From “Oh no, the legions!” to “Oh no, they’re on our side this time.”

The map above shows the reversal of miliary power in Europe from 116AD to 1943.

More about the meme:

The Setup (“oh no, the legions!”)

In the Roman Empire era, especially around the 1st-3rd centuries CE, the Germanic tribes (in Germania) were often in direct conflict with Roman legions.
To the Germans, the Romans were the terrifying superpower of the day: disciplined, organized, and hard to beat (e.g., the Romans crushed many tribes, even though Arminius famously ambushed them in Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE).
So, the Germanic reaction would be: “Oh no, the legions!”

Fast-forward ~1900 years to World War II.
Now, Germany is the military juggernaut, the one everyone else fears.
Italy, the heir to Rome, is nominally Germany’s ally under Mussolini.
But Italian forces in WWII gained a reputation for poor performance: losing in North Africa until bailed out by Rommel, struggling in Greece until Germany intervened, and eventually even switching sides in 1943.
So instead of fearing Italians, the Germans are now worried about having Italians as their allies, the opposite of Roman times.

The Romans saw Germania as a wild, dangerous frontier: dense forests, fierce tribes, and poor terrain for legions used to Mediterranean battlefields.

A few key points:

Caesar’s first encounters (55–53 BCE): Julius Caesar campaigned across the Rhine, clashing with tribes like the Suebi. He built bridges over the Rhine to show Roman power but never truly held the territory.
Augustus and Drusus (12–9 BCE): Under Augustus, Rome pushed hard into Germania. His stepson Drusus conducted major campaigns, pushing as far as the Elbe. For a moment, it looked like Germania might become a full province.
The Teutoburg Forest disaster (9 CE): Arminius, a Roman-trained Germanic chieftain, ambushed three legions (Varus’s command) in the Teutoburg Forest. Around 20,000 Romans were killed, one of the empire’s greatest defeats.
- After this, Augustus supposedly cried: “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!”
- Rome abandoned permanent conquest east of the Rhine, though they continued punitive campaigns.
Later campaigns: Emperors like Tiberius and Domitian launched invasions and built forts along the Rhine and Danube. Marcus Aurelius fought prolonged wars against Germanic tribes in the 2nd century CE.
Outcome: Germania was never conquered in the way Gaul or Britain were. Rome feared and respected the Germanic tribes, who later played a decisive role in the empire’s collapse (e.g., Goths, Vandals, Franks).

So in antiquity, the Germans were the underdogs facing the terrifying might of Roman Italy.

Fast-forward 1,900 years: now it’s Germany that’s the military powerhouse, and Italy that struggles.

A few key episodes:

North Africa (1940–41): Italy invaded Egypt from Libya but was quickly pushed back by the British. Germany had to send Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps in 1941 to save the situation. The campaign became famous for German tactical brilliance and Italian weakness.
The Greek campaign (1940–41): Mussolini tried to invade Greece in October 1940. The Italians were beaten back, and the Greeks even pushed into Albania. Hitler had to divert forces from preparing for Operation Barbarossa to bail out Italy in the Balkans, delaying the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Italy collapses (1943): After the Allies invaded Sicily, Mussolini was overthrown (July 1943). Italy switched sides in September, signing an armistice with the Allies.
- This left German forces scrambling to seize control of Italy.
- They disarmed Italian troops, occupied much of the peninsula, and set up the “Italian Social Republic” under Mussolini as a puppet state.
German defense of Italy (1943–45):
- From then on, the Germans bore the brunt of fighting the Allies in Italy.
- They constructed the Gustav Line and fought ferociously at places like Monte Cassino.
- Italy itself became a liability: Germans had to station hundreds of thousands of troops just to hold the territory.

So the reversal is stark:

Rome once, the miliary superpower, tried (but failed) to dominate Germania.
In WWII, Germany had to dominate and prop up Italy just to keep them in the war.

Here’s an alternate meme:

Books on the subject: