In article , says...

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
I always wanted to see them take on the Italians; that could be hilarious.
They did, or rather, the Italians, sensing blood, declared war on June 10,
1940, and invaded the French Riveria. Another reason why the Italians were
actually a detriment to the Axis in WWII. (By declaring war, they
accomplished nothing but getting the British involved in North Africa, which
sucked away German resources and gave the British practice in actually
winning.) One could argue, given that the Germans had to bail them out in
the Balkans, and ended up supplying the garrisons, that the Germans would
have done better with the Italians neutral. Time to break out one of my more
serious wargames on the subject and see if that is indeed the case...

I dunno -- the invasion of Italy cost the Allied forces many months and
many tens of thousands of lives. Not to mention materiel such as fuel
and ammunition.

I would think that, by forcing the Allies to slog through Italy from
1942-44, Germany and the Axis countries possibly delayed the eventual
invasion of Europe via France by as much as a year. (Granted, the
invasion might still have had to wait until June of '44 just to assemble
the mass of warmaking machinery and the vehicles to deliver it that was
required for a successful invasion.)

Doug