisia , just occupied together with the German Army in November 1942, was lost in May 1943. In July 1943 Sicily was invaded by the Allies and on 8 September 1943 Italy signed the Armistice with the Allies . Because of the chaotic way the Armistice was done, the Italian Royal Army ( Regio Esercito ) suffered a terrible crisis of leadership between September and October 1943. The German occupation of Italy and of Italian positions in

2142-779: A high cost to the Italian army. Only in July, after the French surrender to Germany, did the Royal Army initiate a limited campaign from Italian colonies in Africa (Libya and Italian East Africa) against British possessions in Africa ( Egypt , Kenya and Sudan ). Italian forces invaded Egypt. In August, the Italian Royal Army obtained Italy's only major victory in World War II without German assistance when it conquered British Somaliland . In

2268-602: A light tank group. The squadrons of the cavalry regiments were horse-mounted and, other than a motorcycle company, the Bersaglieri were issued with bicycles. The light tank group had a total of 61 tanks. The tanks were typically L3s or L6s . During the first years of World War II , Italy had only small light and medium tanks ( L3/35 , L6/40 , M11/39 , M13/40 and M15/42 ) tanks. When Italy declared war in 1940, Italy's armored divisions were still composed of hundreds of L3 tankettes. These vehicles were hardly on par with

2394-399: A militia party with a totalitarian conception of politics and the state, an activist and anti-theoretical ideology, with a mythical, virilistic and anti-hedonistic foundation, sacralized as a secular religion, which affirms the absolute primacy of the nation, understood as an ethnically homogeneous organic community, hierarchically organized in a corporate state , with a bellicose vocation to

2520-643: A mortar battalion, an engineer battalion, and a pack gun company. The division also had some division-level services and could have a division-level reserve infantry battalion. The typical infantry regiment was composed of three rifle battalions. However, some regiments had as many as five battalions. By design, each regiment had 24 heavy machine guns , 108 light machine guns , six 81 mm mortars ( Mortaio da 81/14 Modello 35 ), fifty-four 45 mm mortars ( Brixia Model 35 ), and four 65 mm infantry guns ( Cannone da 65/17 ). The divisional artillery regiment typically had 36 field pieces by design. There

2646-494: A mythos of national rebirth from decadence. Fascism was founded during World War I by Italian national syndicalists who drew upon both left-wing organizational tactics and right-wing political views. Italian fascism gravitated to the right in the early 1920s. A major element of fascist ideology that has been deemed to be far right is its stated goal to promote the right of a supposedly superior people to dominate, while purging society of supposedly inferior elements. In

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2772-648: A new Fascist army in his " Italian Social Republic " ( Repubblica Sociale Italiana , or RSI) in northern Italy. This army was called the National Republican Army ( Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano , or ENR). While it lasted until April 1945, the RSI never amounted to being more than a puppet state of Nazi Germany . All male Italian citizens between the ages of 18 and 54 were liable for military service. During World War II, 18-year-olds were conscripted without any preliminary military training. Conscription

2898-509: A new form of democracy, promoting what he described in his work "The Futurist Conception of Democracy" as the following: "We are therefore able to give the directions to create and to dismantle to numbers, to quantity, to the mass, for with us number, quantity and mass will never be—as they are in Germany and Russia—the number, quantity and mass of mediocre men, incapable and indecisive." Futurism influenced fascism in its emphasis on recognizing

3024-645: A new version of Tsar Nicholas II . After World War I, fascists commonly campaigned on anti-Marxist agendas. Liberal opponents of both fascism and the Bolsheviks argue that there are various similarities between the two, including that they believed in the necessity of a vanguard leadership, showed contempt for bourgeois values, and had totalitarian ambitions. In practice, both have commonly emphasized revolutionary action, proletarian nation theories, one-party states, and party-armies; however, both draw clear distinctions from each other both in aims and tactics, with

3150-589: A numerical sum of atomized individuals. They condemned the rationalistic, liberal individualism of society and the dissolution of social links in bourgeois society. The fin-de-siècle outlook was influenced by various intellectual developments, including Darwinian biology, Gesamtkunstwerk , Arthur de Gobineau 's racialism, Gustave Le Bon 's psychology , and the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche , Fyodor Dostoyevsky , and Henri Bergson . Social Darwinism , which gained widespread acceptance, made no distinction between physical and social life, and viewed

3276-669: A pro-interventionist fascio called the Revolutionary Fasces of International Action in October 1914. Benito Mussolini upon being expelled from his position as chief editor of the PSI's newspaper Avanti! for his anti-German stance, joined the interventionist cause in a separate fascio . The term "fascism" was first used in 1915 by members of Mussolini's movement, the Fasces of Revolutionary Action. The first meeting of

3402-415: A reorganization in 1938, Italian infantry divisions were known as "binary" divisions ( divisione binaria ). This is because Italian infantry divisions were based on two regiments instead of the three that prevailed prior to the reorganization. By comparison, German divisions had three infantry regiments. In addition to the two infantry regiments, the Italian infantry division included an artillery regiment,

