On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On 10 June 1940, ignoring advice that the country was unprepared, Mussolini made the fatal decision to enter World War II on the side of the Nazi Germany of Adolf Hitler. Italy signed the tripartite pact or better known as the Pact Axis Berlin, Rome, Tokyo with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. The same day he declared war on France and the United Kingdom.
The Second World War in Italy began with the Battle of the Alps, the 20th of June 1940. A total of 86,000 men of the Italian Royal Army commanded by General Humberto de Saboya, crossed the border with France. Despite some advances such as climbing the Rocciamelone Glacier and the conquest of the port of Menton, the defeat of France happened because it was practically occupied by the German Army and had no choice but to request peace with Italy on the 25th of June. Even though its victory, there were almost 25,000 losses.
In the autumn of 1940 the Italian Empire contemplated its maximum territorial expansion that included: the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, Albania, Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Corfu, the Dodecanese Islands, Nice, Savoy, Corsica, British Somalia , the Fiume Peninsula in Yugoslavia, the Tientsin Concession in China and small portions of Egypt, Kenya and Sudan.
The 28th of october 1940, Mussolini organized the unsuccessful invasion of Greece. Since that moment the italian decline began. Due to a bad battle strategy they lost about 90,000 men. The defeats occurred in the North of Africa, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Balkans...
In July 1943, the United Kingdom and the USA invaded Italy. With the support of Germany, Mussolini organized in the north an "Italian Social Republic". On September 9, 1943 the Kingdom of Italy signed the peace with the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the Commonwealth in the Armistice of Cassibile.
In 1945 Mussolini was captured when he tried to flee to Switzerland. As soon as he was captured, he was executed near Lake Como by the communists. Mussolini died on April 28. His body was taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his death.
