A warrior regime unprepared for war
“The problem we have to analyse is not that
Fascist Italy had lost the war, its result was
already decided by the international balances of
power (shamefully misunderstood), but that it
had not been able to lead it with the intensity
that it promised, not even to save itself from the
collapse.” (Giorgio Rochat)
The paradox is that the result of twenty years
of dictatorship was a highly military regime
that revealed itself unable to be adequately
prepared for modern war. Resources were
insufficient,
the
majority
of
armaments
were obsolete and recruitment and training
methods were inadequate. On April 1940,
Marshal Badoglio wrote to Mussolini: “At this
moment our preparation is 40%.”