3528-552: A result, were incapable of providing the armoured spearhead that the German tank ( panzer ) formations could. Initially, a total of about 100 "medium" M11 tanks were available. But, while these vehicles were an improvement over the L3s, they were still more like "light" tanks. In addition, they were poorly designed (main armament in a "fixed" position), far too few, too under-gunned, too thinly armoured, too slow, and too unreliable to make

3654-608: A system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it." Historian John Lukacs argues that there is no such thing as generic fascism. He claims that Nazism and communism are essentially manifestations of populism , and that states such as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy are more different from each other than they are similar. In his book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018), Jason Stanley defined fascism thusly: [A] cult of

3780-607: A war until at least October 1942. Although the Kingdom of Italy was considered a major power , Italian industry was relatively weak compared to other major powers in Europe . In 1940, Italian industry probably was no more than 15% of that of France or of the United Kingdom . The lack of a stronger automotive industry made it difficult for Italy to mechanize its military . In the new Italian Empire , Italy had used most of

3906-472: A way that can be summarized by the sacrifice of the Division Folgore: the historian Renzo De Felice wrote that "...of the 5.000 "Folgore" paratroopers sent to Africa 4 months before, the survived were only 32 officers and 262 soldiers, most of them wounded. Before the surrender, they shot until the last ammo and the last hand-grenade...". After the defeat at El Alamein , the Royal Army lost Libya in

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4032-411: A well made glove fits a beautiful hand." The fusion of Maurrassian nationalism and Sorelian syndicalism influenced radical Italian nationalist Enrico Corradini . Corradini spoke of the need for a nationalist-syndicalist movement, led by elitist aristocrats and anti-democrats who shared a revolutionary syndicalist commitment to direct action and a willingness to fight. Corradini spoke of Italy as being

4158-454: Is "a radical variant of fascism"—on the political right by explaining: "The more a person deems absolute equality among all people to be a desirable condition, the further left he or she will be on the ideological spectrum. The more a person considers inequality to be unavoidable or even desirable, the further to the right he or she will be." Fascism's origins are complex and include many seemingly contradictory viewpoints, ultimately centered on

4284-514: Is a far-right , authoritarian , and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy , militarism , forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy , subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race , and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to anarchism , democracy , pluralism , egalitarianism , liberalism , socialism , and Marxism , fascism

4410-417: Is at the far right of the traditional left–right spectrum . Fascism rose to prominence in early-20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I , before spreading to other European countries , most notably Germany . Fascism also had adherents outside of Europe. Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought massive changes to the nature of war, society,

4536-476: Is better seen as an elitist ideology. They cite in particular its exaltation of the Leader, the race, and the state, rather than the people. They see populism as a "thin-centered ideology" with a "restricted morphology" that necessarily becomes attached to "thick-centered" ideologies such as fascism, liberalism, or socialism. Thus populism can be found as an aspect of many specific ideologies, without necessarily being

4662-419: Is dead" because of the "decomposition of Marxism". Sorel became a supporter of reactionary Maurrassian nationalism beginning in 1909 that influenced his works. Maurras held interest in merging his nationalist ideals with Sorelian syndicalism , known as Sorelianism , as a means to confront democracy. Maurras stated that "a socialism liberated from the democratic and cosmopolitan element fits nationalism well as

4788-609: Is more aristocratic than democracy." By 1909, after the failure of a syndicalist general strike in France, Sorel and his supporters left the radical left and went to the radical right, where they sought to merge militant Catholicism and French patriotism with their views—advocating anti-republican Christian French patriots as ideal revolutionaries. Initially, Sorel had officially been a revisionist of Marxism, but by 1910 announced his abandonment of socialist literature and claimed in 1914, using an aphorism of Benedetto Croce that "socialism

4914-571: The fin-de-siècle generation. Bergson's claim of the existence of an élan vital , or vital instinct, centred upon free choice and rejected the processes of materialism and determinism; this challenged Marxism. In his work The Ruling Class (1896), Gaetano Mosca developed the theory that claims that in all societies an "organized minority" would dominate and rule over an "disorganized majority", stating that there are only two classes in society, "the governing" (the organized minority) and "the governed" (the disorganized majority). He claims that

5040-499: The 2020–2022 United States racial unrest , have substantiated his concern about how fascist rhetoric is showing up in politics and policies around the world. Roger Griffin describes fascism as "a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultranationalism ." Without palingenetic ultranationalism, there is no "genuine fascism" according to Griffin. Griffin further describes fascism as having three core components: "(i)

5166-457: The Cold War and shifts in fascist organizing techniques, a number of scholars have moved toward the minimalist 'new consensus' refined by Roger Griffin: 'the mythic core' of fascism is 'a populist form of palingenetic ultranationalism .' That means that fascism is an ideology that draws on old, ancient, and even arcane myths of racial, cultural, ethnic, and national origins to develop a plan for

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5292-557: The Dodecanese Islands were exempt from military service and had been so since 1925. Previously in times of peace, those between the ages of 18 and 54 served in several stages. The first consisted of pre-military training which began at 18 and lasted until "the completion of the trainee's 20th year"; which was followed by being a conscript for 18 months after they turned 21. When finishing their conscript service they did another round of training lasting until they were 33 which

