First Letter to Adolf Hitler, August 26, 1939

August 26, 1939

Führer,

This morning I met with the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, Minister Ciano and the Minister of Communications, and here is the minimum that is needed by the Italian Armed Forces in order to sustain a twelve-month war, besides those materials we already have:

Coal for gas and metallurgy — 6 million tons

Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2 million tons
Petroleum . . . . . . . . . . 7 million tons
Timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 million tons
Copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150,000 tons
Sodium Nitrate . . . . . . .  220,000 tons
Potassic Salts . . . . . . . . 70,000 tons
Colophony. . . . . . . . . . .  25,000 tons
Rubber . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22,000 tons
Toluolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,000 tons
Turpentine . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 tons
Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 tons
Tin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,000 tons
Nickel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000 tons
Molybdenum . . . . . . . . .  600 tons
Tungsten . . . . . . . . . . . .  600 tons
Zirconium . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 tons
Titanium . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 tons

Food and textile requirements will be assured by having recourse to rationing.

In addition to the raw materials mentioned above, you know that our entire war industry is located in the Turin-Genoa-Milan-Savona quadrilateral and along the Tyrrhenian coast, in other words, a half-hour flight from Corsica. In order to protect these industrial plants, whose destruction could literally paralyze our war effort, it is necessary to immediately dispatch 150 anti-aircraft batteries and the appropriate ammunition.

General Keitel is in possession of the list of machines that are indispensable for accelerating our war production.

Führer,

I would not have sent you this list, or else it would have contained a smaller number of items and much lower figures, if I had had the necessary time that we agreed upon to accumulate stocks and accelerate the pace of autarchy.

It is my duty to tell you that unless I am certain of receiving these supplies, the sacrifices I should call upon the Italian people to make — which would certainly be obeyed — could well be in vain and could compromise your cause along with my own. If you believe that there is still any possibility of a solution in the political field, I am ready — as on other occasions — to give you my full solidarity and to take such initiative as you may consider useful for the aim in view.

MUSSOLINI