Why Did Italy Betray Hitler in World War 2

The Italians may have spent some time on the wrong side of World War 2, but the ultimate betrayal of Hitler contributed to a win for the Allied Forces and the eventual downfall of Germany! Check out why the Italians sided with the Nazis in the first place in today's insane true history story.

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[ChristophProbst]

My Italian grandfather was taken prisoner by the Nazis, along with several other Italian men. The train that they were on to take them to one of the detention camps broke down. There were very strong men in the boxcar carrying my grandfather and they managed to break the door open to escape. He said that there were gunshots all around as they fled into the woods and that no one was able to stop to help the fallen, or else they would be shot too. My grandfather was among those to escape and made his way back to his family. They hid in caves before being able to eventually make their way to America.

[Vociferous]

Winston Churchill: “Italy is Europe’s soft underbelly”

Italy: *_If you’re trying to hurt my feelings then you’re succeeding_*

[yarnickgoovaerts]

Fun fact: before October 1941 the greece had no tank battalions.
Fun fact 2: the first greece tank battalion was completely made up of italian tanks

[brydon]

Well Italy did have a history of betraying Germany in times of war.

[-council]

Fun fact Italy never betrayed any one it had a civil war and the government shifted and so did it’s interests

[theaverageitaliandon]

Italy didn’t switch sides, a civil war started and the fascist government was pretty much outlawed and had to form a new puppet state ( la repubblica sociale Italiana), as a matter of fact there were components of the regio esercito fighting for both sides in many battles during the Italian theatre

[lancerevo]

I used to read a lot of WW2 comics as a child and I read one called "The wrong enemy"in which the Germans used to call the Italians the "spaghetti eaters"and used to maltreat their Italian mates. At the end a British officer said "I never saw soldiers fight like them Italians. Savages they were. Why the sudden change?" And the Italian officer Enzo Lanzini said, "we were fighting the wrong enemy at the start of the war".
Just a piece of my childhood memories this video revived 🙂

[brokenbridge]

I wonder "What if" Italy had never sided with Germany at all in WWII but instead sided with the Allies. I wonder what that would've done to world history.

[filippobelotti]

I think that telling italy betrayed german is historically inaccurate. Its more like that during ww2 there weee two italian countries when the partigian resistance started, when the allies arrived in southern italy mussolini fleed in the northern part of the country and there created the republic of Salò with the help of nazis forces, in a certain way it was the remnants of the fascist italy while in the rest of the territory a liberated italy was adfirming. Then not all the people were antifascist, but we can say that not all the italy always substained fascist regim and during the italian liberation this fact emerged.

[patrickstewart]

Well, it took almost 2000 years, but Italy finally payed Germany back for Arminius’s betrayal of Rome in the Teutoborg Forrest.
😁

[juliusevola]

Not quite true. The south did because of the invasion. Mussolini, giovanni and a few of the generals remained loyal.

[danieleziaco]

Not exactly true, Italy didn't switch it split up and a civil war started

[olksvms]

My great grandfather was in the Italian special forces and was captured by the US and was a POW when Italy switched to an allied faction US allowed Italy soldiers go back and support Italy but my great grand father said no and said I rather stay in America then be in a losing country

[kanyewestfmypp]

Short answer to the title: When American soldiers started coming to Italy, many Italians had siblings, cousins, friends and so on in America, so suddenly the idea of war against them started to become unpopular, then Italy got out of the war.

[untifosoromanistatorloni]

Fun fact my grandpa was captured by the biritish navy (being an italian) he was taken to britain and said he lived the best years of his life there, the british were not harsh at all he even had a girlfriend whom he then married

[pewyay]

don’t think Italy was a terrible ally, their navy and forces in Northern Africa was great, although they didn’t have a lot of success in North Africa, there was still a military presence that would be hard to invade

[randomness]

Germany: You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness! You were my brother Anakin! I loved you!

[kirkmorrison]

During the Battle of Britain the air support Italy sent included biplane squadrons. The did have a few absolutely modern fighters and other aircraft but they were few in number do to manufacturing and supply problems

[crazydud]

It is too bad Italy is mostly forgotten in WWII history. Their story is one of the most interesting.

[leonardok]

As an italian i feel very offended, detween 1943 and 1945 we went trought a real civil war, thousand of people died, we fought because half of the Italians still wanted mussolini, and the other half was loyal to the king.
It is a matter of fact that we were not traitor, we went trought more pain whit the truce rather than fought untill the end.