5418-745: The Latin word fasces . This was the name given to political organizations in Italy known as fasci , groups similar to guilds or syndicates . According to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini 's own account, the Fasces of Revolutionary Action were founded in Italy in 1915. In 1919, Mussolini founded the Italian Fasces of Combat in Milan, which became the National Fascist Party two years later. The fascists came to associate

5544-608: The Spirit of 1914 manifested itself in the concept of the People's League of National Socialism. This National Socialism was a form of state socialism that rejected the "idea of boundless freedom" and promoted an economy that would serve the whole of Germany under the leadership of the state. This National Socialism was opposed to capitalism because of the components that were against "the national interest" of Germany but insisted that National Socialism would strive for greater efficiency in

5670-509: The Universal Negro Improvement Association , insisted that he and his organisation "were the first fascists". In 1938, C. L. R. James wrote "all the things that Hitler was to do so well later, Marcus Garvey was doing in 1920 and 1921". The historian Zeev Sternhell has traced the ideological roots of fascism back to the 1880s and in particular to the fin de siècle theme of that time. The theme

5796-646: The University of Wales wrote in 2000 that "fascism" is the "most misused, and over-used word, of our times". Fascist is sometimes applied to post-World War II organizations and ways of thinking that academics more commonly term neo-fascist . Despite fascist movements' history of anti-communism , Communist states have sometimes been referred to as fascist , typically as an insult. It has been applied to Marxist–Leninist regimes in Cuba under Fidel Castro and Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh . Chinese Marxists used

5922-523: The " Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia " ( Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia , or CSIR) arrived and assisted with the German conquest of Ukraine . By 1942, Italian forces in the Soviet Union were more than doubled to become the " Italian Army in Russia " ( Armata Italiana in Russia , or ARMIR). This army, also known as the Italian 8th Army," was deployed in the outskirts of Stalingrad where it

6048-432: The 'new man. ' " Griffin himself explored this 'mythic' or 'eliminable' core of fascism with his concept of post-fascism to explore the continuation of Nazism in the modern era. Additionally, other historians have applied this minimalist core to explore proto-fascist movements. Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser argue that although fascism "flirted with populism ... in an attempt to generate mass support", it

6174-617: The 1920s was sometimes called fascist . Historian Peter Amann states that, "Undeniably, the Klan had some traits in common with European fascism—chauvinism, racism, a mystique of violence, an affirmation of a certain kind of archaic traditionalism—yet their differences were fundamental ... [the KKK] never envisioned a change of political or economic system." Early influences that shaped the ideology of fascism have been dated back to ancient Greece . The political culture of ancient Greece and specifically

6300-423: The 1920s, Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile described their ideology as right-wing in the political essay The Doctrine of Fascism , stating: "We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right,' a fascist century." Mussolini stated that fascism's position on the political spectrum was not a serious issue for fascists: "[F]ascism, sitting on the right, could also have sat on

6426-684: The Allied tanks available in 1939 and were seriously out-classed by 1942. Better Italian tanks were produced but they were generally only available in limited numbers. Italian tanks typically suffered from poor main armaments and thin, bolted-on armour. It was not until summer of 1943 that the Italians developed a heavier tank (the P40 ). However, while the P40 was in the same class as the contemporary M4 Sherman , only five were ready for combat before Italy signed

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6552-755: The Army Group were armies. Armies were typically composed of two or more corps, along with separate units directly commanded at the army level. The corps were then typically composed of two or more divisions, along with separate units directly commanded at the corps level. The division was the basic formation of the Italian Royal Army. On 10 June 1940, the army had 59 infantry divisions, three Blackshirts (Voluntary Militia for National Security – Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale , MVSN) divisions, five high mountain ( alpini ) divisions, three mobile ( celere ) divisions, two motorized divisions, and three armored divisions. In addition, there were estimated to be

6678-797: The Balkans and elsewhere was swift and often violent. There were 73,277 casualties in those months. With King Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Pietro Badoglio in command, the Royal Army entered the war on the side of the Allies . Fighting for what became known as the "Badoglio government," the Italian Co-Belligerent Army , the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force , and the Italian Co-Belligerent Navy were formed. Mussolini organized

6804-463: The Bolsheviks emphasizing the need for an organized participatory democracy ( Soviet democracy ) and an egalitarian , internationalist vision for society based on proletarian internationalism , while fascists emphasized hyper-nationalism and open hostility towards democracy, envisioning a hierarchical social structure as essential to their aims. With the antagonism between anti-interventionist Marxists and pro- interventionist fascists complete by

6930-414: The Fasces of Revolutionary Action was held on 24 January 1915 when Mussolini declared that it was necessary for Europe to resolve its national problems—including national borders—of Italy and elsewhere "for the ideals of justice and liberty for which oppressed peoples must acquire the right to belong to those national communities from which they descended." Attempts to hold mass meetings were ineffective and

7056-818: The German Army ( Wehrmacht ) after the Italian Armistice. There were about 12,000 casualties in the northern Italian guerrilla war ( Guerra di Liberazione ) and in the Italian Royal Army on the side of the Allies. Nearly 60,000 Italian POWs died in Nazi labour camps, while nearly 20,000 perished in Allied Prisoner of War camps (mainly Russian: 1/4 of the 84,830 Italians officially lost in the Soviet Union were taken prisoners , and most of them never returned home). The Royal Army had its own set of ranks for all active service personnel. Fascist Fascism ( / ˈ f æ ʃ ɪ z əm / FASH -iz-əm )

