Is Mussolini a burden rather than ally for Germany in WW2?

Answer 1

For the most part, yes. Italy did little to help the Axis powers in the war, aside from not being an enemy. Italy carried out no major invasions aside from North Africa, which they lost and Germany had to send reinforcements to assist them, under Erwin Rommel (AKA Desert Fox). However, it was partially because of Mussolini that Hitler decided to start his Blitzkrieg. It always helps to have allies in a war. Hitler probably would've sparked a war in the end anyways, even without Mussolini. In my opinion, Mussolini dragged Germany down, especially in Africa. The amount of resources and time spent there could've been much more useful elsewhere, such as the invasion of Russia and the Battle of Stalingrad. He was still an ally though and any loyal ally is a good ally. That's just my opinion though.

Answer 2

That question is somewhat unfair to ask simply because at the time of entry into WWII, Italy had already been in a colonial expansion campaign in Abyssinia (Ethiopoia), and its military was really under-supplied. But Italy did not bring much to the partnership with Germany because the country itself lacked the advanced level of industrialization that was present in Germany. I saw some figures that showed Germany produced 4 times anything that came out of Italy at even its peak levels of production. Don't forget that the Italian invasion of Albania and its failed campaign of toppling the Metaxas regime in Greece was a HUGE burden on the Italians and eventually became a burden for the Germans. The Italian army could not even maintain the armed forces that it had at the time, let alone invading. In terms of military offerings, the Italians lacked lots of pieces simply because it didn't really have any natural resources to stay at war. Another example would be that Italy had to import almost all of its oil from shipping, which does not help when you have one of the largest navies afloat. If you are interested in the status of the Italian military, you might want to check out the Bosworth source. I hope that very brief overview helps.

Answer 3

Actually the fascist movement began in Italy. Under Mussolini, who was a socialist editor until he began his activism to change Italy, the so-called "Black Shirts" (who were copied by Hitler's Brown Shirts) bullied their way into the prominence of the Fascisti, or Italian Nazis, which were again copied by the Germans. The Italian words refers to the Roman Empire's "fascii" or bundle of rods bound together to increase their strength a thousand-fold. The Hitler salute was also a copy of the Romans' "hail caesar" salute.

Answer 4

Mussolini was more of a burden for Hitler because everytime he did something like invade egypt i belive hitler always had to come and bail him out and that distracted hitler even more and he would have less troops to help in other parts were he needed them more.

Answer 5

Mussolini didn't really do much for Germany other than like Hitler. He really didn't create any burden, but his theories did entice HItler to be as harsh as he was

Answer 6

burden really Hitler had to bail the Italians out so many times Greece Africa are the two big ones causing German forces to be there instead of places they could have been like Normandy or even Russia

Answer 7

Yes.