<P> In spring 1941, Victor Emmanuel III visited Italian soldiers on the front in Yugoslavia and Albania, he was dismayed by the Fascist regime's brutal imperialism in Dalmatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro because he suspected it would impose impossible burdens on Italy by creating new enemies among the occupied peoples that Italy would be forced to fight . Victor Emmanuel was disappointed with the Italian military's performance in the war, as he noted the army, navy, and air force could not drop their mutual jealousies and competition to work together . Furthermore, he feared that overly ambitious generals attempting to win promotion were attempting to persuade Mussolini to divert military resources in an ever - widening field of action . In June 1941, Mussolini's decision to follow Germany by waging war on the Soviet Union in which Victor Emmanuel was informed at the last moment giving him time only to advice to Mussolini against sending anything more than a token force to fight against the Soviet Union; his advice was not taken . A few weeks after Italy's declaration of war against the Soviet Union, a senior general of the Carabinieri informed the royal palace that the military police were awaiting a royal order to act against the Fascist regime . In September 1941, Victor Emmanuel held a private discussion with Ciano, in which Ciano said to the King that Fascism was doomed . In 1942, opposition to Italy's involvement in the war expanded among the Fascist regime's senior officials, with Giuseppe Bottai in private stating that he and other Fascist officials should have resigned from office when Mussolini declared war on Britain and France in June 1940, while Dino Grandi approached the King urging him to dismantle Mussolini's dictatorship in order to withdraw Italy from the war as he saw Italy facing ruin . By January 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III was persuaded by the Minister of the Royal Household, the Duke of Acquarone that Mussolini had to be removed from office . </P> <P> In March 1943, the first sign of serious rebellion by Italians against the Fascist regime and the war began with a strike by factory workers who were joined by soldiers singing communist songs and even rank - in - file Fascist party members . The Fascist regime also faced passive resistance by civil servants who had begun to refuse to obey orders or pretend to obey orders . </P> <P> On 25 July 1943, following the Allied invasion of Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini, placed him under arrest, and began secret negotiations with the Western Allies . An armistice was signed on 8 September 1943, and Italy joined the Allies as a co-belligerent . On 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans in Operation Oak and placed in charge of a puppet state called the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana / RSI, or Repubblica di Salò) in northern Italy . The war went on for months as the Allies, the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the partisans contended the Social Republic's forces and its German allies . Some areas in Northern Italy were liberated from the Germans as late as May, 1945 . Mussolini was killed by Communist partisans on 28 April 1945 while trying to escape to Switzerland . </P> <P> The Dodecanese Islands were an Italian dependency from 1912 to 1943 . </P>

Definition these were the nations united against the axis during world war ii