This is true and Churchill’s desire to come to the aid of the plucky Greeks was an unmitigated disaster, strategically.
However, a case could be made that the German decision to devote resources to North Africa did them no good, either. Assuming that the Germans had a chance in WW2, their only one was to crush the Soviet will to fight. Engaging in a major campaign in North Africa diverted scarse German resources away from that.
While the British decision to help out the Greeks was a disaster, it wasn’t a fatal one. The German decision to press on in North Africa - especially to cram troops into Tunisia in the face of Allied success - was, I would argue, a far worse mistake. At least 230,000 German troops went into the bag in Tunisia. That’s more than twice as many as were captured at Stalingrad.
The Germans were only there in the first place to pull Mussolini’s nuts out of the fire. It could be argued that propping him up cost them very badly, maybe even cost them the war (assuming of course that the resorces so expended would have swung the war against the Soviets in German favour -which I strongly doubt) - albeit in North Africa, not Greece.
Rommel certainly wasn’t thrilled that Hitler found the troops to throw into Tunisia after the Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942 after he’d been operating on a shoestring in Libya and Egypt. I agree that it certainly didn’t make sense strategically to send troops to Tunisia only to leave them forced to surrender. The figure you are using is the number of Axis troops that surrendered in Tunisia though, not the number of German troops. The number of Germans was in the 100,000-130,000 range:
The number of Germans who surrendered in the final capitulation at Stalingrad was slightly less than this, but the total losses in the encirclement at Stalingrad was higher. Link is to a pdf file, Ziemke wrote
Essentially all of those drawing rations from Sixth Army on December 18, 1942 were killed or captured, only a small number of wounded were flown out.
In general yes; throwing troops away in Tunisia cost Germany more than it was really worth. The forces that Rommel had sent to him to fight the North African campaign up until November 1942 when he was retreating back to the Mareth Line to join up with the forces arriving in Tunisia to face the Allies moving east into Tunisia from Algeria were never very great though, consisting largely of two panzer divisions, the 15th and 21st, and one motorized division, the 90th Light. With that rather small force he tied up much larger Commonwealth forces for a long time. The question of where the Commonwealth forces could more profitably have been used is debatable, but the threat of being able to land back on the continent anywhere in the Mediterranean would require the Germans and Italians to garrison it with a larger force than was sent to Rommel, as they did historically when faced with this situation after the fall of Tunisia. I’d go even further than you in strongly doubting that the forces devoted to North Africa could have swung the situation on the Eastern Front and say it wouldn’t have with pretty much complete certainty. Also although they were of as dubious quality as the Rumanians and Hungarians, the Italians did devote a considerable force to the Eastern Front in the Eighth Army at 235,000 men.
Tunisia could only have been a delaying action for the Germans, but there was too little thought given far too late about how to get their forces out once they’d been sent over. Although there were huge and obvious differences in the distances involved, during the Sicilian campaign the Germans quickly realized that a hard fought delaying action was all that could be conducted and planned and carried out an evacuation across the Strait of Messina of not just their troops but all of their equipment, vehicles and supplies as well.
Hitler thought he was the cat’s meow. It were Mussolini who inspired Hitler beyond his own means … and succeeded by sheer audacity.
But I’m not sure if I consider Mussolini “an idiot”, exactly. He achieved far more than he was worth and that takes a fair bit of smarts - devious as that might have been.
He impressed Hitler by taking him for a tour of Italy’s air superiority - from one air strip to the other. Little did Hitler know that Benito had his air force fly ahead, showing off the very same planes at various locations, over and over again. Poor Schicklgruber was duped, but good!
Mussolini an idiot? Naw, I don’t think so. No more than any other leader who’s been led to believe that his subjects love him and are behind him 100 percent.
Yes, Il Duce was a master of deception. He also doubled the number of divisions in the Italian Army-by halving their size. It made more billets for officers, and looked good (on paper)! I think Mussolini really thought he could ride on Hitler’s coattails-and steal a big chunk of Africa in the process.
Stealing a piece of Africa might have been the only accomplishment on Mussolini’s score card. But then, even his relatively primitive armory against bare-footed Ethiopians with blunted sticks was a walk in the park. God only knows why Hitler was impressed by it. Perhaps he couldn’t find Ethiopia on the map and assumed it was an enormous kingdom stretching from the Indian Subcontinent to Terra Del Fuego!
Italy hasn’t produced much else other than buffoons. It must be opera buffa in their blood. I mean, look who they’ve had in government - Mussolini, Cicciolina, and Berlusconi - comic idiots all of them!
Hitler’s wars made sense-he invaded the USSR in order to steal a “lebensraum”’ for his master race to colonize. The war was a big gamble-but had he won, Germany would become a multi-continental superpower.
What was Mussolini going to do with Greece? there was nothing for him in it-why bother?
This sort of thread shitting is really not appropriate. Aside from the clear evidence that Alighieri, Bernini, Bramante, Buonarroti, da Vinci, Galilei, and numerous others present that makes your post look stupid, it was clearly intended to be nothing more than a cheap shot at an entire nation intended to rile up other posters.
No, only politicians … but namely Mussolini, Cicciolina, and Berlusconi. Are Alighieri, Bernini, Bramante, Buonarroti, da Vinci, Galilei in parliament as well?
Even that’s inaccurate. Machiavelli’s widely considered the father of modern political science.
Anyways, Mussolini jumping into the war when he did doesn’t make him an idiot. The Nazi’s were outside Paris and the British had been pushed off the continent. Japan was gobbling up their territory in the East. By all accounts, it seemed like a sure thing.
