Mussolini - Father of Fascism Documentary

[Music] [Music] you [Music] the man known to history as Benito Mussolini was born on the 29th of July 1883 in the northern Italian town Aperta Pio his mother Rosa was a devout Roman Catholic as well as a school teacher which was a position that gave her family a better standard of living than the rest of Preta Pio's population as the Mussolini's were allowed to make their home within the school building during their son's adolescence Benito his father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and an ardent left-wing socialist who named his son after the left-wing president of Mexico Benito Juarez who was his idol and often attended local political meetings with Benito which no doubt had a considerable impact on his son during his early years given his mother's position it could be said that Benito should have had an advantage over other children in his age group however his parents soon became concerned over their son's inability to speak and feared him to be a mute but his mother's patient tutelage eventually produced the desired results and Benito soon proved himself to be an intelligent young man in contrast to this Alessandra was not nearly as caring or responsible with parents as Rosa as he was often away from home and proved to be reckless with money largely putting his own needs and desires before those of his family even though Benito idolized him perhaps as a result of this young Mussolini soon gained a reputation as a pest or bully making fun of the other children in his class and were pinched people during church services resulting in his unsuspecting victims crying out in pain for no apparent reason in 1892 Benito aged 8 was sent to a Catholic boarding school at which he performed well academically but his rebellious streak soon rose to the surface once again as he was an unruly pupil who bullied his fellow students and used violence and intimidation to get his own way but his temperamental nature soon landed Benito into trouble in his new school as he was expelled for stabbing another pupil with a pocketknife and after attending several more schools from one of which he was also expelled Mussolini eventually gained a teaching diploma in 1901 but after working as a schoolmaster decided he was not suited for the profession Benito then spent the next few months indulging his love of drink and women by visiting local brothels but was soon forced to leave Italy for Switzerland in 1902 partly to escape military service and after gaining work as a labourer he started attending socialist meetings in the Swiss town of Luzon he was around this time the Mussolini's gift for oratory began to manifest itself as he quickly became a leading figure within the far-left around loose an but he once again obtained a reputation for bullying and intimidating his fellow socialists and would often browbeat them into submission during this period benito also began working as a writer for a socialist newspaper named the future of the workers which was run by italian immigrants within Switzerland and it was the profession of journalism that would grant Mussolini both the platform and opportunity to gain notoriety over the coming decades and eventually lead him to become a prominent political figure within Italy itself being heavily influenced by his father who hated the Italian monarchy as well as capitalism Benito irregularly called for the overthrowing of democracy by violent means resulting in him being arrested the political agitation by the Swiss authorities on numerous occasions during this period Mussolini also argued against religion in the form of the Catholic Church as well as conscription to the armed forces which he had fled Italy to avoid and also claimed to be opposed to state censorship which would ironically later become one of his most effective means of control Mussolini then returned to Italy in 1904 after an amnesty was declared for deserters of military service which led to nearly five years of relative obscurity in which he once again took a job as a schoolmaster but Benito Singh grew tired of living a normal life and he then returned to his previous existence of extreme left-wing politics in 1909 when he became the editor of local socialist newspapers in northeastern Italy after which he moved to Milan at the age of 26 in 1914 Mussolini moved in with the young woman named Raquel II Guidi whom he had fallen in love with in 1909 and who was also born in Benito's hometown a produc but was seven years his junior the couple would go on to have five children together and would later marry in a civil ceremony in 1915 and gone to renew their vows in a religious service after Mussolini's rise to power in an effort to appease church-going Italians Benito had been writing articles for various socialist newspapers for some time and was quickly becoming recognized as rising influence within socialist circles indeed Mussolini was one of the first politicians to fully realize the potential the printed word could have in the spreading of ideas not to mention its potential for increasing his own Fame and celebrity as it is clear he was not only a gifted speaker but also a talented writer this newfound talent then prompted him to start his own newspaper titled la Lata de classe or the class struggle which gained him such notoriety that he was appointed in 1912 to be the editor of the foremost socialist newspaper in it named Avanti meaning forward under his guidance Avanti soon more than doubled its readership in which bonito voices anti militaristic and he nationalist and anti