Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "The Armchair Historian"
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So, for mistakes, let's start with the title.
First of all: "betrayed" implies a moral judgment that, in this case is completely out of place. Austria-Hungary broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again. Even the German mediators considered the position of Austria-Hungary unreasonable on that point) and, over that, war was declared to Austria-Hungary on 23/05/1915.
Second: why "German Empire"? I know that Germany is more famous, so better suited for a title, but the question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the weird belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
So the real question is: why you wrote a title stating something that didn''t even happen?
As for the content: the main part of the video is dedicated to a not-so-related Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912, nothing to the real content of the Triple Alliance Treaty, and almost nothing on the negotiations of 1915 (see for example the mission of Von Bulow)?
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@calvinfernandez1956 Italy, like any other WWII power at the start of the war, had some very good equipment, some not so good, some bad and some abysmal. The average quality was not worse than the German, French or British. Italian problems with the equipment in WWII had always been of quantity, not quality. In 1939 Italian industrial production was just 1/4 of that of the United Kingdom and in wartime, without an empire, or the US, supplying it, that could only worsen.
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So, for mistakes, let's start with the title.
First of all: "betrayed" implies a moral judgment that, in this case is completely out of place. Austria-Hungary broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again even the German mediators considered the position of Austria-Hungary unreasonable on that point) and, over that, war was declared to Austria-Hungary on 23/05/1915.
Second: why "German Empire"? I know that Germany is more famous, so better suited for a title, but the question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
So the real question is: why you wrote a title stating something that didn''t even happen?
As for the content: the main part of the video is dedicated to a not-so-related Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912, nothing to the real content of the Triple Alliance Treaty, and almost nothing on the negotiations of 1915 (see for example the mission of Von Bulow)?
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First of It had been Austria-Hungary that broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It had not been Italy that left it. So no "betrayal" included.
Simply Austria-Hungary decided a course of actions that would have broken the treaty it had with Italy, and so exposed itself to a war with the same country (it was no secret that there were many unfinished business between the two powers). Even more refusing to agree on the compensations required by the same Art.7 of the Treaty. Even the German mediators stated that the Austrian position (they were not willing to give Trento to the Italians, even if they would have obtained Belgrade in exchange) was unreasonable, and their wavering positions (Austrian foreign Minister Berchtold was initially willing to concede a part of Trentino to Italy, only to be contraddicted by the new foreign Minister Stephan Burián when he took office on 13/01/1915) were undermining the efforts of the German diplomacy and the Italian neutralist politicians.
Then: Why the "German Empire"? The question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
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First of all: "betrayed" implies a moral judgment that, in this case is completely out of place. Austria-Hungary broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again) and, over that, war was declared on 23/05/1915.
Second: why "Germany"? I know that Germany is more famous, so better suited for a title, but the question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not Germany. At that point Germany was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia simpler. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARED WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
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They stole the "black code", the US diplomatic code, that the US Consul in Alexandria used for his communications to Washington, telling them (and to the italians at that point) precious informations about the British movements in N.Africa and the Med.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Italian Intelligence, Mussolini handed some decrypted page of communications to Hitler. At that point, having the originals and the decryptions, the Germans broke the code, and were able to read the US communications as well.
Unfortunately for the Axis, the Germans had the idea to transmit the decrypted messages through Enigma, that the Brits were already capable to read. Reading the messages the Brits understood that they were written by a third party that had a deep knowledge of what was going on in Alexandria, so the USA embassy, alerted the Americans that changed the code.
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First of all, it had been Austria-Hungary that broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again) and, over that, war was declared on 23/05/1915.
Second: Why the "German Empire"? The question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
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I prefer Austria-Hungary, or simply Austria, for Austria-Hungary, and German Empire, or simply Germany, for the German Empire. At this point in the story, they were not the same thing. Anyone of them had to independently decide what to do.
It had been Austria-Hungary that broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It had not been Italy that left it.
Austria-Hungary decided a course of actions that would have broken the treaty it had with Italy, and so exposed itself to a war with the same country (it was no secret that there were many unfinished business between the two powers). Even more refusing to agree on the compensations required by the same Art.7 of the Treaty. Even the German mediators stated that the Austrian position (they were not willing to give Trento to the Italians, even if they would have obtained Belgrade in exchange) was unreasonable, and their wavering positions (Austrian foreign Minister Berchtold was initially willing to concede a part of Trentino to Italy, only to be contraddicted by the new foreign Minister Stephan Burián when he took office on 13/01/1915) were undermining the efforts of the German diplomacy and the Italian neutralist politicians.
In this story there were not "central powers". There were different countries with different foreign politics.
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It's bullshit. This is an actual report of the effectiveness of various Italian artilleries vs. various Soviet tanks. http://www.icsm.it/articoli/daicsm/2gm/artit34.html
All the 75mm guns (the old 75/27, and the modern 75/32 and 75/97/38) were effective vs. the Soviet light tanks, even without using armor piercing ammunitions (in this case, the old 75/27 could have problems vs the frontal armor of the light tanks). Both the 75/32 and the 75/97/38 had no problems in piercing the T34 armor, even the frontal one, using HEAT ammos.
BTW, the Italian cavalrymen shouted "Savoia!" and only when they were already charging (because the correct succession of the orders is "trotto; galoppo; carica!", "trot, gallop, charge!", then, during the charge, there is the war shout). If your soldiers don't shoot while part of the enemies are already shooting at them (infact a third of the Italians were fixing the position of the enemies with rifles and gunfire) because the ones that are charging at them shout something vaguely similar to "friendly", I would question their mental faculties.
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