Home >
Italy enters World War II in 1940....
Italy enters World War II in 1940....
Item # 620221
Currently Unavailable. Contact us if you would like to be placed on a want list or to be notified if a similar item is available.
June 11, 1940
THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 11, 1940
* Italy enters World War II - WWII (1st report)
* Benito Mussolini speech
* Franklin D. Roosevelt FDR
The front page has a great two line banner headline: "ITALY AT WAR, READY TO ATTACK; STAB IN BACK, SAYS ROOSEVELT" with subheads that include: "DUCE GIVES SIGNAL" Announces War on the 'Plutocratic' Nations of the West" and more with related map. (see) More inside including complete text of Mussolini and Roosevelt's speeches. Too much to photograph here.
Complete 1st section only with 26 pages, rag edition in very nice 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: The 20th Century
No Longer Available
