Italian military excellence

'By the end of the 1930s ... the [Italian] army was woefully far from the levels of modernisation required by new, more mobile forms of warfare. One experienced officer, General Ettore Bastico, warned against idolising the tank and wanted to "reserve our reverence for the infantryman and the mule", while as late as 1940 the deputy chief of the army staff, General Mario Roatta, let it be known that he opposed the abolition of horse cavalry'

- Ian Kershaw, Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed The World 1940-1941, London, 2007