At 3:45 a.m. on July 10, the 160,000 American and British landing forces commanded by Patton and Montgomery, on 3,200 warships and transport ships, and under the cover of 1,000 aircraft, landed in the southwest and southeast of Sicily.
In fact, the Sicily landing campaign was just a medium-sized landing campaign conducted by the Allied forces in 1943. However, through this battle, the Allied troops were able to penetrate deep into the hinterland of Italy, laying the foundation for the split and collapse of the Axis group and Italy's surrender. In this battle, the Allied forces carried out a series of strategic deception operations and actions to seize sea and air supremacy, which can be regarded as a model of a landing campaign.
But one thing to say, this battle was not a pretty one.
"On July 11, the German 15th Armored Division entered the eastern part of the island to prevent the landing of the British Montgomery Division, and the German Goering Armored Division also entered the western part of the island to prevent the US Patton Division's attack. The German army dispatched 480 aircraft to bomb the US beachhead The US military also dispatched aircraft to engage in melee with the German troops. After a day of fierce fighting, the US military held the beachhead position. Then the US military launched a deep offensive and occupied the city of Gela. The British army also occupied Syracuse.
After the German army's first counterattack failed, Marshal Kesselring decided to adjust his deployment to buy time. The German 29th Armored Division and the 1st Airborne Division urgently increased their troops in Sicily. The task of the German 29th Armored Division was to prevent the British army from occupying Messina, and then launched the deployment of the eastern front of Sicily. The German 1st Airborne Division, Goering The Armored Division also increased its troops in Catania to prevent the British army from occupying Messina. On July 13, the British 13th Army launched an attack on Catania, but encountered stubborn resistance from the enemy. After the attack of the British 13th Army was frustrated, the British 30th Army, with the cooperation of the US military, went around Mount Etna and attacked Messina with the cooperation of the US military. Patton was worried that Montgomery's British army would play the leading role, so he immediately ordered Bradley's 2nd Army to attack central Sicily to support the British army's operations. At the same time, General Keyes led a temporary formation of the US Army to directly attack Palermo.
In order to compete with the British army for time, Bradley's 2nd Army immediately launched an attack along the northern road after occupying Petrallia and penetrated into Palermo. However, they encountered stubborn resistance from the German army at Troina. On August 1, General Allen's First Infantry Division launched an attack on Troina. After seven days of fierce fighting, the First Infantry Division occupied Troina. On August 5, the British 8th Army occupied Caranya and moved towards Messina along the East Coast Highway. On August 10, a total of 100,000 German and Italian troops retreated from Messina to the Italian mainland. The Allied advance to Messina became a race between American and British armies. On August 16, the U.S. 3rd Division arrived at the city of Messina. On August 17, the U.S. 3rd Division entered the city of Messina. That afternoon, British troops also entered the city. A British officer said to Patton: 'This was an interesting contest and I congratulate you on your victory. 'With the American and British troops occupying Messina that day, the Sicily landing campaign ended with the Allied victory.
This battle also objectively supported the Soviet army's Battle of Kursk. Due to the Allied attack on Sicily, the 1st Hitler Guard Division of the German SS was transferred from Kursk to Italy, thus accelerating the defeat of the German army in the direction of Kursk. In this battle, the Allies suffered 5,500 casualties and 14,000 wounded. The German and Italian troops suffered 40,000 casualties and 130,000 prisoners. This battle failed to eliminate the effective strength of the German and Italian armies, but it accelerated Italy's surrender and the collapse of the Axis Powers. Throughout this battle, the Allies carried out successful battle deception with an absolute advantage in strength and firepower. However, the battle after the landing was not resolute enough, which led to the retreat of the main force of the German and Italian troops. The commanders of the German and Italian armies had different opinions, which seriously interfered with the front-line deployment. This was also the reason for the failure of the German and Italian armies.
In any case, the Sicilian landing campaign was a successful landing campaign. After that, the US military developed attacks to the west and north and occupied most of the island; the British army was blocked in the Catania area. On the 24th, the US and British troops advanced to the northeast and north respectively. On August 17, they entered Messina, an important town in the northeast, and occupied the entire island. After Mussolini was overthrown on July 25, the new Italian government began to contact the Allies to negotiate an armistice. "——Adapted from "Today in History - July 9, 1943, the Allied Forces launched the Sicily Landing Campaign."
"The Allies were very cautious from the beginning of the battle, advancing slowly along the coastline and only pushing the German army back to the other side of the narrow strait, to the southern tip of the Apennine Peninsula. The two sides were in a stalemate until late July, when a coup occurred in Italy and Mussolini Ousted from power. King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy sent troops loyal to the royal family to arrest Mussolini and secretly sent him to a mountain villa in central Italy. Subsequently, Hitler Troops were sent to rescue him from there. Mussolini later established a fascist republic in northern Italy, protected by Germany, with its capital in Salò, a small town on the shores of Lake Garda.
