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Total: 327,000335,495
15,197 killed Sicily: 165,000 casualties (of whom 30,000 were Germans)[11]
Italian mainland: 336,650 casualties[nb 4]580,630 [nb 5][13][14]
4,500+ aircraft lost[15]
Surrender of Caserta: 1,000,000 captured[16]
Total: 1,501,6501,745,630+
Italian Social Republic 13,021 killed
Flag of Bohmen und Mahren.svg 10 killed, 15 wounded and 800 defected
~152,940 civilians dead
v t e
Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre
Adriatic North Africa East Africa Mediterranean Sea Gibraltar Malta Bahrain Balkans
Yugoslavia Iraq Syria-Lebanon Palestine Iran Sicily Italian mainland Dodecanese
Corsica Dragoon
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Italian Campaign
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and
around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces
Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the
Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the invasion of Sicily in July
1943, followed shortly thereafter in September by the invasion of the Italian
mainland and the campaign on Italian soil until the surrender of the German Armed
Forces in Italy in May 1945.
It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60,00070,000
Allied and 60,000150,000 German soldiers died in Italy.[6][17][nb 6] Overall
Allied casualties during the campaign totaled about 320,000[nb 7] and the
corresponding German figure (excluding those involved in the final surrender) was
well over 600,000.[6] Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000
casualties, mostly POWs taken in the Allied invasion of Sicily, including more than
40,000 killed or missing.[19] Besides them, over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as
did 15,197 anti-Fascist partisans and 13,021 troops of the Italian Social Republic.
[20]
In the West, no other campaign cost more than Italy in terms of lives lost and
wounds suffered by infantry forces of both sides, during bitter small-scale
fighting around strongpoints at Winter positions, Anzio girth and the Gothic Line.
[21] The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies
on May 2, 1945, one week before the formal German Instrument of Surrender. The
independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian
territory, also suffered damage during the campaign.
Contents
1 Strategic background
2 Campaign
2.1 Invasion of Sicily
2.2 Invasion of Continental Italy
2.3 Allied advance to Rome
2.4 Allied advance into Northern Italy
2.5 Casualties
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Strategic background[edit]
Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign in May 1943, there was
disagreement between the Allies on the best strategy to defeat the Axis.[citation
needed] The British, especially the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, advocated
their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. Even with a large army, but
greater naval power, the traditional British answer against a continental enemy was
to fight as part of a coalition and mount small peripheral operations designed to
gradually weaken the enemy. The United States, with an even larger army, favoured a
more direct method of fighting the main force of the German Army in Northern
Europe. The ability to launch such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle
of the Atlantic.
The strategic disagreement was fierce, with the U.S. service chiefs arguing for an
invasion of France as early as possible, while their British counterparts advocated
a policy centred on operations in the Mediterranean. There was even pressure from
some Latin American countries to stage an invasion of Spain, which under Francisco
Franco was friendly to the Axis nations, although not a participant in the war.[22]
The American staff believed that a full-scale invasion of France at the earliest
possible time was required to end the war in Europe, and that no operations should
be undertaken that might delay that effort. The British argued that the presence of
large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the Mediterranean made a
limited-scale invasion possible and useful.[citation needed]
Eventually the U.S. and British political leadership reached a compromise in which
both would commit most of their forces to an invasion of France in early 1944, but
also launch a relatively small scale Italian campaign. A contributing factor was
Franklin D. Roosevelt's desire to keep US troops active in the European theatre
during 1943 and his attraction to the idea of eliminating Italy from the war.[23]
It was hoped that an invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict,[24] or at
least increase the pressure on it and weaken it.[25][26] The elimination of Italy
would enable Allied naval forces, principally the Royal Navy, to dominate the
Mediterranean Sea, securing the lines of communications with Egypt, the Far East,
the Middle East and India.[26][27] Italian divisions on occupation and coastal
defence duties in the Balkans and France would be withdrawn to defend Italy, while
the Germans would have to transfer troops from the Eastern Front to defend Italy
and the entire southern coast of France, thus aiding the Soviets.[28][29]
Campaign[edit]
Invasion of Sicily[edit]
Main article: Allied invasion of Sicily
British infantry marching through the town of Noto, Sicily, 11 July 1943.
A combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943 with both amphibious and
airborne landings at the Gulf of Gela. The land forces involved were the U.S.
Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, and the British Eighth
Army, under General Bernard Montgomery. The original plan contemplated a strong
advance by the British northwards along the east coast to Messina, with the
Americans in a supporting role along their left flank. When the Eighth Army were
held up by stubborn defences in the rugged hills south of Mount Etna, Patton
amplified the American role by a wide advance northwest toward Palermo and then
directly north to cut the northern coastal road. This was followed by an eastward
advance north of Etna towards Messina, supported by a series of amphibious landings
on the north coast, that propelled Patton's troops into Messina shortly before the
first elements of the Eighth Army. The defending German and Italian forces were
unable to prevent the Allied capture of the island, but succeeded in evacuating
most of their troops to the mainland, the last leaving on 17 August 1943. The
Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare
and mass airborne drops.
Invasion of Continental Italy[edit]
Main articles: Allied invasion of Italy, Armistice of Cassibile, and Operation
Achse
Artillery being landed during the invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno, September
1943.
Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the 'toe' of
Italy on 3 September 1943 in Operation Baytown, the day the Italian government
agreed to an armistice with the Allies. The armistice was publicly announced on 8
September by two broadcasts, first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation
by Marshal Badoglio. Although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian
assistance, only two of their divisions opposite the Eighth Army and one at Salerno
were not tied up disarming the Royal Italian Army.
On 9 September, forces of the U.S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W.
Clark, expecting little resistance, landed against heavy German resistance at
Salerno in Operation Avalanche; in addition, British forces landed at Taranto in
Operation Slapstick, which was almost unopposed. There had been a hope that, with
the surrender of the Italian government, the Germans would withdraw to the north,
since at the time Adolf Hitler had been persuaded that Southern Italy was
strategically unimportant. However, this was not to be; although, for a while, the
Eighth Army was able to make relatively easy progress up the eastern coast,
capturing the port of Bari and the important airfields around Foggia. Although none
of the northern reserves were made available to the German 10th Army , it
nevertheless came close to repelling the Salerno landing, due mainly to the
cautious command of Clark. The main Allied effort in the west initially centred on
the port of Naples: that city was selected because it was the northernmost port
that could receive Allied air support by fighter aircraft operating from Sicily.
As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain: the
Apennine Mountains form a spine along the Italian peninsula offset somewhat to the
east. In the most mountainous areas of Abruzzo, more than half the width of the
peninsula comprises crests and peaks over 3,000 feet (910 m) that are relatively
easy to defend; and the spurs and re-entrants to the spine confronted the Allies
with a succession of ridges and rivers across their line of advance. The rivers
were subject to sudden and unexpected flooding, which constantly thwarted the
Allied commanders' plans.[30]
Allied advance to Rome[edit]
Main articles: Bernhardt Line, Moro River Campaign, Battle of Monte Cassino, and
Battle of Anzio
German Tiger I tank in front of the Altare della Patria in Rome in 1944.
It took four major offensives between January and May 1944 before the line was
eventually broken by a combined assault of the Fifth and Eighth Armies (including
British, American, French, Polish and Canadian Corps) concentrated along a twenty-
mile front between Monte Cassino and the western seaboard. In a concurrent action,
American General Mark Clark was ordered to break out of the stagnant position at
Anzio and cash-in on the opportunity to cut off and destroy a large part of the
German 10th Army retreating from the Gustav Line between them and the Canadians.
But this opportunity was lost on the brink of success, when Clark disobeyed his
orders and sent his U.S. forces to enter the vacant Rome instead.[33] Rome had been
declared an open city by the German Army so no resistance was encountered.
Private Paul Oglesby of the U.S. 30th Infantry Regiment before the altar in a
damaged church in Acerno.
After the capture of Rome, and the Allied invasion of Normandy in June, the U.S. VI
Corps and the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF), which together amounted to seven
divisions, were pulled out of Italy during the summer of 1944 to participate in
Operation Dragoon, codename for the Allied invasion of Southern France. The sudden
removal of these experienced units from the Italian front was only partially
compensated for by the gradual arrival of three divisions, the Brazilian 1st
Infantry Division, the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division, both in the second half of
1944, and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division in January 1945.[34]
In the period from June to August 1944, the Allies advanced beyond Rome, taking
Florence and closing up on the Gothic Line.[35] This last major defensive line ran
from the coast some 30 miles (48 km) north of Pisa, along the jagged Apennine
Mountains chain between Florence and Bologna to the Adriatic coast, just south of
Rimini. In order to shorten the Allied lines of communication for the advance into
Northern Italy, the Polish II Corps advanced towards the port of Ancona and, after
a month-long battle, succeeded in capturing it on 18 July.
Brazilian soldiers cross Sassomore towards Vornetti home to take to the observation
point of the Coda, April 1945.
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