imperialist views and also argued initially against Italy's potential intervention in World War one soon after this versa Meany changed his views regarding Italy's involvement in the conflict and began writing articles expressing his support for the war and subsequently resigned from the editorship of Avanti which led to his expulsion from the Italian Socialist Party this was perhaps one of the most important turning points in Benito's life as he now began to embrace nationalism rather than socialism and were later merged the two ideologies into his most notorious creation that being fascism after this Benita then to the editorship of another newspaper named ill Popolo de Italia or the people of Italy which he would use to form and voices growing nationalistic views over the coming years the paper was backed by powerful Italian arms manufacturers as well as the French government who both wanted Italy to join the conflict against the Central Powers of Germany and austria-hungary and it was with the support of these powerful patrons that Mussolini continued to argue for intervention in the conflict until in May 1915 it's rejoined the Western Allies and declared war on the Central Powers however despite his celebrity status benito was then drafted into the italian army where he according to accounts served with distinction and fought against the Austrians for nine months before being wounded by an accidental mortar explosion muscley knee then after a long period of convalescence left the army to resume the editorship of a popular day italia had the best of its rich patrons and it is perhaps fair to say they're much like his fellow fascist dictator Adolf Hitler Benito's experiences of front-line combat during World War one did much to harden his nationalistic outlook Benito had returned to in Italy that was in the immediate post-war period crippled by widespread unemployment and growing unrest amongst his population which resulted in polarization between the country's political groups and led to the upper and middle classes becoming evermore concerned by the potential threat of the revolutionary far left mussolini then used his influences editor of a national newspaper to exploit this polarization by arguing for the need of a man who in his own words was ruthless and energetic to make a clean sweep this would eventually culminate in mussolini forming the revolutionary fascist party which was initially comprised people with various political persuasions such as discontented socialists and former italian soldiers in order to combat the growing threat of the country's communists the word fascism itself comes from the italian fasci which was a symbol of authority in ancient rome consisting of an axe head surrounded by a bundle of sticks which were carried by the attendants and magistrates who kept order in public meetings and also administered punishments on offenders Mussolini and his followers who wore black shirts then began to use violent tactics to crush any opposition to their ideology over the coming months and the fascist movement soon grew into a large-scale organization culminating in them holding regular mass rallies in which Benito would use his grasp at the written word as well as his bombastic self-confident persona to woo and persuade the masses it is perhaps no surprise that the fascists gained an upper hand in Italy during this period as after all the country's population on the whole had a religious conservative outlook and as Italy was in the center of the Roman Catholic world it is also perhaps no surprise that the far-right was aided against the left by the establishment who feared that a communist revolution may lead to the downfall of the monarchy the aristocracy as well as the church itself this grand swell of right-wing sentiment combined with Mussolini's aggressive tactics and journalistic propaganda machine soon resulted in the socialists being crushed throughout the country and by the time of the early 1920s the fascists were arguably the dominant political force within Italy as the majority of his major opponents were now dealt with Mussolini more and more turned his attention to the government or rather the overthrow or taking over of the government which had done little to interfere with the state of upheaval which Benito had in part created as it was dominated by moderate middle-class liberals who feared the far left more than they did the fascists Mussolini's power and influence within Italy then grew even further when the revolutionary fascist party won 35 seats in the Italian parliament during the 1921 elections and afterwards Mussolini agreed with his fellow fascist leaders to change the name of the movement to the national fascist party and the third fascist Congress in November 1921 by this time the far-right had effectively eliminated or replaced the vast majority of the country's unions however when the last vestiges of the socialist trade union movement called an anti-fascist general strike in July in 1922 Mussolini gave the government ultimatum that did they did not crush the unrest the fascists would save the state this strike was eventually ended however and then at a gathering of some 30,000 party members in Naples on the 22nd of October 1922 Mussolini stated that the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome which was met with rapturous applause and cries of approval from his masked supporters he then along with his party leaders resolved to march on the Italian capital four days later but he still hoped for a relatively peaceful takeover of power as the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel