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What was wrong with the rest of the country. In fact, most of the horrible things Mussolini did only started after he align with Hitler, not like that had anything to do with his failures militarily though. Those were all on him.
Seriously? It was those things that made the Italian army bad. Other then that, they were very skilled & brave. You tell me what else could've made them fail!
What is this? Some kind of perverse "stabbed in the back" theory? Oh, our glorious military would have won had they not been let down by the politicans, the industrialists and the people.
Italy's only chance for getting through WW2 in positive shape was to simply not get involved in WW2. Italy lacked the will and resources to fight a modern war regardless of who was in charge of the country.
Italy's resources were sucked out by Hitler & maybe a different leader could rally the troops to be more up to it. Do you see what I'm trying to get at here?
Italy's resources were sucked out by Hitler & maybe a different leader could rally the troops to be more up to it. Do you see what I'm trying to get at here?
It must have been the terrible drain of military talent which Italy suffered when Abe Lincoln allowed all those Italians into the U.S. (See Italian Commando's recent post in the thread about who really won WWII).
I know Italy was weak during WWII as Hitler had to rescue Italy several times. Do you think that Mussolini would have made Italy a power had it not been for Hitler more or less forcing him to allie with Germany in the 1930's or do you think even without Hitler and the Nazi Germany that Italy would have been a average European country.
Mussolini might have been able to keep Italy neutral during the war. He would have had to do the bare minimum necessary to keep Hitler satisfied, such as providing several "volunteer" units to serve in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
Franco managed to keep Spain out of the war. Portugal also stayed neutral. Both were right wing dictatorships at the time, similar to Italy.
Mussolini had invaded and annexed Ethiopia and in 1939 he annexed Albania. Had he kept Italy neutral he might have gotten away with both conquests. Italy also might have done well economically by staying out of the war and selling to both the Germans and the Allies.
Instead he took Italy into the war in order to gain some new territories and instead lost Italy's entire empire. The exhausted Allies (Britain and France) also lost their African Empires.
Its ironic that little Portugal, neutral in WW2, managed to hold onto its African territories until the 1970s while the three above major powers all lost theirs earlier. If Italy stayed neutral she might have held onto her Empire until the 1970s also.
I know that Mussolini along with Clara Petacci were shot and strung up upside down afterwards however what eventually happened to their bodies? Were they secretly buried or were they cremated?
Italy's resources were sucked out by Hitler & maybe a different leader could rally the troops to be more up to it. Do you see what I'm trying to get at here?
Yes, I see what you are getting at. All you need to do is rewrite the entire history of the war and Italy during that period and they might have a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of the war in possession of Libya, Albania and Ethiopia...Viva l'Italia!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Six Foot Three
NJGOAT
I know that Mussolini along with Clara Petacci were shot and strung up upside down afterwards however what eventually happened to their bodies? Were they secretly buried or were they cremated?
Here's a good site including pictures that tells some of the story.
There were several others executed along with him and over 1,000 in total during the fascist purges. As for the bodies...
Almost all of the fascists that were executed around the time of Mussolini were buried in Musoco Cemetery in Milan. This is where Clara Petacci was buried after her body was taken down. As for Il Duce, it got a little more convoluted. He was buried in Musoco, but then a year later three fascists dug him up. They put his body in a trunk and then hid it at first in a convent and then in a monastary in Parvia. The local police chief confiscated it and then hid it away for another 10 years. Eventually Mussolini's wife, Donna Rachele, managed to secure the body and it was buried in 1957 in Mussolini's family plot in Predappio.
There is also some controversy over whether or not American soldiers witnessed what happened and apparently the 91st Recon Squad may have actually been present, or at least seen the bodies on display. You can see some of them in the pictures on the linked website.
I know that Mussolini along with Clara Petacci were shot and strung up upside down afterwards however what eventually happened to their bodies? Were they secretly buried or were they cremated?
I read in a biography on him that it eventually ended up in a museum in Italy.
There were several others executed along with him and over 1,000 in total during the fascist purges. As for the bodies...
Almost all of the fascists that were executed around the time of Mussolini were buried in Musoco Cemetery in Milan. This is where Clara Petacci was buried after her body was taken down. As for Il Duce, it got a little more convoluted. He was buried in Musoco, but then a year later three fascists dug him up. They put his body in a trunk and then hid it at first in a convent and then in a monastary in Parvia. The local police chief confiscated it and then hid it away for another 10 years. Eventually Mussolini's wife, Donna Rachele, managed to secure the body and it was buried in 1957 in Mussolini's family plot in Predappio.
There is also some controversy over whether or not American soldiers witnessed what happened and apparently the 91st Recon Squad may have actually been present, or at least seen the bodies on display. You can see some of them in the pictures on the linked website.
I read in a biography on him that it eventually ended up in a museum in Italy.
Not a very well researched biography then, unless you meant "mausoleum", but even that wouldn't be right, it's more of a crypt. Mussolini's body is at his families tomb in Predappio Italy and was buried there in a rather public manner in 1957 following a court battle between Mussolini's widow and a police chief who had been hiding the body. You can go visit it. Predappio is near San Marino within the geographic triangle formed by San Marino, Bologna and Florence. When I was in Italy it was one of the stops offered on some of the sightseeing tours, but I have not personally been there.
It draws a large crowd of Italian fascists several times a year...
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Thoughts on Mussolini
