fter the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Earlier in April 1943, Mussolini had asked Hitler to make a separate peace with Stalin and send German troops to the west to guard against an expected Allied invasion of Italy. Mussolini feared that with the losses in Tunisia and North Africa, the next logical step for Dwight Eisenhower's armies would be to come across the Mediterranean Sea and attack the Italy. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily in July 1943, Mussolini's army was about to collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting in Feltre on 19 July 1943. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken from stress that he could no longer stand Hitler. On that same day,
