>>63977754
Yes and no.

The navy was a much bigger threat to the allies than any Italian ground forces. Luckily for the allies the Italian navy was very cautious to engage and avoided battles they were winning and could have won. They could have kept the Brit’s out of the med if they sunk a few battleships and caused outrage with the public in London.

They had a large military but none of the sophisticated industry to supply them with more than a uniform and a rifle. They had no mechanization comparable to the allies or Germany and didn’t field as many automatic weapons.

Where the Italians shined was in mountain warfare. But not too much of that happened, and this wasn’t WW1. they could just get bombed out of positions.

Didn’t help that the most competent Italian force the Alpini got eradicated in Russia thanks to the Germans brilliantly using elite light mountain troops on the steppes of Russia against armored forces.

The will to fight wasn’t all there either. They weren’t as motivated to create this new rome as the leader was. The Italians surrendering after token resistance memes are true to an extent.

They just wanted to go home and eat pasta and sit under olive trees.