The Duce declares war on London and Paris: “There is only one password: to win”

There had been fighting in Europe for more than nine months, when Benito Mussolini looked up from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia, around 6 pm on June 10, 1940. Italy remained out of the war, alarming the Duce, but Now there are all conditions for its entry.

The armies of our German allies, having crushed Poland and treacherously conquered Denmark and Norway, have penetrated into Belgium, Holland and other neutral countries, and are making their way to France. British Expeditionary Forces were forced back across the English Channel by Adolf Hitler’s tanks. Paris would fall to the Wehrmacht in just four days, on June 14, 1940. At this point, waiting means self-exclusion from dividing the booty that promises to be prolific.

to be sure, Mussolini knows that the Italian armed forces are completely unprepared for a protracted struggle against powerful enemies. He made this clear to Hitler in August 1939, when the German autocrat asked him to step in on his side because he was going to enforce the Pact of Steel, signed in Berlin the previous May 22. But now the situation has completely changed: Germany’s blitzkrieg has brought it to its knees, and Great Britain seems to be in obvious difficulty. How can we not take advantage of this situation to expand Italian influence in the Mediterranean, where the British control Gibraltar, Malta and the Suez Canal?

The Duce, in a top-secret note dated March 31, 1940, laid out his plan for a parallel war. While the Third Reich expands in continental Europe, Italy will – according to the dictator – be able to do the same in the Balkans and North Africa.. The bloodless occupation of Albania, easily accomplished in April 1939, was a first step towards this goal. It is a matter of renewing the glories of the Roman Empire, even if the project endangers that very empire that Italy conquered in 1936 in East Africa and which is surrounded by British possessions.

Greeted by the roar of the crowd that had gathered in anticipation of his speech, Mussolini made the long-awaited announcement. It beats in the sky of the Fatherland, it cries out the hour of irreversible decisions. The declaration of war had already been delivered to the ambassadors of Great Britain and France. His son-in-law, Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, took steps at about 4.30pm. He does this with some reluctance, after trying for several months to avoid Italy’s intervention on the side of the Third Reich: he fears the Germans and their arrogance, and does not consider them reliable allies.

For Mussolini himself, the fatal choice was not easy to justify. He argues that the wealthy and reactionary democracies of the West will undermine the very existence of the Italian people, however Nothing else could bring in support of his statement than the company’s vile blockade of fifty-two countriesthat is, the sanctions applied to our country in 1936 for invading Ethiopia, are now outdated and outdated for some time.

The truth is that there are no reasonable reasons to go to war, other than a desire to honor the commitment made to Hitler by the Pact of Steel. But then it had to be done in September 1939, when hostilities began. Now the Duce does nothing but rush to the aid of the most likely winner. All that remains for him is to disguise the bitter reality with rhetoric, glorifying the struggle of the poor and many peoples in arms against the hungry, who fiercely monopolize all the riches and all the gold on earth.

Finally, Mussolini proclaimed the categorical and binding slogan for all, which is victory. The crowd erupted into deafening applause, however The reality of the conflict will soon take over the responsibility for denying such aggressive bluster. To win, you need the means, determination, operational plans, and clear ideas about what goals to pursue. Italy is lacking from every point of view.

A few months is enough to drop the illusions. The offensive in the Alps against France, now defeated by the Germans, did not produce any tangible results. The attack on Greece, which began on October 28, 1940, soon ended in disaster, with Greek forces repulsing the attack and advancing into Albanian territory. On the night between 11 and 12 November, British torpedo bombers attacked the port of Taranto by surprise, destroying three Italian battleships. In North Africa, Commonwealth forces overwhelmed those under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, and occupied all of Cyrenaica in February 1941. A month later in East Africa, the British captured the stronghold of Keren after heavy fighting and fought their way to Addis Ababa, which they entered on 6 April.

Less than a year has passed since the speech from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia and the situation already looks desperate. Mussolini ousted the Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, to replace him with Ugo Cavalero, but that didn’t help much. All that was left was to renounce the parallel war, wage it independently of Germany, and enlist Hitler’s help. German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Libya, causing the British a lot of trouble. Then Germany invaded Yugoslavia and attacked Greece, which also allowed Italy to create space for expansion in the Balkans.

The problem is that Frere’s plans know no bounds. June 22, 1941 The Third Reich attacks the Soviet Union and Italy joins in a crazy project. Then it was the turn of Japan, which in September 1940 signed the Tripartite Pact with Rome and Berlin: on December 7, 1941, aircraft departing from the aircraft carriers of a Japanese naval squadron attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands. And on December 11, Mussolini once again looked from the balcony onto Piazza Venezia to declare war on the United States. The atmosphere is not enthusiastic: one goes straight into the abyss.