Thread by @avgvstvsczr

Today, Italy celebrates the #FestadellaRepubblica, commemorating the establishment of the Republic following the totally legitimate and not at all rigged referendum in 1946. Instead of discussing that referendum, I'd instead like to debunk one of that Republic's founding myths...

The myth I am referring to is that "Italy switched sides", a perfidious lie pervasive within the world's collective consciousnesses of the second world war, especially within the Anglo-Sphere in which this post war revisionist meme originates from.

To address the obvious, the Kingdom of Italy was on the side of the Axis, and yes, a "Kingdom of Italy" was later seen to be "fighting" with the Allies against the Axis post 1943. However, like with every great lie, it contains kernels of truth but that is where the truth ends.

In 1943, after the defeat in North Africa, the Anglo-American forces had successfully made it's landing in Sicily. With the Allies at their doorstep, the Council of Fascism holds of a vote of no confidence against Benito Mussolini intending to drop out of the war entirely.

Some wanted Mussolini out and a neutrality declared, some wanted Mussolini replaced and the war to be carried out and some even still were loyal to him. Note how none of the council members discussed joining their enemy, at least not openly and widely agreed upon.

Regardless of the lack of clear direction, Mussolini is ousted with the King having entrapped him into an arrest. With the Armistice being drafted, the entire Italian Military was placed on standby until Sept 8th in which the Armistice was written and "Italy" officially neutral.

To put in into context, this is what Italy's political borders looked like on Sept 8th. This was not a universally accepted thing within the Italian military; some were disarmed by the Germans, either pressed into Wehrmacht service or imprisoned, some made traveled to the south.

Despite being declared neutral, the Allies had assumed the Italian Divisions would resist German occupation, though this largely didn't happen with some exceptions like the Acqui Division in Greece. Instead the Germans had swiftly launched Operation Achse.

While there was rare skirmishing between German and Italian troops, there were never any offensive operations taken against the Germans by Italian troops as they no orders to do so, only them refusing to submit to German demands; with only exception being...

the Regia Marina who conducted operations against the Germans but even there was pro Germans amongst the Navy. With all this in consideration, the sentiment that the Italians unilaterally switched sides against their "former" ally is an incredibly absurd, revisionist statement.

Fast forwarding through events for the sake of brevity, Benito Mussolini is eventually saved by the Germans in the famous Gran Sasso raid, which can thank it's success on Fascist loyalists within the Italian Military who removed machine guns emplacements prior to the operation.

With Mussolini back in Axis controlled territory, Adolf Hitler installs him as the leader of the "Repubblica Sociale Italiana" (RSI) on Sept 18th. This regime was installed in lieu of German occupied Italy at this time and, upon it's inception, declared war on the Allies.

It would not be until the 13th of October that the "Kingdom of Italy" would finally enter the war on the allies side. This was after over month of Marshal Pietro Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel III dragged their feet, not wanting to take orders from Anglo American forces.

Looking at the events laid out chronologically, we don't see Italians engaging in any significant offensive operations against the Germans only until after the RSI is proclaimed, a rival puppet government to the "Kingdom of the South".

Furthermore, lets take a look at both sides' military strength. The Pro Ally "Co-Belligerent Army" only had roughly 100k to 250k solders by the end of 1945. They were mostly Auxiliary troops for the Anglo-Americans and rarely offensive operations independently.

Meanwhile, the Pro Axis "National Republican Army" along with paramilitaries 550k to 900k soldiers, though these numbers are more rough due to circumstances I will explain later. Conscription was very high in the RSI and these troops fighting directly along side the Wehrmacht

Though despite the very clear disparity in numbers between Allied Italy and Axis Italy, there is very little acknowledgement towards the RSI, with Anglophone Historians often ignoring their presence when discussing major battles on the Gothic line. Why is that?

Because it runs counter to the post war narrative that Italians were liberated from Fascism by their Capitalistic Atlanticist friends which is so far from the truth it's laughable. Yes, Mussolini's popularity did falter post '43, there was little love towards the Anglo-Americans.

The Fascist movement, which was by no way unanimously unpopular as it was quite stable for 20 years, was born directly from the resentment of the Atlantic powers. They saw them as the hypocritical old order decaying from capitalism, ruled by an oligarchy of Masons and bankers.

Even Italians who were opposed to Mussolini and Fascism would often join the Italian Resistance movement as Partisans. While they were in effect allied to Anglo-Americans, they preferred to stick to their own ideologies, namely Communism and Anarchism among others.

So why the erasure of RSI troops even though they far outnumbered opposing Italian factions? A multitude of reasons. 1: to fit the narrative stated above. 2: the allies did not recognize the nation and would often record them as German soldiers.

And most importantly, 3: Admitting to RSI service was often a clear death sentence for anyone within Yugoslav or Partisan controlled areas. Many RSI soldiers lied about serving to avoid being executed, thus numbers are more fuzzy than the Co-Belligerents or even the Partisans.

RSI troops are not commemorated in the Italian state, viewed as Insurrectionists when, ironically, the first puppet state, the "Kingdom of the South" as well as the Partisans, are not and instead viewed as heroes along pro-axis pre-Armistice Royal Troops. Quite messy.

So what is often regarded as "Switching of sides" is actually more so a civil war within the an Axis-Ally proxies, with the pro Axis side being far more engaged in combat than the allied counterpart; along with radical partisan (non state actors). Yet this how it's remembered:

In their efforts to revise history in their liking, Italy was positioned as a NATO ally (and home to US bases), the Anglo-Americans have sowed confusion amongst the Italians regarding their past and most of all, tarnished their honor; something quite dishonorable in of itself.

Shoutout to this video by OttoVIII, summarizing this same myth amongst others. I used many of his reference photos and served as an inspiration for this thread.