I always assumed that this was due to the average Italian not seeing any point in fighting to make Mussolini a modern day Caesar, and the Mediterranean as 'an Italian lake', not least also to fight for the greater glory of the nationalist politicians in Germany at the time... which effectively it was a phallic size competition between dictators of the day.
I guess it didn't hurt to have fought on the Allied side during the First World War; which makes it a tough moral sell to all of sudden switch gears and fight against them. I suppose you could say, what about the Japanese, they were in the same position? Were they? They were not nearly as involved as Italy in the First World War.
When it comes to Compass; the 4th Indian was used at the start and as the campaign progressed, it was swapped with the 6th Australian (2nd AIF) -of which is of particular, personal, interest as family was in that unit (actually family were in most of the major Australian divisions ... so in the context of this title, the 9th Australian ... naturally these are just called the 6th, the 9th here, etc... ).
Anyways, that campaign was the Australian Army's (and by Army I mean the 2nd Australian Imperial Force -- as there were different sections of the Army --- the AIF was an all volunteer force, all throughout the war). The first major action after WWI was at Bardia, in January 1941. The books (in the case of this specific campaign -Compass), in the Australian War Memorial (downloadable) - the Official History - in this case 'To Benghazi' by Gavin Long - where you will find more maps like what I had seen used in the documentation - will give you a pretty good and detailed look at the campaign. The book is more than just about the title though (it is also about what was going on in Australia between the wars, mobilisation, defence policies, recruitment - so there is a fair deal about Australian politics of the day as well. There was a govt change shortly after the start of the war - it changed to a Labor govt under Curtin.
Now more to the point...the 6th was involved in every major action in this campaign after the initial battles for the camps. The Indian unit was sent to Ethiopia and was heavily in campaigning there. I believe the forces in Bardia still outnumbered the Commonwealth forces outside of its defences -so it was a bit more than just being cut off and helpless -they had other units -they elected to rely on static defences... it didn't work.
In fact I heard stories of Italian POWs not really being guarded -- sitting around with their 'captors' drinking up all of the plonk. I imagine that they had no idea why it was that they were fighting on the side that they were -- what was in it for them? Another feather in Il Duce's cap? Is that something that you want to die for? It isn't really fighting for you country at that point but more for that individual.
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