The Year Italy Joined the World War
Part 16: Conclusion
1940 was a year of chaos and carnage for Europe. Germany ran rampant throughout the year, concluding after a bitter struggle its conquest of France. After that, it turned its attention northward toward Scandinavia and invaded Denmark, quickly annexing it, before casting its gaze further toward Sweden and Norway. By the end of the year, it had established a considerable foothold in southern Sweden, having crossed over from Denmark, and had plans to complete the conquest in the next year, as well as attacking Norway. Germany appeared to be the greater threat, all the non-aligned countries of Europe felt most threatened by it. This suited Mussolini well.
Mussolini’s Italy had had a very active year. While the previous year Yugoslavia and Turkey had fallen to Italy, in 1940 Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria had been conquered by the Italians. Under the cover of Germany’s actions, Italy simply swept the remains of the southeastern corner of Europe into its empire, with barely a second glance from any other power, mesmerized as they were by the German threat. This consolidation secured Italy’s eastern borders, pushing them far away from Italy proper, as well as gave Italy a solid hold on the northeastern Mediterranean. The major ports of that area, Athens and Istanbul, were in Italian hands, as were all the secondary ports. Between these conquests and the growth of the Italian fleet, particularly the advent of a new strike force under Da Zara, Italy was greatly but relatively quietly increasing its power in the Mediterranean.
All this was, however, merely preparation for the even greater struggle to come: the war with the Allies, which Italy finally launched for itself in early October. Mussolini had, however, truly prepared the ground well: British forces were negligible, notwithstanding a colossal Mediterranean Fleet. By the New Year, it was this fleet that was proving to be the Gordian Knot of the first year of the war, for with it still in existence Mussolini could not safely turn his attention elsewhere unless he left considerable blocking forces in place to keep it in port. Thus Mussolini’s first priority was the destruction of the Mediterranean Fleet, and then a solid plan of action for what to do beyond that.
The increase in power that Italy went through put it in a geostrategic position in which it could nearly fully dominate the Mediterranean. It had the facilities to project naval power into every corner of that sea with ease, from bases in the western Mediterranean, the central Mediterranean and the northeast Mediterranean. Its reach also extended onto the far shores of the Black Sea and, notwithstanding Gibraltar, into the Atlantic as well. But yet, it was protected by geography from retaliation to a large degree. A neutral, if somewhat truncated, Spain precluded an Iberian campaign. Africa offered few and poor opportunities for relevant operations, particularly once Port Sudan would fall to the Italians. Italy’s Balkan and Turkish possessions formed a buffer zone where Italy could, at the last resort, practice a defense in depth.
It was a good time to be an Italian strategist. All the difficult choices were those of priority and positive direction.
Europe, North Africa and Central and South Asia on the New Year.