7182-468: The Italian Fasces of Combat ". The Fascist Manifesto was presented on 6 June 1919 in the fascist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and supported the creation of universal suffrage , including women's suffrage (the latter being realized only partly in late 1925, with all opposition parties banned or disbanded); proportional representation on a regional basis; government representation through

7308-630: The Italian artillery and weapons dated from the First World War. Most important of all, the Italian generals were trained in the trench warfare of World War I and were not prepared at all for the new style of mechanized war based on the German "lightning war" model ( blitzkrieg ). From 1936 to 1939, Italy participated on the side of Spanish General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The 50,000 to 75,000 strong " Corps of Volunteer Troops " ( Corpo Truppe Volontarie , CVT)

7434-582: The Libyan divisions followed the make-up of a standard binary infantry division. Each Libyan division had two colonial infantry regiments. Each infantry regiment had three infantry battalion and a Guns company (4 65/17 mm I-Guns ). The Libyan divisions also had an integral colonial artillery regiment and colonial engineering battalion. A typical Libyan division fielded 7,400 men (including 900 Italians). The artillery regiment by design included 24 77 mm guns. The " Maletti Group " ( Raggruppamento Maletti )

7560-806: The M13 chassis when the evolution in tank artillery made the 47 mm gun obsolete. Like the German 88 mm gun , the Italians learned that a 75 mm anti-aircraft gun ( Cannone da 75/46 C.A. modello 34 ) or a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun ( Cannone da 90/53 ) made effective anti-tank guns. While always in short supply, 57 of the 90 mm guns were ordered to be mounted on heavy trucks ( Autocannoni da 90/53 ) to enhance mobility. 30 guns were mounted on an M14/41 tank chassis as Tank Destroyer 90/53 ( Semovente 90/53 ). In 1940, Italy had two divisions in Italian North Africa composed of troops native to Libya commanded by Italian officers. In many ways

7686-522: The Right stands for the maintenance of an economic structure, albeit an unjust one, while the Left stands for the attempt to subvert that economic structure, even though the subversion thereof would entail the destruction of much that was worthwhile." The term fascist has been used as a pejorative , regarding varying movements across the far right of the political spectrum. George Orwell noted in 1944 that

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7812-576: The Royal Army were blocked by the Greek Army and bad weather. Soon Greek counter-attacks forced the Italians onto the defensive inside Albania. In March 1941, prior to the German invasion of Yugoslavia , the Italian Royal Army launched an offensive against the Greeks which ended with few meaningful gains and at high costs. A few weeks later the Axis forces of Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria defeated in

7938-487: The Second World War. Nearly half a million Italians (including civilians) died between June 1940 and May 1945. The Royal Army suffered 161,729 casualties between 10 June 1940 and 8 September 1943 in the war against the Allies. There were an additional 18,655 Italian casualties in Italy (plus 54,622 Italian casualties in the rest of Europe) between September and October 1943. These casualties were suffered against

8064-452: The ancient Greek city state of Sparta under Lycurgus , with its emphasis on militarism and racial purity, were admired by the Nazis. Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler emphasized that Germany should adhere to Hellenic values and culture – particularly that of ancient Sparta. Georges Valois , founder of the first non-Italian fascist party Faisceau , claimed the roots of fascism stemmed from

8190-639: The armistice that same year. The Germans acquired and used the few P40s which were produced. To supplement the deficiencies of the main armaments on most tanks, the Italian Army made use of self-propelled guns like the Semovente 75/18 and the Semovente 75/34 . The Italians also fielded some reliable armoured cars like the AB 41 . While Semovente 75/18s were available in some numbers in North Africa,

8316-523: The army's alpine divisions and tended to be of superior quality. In addition to being well trained for mountain warfare, they were expert in the handling of pack artillery . The alpine divisions differed from a standard infantry division in that each regiment had its own artillery, engineering, and ancillary services associated with the regiment on a permanent basis. This made each regiment of an alpine division relatively self-supporting and capable of independent action. By design, an alpine division consisted of

8442-516: The basic units making up the regiment were now an expandable company. The artillery regiment sometimes included a battery of German 88 mm guns. Mobility was increased and, in theory, an "A.S.42" type division was mechanized to a higher degree than standard infantry divisions. Unfortunately, in practice, few units had the full complement of motor vehicles. Italian motor vehicles, while in short supply, tended to be of better than average quality. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery made use of

8568-459: The business community. Italian national syndicalists held a common set of principles: the rejection of bourgeois values, democracy, liberalism, Marxism , internationalism , and pacifism , and the promotion of heroism , vitalism, and violence. The ANI claimed that liberal democracy was no longer compatible with the modern world, and advocated a strong state and imperialism. They believed that humans are naturally predatory, and that nations are in

8694-640: The conclusion of the East African campaign , the last organized Italian troops surrendered with military honors in Gondar while some Italian officers started a guerrilla war , mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea . In Europe, Mussolini wanted to imitate the rapid German victories of 1939 to 1940. Mussolini began the Greco-Italian War by invading Greece from Albania in October 1940. The advances of

