1.
Italian Campaign (World War II)
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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. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60, 000–70,000 Allied and 60, overall Allied casualties during the campaign totaled about 320,000 and the corresponding German figure was well over 600,000. 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. Besides them, over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 15,197 anti-Fascist partisans and 13,021 troops of the Italian Social Republic. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 2,1945, the independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian territory, also suffered damage during the campaign. Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign in May 1943, the British, especially the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, advocated their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. The United States, with a larger army, favoured a more direct method of fighting the main force of the German Army in Northern Europe. The ability to such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic. There was even pressure from some Latin American countries to stage an invasion of Spain, 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. A contributing factor was Franklin D. Roosevelts desire to keep US troops active in the European theatre during 1943 and it was hoped that an invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict, or at least increase the pressure on them and weaken them further. 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, 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. 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 Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare and mass airborne drops. Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the toe of Italy on 3 September 1943 in Operation Baytown, 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, 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. As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain, the Apennine Mountains form a spine along the Italian peninsula offset somewhat to the east, the rivers were subject to sudden and unexpected flooding, which constantly thwarted the Allied commanders plans. This would make the most of the natural geography of Central Italy, whilst denying the Allies the easy capture of a succession of airfields
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
4.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
5.
Mark W. Clark
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Mark Wayne Clark was a United States Army officer who saw service during World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. He was the youngest lieutenant general in the United States Army during World War II, during World War I, he was a company commander and served in France in 1918, as a 22-year old captain, where he was seriously wounded by shrapnel. After the war, the future U. S. Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, during World War II, he commanded the United States Fifth Army, and later the 15th Army Group, in the Italian campaign. He is known for leading the Fifth Army in its capture of Rome in June 1944, the German 10th Army then joined with the rest of the German army group at the Trasimene Line. In March 1945, Clark, at the age of 48, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend of Clarks, considered him a brilliant staff officer and trainer of men. Clark was awarded medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross. A legacy of the Clark task force that he led in 1953–1955 and his mother, Rebecca Beckie Ezekkiels, was the daughter of Romanian Jews, but Mark Clark was baptized Episcopalian while a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Clark gained an appointment to the USMA in 1913 at the age of 17. Although Eisenhower two years senior to him, having graduated as part of the West Point class of 1915 and he graduated alongside young men such as Matthew Ridgway, J. Lawton Collins, Ernest N. Harmon, William W. Eagles, Norman Cota, Laurence B. Keiser, Frederick Augustus Irving, William C, mcMahon, Bryant Moore and William Kelly Harrison, Jr. Like his father, he decided to join the Infantry Branch, oDaniel serving as a platoon commander in his company. In the rapid expansion of the U. S. Army during World War I, he rose quickly in rank, promoted to first lieutenant on May 15 and captain on August 5,1917. In late April 1918, shortly before Clarks 22nd birthday and over a year since his graduation from the USMA, he arrived on the Western Front, pershing, the Commander-in-Chief of the AEF on the Western Front. They were two of the first casualties in the division, despite his injuries, however, Clark managed to recover within six weeks, although he was graded unfit to return to the infantry. As a result of his convalescence, Captain Clark was transferred to the Supply Section of the First Army. In this position he served with Colonel John L. DeWitt, and supervised the provision of food for the men of the First Army. He stayed in this post until the end of hostilities on November 11,1918 and he then served with the Third Army in its occupation duties in Germany and returned to the United States in June 1919. During the period between the wars, Clark served in a variety of staff and training roles
6.