On September 8, Italy withdrew from the Axis and joined the Allies. However, Italy's surrender caused great chaos in the country. Moreover, the chaos was further exacerbated by the Allied landings on Italian soil (September 3, the day the armistice was signed). Purely in terms of results, this Allied landing seems to be of "little significance" because the British Eighth Army advanced nearly 500 kilometers northward and reached the area north of Salerno without encountering any resistance on the way. . The Allied airborne landing plan also achieved no results, and they only achieved substantial victory at Taranto, at the heel of Italy's "boot-shaped peninsula". To make matters more troubling, the Allies also encountered serious confusion and delays here. It is said that the top Allied forces also placed their hope on the Germans at this time and were also plotting a coup to overthrow Hitler, just like the coup that overthrew Mussolini in Italy.
However, the coup that the Allies expected did not happen. The reason is that German Nazism was far more ruthless than Italian Fascism in eradicating dissidents. In Italy, the king, the church, and the army were all potential opposition forces, whereas in Nazi Germany, all opposition was eliminated with an iron hand. Coupled with the Nazis' terrifying propaganda methods and brainwashing capabilities, the entire Germany has been built from top to bottom into a steel chariot.
In mid-August, the German army formed a new army group headed by Rommel and formed a new force in southern Italy, commanded by the famous German general Albert Kesselring. Fortunately for the Germans, not only was the terrain at the toe of Italy's 'boot-shaped peninsula' very complex, hampering the Allied march, but the Germans were able to destroy the bridges in this area in time. The Allies had no choice but to redirect their attack elsewhere. The Americans had expected that their landing at Salerno would be nothing more than a formality since Italy had surrendered. However, they encountered fierce resistance from a patchwork of German troops.
As German reinforcements arrived, a counterattack was launched against the Allied forces. The Allies carried out large-scale air and sea bombings, dropping more than 1,000 tons of bombs every day, which barely contained the momentum of the German counterattack. The Allies finally captured the province of Salerno and Foggia Airport on September 18. Nine days later, Foggia Airport would play a huge role in the Allied offensive into southern Germany and the Balkans. By early October, southern Italy was completely in Allied hands. However, there were still several strong defense lines in front of the Allied forces, and Kesselring organized a desperate resistance there. For this reason, the German army flooded the Pendian Marshes, forcibly changed the course of the river, and flooded many valleys. It took the U.S. Fifth Army six weeks to advance more than 10 kilometers through the mud and reach the Gustav Line, an important line of defense for the German army. There are many giant castles here, such as the Benedictine monastery on Monte Cassino, whose sturdy and thick ancient walls can be seen from a distance. The German army promised that they would not use the monastery for military purposes due to the protection of historical sites. However, the Americans suspected that the Germans would use it to observe their positions, so they launched four attacks on the castle but failed to capture it.
In the end, the Americans blew up the castle, but were still unable to advance because the rubble provided good cover for the Germans. Moreover, due to very bad weather, the U.S. military made no progress between January 17 and May 18, 1944. In the end, as the French Algerian and Moroccan troops surrounded the rear of the German positions, the Allied forces' 20 divisions were able to repel the Germans on a front of more than 30 kilometers long. Churchill intended to speed up Allied operations in Italy. He hoped to use sea and air superiority to implement another amphibious landing, and the landing point was Anzio, south of Rome. This was his last independent strategic deployment. The key to the entire plan was to mobilize large-scale forces for a surprise attack. However, Churchill's staff needed to move the landing craft elsewhere in February. As a result, the Allied landing operation at Anzio began at the end of January, which was not the right time because the troops had not yet recovered from fatigue. Therefore, although the operation went smoothly in the early stages, and the patrol car even drove to Rome, the US military commander John Lucas was extremely cautious and was always reinforcing his position. Subsequently, the German army launched a fierce counterattack. The swamps were flooded and mosquitoes bred in large numbers, which had a very negative impact on the Allied forces. The German forces continued to bombard the Allied beachheads, and it was not until late May 1944 that the Allied forces broke through the German defense lines.
At this time, the front line of Monte Cassino had also been broken through by the Allies. In the Allied battles, vanity greatly hindered the arrival of victory. After breaking through the German defense lines, American commander Mark Clark did not move further forward to cut off the German retreat from Cassino. Instead, he began to attack Rome in order to match the achievements of Eisenhower and Patton. He even arrested British officers who disobeyed orders and also marched into Rome. In this way, the seven German divisions retreated eastward without hindrance, but the Allied attack on Rome was protracted, and its performance was completely unable to compare with the Battle of Normandy. After the Allied forces landed in Anzio, the German High Command canceled the plan to dispatch Kesselring's five elite divisions to northwest Europe, which provided great help for the Allied forces to attack France. However, the cost to the Allies was also very high. Before taking Rome, the Allied forces suffered 43,000 casualties, but the German troops originally stationed in central and southern Italy retreated and continued to exist for more than a year. ”——Adapted from “Italy withdrew from the Axis Powers on September 8, 1943, and why it joined the Allied Powers.”
Compared to all the fanaticism and hatred, chaos and delays after landing. The bigger trouble came on the night of landing.
Don’t forget, this is the time and space where the plot merges. Not the real world.
