Italian Priorities in 1940-1941: Africa vs the Balkans

Looking at the tables below it's clear that the Italians placed greater emphasis on their war in Greece and Albania than that in Africa. Some other examples are the shipment of 2500 vehicles to Libya versus over 10,000 to Albania. The Trieste Motorized Division was intended for Albania, but the Albanian port of Durazzo couldn't handle its vehicles and it was sent to Africa instead.

Between Benghazi and Sidi el Barrani Graziani had only 2700 vehicles to tow 1100 guns and to transport 104,500 men on the eve of the British attack. By late February 1941 the Italians in Albania had two-thirds as many vehicles as Libya (9132 to 5270) and two and a half times as many motorcycles (4170 to 1714).

If Graziani's forces had been motorized and given the support of an armored division or two, Operation Compass would have had a far different result. The British would undoubtedly have been far less successful in their attack and the Italians wouldn't have lost Cyrenica very quickly, if at all.

Shipments of Material to Greece, Albania, the Aegean, and Africa

		Ships Used:		Merchant GRT		Vehicles	Fuel	Arms	Total
Period	Dest.	Merc.	Naval	Used	Lost	000 t.	000 t.	000 t.	000 t.
10-12/40	Africa	73	73	367.6	8.4	17.0	14.0	11.8	155.6
10-12/40	Greece	380	271	1956.0	4.0	28.5	14.8	24.2	163.5
Africa as % of total		84%	79%	84%	32%	63%	51%	67%	51%
1-5/41	Africa	317	265	1555.5	52.1	94.4	66.0	22.6	396.6
1-5/41	Greece	975	491	3396.5	7.8	35.0	63.5	91.9	572.3
Africa as % of total		75%	65%	69%	13%	27%	49%	80%	59%

Abbreviations:

GRT	Gross Registered Tons

Transport of Troops to the Greek and North Africa Theaters

		Personnel:		Of Which:	Personnel
Period	Dest.	Sent	Arrived	German (sent)	airlifted
10-12/40	Africa	15,711	15,711	None	772
10-12/40	Greece*	153,850	153,757	None	57,152
Africa as % of total		91%	91%		99%
1-5/41	Africa	86,453	81,839	39,875	NA
1-5/41	Greece**	226,252	226,327	None	NA
Africa as % of total		72%	73%	0%

Notes: *From 10/40-1/41 ** From 2-3/41

Italian Aircraft Deployments in December 1940

Area	Total	Svcble	Total	Svcble
	Bombers		Fighters
1st Zone (Italy)	50	7	48	42
2nd Zone (Italy)	51	30	‚	‚
2nd Squadra (Sicily)	55	41	95	75
3rd Squadra (Rome)	20	20	84	67
Sardinia	62	47	25	17
Aegean	41	35	20	20
CAI (Belgium)	73	53	78	69
4th Squadra (Puglia)	167	123	63	58
Albania	64	46	108	73
5th Squadra (Africa)	165	119	167	120
Totals	748	520	688	541

Greek Theater	231	169	171	131
North Africa	165	119	167	120

Source:

Sadkovich, James. The Italo-Greek War in Context: Italian Priorities and Axis Diplomacy. Journal of Contemporary History, 28 (1993)

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