Albert Kesselring
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Albert Kesselring was a German Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. Nicknamed Smiling Albert by the Allies and Uncle Albert by his troops, he was one of the most popular generals of World War II with the rank, Kesselring joined the Bavarian Army as an officer cadet in 1904, and served in the artillery branch. He completed training as an observer in 1912. During World War I, he served on both the Western and Eastern fronts and was posted to the General Staff, despite not having attended the War Academy. During World War II he commanded air forces in the invasions of Poland and France, as Commander-in-Chief South, he was overall German commander in the Mediterranean theatre, which included the operations in North Africa. Kesselring conducted an uncompromising defensive campaign against the Allied forces in Italy until he was injured in an accident in October 1944, in the final campaign of the war, he commanded German forces on the Western Front. He won the respect of his Allied opponents for his military accomplishments, after the war, Kesselring was tried for war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. A political and media campaign resulted in his release in 1952 and he was one of only three Generalfeldmarschalls to publish his memoirs. Alberts early years were spent in Marktsteft, where relatives had operated a brewery since 1688, matriculating from the Christian Ernestinum Secondary School in Bayreuth in 1904, Kesselring joined the German Army as an Fahnenjunker in the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment. The regiment was based at Metz and was responsible for maintaining its forts, Kesselring married Luise Anna Pauline Keyssler, the daughter of an apothecary from Bayreuth, in 1910. Their marriage was childless, but in 1913 they adopted Rainer, in 1912, Kesselring completed training as a balloon observer in a dirigible section – an early sign of an interest in aviation. Kesselrings superiors considered posting him to the School of Artillery and Engineering as an instructor because of his expertise in the interplay between tactics and technology. During World War I, Kesselring served with his regiment in Lorraine until the end of 1914, when he was transferred to the 1st Bavarian Foot Artillery, on 19 May 1916, he was promoted to Hauptmann. In 1916 he was transferred again, to the 3rd Bavarian Foot Artillery and he distinguished himself in the Battle of Arras, using his tactical acumen to halt a British advance. For his services on the Western Front, he was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class, in 1917, he was posted to the General Staff, despite having not attended the Bavarian War Academy. He served on the Eastern Front on the staff of the 1st Bavarian Landwehr Division, in January 1918, he returned to the Western Front as a staff officer with the II and III Bavarian Corps. At the conclusion of the war, Kesselring was involved in the demobilisation of III Bavarian Corps in the Nuremberg area and he was soon released but his superior, Major Hans Seyler, censured him for having failed to display the requisite discretion
7.
Allied invasion of Sicily
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The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers. It was an amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign. Husky began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August, the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power in Italy and the way was opened for the Allied invasion of Italy. The German leader, Adolf Hitler, canceled a major offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy, resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front. The plan for Operation Husky called for the assault of Sicily by two Allied armies, one landing on the south-eastern and one on the central southern coast. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by gunfire, as well as tactical bombing, interdiction. As such, the operation required a complex structure, incorporating land, naval. The overall commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa, British General Sir Harold Alexander acted as his second-in-command and as the 15th Army Group commander. The American Major General Walter Bedell Smith was appointed as Eisenhowers Chief of Staff, the overall Naval Force Commander was the British Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. The Allied land forces were from the American, British and Canadian armies, the Eastern Task Force was led by General Sir Bernard Montgomery and consisted of the British Eighth Army. The Western Task Force was commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the two task force commanders reported to Alexander as commander of the 15th Army Group. Seventh Army consisted initially of three divisions, organized under II Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. Middleton, sailed from the United States via Oran in Algeria, the 2nd Armored Division, under Major General Hugh Joseph Gaffey, also sailing from Oran, was to be a floating reserve and be fed into combat as required. On 15 July, Patton reorganized his command into two corps by creating a new Provisional Corps headquarters, commanded by his deputy army commander, Major General Geoffrey Keyes. The two divisions of XIII Corps, the 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions, commanded by Major-Generals Horatio Berney-Ficklin and Sidney Kirkman and this request was granted by the British, displacing the veteran British 3rd Infantry Division. The Red Patch Division was added to Leeses XXX Corps to become part of the British Eighth Army, in addition to the amphibious landings, airborne troops were to be flown in to support both the Western and Eastern Task Forces. To the east, the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General George F. Hopkinson, was to seize vital bridges and high ground in support of the British Eighth Army. The initial plan dictated that the U. S. 82nd Airborne Division, Allied naval forces were also grouped into two task forces to transport and support the invading armies
8.