8820-451: The consent of the King (who always looked at France as the center of European politics) to declare war and enter the Second World War. Initially the King and his staff (conscious of the Italian lack of preparation to war) did not approve Mussolini's intentions, but when France was clearly defeated in June 1940, the Italian Royal Army ( Regio Esercito ) was abruptly sent to war. Mussolini made

8946-427: The democratic mystification of the popular will that created an impersonal collective subject. He claimed that a powerful monarch was a personified sovereign who could exercise authority to unite a nation's people. Maurras' integral nationalism was idealized by fascists, but modified into a modernized revolutionary form that was devoid of Maurras' monarchism. French revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel promoted

9072-483: The development of fascism. Leon Trotsky would later formulate a theory of fascism based on a dialectical interpretation of events to analyze the manifestation of Italian fascism and the early emergence of Nazi Germany from 1930 to 1933. In 1917, Mussolini, as leader of the Fasces of Revolutionary Action , praised the October Revolution, but later he became unimpressed with Lenin, regarding him as merely

9198-955: The economic and military resources available during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War the conquest of Ethiopia, from 1935 to 1936, during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, and during the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939. In the early 1930s, the Italian Royal Army successfully fought an Arab guerrilla war in Italian North Africa ( Africa Settentrionale Italiana , or ASI). The Italians fought another guerilla war in Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI) between 1936 and 1940. The Italian Royal Army remained comparatively weak in armaments. The Italian tanks were of poor quality. Italian radios were small in numbers. Much of

9324-492: The economy and advance the interests of workers and the common people. The "fascist right" included members of the paramilitary Blackshirts and former members of the Italian Nationalist Association (ANI). The Blackshirts wanted to establish fascism as a complete dictatorship, while the former ANI members, including Alfredo Rocco , sought to institute an authoritarian corporatist state to replace

9450-405: The economy. Plenge advocated an authoritarian rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical technocratic state. Fascists viewed World War I as bringing revolutionary changes in the nature of war, society, the state and technology, as the advent of total war and mass mobilization had broken down the distinction between civilian and combatant, as civilians had become

9576-546: The end of the war, the two sides became irreconcilable. The fascists presented themselves as anti-communists and as especially opposed to the Marxists . In 1919, Mussolini consolidated control over the fascist movement, known as Sansepolcrismo , with the founding of the Italian Fasces of Combat . In 1919, Alceste De Ambris and futurist movement leader Filippo Tommaso Marinetti created " The Manifesto of

9702-423: The equivalent of about nine divisions of frontier guard troops. There were also numerous colonial formations at or near the division level composed of troops from Italian Libya and Italian East Africa . Impressive on paper, most Italian divisions did not have the full complement of men or materials when war was declared in 1940. The armored divisions had lightly armed " tankettes " instead of tanks . After

9828-456: The far-right. Historian Stanley G. Payne 's definition is frequently cited as standard by notable scholars , such as Roger Griffin , Randall Schweller , Bo Rothstein , Federico Finchelstein , and Stephen D. Shenfield , His definition of fascism focuses on three concepts: Umberto Eco lists fourteen "features that are typical of what [he] would like to call 'Ur-Fascism', or 'Eternal Fascism'. These features cannot be organized into

9954-430: The firepower and the mechanization available at the divisional level. As a result, a new "North Africa 1942" ( Africa settentrionale 1942 , or A.S.42) type division was developed. Similar to a standard infantry division, an "A.S.42" type division still had two infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a mixed engineer battalion, a medical section, and a supply section. But the infantry regiments could vary greatly because

10080-435: The firepower for an Alpini regiment was 27 heavy machine guns, 81 light machine guns, 27 45 mm mortars, 12 81 mm mortars, and 27 flamethrowers. The mountain artillery regiment was split between the two infantry regiments. Each regiment was provided with a battalion of 75 mm howitzers, which were transported on pack animals. At the beginning of the war, the armoured divisions were filled with L3 tankettes and, as

10206-420: The first six months of war Italy obtained only minor territorial gains, as Mussolini mistakenly waited for a quick end of the war. In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces initiated Operation Compass which, by February 1941, had occupied Cyrenaica and destroyed the Italian 10th Army. In January 1941, other British Commonwealth forces launched an invasion of Italian East Africa. By November of that year, at

10332-479: The full complement of motor vehicles. Other than being transported by motor vehicle, these divisions were organized like a standard infantry division, with two exceptions. Motor-transportable divisions had a larger complement of mortars and they did not have a MVSN Legion. In 1942, the motor-transportable divisions in North Africa were upgraded to become "North African" type motorised divisions. In spite of

10458-467: The human condition as being an unceasing struggle to achieve the survival of the fittest . It challenged positivism's claim of deliberate and rational choice as the determining behaviour of humans, with social Darwinism focusing on heredity, race, and environment. Its emphasis on biogroup identity and the role of organic relations within societies fostered the legitimacy and appeal of nationalism. New theories of social and political psychology also rejected