the third was still the country's head of state a Mussolini needed the King to summon him to take control as a violent takeover of the monarchy and government would not have been popular in Italy to say the least the fascist march on Rome then began on the 28th of October 1922 which prompted the Italian government under Luigi factor to ask the King to declare a state of siege which would have resulted in the italian army attempting to put down the fascist march but Victor Emmanuel refused to sign such an order probably fearing that the monarchy would be overthrown if the fascists defeated the Italian army the king then asked Mussolini to form a cabinet on the 29th of October 1922 leading to him arriving in Rome on the 29th after which he held a triumphant parade of his mass black shirts through the city and he was then officially recognized and appointed as head of government on the 31st of October Benito Mussolini was now the prime minister of the kingdom of Italy and he would later call his seizure of power a conquest but as king Emmanuel was still the head of state and technically his superior Benito was still bound by the country's constitution which would later become the instrument of his dismissal and the downfall of his fascist regime as well as this Mussolini was only the leader of a coalition government at this time which was comprised of many liberals from more moderate political parties and despite the growing oppression and political control Mussolini's enjoyed the country then experienced a relatively calm period this was perhaps due to the fact that many people with in Italy welcomed Mussolini's Premiership as they were tired of the constant strikes and unemployment which he now resolved to alleviate but the end to the chaos would in time come at the price of the end of Italian democracy which would over the coming decade be demolished in favour of a fascist police state however the rise to power of the fascist was not without repercussions which is perhaps best demonstrated by the kidnapping and murder by Mussolini's Blackshirts of the Socialist Party deputy Giacomo Matteotti in 1924 which severely damaged his reputation despite this setback Mussolini managed to hold on to power even though there was little doubt they he had sanctioned the murder and after a public outcry he was forced to act by arresting three suspects from within the fascist party only one of whom served any time in prison when Mussolini first came to power his coalition government adopted an economic policy based on free trade and tax reform which was headed by the talented liberal finance minister Alberta to stefani which culminated in the country benefiting from economic growth and low unemployment over the next few years this nationwide improvement is perhaps best exemplified by the famous saying that Mussolini was the man who made the trains run on time which could perhaps be explained by the fact that most trains had fascist guards on board was the more profitable and prestigious main lines of the country's railway network received large amounts of investment whilst the country's branch lines were left in the state of disrepair however this upturn in the Italian economy was not destined to last as d Stefani was dismissed after a devaluation in the Italian lira in 1925 after which Mussolini acted to take a greater degree of control of the Italian economy which was an act that may possibly have been made more likely by the fascist gaining a majority within the Italian parliament in the general election of 1924 which some say was rigged this apparent validation of his government combined with his newfound majority within the Italian parliament then enabled Mussolini on the 24th of December 1925 to pass the so-called Christmas Eve law which effectively made him accountable only to the king and ended any say Parliament had in a rule of the country this consolidation of power now prompted Mussolini to further extend his control over the entire country by finally outlawing any political opposition in which no citizen could hold any government or civil service position unless they carried the card of the fascist party in conjunction with this Mussolini began from 1925 onwards to be known by the title of ill duche or the leader of fascism amongst our the grandiose titles including head of government and his excellency although to the wider world he was still largely known as the Italian prime minister although many people in the modern world view fascism and communism to be polar opposites in terms of ideology it should be noted that the two forms of governance share many similarities as well as their obvious differences mo Cellini himself had after all spent much of his early life as an ardent follower of the ideas of Karl Marx and therefore it could be said that in many ways is ideological birth child fascism was born out of socialism or at least was a mutation of it or even a reaction to it with nationalism being the major difference between the two this is perhaps best exemplified in Mussolini's Italy and in National Socialist Germany by the fact that both regimes embrace socialist ideas in the running of their respective states which in simple terms meant that nothing happened within the country without the government's approval however both nations still incorporated a kind of highly regulated or controlled capitalism within their respective borders in which private companies worked under the direction of the Italian state rather than being consumed or run by the state entirely such as in the Soviet Union despite