Italian Campaign

Italian Campaign

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Overview

• In January 1943, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to finalize military strategy against the Axis powers.
• The Allies decided to pursue action on and around the island of Sicily, part of what Churchill called “the soft underbelly of Europe.”
• The Axis powers had just suffered a defeat in North Africa. Allies were able to continue expanding their control within the Mediterranean, provide air bases closer to enemy targets, and open an additional battlefront on the European mainland.
• This would take Nazi troops from the Russian front, relieving the pressure being felt by the Soviets.

taking the peninsula

• The movement would bring troops across the Straits of Messina to capture the city of Naples.
• The ultimate goal of the troops was to find a method of advancing through the country and opening up a path to Rome.
• The British Eighth Army and the United States Fifth Army both landed on the southern mainland of Italy in September 1943.
• While the US Army immediately fell under attack, the British forces were able to land with little trouble.
• A final combined attack allowed the Fifth and Eighth Armies to march to Monte Cassino.

operation husky

• On July 10, 1943, the Allied troops conducted what was, up to that point, the largest amphibious war assault in history.
• During Operation Husky, the monthlong campaign in Sicily, the Allied troops were able to defeat the Axis powers.
• The German and Italian forces were unable to keep the Allies from capturing the island of Sicily.
• While negotiations were being held, Hitler ordered several divisions to occupy mainland Italy and take control of its military forces.

The Gothic Line The Gothic Line consisted of a 10-mile string of fortifications and blockades built by the Axis powers to slow the Allies in their advance toward northern Italy. These fortifications had several features, including

• reinforced gun pits
• more than 100,000 meters of barbed wire
• thousands of machine-gun nests
• more than 400 assault gun positions
• miles of antitank ditches

Mussolini Resigns In the face of adversity, public opinion about Benito Mussolini—the Italian leader of the National Fascist Party—changed. Out-of- control inflation and acute shortages gripped the land so severely that even bread was being

taking the peninsula (continued)

• Once Monte Cassino fell, both the British and American troops were able to make the final march to Rome.
• At the time, Rome was declared an open city, which allowed the armies to enter it without resistance.

The Failed Escape

• As the war was winding down, Mussolini was panicking.
• He knew of Hitler’s suicide on April 20, 1945. Mussolini planned an escape to neutral territory.
• On April 28, 1945, members of the Italian Resistance intercepted a convoy of trucks heading toward the Austrian border.
• Among the passengers was a huddled man who was pretending to be a drunken soldier.
• The armed partisans gasped after seeing his face. One of them exclaimed, “We’ve got Big-Head!” Mussolini’s narcissism had betrayed him.
• After living for more than 20 years surrounded with images of him throughout Italy, everyone knew him on sight.

taking the peninsula (continued)

rationed. Mussolini was forced to resign and was imprisoned in a mountaintop hotel under armed guard. An armistice was arranged with the Allies.

• Mussolini and his party were taken to Milan, where the partisans lined them up against a down by their ankles from the girders of the station’s canopy.
• One last time, crowds of wildly cheering Italian citizens surrounded Mussolini. But this time, it was in celebration of his death.