Operation Mincemeat
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Operation Mincemeat was a successful British disinformation strategy used during the Second World War. Correspondence between two British generals which suggested that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, with Sicily as merely the target of a feint, was placed on the body. It was picked up the morning by a Spanish fisherman. The nominally neutral Spanish government shared copies of the documents with the Abwehr, forensic examination showed they had been read, and decrypts of German messages showed the Germans fell for the ruse. Reinforcements were shifted to Greece and Sardinia both before and during the invasion of Sicily, Sicily received none, the true impact of Operation Mincemeat is unknown, although the island was liberated more quickly than anticipated and losses were lower than predicted. Montagus work formed the basis for a 1956 film, the historian Ben Macintyre observes that although the paper was published under Godfreys name, it bore all the hallmarks of. Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, Godfreys personal assistant, the memo contained a number of schemes to be considered for use against the Axis powers to lure U-boats and German surface ships towards minefields. Number 28 on the list was titled, A Suggestion, it was an idea to plant misleading papers on a corpse that would be found by the enemy. The following suggestion is used in a book by Basil Thomson, I understand there is no difficulty in obtaining corpses at the Naval Hospital, but, of course, it would have to be a fresh one. The deliberate planting of fake documents to be found by the enemy was not new, known as the Haversack Ruse, it had been practised by the British and others in the First and Second World Wars. In August 1942, before the Battle of Alam el Halfa, on the corpse was a map purportedly showing the locations of British minefields, the Germans used the map and their tanks were routed to areas of soft sand where they bogged down. In September 1942 an aircraft flying from Britain to Gibraltar crashed off Cádiz, all aboard were killed, including Paymaster-Lieutenant James Hadden Turner – a courier carrying top secret documents – and a French agent. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, would arrive in Gibraltar on the eve of the target date of 4 November. Turners body washed up on the beach near Tarifa and was recovered by the Spanish authorities, when the body was returned to the British, the letter was still on it, and technicians determined that the letter had not been opened. Other Allied intelligence sources established that the notebook carried by the French agent had been copied by the Germans, to British planners it showed that some material that was obtained by the Spanish was being passed to the Germans. His plan was A body is obtained from one of the London hospitals, the lungs are filled with water and documents are disposed in an inside pocket. The body is dropped by a Coastal Command aircraft. On being found, the supposition in the mind may well be that one of our aircraft has either been shot or forced down
9.
Battle of Gela (1943)
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The amphibious Battle of Gela was the opening engagement of the United States portion of the Allied Invasion of Sicily. The battle convinced United States Army officers of the value of artillery support. Ground forces under command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower were transported by naval forces under overall command of Admiral Andrew Cunningham. There were three wings of Supermarine Spitfires operating from airfields on Malta and two groups of Curtiss P-40 Warhawks from airfields on Pantelleria and Gozo, Allied ground forces had no idea when, where, in what numbers, or under what circumstances they might see Allied aircraft. Unlike the earlier invasion of North Africa and later invasion of Italy, carriers which had supported the American landings during Operation Torch had been reassigned without replacement. The fishing village of Gela was on a plateau at 150-foot elevation behind a beach with a 900-foot pier. Plains cultivated for grain extended inland behind the community of 32,000, the mouth of the Gela River was 1 mile east of the pier and the mouth of the Acate River was 5 miles east of the Gela River. The sand and stone beach between the rivers was from 10–30 yards wide and backed by 900 yards of dunes, the 52d Troop Carrier Wing of 222 Douglas C-47 Skytrains from North Africa carried the airborne 505th Infantry Regiment for a parachute drop over Piano Lupo. A western task force of 601 ships under the command of Vice Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt carried the Seventh United States Army under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, both officers sailed aboard the flagship transport USS Monrovia. Patton commanded three times as many soldiers as Hewitt had landed eight months earlier at Morocco during Operation Torch, the invasion was the European combat premier of tank landing ships s only a week after the Pacific Operation Cartwheel. The reserve force of the 2nd Armored Division and 18th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division was landed on the first day of fighting to support the 1st Infantry Division, the Gela invasion beaches were defended by the Italian XVIII Coastal Brigade. The town itself was defended by the Italian 429th Coastal Battalion using barbed wire, concrete pillboxes, junkers Ju 88A and Savoia-Marchetti SM79 medium bombers could reach Gela from bases in Italy. The LSTs, LCIs, LCTs and patrol craft sailed directly from Tunisia as convoys TJM1, the convoys were spotted and all German forces on Sicily were alerted at 18,40 on 9 July. Beaufort scale force 7 winds created 12 feet seas causing widespread seasickness among the embarked troops, winds moderated on the evening of 9 July as ships divided into task forces C, H, and K and proceeded to assigned anchorages off the Sicilian coast. As the ships anchored, airborne troops of the 505th Infantry Regiment were scattered by wind, fewer than 200 of the 3,400 paratroopers were able to reach the strategic Piano Lupo highland before the defending Livorno Division arrived. The transports Joseph T. Dickman, Prince Charles, Prince Leopold, Oberon, Barnett, Monrovia, Lyon, Samuel Chase, Betelgeuse, Thurston, the Army hoped for surprise, and declined Navy suggestions for pre-invasion bombardment. The transports started unloading shortly after midnight, and General Guzzoni declared an emergency at 01,00, the first assault wave from Barnett, Lyon, Thurston and Stanton landed about 02,45. Shubrick destroyed two XVIII Coastal Brigade searchlights illuminating the first wave and fired on several XVIII Coastal Brigade artillery positions, initial waves had landed on all beaches by 03,35
10.