these differences Mussolini slowly increased his control or interference of virtually every aspect of the Italian economy from 1925 onwards until by 1934 he stated that three quarters of the Italian economy industry and agriculture lay in the hands of the state meaning that Italy was second only to the Soviet Union in terms of his nationalization this included the government how in control over which crops were grown on Italian farms which often led to a surplus of certain types of produce as well as shortages in others and when the Great Depression hit the Italian economy particularly hard in the early 1930s the collapse of the banking system inevitably resulted in further mistrust of capitalism leading to the state extending its influence over virtually every sector of the Italian economy this increased control has led some to claim that Mussolini's gradual nationalization of the Italian economy was born out of socialistic principles but on the other hand others have argued that his increasing interference in the Italian economy was nothing more than a power grab has taken control of the country's collapsed banks as well as the country's agriculture and heavy industry did nothing but grant him near total dictatorship however this control was in fact an illusion as the bailouts that the banks had already been paid for by massive loans which were more often than not obtained from foreign sources which did nothing but put Italy's national debt through the roof and meant that high interest payments on its loans were inevitable which the government would struggle to repay as the country and Italian population could not afford the necessary taxes for example in the year of the fascist rise to power in 1922 the Italian national debt stood at around 93 billion lira whereas 12 years later it had ballooned to 148 billion until in 1943 at the height of World War two the figure stood at a staggering four hundred and five billion this lack of cash was only made worse by the fact that nearly 50 percent of the Italian workforce was employed in low-paid agricultural jobs during the 1930s with only four percent working in heavy industry which Mussolini was desperate to rectify in order to transform Italy into an industrial power this could perhaps explain the later inability of Mussolini's Italy to sustain an industrialized war economy and could also explain the relatively poor quality of the majority of the equipment the Italian armed forces relied on during the Second World War which was often inferior to those used by its enemies and indeed its allies as with many if not all fascists and socialist governments long term prosperity was often sacrificed for short-term gain in the shape of state-funded projects but the root problem still remained however that being the relative weakness of the Italian private sector economy which was now crushed in favour of an in competitive state-run economy but the main goal for Mussolini at this stage was to maintain and increase his own power and also at least be seen to be making things better in the short term which thanks to his propaganda machine initially succeeded in convincing both those at home and overseas of the effectiveness of fascism and bringing in both order and prosperity to the kingdom of Italy however the Great Depression in the fast-approaching World War would first weaken then lay bare this facade of strength as the Italian economy was simply not strong enough to take the strain of these major events and it could even be said that Italy at this time had become the mirror image of Mussolini himself as both he and his country's power from the outside at least seemed to be considerable when in reality they were both deceptively weak or at least deeply flawed but not everyone in Italy was prepared to submit to Mussolini and his rule and various attempts were made on his life during the late 1920s including on one occasion when ill duche came within inches of being killed when a pistol bullet grazed his nose despite these attempts on his life Mussolini's fascist had effectively silenced any and all opposition by the early 1930s as by this stage he'll do chase power and influence were unrivaled and nearly all political opposition had either been silenced or forced underground this control is perhaps best exemplified but the complete stranglehold Mussolini enjoyed over the Italian mass media by the 1930s which culminated in him making himself the supreme editor of the press within Italy and he would on a daily basis review the nation's newspapers after which he would promote articles he approved of but also stopped any news he deemed to be inappropriate would potentially dire consequences for the journalists responsible but with this control and power came a sense of invulnerability as well as a reaffirmation of Mussolini's self-imposed superiority and ego as he began to more and more see himself as a Caesar like figure who was destined to make his country the regional and world power he felt to deserve to be this period of the late 1920s in which ill DJs reputation was never higher soon gained him the adoration and praise of many of Europe's fellow far-right parties and the leader of one of these Adolphe Hitler even wrote to Mussolini asking for an autograph around this time which was subsequently turned down as unbeknownst to the Italian dictator Hitler would in time effectively become the master not only of his fate but also that of Italy's as well Mussolini's rise to power had been a great inspiration to Hitler during his struggle to secure power himself in Germany during the late 