I'm not sure they had anything as embarrassing as Operation Compass or Greece 1940.
I often wonder what went through Benny the Moose's mind in 1940. He went from "Shit, how the hell are the Germans suddenly beating the French??? I need to get into this war now so that I can loot as much as I can from the Peace that my best pal and man that I in no way despise Adolf will be able to dictate" in June to "Everything I touch turns to shit, or catches fire and then turns to shit" in December.
No, not December. June too. The Italian army was not faring well against the French defensive position in the Alps.
Inspired by discussions earlier today I thought I'd make a thread for the matter.Yes, Italy did not have a good first six months of the war, did it? IIRC it had exactly one great success, the capture of British Somaliland. Oh and it captured Sidi Barrini in Egypt, prompting the great claim in the Italian press that the trams of Sidi Barrini were soon running again! (For those unfamiliar with Sidi Barrini in 1940, it had never seen a tram in its life.)
And after that it's the fiasco of the Greek invasion, the stalling of Graziani at SB, the Taranto Raid taking out three Italian Battleships and then Operation Compass.
Oh woe.
Italy, going into WW2, was supposed to be a serious power, with one of the world's larger militaries, and at times it did perform with good results. Unfortunately, said record is marred by a performance in 1940 to about spring 1941 that can be charitably described as shambolic; losing East Africa, losing half of its army in Libya to a British force at most half its size, attempting to invade Greece but instead being pushed halfway up Albania, and so on.
The question then is how could Italy have performed better during those critical months; the fewer major chances before May 1940 the better.