The Italian Campaign

The Allies decided to use Italy (which was aligned with Germany) as a platform to attack enemy territory in Europe. There were a series of battles in Italy and these became known as the Italian Campaign.

Landing in Sicily , July 9-August 1943

• US and British armies landed Sicily using a "land & water" a.k.a amphibious attack
• Italy had weak resistance but german army persistently fought until they were forced to evacuate Messina
• Sicily helped secure the Mediterranean sea for allied shipping and contributed to the down fall of Mussolini

Italy soon surrendered but this wasn't the end of the fighting...

Hitler rescued his only international friend; Mussolini and he became Hitler’s puppet dictator up north.

Invasion of Italy- Sept.9, 1943

• Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy.
• The fighting in Italy contained some of the toughest in the war.
• Germany took advantage of the mountainous landscape protected the defensive lines with machine gun nests, barbed wire, land mines, and artillery positions.

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Battle of Ortona -Dec.1943

• One of the most difficult battles for the Canadian troops
• The narrow, rough concreted streets limited the use of tanks and artillery.
• Canadians had to engage in vicious street fighting and smash their way through walls and buildings—“mouse holing”
• Canadians liberated Ortona Dec. 28.

GUSTAV Line Battles for Cassino - Jan - May 1944.
• German forces set up several defensive lines across the narrow Italian peninsula, the southern part was known as the Gustav line and ran by Monte Cassino • First defensive line for axis powers.
• Difficult for allies east coast- many rivers and ridges on pathway.
• It tool the allies four battles and several months to break through the line
• General Mark Clark let the German soldiers escape by invading Rome instead of cutting them off this was very questionable to people

Tanks rolling past the coliseum in Rome June 5 1944

Gothic line

• Germans set up a defense line north of Rome along the backbone of the northern Apennine Mountains.
• In the late summer and fall of 1944, the Allies broke through Germany’s “Gothic Line” in the north.

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Battle in Liri Valley-June 4, 1944

• Ensuring the liberation of Rome by the American Army
• The Allies broke through the Gothic line in the North
• Fighting continued to Spring 1945 when the Germans finally surrendered

May 1945
When the Germans finally surrendered and the fighting in Italy ended. Mussolini was captured by the Italian Partisans (not official soldiers that were dedicated to fight for a cause) and was hung with his wife in the streets of Milan.

Significance

• Prerequisite step for the liberation of Europe
• Occupied many German troops, making them unable to defend France from the Allies