1920s and the Fuhrer had in many ways modeled his own Nazi Party on Mussolini's fascists and would in time draw inspiration from Mussolini's example with regard to his suppression of political opposition and control of the press which the Third Reich's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels would improve on and master over the coming years despite his early rebuff to Hitler in all duche was soon forced to take the Nazis seriously after the party's rise to power in Germany in 1933 resulting in him a year later inviting Germany's new Fuhrer to a state visit of Italy in which Hitler was greeted with typical Italian fascist pomp and pageantry much to his displeasure as he had only requested an informal meeting with the Italian dictator this frosty relationship was temporarily thought by Mussolini being able to speak fluent German but despite this ill duche would in private claim that he did not like Hitler describing him as paranoid and their relations within severely damaged the year after Hitler's visit when Mussolini's ally the Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated by Nazi supporters in July of 1934 Hitler wanted to bring his homeland of Austria under his control but the murder of his Ally prompted Mussolini to threaten war with Germany and he then after the assassination moved Italian troops to Italy's border with Austria which temporarily produced the desired effect until ultimately Germany and Austria were unified in 1938 over the coming years Mussolini worked to improve relations with his many nations as possible and would often call Hitler a genius in public but insult him in private and also told the French and British he was with them in their opposition to Nazi Germany this was perhaps an intelligent strategy as a kept miscellanies options open in the event of a European war but his judgment would later backfire as he would eventually end up on the losing side another of Hilda chaise titles had been since the mid-twenties founder of the Empire the only problem being that the Italian Empire at this time consisted of the North African colony of Libya Eritrea on the Red Sea coast and Somalia on the western African coast the Indian Ocean it was because of the relatively small size of Italy's overseas colonies combined with the desire to attain more natural resources for Italy's industrial sector the lay of the heart of Mussolini's territorial ambitions and he soon identified what he thought to be an easy first target that being a Theo Pierre which was an ancient but poor kingdom that lay between Italian Eritrea and Somalia which too ill do J seemed to be an easily obtainable outlet for his imperialist ambitions therefore on the 3rd of October 1935 Italian forces invaded Ethiopia and by May of 1936 had captured its capital Addis Ababa after which Mussolini proclaimed an Italian victory but sporadic fighting would continue within the country for the next six years in which he'll do his forces committed various war crimes including the killing of entire Ethiopian villages and the use of poison gas which had been banned under international agreements since 1925 after the fall of addis ababa ill dude che claimed that the conquest of Ethiopia was a great victory but it was funded by yet more borrowing and proved the relative weakness of Italy's armed forces against an inferior enemy but despite this Mussolini was convinced both the superiority of his armies fighting abilities as well as his own brilliance as a military leader which gave him a full sense of security in confidence going forward in September of 1937 Adolphe Hitler invited Mussolini to a state visit of Germany which old duche no doubt arrived out feeling that he was meeting with an equal in Hitler given his recent conquests but he soon realized that Hitler's Germany was well on the way to surpassing his own country in terms of its infrastructure organization state control and most importantly its military which was fast becoming one of the best in Europe if not the world an immediate sign of change in the balance of power can arguably be seen shortly after Mussolini's visits Germany has upon returning to Italy he enacted new laws to severely restrict the rights and freedoms of the country's Jewish population which overnight saw Jews throughout Italy being treated as pariahs and ill do trade then ordered the printing of anti-semitic newspaper articles in order to appease Nazi Germany from this point on Mussolini would become more and more subservient and intimidated by the ever growing strength of Hitler's Third Reich and even ordered his own soldiers to adopt the Nazi goose-step in parades as he began to align himself more and more with his northern neighbor it is fair to say at this stage that he'll do J had calculated that Hitler was stronger than the Western allies of France and Britain and thusly saw to align himself with the Fuhrer but in doing so he more and more played second fiddle to Hitler who was now on a collision course with the Western Allies and in aligning himself with the Third Reich Mussolini bound both his own fate as well as that of his countries to Nazi Germany for better or for worse for the time being however Germany was in the ascendancy and in the lead-up to World War two ildo che oversaw the agreement between Nazi Germany Britain and France which handed over the Sudetenland areas of Czechoslovakia to Hitler in the Munich Agreement of 1938 the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had asked Mussolini's government to help persuade Hitler not to embark on his planned invasion of Czechoslovakia after