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THE WAR IN ITALY
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After the war in Africa was over in 1943, the next step for the allied forces to carry on with the war, was attacking Italy, considered "Europe soft underbelly", the allies also wanted to force Italy to surrender, creating in that way a hole in the axis defense of Europe, that Germans will be forced to cover, retreating forces from other sectors. The invasion of Sicily: As a first point to attack after the allied victory in Tunis, a landing in Sicily was chosen. Two landings took place: Montgomery leading the British forces landed on the Noto Gulf, while Patton commanding the American forces landed on the Gela Gulf with the task of protecting the British western flank. Landings took place on July 10 1943. The Montgomery advance through the eastern coast of the island was very slow, due to strong Italian and German resistance, while Patton with the mission of covering Montgomery, conquered the main part of the island. The Americans even managed to conquer the city of Mesina, the last Italian Strongpoint, before the British on August 17 1943. Landings in southern Italy After Sicily was taken, many landings took place in southern Italy. To begin with the invasion of mainland Italy on September 3 1943 the 8th British army crossed the Messina strait and begun the occupation of the Calabria zone. By that time the willingness of the Italian troops to fight was in doubt, because rumors said that Italy was about to surrender, thing that really happened on September 8. The Germans foreseeing that event, deployed some units along Italy to face the allied landings, but the southern zone was poorly defended when the allied forces landed. Landings took place in Tarento and Bari relatively unopposed, while in the city of Salerno the allied forces faced a very tough resistance by German Panzer divisions deployed in that zone. That landing was almost driven to the sea, but by miracle they were spared. Finally the troops that landed in Salerno took the city of Naples on October 1 1943, but the strategic port of the city was demolished by the Germans before retreating, in order to disrupt allied supply lines in the future. On October 7, after a hard combat, the allied forces crossed the Volturno river an important natural obstacle for the advance. Finally the Germans retreated to a fortified zone, the Gustav line where they managed to stop the allied forces for some time. The battle for Cassino The city of Cassino was the main German strongpoint in the Gustav line. After some combat in late November the allies reached the Gustav line and prepared for an assault on it. Hard combats took place, but the Germans succeeded in their defensive duty. in the city of Cassino specially a legend was formed, because altougth the many artillery barrages, bomabardments and infantry assaults, the city kept resisting. In late January 1944 the Germans lost some terrain, but the defense was still strongly in place. To divert German units from defending the Gustav line the allied forces landed behind the German lines, in the city of Anzio. With this landing not only the Gustav line wasn't weakened, but a German counterstrike caused very severe casualties to the allied beach head, almost driving them back to the sea, thing that didn't happened only by a miracle. On February 11 1944 in a controversial action, the allies bombed the Cassino Abbey, later was discovered that there wasn't any Germans in that ancient building. On May 1944 the allies decided to make a strategic change, instead of performing a frontal attack to Cassino, they attacked the flanks and surrounded the city that finally fell in allied hands on May 17 1944 after 6 months of siege. Finally all the Gustav line crumbled, the Germans retreated to the Adolf Hitler line which was very soon taken by the allied forces. By that time the German forces were in full retreat, the allied troops in Anzio engaged the enemy in offensive action, but instead of cutting the German retreat, they headed to Rome, that choice saved the German forces in Italy from a heavy disaster. Finally the allied forces took Rome on June 4 1944. The German retreat continued until northern Italy, when they stopped in the Gothic line, until the end of the war, but southern and central Italy were now in allied hands.
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