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The Axis powers, [nb 1] ... After the September 1943 Armistice of Cassibile with Italy, Romania became the second Axis Power in Europe. ...
Italy joined the war as one of the Axis Powers in 1940 (as the French Third Republic surrendered) with a plan to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, known as the "parallel war", while expecting the collapse of British forces in the European theatre.
Arturo Riccardi was the head of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) from 1940 to 1943, his powers being delegated to him from the King, who was the official supreme commander of the Italian Royal Navy. Inigo Campioni was a commander of the Italian Royal Navy during the battles of Taranto, Cape Spartivento, and Calabria.
Map of the Invasion of Italy. Following the defeat of the Axis powers in North Africa in May 1943, there was disagreement between the Allies about the next step. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to invade Italy, which in November 1942 he had called "the soft underbelly of the axis" (American General Mark W. Clark would later call it "one tough gut"). [2]
[27] [k] Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly prisoners-of-war taken in the invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing. [19] Over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 35,828 anti-Nazi and anti-fascist partisans and some 35,000 troops of the Italian Social Republic.
Planning for global territorial expansion of the Axis powers; Germany, Italy and Japan, progressed before and during the Second World War. This included some special strike plans against the Allied nations (with similar intentions to the James Doolittle raid special Allied Strike).
During World War II, Italy fought first as one of the Axis powers along with Germany and Japan (1940-1943) and, following the armistice signed with the Anglo-Americans and the subsequent German invasion with the emergence of the Italian resistance, as a co-belligerent of the Allies (1943-1945).
The Kingdom of Italy declared war on Nazi Germany on 13 October 1943; [133] [134] tensions between the Axis Powers and the Italian military were rising following the failure to defend Sicily. [133] On 4 June 1944, the German occupation of Rome came to an end as the Allies advanced.