which ill DJ telegraphed the Fuhrer telling him that whatever happened that he would be on his side but also asked for delay to the start of the German invasion in the hope that a peaceful resolution could be found the four premiers of Germany Italy France and Britain then met on the 29th of September 1938 at which an agreement was reached to hand over the Sudetenland areas of Czechoslovakia to Germany on the condition that Hitler did not seek any more territorial conquests on the continent this conference was hailed as a success by Neville Chamberlain who proclaimed the Munich and secure peace in our time but unbeknownst to Chamberlain Hitler was still bent of militaristic expansion and in backing down over Czechoslovakia the Western Allies did nothing but convinced both Hitler and ill duche of the relative weakness ultimately Germany reneged on the Munich Agreement six months later by annexing the remainder of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 which made war virtually inevitable as Hedlund now had designs of further conquest to the east in the shape of poland which would be the spark that would like to fire that was the Second World War emboldened and perhaps envious of Hitler's success ile du chain then ordered Italian forces to invade Albania in April 1939 which after five days proved to be successful and having now shown himself to be Germany's true diplomatic and military partner both Mussolini and Hitler then formalized their alliance on the 22nd of May 1939 by signing the pact of Steel Treaty which for better or for worse meant that Italy's fate was now irrevocably tied to that of Germany's in signing this agreement Mussolini had gambled that Hitler would be victorious in any forthcoming war but despite the grandiose title of the pact of Steel the treaty was largely a one-sided affair as ill duche would in reality only commit his armies to fighting the Western Allies when he felt sure victory was certain this reluctance to join the war immediately was largely due to the fact that Italy's armed forces were still not ready for prolonged conflict and Mussolini also heard that the Fuhrer would delay the commencement of hostilities until he was ready however Hitler was working to his own timetable and after formalizing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union on the 23rd of August 1939 he gave the go-ahead for the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September which prompted both Britain and France to declare war on Germany two days later despite Hillis successful invasion of Poland ill DJ continued to wait to see how Germany's forces would fare against the Western Allies but after the Fuehrer's whirlwind advance across France in the summer of 1940 Mussolini now feared that Italy would be eclipsed by Hitler's Germany and even though his armed forces were not yet ready the Italian dictator now felt emboldened enough to join the conflict and declared war on the Allies on the 10th of June 1940 surely before this on the 29th of May 1940 Mussolini had finally persuaded the Italian King Victor Emmanuel who is technically the supreme commander of the country's armed forces to hand over his authority to him and on the 11th of June that King gave a proclamation which named Mussolini as supreme commander of the armed forces operating on all fronts after the Armistice was signed completing France's surrender on the 22nd June 1940 Mussolini predicted that Britain would itself soon be overwhelmed but it's successful withdrawal of over 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in the lead-up to the fall of France and allowed the island nation to reinforce both its home defences as well as those of his empire perhaps the most crucial of these was Egypt and the Suez Canal which was not only the fastest route from Britain to India and the Far East but was also a gateway to the Middle East which was the source of the vast majority of Britain's oil supply this meant that losing Egypt would almost certainly force Britain to seek peace terms with the Axis powers of which Britain's new para Minister Winston Churchill was well aware and in the weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation he sent considerable reinforcements to Egypt in the build-up to Italy's attempted invasion Mussolini himself had long dreamt of resurrecting the Roman Empire as he wanted the Mediterranean Sea to become an Italian lake and as France was no longer a threat in the region and Britain was greatly weakened after the fall of France ill DJ calculated that this was the time to strike he then ordered the Italian 10th army to cross the Libyan Egyptian border on the 9th and 10th of September 1940 after which he advanced towards Alexandria and Cairo but despite early successes the Italian forces were met and pushed back by British forces and Archibald Wavell in the humiliating defeat that was Operation compass that effectively ended ill do chase hopes for establishing a new roman empire in a matter of months in which he lost some 150,000 troops dead wounded and captured whilst this encounter was taking place it became commonplace for entire Italian divisions to surrender to the British in their thousands as many of muscly soldiers were conscripts who had little desire to die fighting in his Wars and this was a pattern that would come to repeat itself across North Africa Russia and Italy itself as ill do chase troops were not nearly as motivated well-equipped or trained as Hitler's armed forces Mussolini had in short overestimated his troops willingness to fight and greatly underestimated the