Battle of Centuripe
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The Battle of Centuripe was fought from 2 to 4 August 1943, as part of the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. The battle focused around Centuripe which the German Wehrmacht had heavily fortified the town set on a very high rocky pinnacle and approached by only one steep. Centuripe itself was the key to the whole Adrano position and the capture of Adrano would in turn force the Germans to withdraw to new positions, the British troops captured the town after heavy fighting and as a result caused the Germans to start contemplating abandoning Sicily altogether. The lesser hills round it were well defended by the Germans, defending this position was the crack Hermann Göring Division, consisting mostly of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment as part of Kampfgruppe von Carnap under Ludwig Heilmann. As well as the regiment, the kampfgruppe consisted of an artillery regiment, Heilmann had replaced the commander Oberstleutenant Von Carnap after he had been killed by British artillery fire in late July. The 78th Battleaxe Infantry Division, under the command of Major-General Vyvyan Evelegh, assembled for a drive towards Catenanuova and to capture Centuripe as part of Operation Hardgate. Evelegh ordered Brigadier Nelson Russell, commander of the 38th Infantry Brigade, to take Centuripe, on the evening of August 1 the London Irish moved to a lying-up area in the wadis below the foothills of Centuripe. No transport was able to get forward and that meant that all ammunition, food, and other supplies had to be man-handled causing a delay. The job of the London Irish was to take three commanding hills, Points 704,611, and 703 behind Centuripe but it was not known in what strength they were held by the Germans. It was hoped that most of German attention would be to the main battle, throughout the night more men from 38th Brigade moved into the town to reinforce those already there. Finally the Germans launched another counterattack but this time it was weak, just before dawn on August 3 the whole of the environs including Centuripe fell to the Irish Brigade. The operation had been a one, in difficult country and chief credit for the success was due to the Inniskillings. The successful capture of Centuripe had caused the whole German line to Catania to crack and thus had to withdraw to a new position and this however had to be abandoned and soon plans were made to abandon the island of Sicily as a whole. The London Irish quickly reached high ground on the far side of the Salso, as dusk approached, two platoons of ‘G’ Company moved across the river with reserve ammunition, mortars, and machine-guns for the immediate support of the two other companies. That, however, was not an Irish Brigade task, for the two brigades of the 78th Division went through. From the afternoon of August 1 to nightfall on August 5 the Irish Brigade had advanced twenty-five miles fighting battles at Centuripe, Salso, the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, in the meantime, had captured Capella and Monte Maletto and cleared the village. The fall of Maletto and the subsequent rapid approach to Randazzo forced the Germans on their last hurried withdrawal to the sea. News of the capture of Centuripe was met with enthusiasm, General Bernard Montgomery, the British Eighth Army commander
11.
