If a child is born on in Italy, on a US military base, can they get Italian Citizenship?
this issue came up in my mothers Italian class. Seems one of her students have a son who had a child in Milan on the base. Can his child get an Italian dual citizenship. There are some rules regarding 18 years of age but really just want to find out about eligability.
How do Italians perceive their military?
Only fascists (which thank God are a minority) do worship the army in a terrifying way. The rest of us sees it as a way of finding a well-paid and secure job and most of the time doesn't give a second thought about it.We are used to being against war, in general, so even though our soldiers are respected and their work honoured, there isn't the special “worship” I see, for example, in the US.Actually, the Italians spend most of their time criticizing the national government for spending too much money on military issues instead of bringing them towards education and culture. Caccia F35: oltre al danno, la beffaWe know though that our military is usually good and modern and we tend to generally appreciate our secret services, whose job is seen as notable, in particular in these hard and difficult times, but rarely military issues take part in everyday conversations.We aren't anti-patriotic, but we aren't that patriotic either. We appreciate our culture but we spend most of our lives complaining about our country, self-deprecating our system and politics and usually making comparisons with other countries, highlighting our flaws and their perks.That's it, basically.
How useless was the Italian military in WW2?
Italy was in short pretty fucked.Their army sucked. Their guns were shit (ex. Breda Modello 30 LMG and the Carcano, a rifle that was by that time inferior). They had a small tank force, but their tanks were laughable. Almost completely ineffective, and some of the more competent designs were either too scarcely produced or were implemented too late.Their air force was… alright. Not as bad as some people give it credit for, in fact some of their fighter designs were remarked on as being among the best the axis had to provide. The S.M. 79 is considered to have been one of the best medium bombers ever made, and often is considered the best torpedo bomber of the war. Unfortunately, they also fielded several obsolete designs that were more common in combat and as a result the Regia Aeronautica was never that effective.Their navy was probably their best asset. They had a navy considerably larger than Germany's, and with many of the best designs of their day. But they had one critical downfall: no radar.And confronting the radar equipped Royal Navy at night proved to be disastrous for them. Most of the Italian Navy, and particularly their capital ships, ended up simply being Tirpitz'd in port as well.Tl;dr: The Italian Military was decent, but horrific planning and a shitty army led to their collapse.
Why did the Italians lack the motivation to fight in World War II when the Germans and Japanese fought nearly to the end?
There were a myriad of reasons as to why the Italians lacked motivation to fight in WW II.The Italians may have kicked ass in the days of the Caesars…but they really had no heart or desire for the fight Il Duce dragged them into in the 20th century.The Italian army had some good officers, to be sure; but the majority owed their positions not to tactical skill or military prowess but to nepotism, personal influence or fascist party connections. Italian infantry were, for the most part, very poorly led.In addition, they were often very poorly equipped. When the first Italian divisions arrived in Ethiopia, many of the soldiers found that their uniforms and boots quickly fell apart, as they had been shoddily made by crooked manufacturers simply out to make a quick profit, or who had obtained their contracts through party connections.And their fighting implements were deplorable. The rifles and weapons the Italian infantry fought with were basically the same ones their fathers had used in WW I. And in terms of armor, it was pretty much the same. The Italians had some fair artillery pieces and aircraft, but most of their tanks were real dinky toy stuff (although they did produce a few models of medium tanks). In large part, though, aside from being small, lightly armored and mechanically unreliable, most Italian tanks were produced in limited runs of 30, 60 or perhaps 90 vehicles at a time. The Italian state simply lacked the industrial base to produce armored vehicles in quantities of hundreds or thousands, as did Germany and the Allies.And as bad as Ethiopia was for the Italian army, at least it was warm. The Italian army in Russia really suffered; these were men hailing from a balmy, sunny climate…and they were ill-prepared and ill-clad for temperatures of 30° or 40° below zero. That was beyond their experience, and they froze to death in their thousands.Little wonder that the Italian army in WW II has been described as “either throwing down their weapons and running away at the first shots fired…or immediately and enthusiastically surrendering to their opponents in the very finest of holiday spirits.”I'm sure many Italian troops and officers were brave soldiers; but circumstances conspired against them right from the start in terms of the modern, mechanized warfare the 20th century demanded.
Why did the Italian military act so cowardly in WWII?
As others have written it is unfair to call the Italians cowardly. As in the First World War, there was nothing wrong with the men and junior officers, but they were usually poorly equipped and, with a few honourable exceptions, badly generalled.These were both problems Mussolini inherited and did nothing to address. Indeed his fondness for grand gestures and sycophants made things worse: Rather than invest in modern artillery, the Army spent money on superficial upgrades and new paint for obsolescent pre WW1 guns so they could be paraded in large numbers. As a result, during WW2, Italian gunners often found themselves out ranged and under gunned compared to their enemies. Despite this, in North Africa, the British often remarked on the courage of Italian artillery men, who would stand and fight their guns until they were overrun by British tanks.Official visitors to Facist Italy were often taken to air bases to admire the modern Italian Airforce. They were impressed, until and unless someone noticed that the serial numbers on the planes at different bases were the same; the Italian generals were flying their few new planes from base to base, to create an illusion of modernity. Those officers who refused to play along, or voiced awkward truths, were passed over for promotion or posted to backwater assignments. Too many generals were cronies of Mussolini or his close associates.The Allied press made much of mass surrenders of Italian troops in North Africa. They never mentioned that the Italians were short of motor transport (a “motorised” division typically could only transport a third of its troops at a time). It is hard to walk out of the desert when you could be 50 or 100 miles from the next oasis or town. The Allied press also never mentioned that, when retreat was necessary, the Afrika Korps tended to commandeer the Italian’s transport, and only return it once their own men and equipment were safe.
What country has the most glorious military history?
It's Britain of course! From England's very long wars ang long list of victories over France, Spain, Netherlands and others to Britain's victories over the mighty Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars and over the Russians in the Crimean War. We also have a winning record against the so called "Greatest military country in the world today". We were kicking the American's arses in the American Revolution most of the time before they cried for help to France to finally held us back for them although we managed to make them speak English. We annihilated their army again and defeated them in the War of 1812 and burned Washington into ashes until they finally surrendered to Britain in the Treaty of Ghent. Germany failed to invade us in WW2 due to our way more superior Air Force than them (Battle of Britain), thus we pushed Hitler's Wehrmacht away from us way even before the Americans lended and leased their toy guns to us to scare the Nazis away and claimed they "saved Europe" which really isn't the case. Hitler was wise enough to quit on us. Then there was also the Falklands victory against Argentina (which was quite nonsensical anyway). And the Opium Wars double over the Chinese too. We could've won the Vietnam Wars had the Yanks asked for our help. Oh well they thought they won WWII anyway forgetting the nation who slapped the Nazi's first. We're the only country to have beaten every nation that have existed in mankind history!!! RULE BRITANNIA!!!! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!!!!