capabilities of his enemies to resist him which in turn severely damaged Germany's own chance of success in world war ii as they now had to prop up their weakened allies who were now little more than a liability although we often think of the North African campaign as being dictated by the brilliance of the commanders involved such as Owen Rommel and burnin Montgomery in reality what really decided the outcome of the African and Mediterranean campaigns was the struggle for domination of the skies and the mediterranean sea itself and the start of the war Italy had boasted one of the most modern and powerful fleets in the world which Mussolini had intended to use to secure supply shipments to and from North Africa and simultaneously wrestle control of the Mediterranean from the British Royal Navy the Italian fleet by this time far outnumbered and outmatched the British Mediterranean fleet and consisted of scores of powerful modern warships including seven battleships eleven cruisers 61 destroyers and over 100 submarines against the four battleships six light cruisers and 20 destroyers of the Royal Navy this meant that to defeat the Italians the British would have to use every trick in the book and the Royal Navy was fortunate that the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean feat Andrew Brown Cunningham or ABC as he was known was one of the most capable Admirals of the entire Second World War Cunningham whose ships for older slower and outgunned by Italy's modern battleships knew that he needed to inflict a decisive blow on his enemy as soon as possible in order to secure Britain's own supply shipments in the Mediterranean and thusly devised a plan to [ __ ] the Italian fleet in one fell swoop by attacking his main naval base at Taranto in southeast Italy this attack then commenced on the 11th and 12th of November 1940 in which the British assaulted a dr. Italian fleet at Toronto with 21 obsolete swordfish torpedo bombers and after the chaos of the attack and died down one Italian battleship had been sunk and two more were heavily damaged this raid marked the beginning of the end of the age of the battleship and gave the Japanese Imperial Navy fresh inspiration for their own forthcoming attack on the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor in which they also used carrier-borne aircraft to attack their enemy's fleet at anchor the biggest loser of the raid at Toronto was undoubtedly Mussolini himself as the strength of the Italian Navy in terms of its capital ships were hard overnight and this loss was then further compounded by the Italians losing another engagement with the Royal Navy in the battle Cape Matapan in March of 1941 in which Cunningham once again defeated the Italian Navy meaning that it never again posed a threat to British supremacy in the Mediterranean after his invasion of Egypt had failed ill dude che ordered the invasion of Greece through Albania in October of 1940 which led to another military disaster in which the Italians lost another 100,000 troops Hitler had by this time lost all confidence in his ally and realizing that his alliance with Mussolini's Italy was now more of a hindrance rather than a help resolved to send his own German troops to rectify the Italian reversals in Greece and North Africa which crucially delayed his planned invasion of the Soviet Union and perhaps was the root cause of Hitler's failure to capture Moscow before the onset of the Russian winter in late 1941 [Music] to rectify what he saw as Mussolini's blunders the Fuhrer then issued directive 22 on the 11th of January 1941 in which he sent an Africa Corps under when Rommel to intervene in North Africa in February and also diverted more troops to secure Greece in April over the next two years Rommel caused chaos in North Africa meaning that the Italians increasingly took a back seat of cross the Mediterranean until the Africa Corps was itself decisively defeated in the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt in 1942 and was forced into a fighting retreat until Tunisia finally fell in a pincer movement between the British and the newly arrived Americans in May of 1943 the fall of North Africa as well as America now sending large numbers of troops to Europe made Italy and particularly Sicily a prime target for Allied invasion which then began on the 10th of July 1943 with operation husky and after a brief fight which lasted just over a month Sicily found the Allies then wasted no time by starting the invasion of mainland Italy itself a month later ill do chase health was in decline by this time as the gravity of his mistakes became more and more apparent to him and as he was now out of control of events steps were then taken to remove him from office until ultimately the Italian fascist grand council voted to replace him on the 25th of July 1943 and afterwards King Victor Emmanuel summoned Mussolini to Rome and told him that the war was lost and he then appointed marshal Pietro Badoglio as prime minister after this Mussolini was arrested and imprisoned but Hitler had bide his time determined to occupy Italy himself in the summer of 1943 in order to halt any allied advance and thusly moved German troops into the country was the Allies in turn advanced north from southern Italy to meet them despite his massive mistakes and incompetence Hitler would ultimately remained loyal to Mussolini and then determined to rescue his old Ally who was being held in the campo imperatore which was a mountain resort in central Italy east of Rome the Fuhrer then sent a force of paratroopers in gliders to rescue