"Why the Italian Campaign Was One of the Hardest of" Topic
8 Posts
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| Tango01 | 13 Oct 2020 3:11 p.m. PST |
…World War Two "The Italian campaign of September 1943 was a complicated operation, focusing around landing at the foot of Italy and advancing up coastal roads towards Rome. The Germans did not concentrate forces on resisting the landings on the beach. But that was a deceptive move; the German plan was to let the Allies land and move into a beachhead before then hitting them from every direction with counter-attacks. This plan for Italy was unlike the Germans' plan to counter the Allies' D-Day operation the following year. In Normandy, the Germans intended to kill the Allies on the beach, and if you look at the way their defences were set up there then it's clear that that's what they were designed to do – stop troops landing and destroy them as they land…"
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| donlowry | 13 Oct 2020 5:15 p.m. PST |
Napoleon said, regarding Italy, that the proper way to enter a boot is from the top. |
| 14th NJ Vol | 13 Oct 2020 7:13 p.m. PST |
After the Allies took Sicily, they should have invaded southern France instead of Italy. Perfect defender terrain all the way up the boot. |
ScottWashburn  | 14 Oct 2020 4:34 a.m. PST |
I don't think it was a deliberate "Let them land and then we'll hit them and throw them back" strategy on the part of the Germans. They'd just evacuated Sicily and had not had the time to fortify any of the Italian beaches. They were just reacting to the Allied moves as best they could. |
| donlowry | 14 Oct 2020 8:59 a.m. PST |
IIRC, Kesselring had to talk Hitler into defending south of Rome at all. After the Allies took Sicily, they should have invaded southern France instead of Italy. Perfect defender terrain all the way up the boot. The Allies didn't want to go beyond their air cover, so they at least would have had to capture Corsica first, and to do that they'd have to capture Sardinia first. Then when they got into southern France they'd be hit by all the Germans in France and Italy! |
 Legion 4  | 14 Oct 2020 9:18 a.m. PST |
I believe one of the biggest influences on the battle for Italy was the difficult terrain, e.g. not just rivers, but mountain ranges, etc. |
| Blutarski | 14 Oct 2020 5:35 p.m. PST |
I seem to recall "Smiling Albert" Kesselring once describing Italy as "the largest Allied POW camp in Europe". B |
| 21eRegt | 15 Oct 2020 7:46 p.m. PST |
Blutarski – I believe that was in reference to the Anzio beachhead before the breakout. And self-sustaining at that. |
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bases up the start of his 1:72 scale WWII Russians.
