On June 21, 1940, Italian forces launched a general offensive into France across the Alpine region, successfully gaining some territory but failing to break the French resistance. The attack came just before France and Germany were about to sign an armistice following the German blitzkrieg into France.
Italy had entered World War II on Germany’s side on June 10, 1940 by declaring war on France and Britain. Italian leader Benito Mussolini rejected the counsel of his top commanders that Italy was unprepared for war, opportunistically stating that “I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought”. Italy’s contribution to the campaign would be inconsequential, as the 450,000 invading Italian troops (outnumbering the 190,000 French defenders by over 2:1) were unable to break through the Alpine Line in the rough, high-altitude terrain and prevailing winter-like snowy weather at the 300-mile long French-Italian border.
But with the French defeat against the Germans and subsequent armistice, Italian forces occupied territory on the French-Italian border, which was expanded in November 1942 to the southeast region of Vichy France as well as Corsica.
Italy and Germany In the period before World War II, Italy’s ties with Germany prospered. Both shared a common political ideology. In the Spanish Civil War (July 1936-April 1939), Italy and Germany supported the Nationalist rebel forces of General Francisco Franco, who emerged victorious and took over power in Spain. In October 1936, Italy and Germany formed an alliance called the Rome-Berlin Axis. In 1937, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, which had been signed by Germany and Japan in November 1936. In May 1939, Mussolini and Hitler formed a military alliance, the Pact of Steel. The alliance between Germany and Italy, together with Japan, reached its apex in September 1940, with the signing of the Tripartite Pact, and these countries came to be known as the Axis Powers.
However, on September 1, 1939 World War II broke out when Germany attacked Poland. Italy did not enter the war as yet, since despite Mussolini’s frequent blustering of having military strength capable of taking on the other great powers, Italy in fact was unprepared for a major European war.