Mussolini naturally did not dare to disobey the head of state.
The result is--
In the Battle of Sicily, Hitler sent many ace generals to lead an army of 300,000 to resist the Allied landing force of 200,000. But he never expected that Italy would appear in his team.
Some people must be very curious, how did the Italian army suffer such a crushing defeat and drag down the head of state step by step?
At the beginning of the battle, the Allies set their sights on the fascist Italian army. Thinking of the Italian army's past performance on the battlefield, the Allies unanimously decided to fight a "psychological war" with the Italian army first. Indirectly weakening the German defense. To this end, the Allied forces specially dropped surrender leaflets on the positions defended by the Italian army. The leaflets were simple and clear. Without exception, they called on Italian soldiers not to make unnecessary sacrifices for the Germans. As long as they held this "surrender certificate", they would receive preferential treatment after the war.
Soon multiple planes were hovering over the Italian army. Just when they thought the Allies were going to carry out a bombing, they unexpectedly discovered that what fell from the plane was not a single big bomb, but many colorful pieces of paper. What happened next shocked Hitler. After reading the leaflet, these Italian soldiers yearned for the beautiful life depicted above. He actually rushed to the Allied position with a leaflet and asked with a virginal face: Is what the "surrender certificate" said true?
The Allies were very surprised. The prisoners were treated well immediately. So from then on, a large number of heavily armed Italian troops came to surrender every day. Some even climbed over the trenches to the US military positions to ask for "surrender certificates" so that they could take them back to their comrades. In this way, the Italian army became the "order issuer" of the US military. This is much better than the U.S. military's aircraft delivery under anti-aircraft fire. It is unbelievable to say that the Allies directly captured hundreds of thousands of heavily armed Italians with just the "surrender certificate".
This scene was really mixed in the eyes of the German army. Whenever the charge horn sounded, the Italian army did not charge with the German army, but instead waved to the German army from the Allied camp that ran to the opposite side first. You all understand what it means, brothers, stop fighting, come and drink and dance around the fire!
Regarding this scene that really happened, I am not sure whether it was the famous German general Rommel who once jokingly said: "It would be best if Italy declares war on me. I only need 10 divisions to destroy it; if he remains neutral, I will It takes 20 divisions to monitor him; if he is an ally, that's bad, I need 50 divisions to protect him."
It was similar to the fact that a joint operation was agreed upon, but the result was that the Italian army "ran away as soon as the guns were fired", which made the German army miserable.
Mussolini’s fascist Italian Army was to Hitler’s Nazi German Army what Wang Jingwei’s Imperial Army was to fascist Japan’s Kwantung Army.
Of course, the most capable ones are the Italian guerrillas.
You know, the Allies have huge differences in their views on many aspects. Only the recognition that Mussolini’s fascist government and the Italian army were “pig teammates” was surprisingly unanimous.
But now comes the problem.
I don’t know who is behind this. Using the real-life shooting of the sensational "Battle" war movie, the Italian Coastal Division was given a large-scale exercise comparable to actual combat. It mobilizes the subjective initiative of Italians full of artistic cells to the greatest extent. Not only did he take the lead in filming various high-intensity war scenes, he even participated in the collective creation of the script with great enthusiasm. It even automatically eliminated some plots that did not conform to military common sense and war methods, greatly optimizing the shooting effect. This was also greatly appreciated by the director of Venice, who is also Italian.
He even required that small roles with a single appearance and one or two lines must be selected from the army.
There is a saying that art originates from life and is higher than life.
Sicily, which was played out by Italy, really made the Allied spies look stupid.
Forget about the cameras and rails carefully positioned to hide yourself as much as possible. In front of this fierce and fearless iron army, there is not even a trace of pig teammates. Those faces with great camera sense and expressiveness have been repeatedly baptized into resoluteness by the flames of war. They are perfect group portrait performances full of camera tension.
"You know? Many times, as long as the director shouts 'Action', the entire set will instantly enter the state." Standing on the hillside, overlooking the Sicilian beach where the "Beach Landing Battle" is being fiercely filmed, a man and a woman Two Allied spies share an unspeakable fear.
"It's getting closer and closer to the start of the landing battle. Right under our noses, this director from Venice has unknowingly created an unprecedentedly powerful Italian coast division." The spy pretending to be an actor watched The script book in the eye's hand: "The plot of today's shooting is 'Beach Combat'. The script assumes that the Allied advance troops have successfully landed on the beach, and what the Italians have to do is to use all means to drive the enemy into the sea."
"The Italian Coastal Division has backward equipment and low morale. No one expects them to be able to resist the Allied joint landing. The key is the mobile deployment of 4 Italian mechanized divisions and 2 German divisions." The spy posing as an actress seemed a little nervous. Cheer yourself: "I don't know if they will be transferred before the war starts according to the established plan."
"I heard news from Berlin that Hitler himself was convinced that the Allied operations in Sicily were just a feint attack before the main attack on Sardinia. Don't worry, the Nazis will soon transfer the main force defending the island."
"That's good. After all, we are making a movie. The intensity of the war is at best comparable to a live-fire exercise. The Italians performing hard on the beach are just a bunch of ragtag people who have never seen iron and blood. When the war really starts, all the performances will be instantly forgotten. Exposed. The application soldiers in front of the cameras were beaten back to their true nature of greed for life and fear of death."
After saying that, the female spy talked about personal matters again: "By the way, dear, is your sleepwalking better?"
"I haven't done anything wrong in the past year, Sarah." The male spy was very confident.
"That's good. Be careful, Harry. Don't let anything go wrong at this juncture." The female spy glanced at her watch: "I'll be here soon."
"Don't worry, (me) you know it. If you don't take action, you'll be fine. If you do, you'll hit." The male spy smiled and said, "What are you going to do today?"
"A female nurse who saves lives and heals the wounded." The female spy cleared her throat: "Doctor, we have used up all the medical kits!"
"Listen Sarah, let's go find it again." The male spy responded to the lines.
"Yes! Doctor." The female spy showed herself in the shaking operating compartment of the German Sdkfz 251/8 half-track armored ambulance.
"Quick, tourniquet." The male spy stretched out his hand.
"I have morphine injections, iodine, and sulfonamide powder, but I don't have a tourniquet!" The female spy once again demonstrated the scene of rummaging through the armored vehicle's medical kit.
"Sarah, give me a pair of nylon stockings!"
"Yes, doctor!" The female spy lifted up the skirt of her nurse's uniform and untied the sling of her nylon stockings.
