Italian Campaign (World War II)

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Artillery being landed during the invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno, September 1943.

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.

[edit] Strategic Background

Canadian soldiers inspect a captured German MG34 machine gun. With a rate of fire of up to 900 rounds per minute it fired about twice as fast as its Canadian army counterpart, the Bren gun.

Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign, there was disagreement between the Allies on the best strategy to defeat the Axis.

The British, especially Winston Churchill, advocated their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. With a relatively small army, but great naval power, the traditional British strategy 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 a far larger army, favored a more direct strategy 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 US service chiefs arguing for an invasion of France as early as possible, while their British counterparts advocated a mediterranian strategy. The American staff believed that a full-scale invasion of France as soon as possible was necessary to end the war in Europe, and that no operations should be undertaken which 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. Eventually the US and British political leadership made the decision to commit to an invasion of France in 1944, but with a low-priority Italian campaign to tie up German forces in the meantime.

The primary strategic goal of the campaign was thus to force the German army to tie down units in Italy, which both sides knew was a secondary theater. With the greater Allied numerical strength, such a strategy favored the Allies.

However, political events in Italy intervened. It was clear that the Italian people had never been enthusiastic about their participation in the war, and it was hoped that an invasion would knock them out of the war, or provide at least a major propaganda blow. The elimination of Italy as an enemy would also enable the Royal Navy to completely dominate the Mediterranean Sea, massively improving communications with Egypt, the Far East, the Middle East and India. It would also mean that 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.

A secondary objective was thus to eliminate Italy as a partner in the axis coalition. A symbolic part of this would be the capture of Rome.

[edit] Invasion of Sicily

Main article:Allied invasion of Sicily

A combined British-American invasion of Sicily began on July 10, 1943 with both seaborne and airborne landings at the gulf of Gela and north of Syracuse. The Germans 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 August 17, 1943. Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare, and mass Airborne drops.

[edit] Invasion of continental Italy

Main article:Allied invasion of Italy.

Forces of the British Eighth Army landed in the 'toe' of Italy on September 3, 1943 in Operation Baytown. The Italian government surrendered on 8 September, but the German forces prepared to defend without their assistance. On 9 September forces of the US Fifth Army landed at Salerno in Operation Avalanche and additional British forces 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 Eighth Army were able to make relatively easy progress for a while up the eastern coast capturing the port of Bari and the important airfields around Foggia. No reserves were made available from the north to the German Tenth Army which nevertheless came close to repelling the Salerno landing. The main Allied effort in the west initially centered on the port of Naples. Naples was selected because it was the northernmost port city that could be taken while under cover of Allied fighter aircraft operating from Sicily.

As the Allies advanced north, increasingly difficult terrain (characterised by a succession of fast flowing rivers and intervening ridges running at right angles to the line of advance) prevented fast movement and proved ideal for defense.

[edit] The Winter Line, Anzio and Monte Cassino

Main articles:Winter Line, Operation Shingle, Battle of Monte Cassino

In early October 1943 Adolf Hitler was persuaded by his Army Group Commander in south Italy, Field Marshall Kesselring that the defense of Italy should be conducted as far away from Germany as possible. This would make the most of the natural defensive geography of Central Italy whilst denying the Allies the easy capture of a succession of airfields each one being ever closer to Germany. Kesselring was given command of the whole of Italy and immediately ordered the preparation of a series of defensive lines across Italy south of Rome. Two lines, the Volturno Line and the Barbara Line were used to delay the Allied advance to buy time to prepare the most formidable defensive positions which formed the Winter Line, the collective name for the Gustav Line and two associated defensive lines on the west of the Apennine mountains, the Bernhardt Line and the Adolf Hitler Line. The Winter Line proved a major obstacle to the Allies at the end of 1943, halting their advance on the 5th Army's front, the western side of Italy. Although the Gustav Line was penetrated on the 8th Army's Adriatic front, blizzards, drifting snow and zero visibility at the end of December caused the advance to grind to a halt. The Allies focus then turned to the western front where an attack through the Liri valley was considered to have the best chance of a breakthrough towards Rome. Landings at Anzio behind the line were intended to destabilise the German Gustav line defenses, but the hoped for early thrust inland to cut the German defenses off did not occur and the Anzio forces became bottled up in their beach head. It took four major offensives between January and May 1944 before the line was eventually broken by a combined assault of the 5th and 8th Armies (including British, US, French, Polish, and Canadian Corps) concentrated along a twenty mile front between Monte Cassino and the western seaboard. At the same time the forces at Anzio broke out of their beach head but an opportunity to cut off and destroy a large part of the German Tenth Army retreating from the Gustav Line was lost when, on the brink of success, the Anzio forces changed their direction of attack to move parallel with the coast to capture Rome. Rome fell on June 4.

[edit] The Final Stages

Main article:Gothic Line

The Italian campaign had always been a secondary theatre, and this became much more obvious after the capture of Rome and the Normandy Invasion. Many experienced units such as the US 3rd, 36th, and 45th Infantry Divisions were pulled out of Italy to participate in Operation Dragoon. In the period from May to September the Allies advanced beyond Rome taking Florence and closing up on the Gothic Line. This last defensive line, just south of Bologna, was not broken until April 1945. In the winter and spring of 1944-45, extensive partisan activity in northern Italy took place. Because there were two Italian governments during this period, one on each side of the war, the struggle took on some characteristics of a civil war.

[edit] Bibliography

• Gerhard Muhm : German Tactics in the Italian Campaign , http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm
• Gerhard Muhm (1993). "La Tattica tedesca nella Campagna d'Italia, in Linea Gotica avanposto dei Balcani" (in Italian). (Hrsg.) Amedeo Montemaggi - Edizioni Civitas.

[edit] External links

• Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945 Lot's of media and photos and info on Canadians in the Italian theatre.
• WW2 propaganda leaflets - use in Italy: A website about airdropped, shelled or rocket fired propaganda leaflets. Italian campaign.
• BBC's flash video of the Italian Campaign
• Online Canadian World War 2 Newspaper Archives - The Sicilian and Italian Campaigns, 1943-1945
• Hitler's Decision on the Defense of Italy
• Liberatori: A website on the Po river breakout and the liberation of the small town of Cornuda.
• Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Second World War (Italian Campaign)
• CBC Digital Archives - The Italian Campaign
• (Italian) La Città Invisibile Collection of signs, stories and memories during the Gothic Line age.