say , the Italian experience is a good discussion topic . Despite the rhetoric , they knew they were not ready for the war , il Duce entered the war only because Germany would claim all the spoils and England seemed beaten . Many of his people seemed unconvinced , say Graziani refused tackling the Brits in Egypt ; Cairo might have fallen and he would end strung up in a tree ... He had the post after the preferred candidate was shot down by Italian flak in error , "naturally" . Something one does not see often regarding the poor Italian performance in WW2 is that they were really cultured guys , having read about Ceasar , and his fresh legions . In return the Western Allies spent 1942 with dreams of what to do with the Italian "surrender" . The brilliant idea they came up with was lulling the Italians with promises of "Long terms" and presenting the "Short Terms" in the last moment well aware that the Germans were already massing troops . The idea was Italians would have to fight for their lives because of their betrayal , accounting for more Germans . And to make sure this would happen exactly as planned , they made a show of debates of landing in France or Italy and the needs of the Pasific which meant amphibious lift was parcelled , limiting the forces the Allies could deploy . Contrast this with Bulgaria 44 , where the Soviets were just over the border with massive forces . Quite a lot of Germans were safely taken back , but those who were caught in mountain passes were not . More effective Partizans as the Germans could not stop to fight . A properly prepared Italian offensive would have meant the loss of any German forces below Rome as Wehrmacht was itself expecting it . One must avoid too much harping about the longsightedness of the Anglosaxon war making , as Clausewitz seems to be quite right about the war and politics , but then this is the right place to say that the Italian partizans justifiably complained about the Allied supply airdrops , since more toilet paper than ammunition arrived . As it is the Italian Blitz fizzled , saving thousands of lives - of civilians at least- and the campaign became yet another saga of German defensive successes . It then became de rigour to explain the events in a strategic brilliance , see the Allies were holding up many Germans in Italy and those railroads running through the Alps liimited their supplies so they were not of much use . God forbid , with good LOCs , they might do hell ... The said mentality finds it extremely frustating that their counterparts refuse to believe in anything thay say . While the personal integrity is never in doubt , the SOP is never believing that one single word of what has been promised will be kept , due to "external" reasons .