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22

One Bloomin Ridge After Another: The Italian Campaign, 1943 1945

Seizing Sicily, 9 July 17 August 1943 Landing in Italy, 3 September 1943 Monte Cassino and the Gustav Line, 20 November 1943 18 May 1944 Fighting at Anzio, 22 January 23 May 1944 Fighting through the Gothic Line, 30 August 28 October 1944 Ending the Italian campaign

ven before the Axis surrender in North Africa (see 21), the Allies were deciding their next move The Americans wanted to concentrate on building up forces in the United Kingdom in preparation for the invasion of France The British took the view that this invasion could not take place before the summer of 1944 In the meantime, Churchill argued persuasively, a blow struck into what he called the soft underbelly of Europe would shatter the Axis alliance and result in large numbers of German troops being tied down in Italy instead of being available for operations in western Europe when the time came Churchill s view prevailed In Italy the internal organisation of infantry tank squadrons was changed to provide a balance between armoured protection and fine fire control Squadrons consisted of a headquarters troop of three Churchill tanks, two three-tank Churchill troops, and two three-tank Sherman troops This took account of the fact that while the Sherman lacked the thick armour of the slow, heavily protected Churchill, it possessed the better gun control equipment About 120 Churchills had been re-armed with the superior 75-millimetre guns of Shermans written off in North Africa

Part VI: The Second World War (and Beyond)

Before the Allies could invade Italy, they had to take Sicily as a stepping stone from North Africa; and before they could take Sicily they had to neutralise the island of Pantelleria, lying between Sicily and Tunisia A week s pounding by the Allied air forces convinced the garrison commander that resistance was pointless The British 1st Division made an unopposed landing on Pantelleria on 11 June 1943 Shortly after, Allied aircraft began operating from Pantelleria and the nearby island of Lampedusa The invasion of Sicily proper was under the overall control of three British commanders: 15th Army Group, General Sir Harold Alexander; naval, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham; and air, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder The 15th Army Group contained two armies, the Eighth under General Sir Bernard Montgomery, and the US Seventh under Lieutenant General George S Patton The invasion was the largest amphibious operation that the Allies had attempted so far The landings took place in poor weather on 9/10 July The Allies met little opposition, as they took the Italians manning the coastal defences by surprise During the next two days the Americans faced heavy counter-attacks at the port of Gela, but they held their ground with the assistance of naval gunfire They then broke out of their beachhead and cleared western Sicily of the enemy Meanwhile, the Eighth Army pushed northwards against increasing opposition and was brought to a halt south of Catania On the night of 13 July, however, Allied commandos took the bridge at Lentini while paratroops took the bridge at Primasole Patton s army now swung eastwards along the north coast of the island This had the effect of turning the enemy s right flank Colonel General Hans Hube, coordinating the Axis defence, now realised that he had to abandon Sicily During the first two weeks of August, while the American advance continued, the Eighth Army fought its way past Mount Etna By the time the Allies reached Messina on 17 August, however, the Axis army had carried out a model evacuation, shipping no fewer than 100,000 men, 9800 vehicles, and 50 tanks across the Straits of Messina to the Italian mainland The Allies sustained some 16,000 casualties Axis losses totalled 164,000 killed, wounded, or captured, including 32,000 Germans Most Italians did not want to fight and were happy to be taken prisoner