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Italy enters World War II...



Item # 577417

June 11, 1940

THE SPRINGFIELD UNION, Springfield, Massachusetts, June 11, 1940

* Italy enters World War II - WWII (1st report)
* Nazis reach Paris France
* Franklin D. Roosevelt FDR

This 22 page newspaper has a banner headline on the front page: "Italian Army Is Said to Be Invading France" with subheads (see photos).

Other news, sports and advertisements of the day with much on World War II. Light browning, otherwise in good condition.

wikipedia notes: On 10 June 1940, as the French government fled to Bordeaux before the German invasion, declaring Paris an open city, Mussolini felt the conflict would soon end and declared war on Britain and France. As he said to the Army's Chief-of-Staff, Marshal Badoglio:

    I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought.

Mussolini had the immediate war aim of expanding the Italian colonies in North Africa by taking land from the British and French colonies.

Of Italy's declaration of war, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, said:

    On this tenth day of June 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.

Category: World War II