10584-420: The ideal German society as a Volksgemeinschaft , a racially unified and hierarchically organized body in which the interests of individuals would be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk." Kershaw noted that common factors of fascism included "the 'cleansing' of all those deemed not to belong—foreigners, ethnic minorities, 'undesirables ' " and belief in its own nation's superiority, even if it

10710-474: The late 18th century Jacobin movement, seeing in its totalitarian nature a foreshadowing of the fascist state. Historian George Mosse similarly analyzed fascism as an inheritor of the mass ideology and civil religion of the French Revolution , as well as a result of the brutalization of societies in 1914–1918. Historians such as Irene Collins and Howard C Payne see Napoleon III , who ran

10836-477: The leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists and minorities and immigrants who are supposedly posing a threat to the character and the history of a nation ... The leader proposes that only he can solve it and all of his political opponents are enemies or traitors. Stanley says recent global events as of 2020 , including the COVID-19 pandemic and

10962-473: The left. The accommodation of the political right into the Italian Fascist movement in the early 1920s created internal factions within the movement. The "fascist left" included Michele Bianchi , Giuseppe Bottai , Angelo Oliviero Olivetti , Sergio Panunzio , and Edmondo Rossoni , who were committed to advancing national syndicalism as a replacement for parliamentary liberalism in order to modernize

11088-446: The legitimacy of political violence in his work Reflections on Violence (1908) and other works in which he advocated radical syndicalist action to achieve a revolution to overthrow capitalism and the bourgeoisie through a general strike . In Reflections on Violence , Sorel emphasized need for a revolutionary political religion . Also in his work The Illusions of Progress , Sorel denounced democracy as reactionary, saying "nothing

11214-475: The liberal state in Italy while retaining the existing elites. Upon accommodating the political right, there arose a group of monarchist fascists who sought to use fascism to create an absolute monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy . A number of post-World War II fascist movements described themselves as a Third Position outside the traditional political spectrum. Falange Española de las JONS leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera said: "[B]asically

11340-675: The limit the resources of the Italian Royal Army. In spring 1940, the available oil resources for possible military operations (of the Army and Navy) were for only one year. Unlike the German Fuhrer , Adolf Hitler , Mussolini was officially only the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy . Victor Emmanuel III remained Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Armed Forces. Mussolini needed

11466-432: The lives of citizens. Fascism rejects the view that violence is inherently negative or pointless but rather views imperialism , political violence , and war as means to national rejuvenation. Fascists often advocate for the establishment of a totalitarian one-party state , and for a dirigiste economy (a market economy in which the state plays a strong directive role through economic interventionist policies), with

11592-496: The lives of citizens. Fascists viewed technological developments of weaponry and the state's total mobilization of its population in the war as symbolizing the beginning of a new era fusing state power with mass politics , technology and particularly the mobilizing myth that they contended had triumphed over the myth of progress and the era of liberalism. The October Revolution of 1917, in which Bolshevik communists led by Vladimir Lenin seized power in Russia, greatly influenced

11718-544: The mistake to believe that Britain would accept peace agreements with the Axis after France's surrender, and did not anticipate a long lasting war. Consequently, Italy entered the war inadequately prepared. Italy declared war on 10 June 1940 and initially the Royal Army started a campaign with limited advances in the Alps against the French Army. But the French were not quickly defeated on this front and all advances came at

11844-1052: The more potent Semovente 75/34s Semovente da 75/46s , Semovente 90/53s, Semovente 105/25s , and Semovente 149/40 were available in limited numbers or not at all prior to the armistice. Like the P40, the Germans acquired the few better quality self-propelled guns manufactured prior to the armistice and even continued to manufacture some after the armistice. The main infantry weapons were Carcano rifles, Beretta M1934 and M1935 pistols, Bodeo M1889 revolvers , Breda 30 light machine guns , Breda M37 and Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935 heavy machine guns , and Beretta Model 38 submachine guns . Second line units frequently made use of captured equipment such as Lebel Model 1886 rifles and, for colonial troops, Schwarzlose MG M.07/12s and Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifles, provided by Austria as war reparations after World War I . Mussolini's Under-Secretary for War Production, Carlo Favagrossa , had estimated that Italy could not possibly be prepared for

11970-525: The mountain of the center. ... These words in any case do not have a fixed and unchanged meaning: they do have a variable subject to location, time and spirit. We don't give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorized by these words." Major Italian groups politically on the right, especially rich landowners and big business, feared an uprising by groups on the left, such as sharecroppers and labour unions. They welcomed fascism and supported its violent suppression of opponents on

12096-504: The nation from decadence. Kershaw argues that the difference between fascism and other forms of right-wing authoritarianism in the interwar period is that the latter generally aimed "to conserve the existing social order", whereas fascism was "revolutionary", seeking to change society and obtain "total commitment" from the population. In Against the Fascist Creep , Alexander Reid Ross writes regarding Griffin's view: "Following

12222-441: The notion of human behaviour being governed by rational choice and instead claimed that emotion was more influential in political issues than reason. Nietzsche's argument that "God is dead" coincided with his attack on the " herd mentality " of Christianity , democracy , and modern collectivism , his concept of the Übermensch , and his advocacy of the will to power as a primordial instinct, were major influences upon many of

