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In June 1940, Italy's mobilised strength was 1,630,000. This would later rise to a peak of 2,363,000.

Mussolini once boasted of 8 million Italian bayonets but that was not credible or achieveable. At the outbreak of the war the Italian army had a strength of 73 divisions made up of 106 infantry regiments, 12 light infantry regiments, 10 mountain regiments and 12 cavalry regiments, 5 armored regiments, 32 artillery regiments and 19 engineer regiments. The average Italian infantry division was little smaller than the American infantry division. And out of the 73 infantry divisions, only 20 were fully manned and equipped. The problem with the Italian army was its equipment. It had 7,970 artillery pieces but only 246 had been manufactured since 1930. Many had been upgraded with pneumatic tires replacing old wooden wheels. Their aircraft, trucks and tanks were even more out of date. Their tanks were too small to combat a modern mechanized army. Source: "The Italian Army; 1940-45", Part 1, by Osprey 'Men-at-Arms' series.

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