![]() ![]() Summers are blazing hot, whilst winters are freezing cold. Climate conspires with terrain to make Italy an unpleasant place to fight. An attacker advancing from the south is confronted by a heartbreaking sequence.īehind every ridge lurks another river, and behind that river lurks another ridge. ![]() Italy's mountainous backbone sends rib-like ridges down to the coast to both east and west. Secondly, assertions that Italy was the 'soft underbelly' of Europe came easiest to those whose maps lacked contours. These would have been a considerable advantage in Italy, for they would have given the Allies the potential to hook round German defensive lines. Amphibious resources would shortly be diverted for the Normandy invasion. Plans for the invasion of France were well under way. There was, for a start, no prospect of Italy ever becoming more than a subsidiary theatre. In Italy, the Allies now found themselves committed to a campaign which had possessed great political attractions but now offered manifest military disadvantages. Yet the Allies had secured Italian beachheads but the one at Salerno was only achieved with much difficulty in the face of fierce counter-attacks. Italian troops were disarmed and treated harshly if they fought against the Germans. The Germans reacted so swiftly when Italy surrendered that the Allies were actually able to gain little advantage. However, they wisely discarded this plan as too risky. They even considered landing at airfields around Rome with Italian connivance. ![]() There was so much pressure to take advantage of the changed situation, that the Allies landed in southern Italy in September without a clear strategic aim. Mussolini was deposed and the new government made secret peace overtures. It did, however, did strike a fatal blow at Italian self-confidence, which had been wobbling for some time. Although the campaign was marred by friction between British and American commander which contributed to the escape of many of the island's defenders. Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943 was followed by the Allied invasion of Sicily. The road to what was little short of hell was certainly paved with good intentions. ![]()
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