Was it Italy’s constant lack of war effort, or was it’s Italys’ loss in Sicily?
Or does it stretch further than that?
- Hitler not telling Mussolini what he was about to do next
- Hitler’s foreign policy sort of “forced” Mussolini to choose sides
- Italy was not ready for war (until 1942 according to Mussolini)
- Poor performance of Italian troops
- In North Africa it was not always clear who was in command
… comes to mind.
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When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, there was also tension between Germany and Italy about the region of Southern Tirol (Bolzano), which after WW1 has fallen to Italy, but, at least at this time, contained a majority German speaking population. Mussolini mideately suspected Hitle of trying to annex this region next. In the end there was a meeting (also portrayed in Charlie Chaplin#s movie “The Great Dictator”), where the two dictators agreed on a repopulation, the German speaking population of the region Bolzano (Southern Tirol) should be moved to neighbouring Austria.
Jan
BTW, there was also tension between Germany and Japan, after the 1936 introduction of the Nuremberg Racial Laws in Germany, which prohibited racially mixed marriages. Now during the 1920s, there existed a close relationship between Germany and Japan, which resulted in many mixed marriages. After the Nuremberg laws were introduced, the German authorities wanted to annul these marriages. The Japanese spouses complained to the Japanese embassy, which in turn informed the Japanese government. For a while it looked as if diplomatic relations were about to be cut, but then Germany made these Japanese-German marriages an exemption.
Jan