
Fiat and The Fascists: The WW2 Italian War Machine
Fiat built more than cars in Mussolini's Italy. This episode of the War Factories series traces how the Turin company grew into the backbone of the country's war effort, turning out trucks, aircraft engines, and locomotives alongside its automobiles. The film follows the company's founder, Giovanni Agnelli, and his web of political ties, showing how Fiat's leadership moved from courting the fascist state to becoming entangled in its survival, with enough industrial and political weight to help make and unmake governments. Archival footage of assembly lines, military hardware, and wartime Italy is paired with expert narration that walks through the company's expansion into aviation and rail alongside its core car business. The episode sets Fiat's industrial ambition against the fascist regime's demands, tracing how a private manufacturer became inseparable from a nation's war machine, and what that entanglement cost the company once the war turned against Italy.