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Italy enters World War II in 1940....



Item # 714531

June 10, 1940

HERALD EXPRESS, Los Angeles, 5th WAR EXTRA, June 10, 1940

* Italy enters World War II - WWII (1st report)
* Benito Mussolini's announcement

The front page has a nice banner headline above the masthead in large lettering: "DUCE DECLARES WAR" with lead-in: "Italians Invade South Europe". (see images) Nice for display.
Complete 1st section only with all 16 pages, 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