El Duque in the Gran Sasso raid on the 12th of September 1943 which was a complete success and Mussolini was taken back to Germany without a shot being fired in a small stock aeroplane which was capable of short takeoffs and landings before Mussolini's rescue prime minister peddled leo and signed an armistice with the Allies from the 3rd of September 1943 but was now forced by Hitler's occupation of the northern half of Italy to declare war on Germany in October in support of the Western Allies Hitler then appointed Mussolini as the leader of a German puppet state in northern Italy named the Italian Socialist Republic in September 1943 and the country was now firmly divided in two with Mussolini's Nazi back state in the north along with the Kingdom of Italy backed by the Western Allies in the south El Duque was now completely under Hitler's thumb by this stage and had little say in the wars conduct or outcome in his own country which had self proved to be a bloody struggle through the hilly and rough terrain of Italy earning the campaign the nickname of Hitler's tough old gut the outcome of the war was now inevitable however and Rome soon fell to the Allies in the 4th of June 1944 which was overshadowed by the d-day landings two days later and after this the Germans were forced to withdraw north after which they once again stood firm Mussolini was now a shadow of his former self by this time and was effectively a prisoner rather than an 'hi as he was now under a 24-hour SS guard who monitored his telephone calls and restricted his movements the fighting in Italy was in many ways a sideshow to the Eastern Front and the Allies advanced through France and therefore the Italian campaign continued at a snail's pace for the next few months until the Germans were finally forced to withdraw from the majority of the country in the later winter and spring of 1945 during this retreat Mussolini hoped to accompany a group of German soldiers north in order to get across the Swiss border after which he also planned to find his way to the relative safety of fascist Spain but he was soon discovered hiding in the back of a truck by group of pro-communist partisans on the 27th of April 1945 and was afterwards then taken into custody mussolini was then transported along with his mistress karla Petacchi to the village of guellen además agra where they spent their last night alive and then a day later on the 28th of April 1945 Benito Mussolini was shot by firing squad along with his mistress and a number of his followers their corpses were then taken to Milan where they were strung up in front of a crowd of thousands until they were cut down and dragged through the streets whilst being spat on and kicked by the angry mob and afterwards the former dictators body was then buried in an unmarked grave in the misako Cemetery in Milan and later reburied in his hometown of Pratap you where it remains to this very day the vast majority of the Italian people whose country are now been devastated by the war did not mourn Mussolini's passing and in the years following World War two democracy was restored to Italy resulting in the new neo-fascist Party of Italy only receiving 2% of the vote in the elections of 1948 during his lifetime benito mussolini went from being a schoolteacher to founding fascism and attempting to recreate the roman empire by joining with adolf hitler in world war ii in which he gambled both his own future as well as that of the country he loved in his dictatorship of Italy Mussolini built a police state that rivaled that of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as his control over Italy was near total as he crushed all opposition and eliminated anyone who he considered to be a threat he is also considered to be responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and executions within Italy which were carried out on his instructions and it is also claimed that during his invasion of Ethiopia were Cellini's troops committed war crimes and murdered tens of thousands of innocent civilians there's been a great deal of debate since his downfall regarding Mussolini's true intentions during World War two a son claimed he was a mere opportunistic ruler who sought to capitalize on the weakness of his enemies to seize territory and power whilst others claimed he was an intelligent calculating dictator who backed the right side in June 1940 but ultimately fell due to his allies blunders as well as his own there are also questions regarding his personality as some have claimed that he showed narcissistic traits whilst others state that his wars were not vanity projects designed to swell his ego but were instead born out of a need to unite his country against its enemies and in the process draw the Italian populations attention away from the country's ailing economy even though he was the founder of fascism Mussolini was in the end eclipsed by his one-time admirer Adolf Hitler and in the end became his servant as did Italy itself for both Hitler and Mussolini Zehra goons proved to be their undoing as they started wars they could not hope to win which ultimately resulted in both of them along with fascism itself being finally defeated in the spring of 1945 what do you think of Benito Mussolini was he an egotistical megalomaniac or a calculating dictator who was overcome by events and simply banked the wrong side let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] you [Music] you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: zkHDDzynA6I

Length: 49min 33sec (2973 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019