Battle of Monte Cassino
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The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four assaults by the Allies against the Winter Line in Italy held by Axis forces during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The intention was a breakthrough to Rome, at the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido-Gari, Liri and Garigliano valleys and some of the surrounding peaks and ridges. Together, these formed the Gustav Line. Monte Cassino, a historic hilltop abbey founded in AD529 by Benedict of Nursia, dominated the town of Cassino. Lying in a historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans. They had manned some positions set into the slopes below the abbeys walls. Repeated pinpoint artillery attacks on Allied assault troops caused their leaders to conclude the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, fears escalated along with casualties and in spite of a lack of clear evidence, it was marked for destruction. On 15 February American bombers dropped 1,400 tons of high explosives, the raid failed to achieve its objective, as German paratroopers occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins. Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav defences were assaulted four times by Allied troops, the German defenders were finally driven from their positions, but at a high cost. The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses being far fewer, estimated at around 20,000 killed and wounded. On the western front, the American Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clarks Fifth Army made slow progress in the face of difficult terrain, wet weather, the original estimates that Rome would fall by October 1943 proved far too optimistic. Highway 6 ran through the Liri valley, dominated at its entrance by the rugged mass of Monte Cassino above the town of Cassino. Excellent observation from the peaks of several hills allowed the German defenders to detect Allied movement and direct highly accurate artillery fire, preventing any northward advance. Running across the Allied line was the fast flowing Rapido River, there the Liri river joined the Gari to form the Garigliano River, which continued on to the sea. Nevertheless, some Allied reconnaissance aircraft maintained they observed German troops inside the monastery. The main central thrust by the U. S. II Corps would commence on 20 January with the U. S. 36th Infantry Division making an assault across the swollen Gari river five miles downstream of Cassino. Simultaneously the French Expeditionary Corps, under General Alphonse Juin would continue its right hook move towards Monte Cairo, VI Corps, under Major General John P. Lucas, was due to make an amphibious landing on 22 January. The intelligence assessment of Allied prospects was therefore over-optimistic and they hardly had time to prepare the new assault, let alone take the rest and reorganization they really needed after three months of attritional fighting north from Naples
12.
Battle of Anzio
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The operation was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno. Any delay could result in the occupation of the mountains by the defenders, Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, commander of the U. S. Fifth Army, understood that risk, but Clark did not pass on his appreciation of the situation to his subordinate, Lucas, the initial landing achieved complete surprise with no opposition and a jeep patrol even made it as far as the outskirts of Rome. While Lucas consolidated, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the German commander in the Italian theatre and his artillery units had a clear view of every Allied position. The Germans also stopped the pumps and flooded the reclaimed marsh with salt water, planning to entrap the Allies. For weeks a rain of shells fell on the beach, the marsh, the harbour, after a month of heavy but inconclusive fighting, Lucas was relieved and sent home. His replacement was Major General Lucian K. Truscott, who had commanded the U. S. 3rd Infantry Division. The Allies broke out in May, at the end of 1943, following the Allied invasion of Italy, Allied forces were bogged down at the Gustav Line, a defensive line across Italy south of the strategic objective of Rome. The terrain of central Italy had proved ideally suited to defense, Operation Shingle was originally conceived by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in December 1943, as he lay recovering from pneumonia in Marrakesh. His concept was to two divisions at Anzio, bypassing German forces in central Italy, and take Rome, the strategic objective of the current Battle of Rome. By January he had recovered and was badgering his commanders for a plan of attack, accusing them of not wanting to fight but of being interested only in drawing pay and eating rations. General Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied Armies in Italy, had considered such a plan since October using five divisions. However, the 5th Army did not have the troops nor the means to transport them, Clark proposed landing a reinforced division to divert German troops from Monte Cassino. This second landing, however, instead of failing similarly, would hold the shingle for a week in expectation of a breakthrough at Cassino, the Anzio beachhead is at the northwestern end of a tract of reclaimed marshland, formerly the Pontine Marshes, now the Pontine Fields. Previously uninhabitable due to mosquitoes carrying malaria, in Roman times armies marched as quickly as possible across it on the military road, the Via Appia. The marsh was bounded on one side by the sea and on others by mountains, the Monti Albani, the Monti Lepini, overall these mountains are referenced by the name Monti Laziali, the mountains of Lazio, the ancient Latium. Invading armies from the south had the choice of crossing the marsh or taking the other road to Rome. The marshes were turned into land in the 1930s under Benito Mussolini
