Italian Campaign

July 9, 1943 – May 2, 1945 · Mediterranean Theater

Phases

1. 1Jul–Sep 1943 — Sicily & the BootJuly 9 – September 1943
2. 2Oct 1943–May 1944 — Cassino & AnzioOctober 1943 – May 1944
3. 3May–Jun 1944 — Diadem & RomeMay 11 – June 5, 1944
4. 41944–45 — The Gothic Line & the EndAugust 1944 – May 2, 1945

July 9 – September 1943

Husky puts Patton and Montgomery ashore on Sicily behind the war’s biggest airborne-and-amphibious opening night; 38 days later the island falls — though 100,000 Axis troops slip across the Messina strait. Mussolini is deposed in a palace coup within two weeks. Italy surrenders on September 8 as the Allies land at Salerno — where the Germans, executing a plan long prepared, disarm their ex-ally overnight and nearly throw the beachhead into the sea.

• ➤Seventh & Eighth Armies — Husky — ashore on Sicily’s southern coast
• ➤Fifth Army (Clark) — Salerno — the beachhead nearly thrown into the sea
• ●Messina — 100,000 Axis troops escape the island
• ●Reggio — the Eighth Army steps onto the mainland, Sep 3