Land warfare around the Mediterranean: 1940-1941

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

[chesschad]

I'd almost forgotten how much I love seeing your divisions moving around on maps. Can't wait for the next (North Africa) episode!

[giovannifavullo]

The Italian commander of operation E (the Italian offensive in Egypt) was Graziani, who was considered the father of Italian blitz doctrine, togheter with the commander of the armored core (a brigade size formation, not a division as seen in the video) Maletti. For what was the organisation structure of the Italian army when they invaded Egypt they had to decide whether to attack as stated by their own formulated doctrine, whit a concentred highly mobile force (2 or 3 division sized formation fully motorized and partially armored) to be supported by air, or to attack en-masse. They chose the latter, and advanced some 500km in the desert, unopposed, using blackshirt and colonial infantry on the coast, covered on the side by motorcycled Bersaglieri, and the few mechanised forces they had deeper south with no contact to the coastline units; during the advance the mechanised core even got lost and had to be found by air reconnaissance (something that wasn't done even on the enemy forces). After 500km it was it, the Italian logistic had it, their motorized reserves were depleted (almost half of the trucks used at an army level for transport and logistic were broken) fuel was running low, water reserves drained and had to be brought from Bardia where there was a sea wanter deputation facility. At this point they had to dig in, wait for the infrastructure to be fixed, for the supply to come and for reinforcement, but shit happened in Greece, so the reinforcement were scaled down, the Italian lost a naval battle so supplies were delayed and the Colonial Government (led by Graziani) was extremely slow in finishing the infrastructure works. The Italian army had to dug-in for a longer wait than anticipated, and had to do it in a territory they didn't know and was difficult to reach. The great strategical genius of Graziani and Maletti luckily had experience in desert defence, although against a guerilla force, and had experienced supplying an isolated desert force, although of the size of a regiment. They decided to create the most static, uncoordinated, isolated and concentrated position I've ever seen: 4 redoubt facing east, no troops or recon in between, no special communication between them, no reserve unit except for one Lybian division (more a brigade than a division) on the coast. The airwings were also in a terrible shape, all CAS were out of service. No recon was ever conducted. When the British attacked, firstly against the "mechanised" Maletti Group, they cought the Italian in their sleeping quarters, Maletti himself was found dead manning and MG in his pajamas; the resistance lasted a quarter of hour. By the morning the British reached the sea and 4 Italian division were surrounded to their unknown. From then it was all done, Grazian closed himself in his bunker in Tripoli, passing time trying to pass the blame on to his Chief of Staff, a good officer who was promoted just too quickly just for propaganda. Graziani resigned and was replaced by again a good officer, again too quickly promoted but for what remained of the Italian army in Cyrenaica he was completely adequate, Tellera who led his troop from the front. On his retreat towards Mersa Brega he was anticipated and cut off by only 13 minutes by the British, he lad an assault and menage to break the line for a while but his tank was hit and he was killed, the remaining Italian troops routed in little time

[danielnavarro]

The Mediterranean campaign. This campaign is often overshadowed by many others during the Second World War yet it was crucial for which side control the sea, they shall enjoy superiority over their enemies. Ever since they days of the Carthaginians, Romans, Egyptians, etc. controlling the Mediterranean Sea was crucial. I cannot wait to see more. Very well made video covering the Mediterranean campaign. Keep up the good work. Godspeed.

[michaelthayer]

I'd always wondered how in 1940 the Italian Army in Libya, numbering some 300, 000 couldn't defeat the British Force of around 30, 000 in Egypt.
Now I'm kicking myself for not realizing it was due to a lack of transport and trucks since marching 200, 000 men through the open desert at the end of summer on foot is a fast way to lose an army.

[davidbraccini]

The reason for why there were so little italian divisions to invade Greece was because the Italian general, Visconti Prasca, wasn’t used to command many divisions and feared being replaced so he told Mussolini that he didn’t need reinforcements.

[janrolka]

It's really hard to emphasize how outstanding german victories were in the first phase of ww2. Especially when you compare that with ww1 when even small nations had been really difficult to conquere. Even conquering Romania during ww1 which was probably the swifest campaign of that conflict cost the Central Powers tens of thousands of men. In comparison completely defeating Greece and Yugoslavia cost the Germans only a few thousand.

[sirdarklust]

That was a very well done video. You explained things clearly and well, with just enough details that someone just learning about this subject could understand the basic history without it being too complicated. Take care.

[fraulens]

As an Italian, thank you for finally covering this chapter of WW2!

[TheLocalLt]

After their mostly-failed attack on France, the Italians did actually annex Menton/Mentone, the lone city they’d captured. There’s actually whole video about it (and about how Mentone broke away from the rule of Monaco and was briefly independent itself) over on the Wayback history channel.

Another awesome video, keep up the great work!

[Michaelonyoutub]

I asked a while ago for an italy campaign video, this is literally way better than I imagined and we are getting 3 parts

[davout]

It is understandable why the German army was viewed as invincible. It never mattered if it was flat, mountainous, urban, island or whatever terrain. They swiftly defeated everything and everybody. A truly unstoppable machine. It took tens of millions of men, insane industrial capacity, millions of bombs, millions of shells, and tens of millions of death people to stop them. So sad that such a mad man got some of the best military minds of the time behind him.

[mikoirl]

It's 4AM, but this just got uploaded. Sleep can wait :)

[andrewgraziani]

Bravo! Not only an entertaining and informative video but also possibly the best segue into a promotion I've ever heard. Earned you an instant new subscriber.

[saifhazem]

Strictly speaking, Egypt was never a "British colony". It was a protectorate, with its own government, monarch and self autonomy over many aspects of government with the British controlling foreign interests, foreign relations, the Suez canal and economy of Egypt among other things.

[johnnyfunf]

"The Protagonist of this video is Italy"
*few minutes into the video*
Germany appears
"Actually Italy you've lost protagonism-priviliges"

[umas]

I'm a simple guy: when Eastory publish a video about WW2 I put a like instantly

[edyslavico]

as an Italian I have seen this countless times, but it doesn't make it any less painful

[kristiawanindriyanto]

Great video as always Eastory, i noticed that when Germany entered the Balkans, the "Eastern Front" music from your previous videos start playing

[TheLocalLt]

When you’re done with this North Africa in WWII series, you should do a series about East Africa in both World Wars – an overlooked theater of both conflicts.

Alternatively would also love one about the Caucasus/Caspian campaigns in both World Wars, another extremely important but overlooked theater of both conflicts.

[sillypuppy]

Apparently one German general commented about the Italians "you can have them next time" at the end of the war.