12348-490: The organization was regularly harassed by government authorities and socialists. Similar political ideas arose in Germany after the outbreak of the war. German sociologist Johann Plenge spoke of the rise of a "National Socialism" in Germany within what he termed the "ideas of 1914" that were a declaration of war against the "ideas of 1789" (the French Revolution). According to Plenge, the "ideas of 1789"—such as

12474-420: The organized nature of the organized minority makes it irresistible to any individual of the disorganized majority. French nationalist and reactionary monarchist Charles Maurras influenced fascism. Maurras promoted what he called integral nationalism , which called for the organic unity of a nation, and insisted that a powerful monarch was an ideal leader of a nation. Maurras distrusted what he considered

12600-462: The outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Italian political left became severely split over its position on the war. The Italian Socialist Party (PSI) opposed the war but a number of Italian revolutionary syndicalists supported war against Germany and Austria-Hungary on the grounds that their reactionary regimes had to be defeated to ensure the success of socialism. Angelo Oliviero Olivetti formed

12726-507: The pack gun company had 8 47 mm anti-tank guns. From 1 March 1940, an MVSN Legion of two battalions was attached to most infantry divisions. This was to increase the manpower available to each division and also to include Fascist troops. The arrival of the Blackshirt Legions effectively restored the triangular form of the divisions they reinforced. The personnel, named Alpini , drawn from Italy's mountainous regions for

12852-409: The placement of national interests above those of the individual. Fascist regimes often advocate for the overthrow of institutions that they view as "liberal decay" while simultaneously promoting traditional values. They believe in the supremacy of certain peoples and use it to justify the persecution of other groups. Fascist leaders often maintain a cult of personality and seek to generate enthusiasm for

12978-406: The politics of greatness, power, and conquest aimed at creating a new order and a new civilization. Historian and cultural critic Ruth Ben-Ghiat has described fascism as "the original phase of authoritarianism, along with early communism, when a population has undergone huge dislocations or they perceive that there's been changes in society that are very rapid, too rapid for their taste". Racism

13104-488: The powerful German Army . The Royal Army even started to receive better and more modern armaments from the Italian industry, after the pressures from Mussolini to activate to the maximum the Italian "war machine". The result was a combined German and Italian offensive during the spring and summer of 1941 throughout the entire Mediterranean area: Mussolini sent an Italian army against the Soviet Union . In July 1941,

13230-560: The principal goal of achieving autarky (national economic self-sufficiency). Fascism's extreme authoritarianism and nationalism centres around the own group, but that can manifest as a belief in Manifest Destiny , revival of historical greatness (like Mussolini seeking to restore the Roman Empire) or in case of Nazism, racial purity or a master race which blended with some variant of racism or discrimination against

13356-491: The rebirth myth, (ii) populist ultra-nationalism, and (iii) the myth of decadence." In Griffin's view, fascism is "a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism" built on a complex range of theoretical and cultural influences. He distinguishes an inter-war period in which it manifested itself in elite-led but populist "armed party" politics opposing socialism and liberalism, and promising radical politics to rescue

13482-456: The regime by rallying massive crowds. This contrasts with authoritarian governments, which also centralize power and suppress dissent, but want their subjects to remain passive and demobilized. Scholars place fascism on the far right of the political spectrum . Such scholarship focuses on its social conservatism and its authoritarian means of opposing egalitarianism . Roderick Stackelberg places fascism—including Nazism , which he says

13608-428: The rights of man, democracy, individualism and liberalism—were being rejected in favor of "the ideas of 1914" that included "German values" of duty, discipline, law and order. Plenge believed that racial solidarity ( Volksgemeinschaft ) would replace class division and that "racial comrades" would unite to create a socialist society in the struggle of "proletarian" Germany against "capitalist" Britain. He believed that

13734-454: The state, and technology. The advent of total war and the mass mobilization of society erased the distinction between civilians and combatants. A military citizenship arose, in which all citizens were involved with the military in some manner. The war resulted in the rise of a powerful state capable of mobilizing millions of people to serve on the front lines, providing logistics to support them, and having unprecedented authority to intervene in

13860-537: The symbol of Falangism is five arrows joined by a yoke. Historian Ian Kershaw once wrote that "trying to define 'fascism' is like trying to nail jelly to the wall." Each group described as "fascist" has at least some unique elements, and frequently definitions of "fascism" have been criticized as either too broad or too narrow. According to many scholars, fascists—especially when they're in power—have historically attacked communism, conservatism, and parliamentary liberalism, attracting support primarily from

13986-460: The term had been used to denigrate diverse positions "in internal politics". Orwell said that while fascism is "a political and economic system" that was inconvenient to define, " as used , the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. ... almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist ' ", and in 1946 wrote that " 'Fascism' has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies something not desirable." Richard Griffiths of

14112-459: The term is often used pejoratively by political opponents. The descriptions neo-fascist or post-fascist are sometimes applied to contemporary parties with ideologies similar to, or rooted in, 20th-century fascist movements. Some opposition groups have adopted the label anti-fascist (often shortened to antifa ) to signify their stance. The Italian term fascismo is derived from fascio , meaning 'bundle of sticks', ultimately from

14238-713: The term to denounce the Soviet Union during the Sino-Soviet split , and the Soviets used the term to denounce Chinese Marxists, in addition to social democracy , coining a new term in social fascism . In the United States, Herbert Matthews of The New York Times asked in 1946: "Should we now place Stalinist Russia in the same category as Hitlerite Germany? Should we say that she is Fascist?" J. Edgar Hoover , longtime FBI director and ardent anti-communist, wrote extensively of red fascism . The Ku Klux Klan in

14364-412: The term with the ancient Roman fasces or fascio littorio , a bundle of rods tied around an axe, an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of the civic magistrate , carried by his lictors . The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break. Similar symbols were developed by different fascist movements; for example,

14490-420: The upgrade, these divisions were still not fully motorized. The divisions tended to rely primarily on non-divisional sources for transportation and were, therefore, only part-time motor-transportable. Mobile ( celere ) divisions were cavalry divisions that had undergone a level of mechanization. Each division had two cavalry regiments, a highly-mobile infantry ( Bersaglieri ) regiment, an artillery regiment, and

14616-413: The virile nature of violent action and war as being necessities of modern civilization. Marinetti promoted the need of physical training of young men saying that, in male education, gymnastics should take precedence over books. He advocated segregation of the genders because womanly sensibility must not enter men's education, which he claimed must be "lively, bellicose, muscular and violently dynamic." At

14742-405: Was a horsedrawn battery of 12 100 mm howitzers, a horsedrawn battery of twelve 75 mm guns, and a pack horse-mounted battery of 12 75 mm howitzers. In addition to the field pieces, there was a mechanized troop of eight 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Much Italian artillery was obsolete and far too reliant on horse transport. The mortar battalion typically had 18 81 mm mortars and

14868-636: Was a key feature of German fascism, for which the Holocaust was a high priority. According to The Historiography of Genocide , "In dealing with the Holocaust, it is the consensus of historians that Nazi Germany targeted Jews as a race, not as a religious group." Several historians, such as Umberto Eco, Kevin Passmore, and Moyra Grant, stress racism as a characteristic component of German fascism. Historian Robert Soucy stated that "Hitler envisioned

14994-771: Was an ad hoc unit composed of Libyan troops transported in trucks and was commanded by the unit's namesake, General Pietro Maletti . This partly motorized unit took part in the Italian invasion of Egypt in September 1940 and in the defense of the Nibeiwa Camp in December 1940 during Operation Compass . In addition to 2,500 Libyan troops in 6 battalions, the Maletti Group included a colonial artillery element and 2 coy of armor: 12 M11 medium tanks and 14 L3 tankettes. During 1942, attempts were made to increase both

15120-437: Was based on a revolt against materialism , rationalism , positivism , bourgeois society, and democracy . The fin-de-siècle generation supported emotionalism , irrationalism , subjectivism , and vitalism . They regarded civilization as being in crisis, requiring a massive and total solution. Their intellectual school considered the individual as only one part of the larger collectivity, which should not be viewed as

15246-862: Was destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad . In November 1942, with the arrival of the American Army in the Maghreb , the Italian Royal Army occupied Corsica and the French Provence up to the Rhone river. This was the last military expansion of Italy. The Battle of El Alamein , lasting from July to November 1942, was the turning point of the war for the Italians and the Allies. As Winston Churchill wrote in his Memories : "...before El Alamein we had only defeats, after El Alamein we had only victories...". The Italian Royal Army fought this battle in

15372-533: Was lastly followed by being placed in active reserve status until they were 54. Soldiers were recruited from their colonial empire as well such as in Ethiopia. For an Italian soldier to serve in the North African campaign they needed to "...meet only basic requirements such as their teeth being in order or being in reasonable health". Nearly four million Italians served in the Italian Royal Army during

15498-480: Was lax as those who were more well-off generally avoided military service and serving in the military largely fell on those belonging to the peasantry which made up nearly half of the country's population by 1940. The peasantry were poor, mostly illiterate, traditional and had a distrust of authority; because of this officers looked down upon their soldiers. Many Italian soldiers were poorly trained and would often surrender when being strongly under attack. Those living in

15624-557: Was not biological racism like in Nazism. Fascist philosophies vary by application, but remain distinct by one theoretical commonality: all traditionally fall into the far-right sector of any political spectrum , catalyzed by afflicted class identities over conventional social inequities. According to the Council on Foreign Relations , many experts see fascism as a mass political movement centered around extreme nationalism, militarism, and

15750-723: Was of significant assistance to the Spanish Nationalist cause and was involved in the Aragon Offensive and the "March to the Sea." Unfortunately for the Italian Royal Army, a large number of Italian weapons and supplies were utilized by the CVT or provided to Spanish Nationalists forces during this conflict. In 1939, Italy conquered Albania without difficulty and forced King Zog to flee. As would be expected, Italy suffered few casualties. But this occupation stretched to

15876-662: Was the Supreme Command ( Comando Supremo ). The Supreme Command featured an organic staff which functioned through its defense ministries and through its various high commands. The defense ministries were based on function and included a Ministry of War, a Ministry of the Admiralty, and a Ministry of the Air. The high commands were based on geographic regions and included Army Group West, Army Group Albania, Army Group East Africa, Army Group Aegean, and Army Group Libya. Below

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