By 1943, the Allies were entering what Winston Churchill referred to as the “perhaps, the end of the beginning” of the Second World War. Axis forces had finally been driven out of North Africa and Allied commanders turned their attention to the wider strategy in the Mediterranean. With the Soviet Union fighting a brutal war against the Nazis on the Eastern Front, the Western Allies were expected to open a second front in Europe. The question was: where?
It was Churchill who advocated an invasion of Italy. Famously referring to the then-fascist country as the “soft underbelly of Europe”, the British prime minister believed that knocking Italy out of the war had several benefits. Neutral Turkey could potentially join the Allies and Italy would be a useful springboard for Allied invasions into Austria and Germany. At worst, an Italian campaign would divert precious Axis resources away from the Eastern Front.
Although Churchill was enthusiastic about Italy, the United States was not. The Americans wanted to pour their European war resources into an invasion of northern France, which eventually became Operation Overlord. However, they did agree to invade Italy alongside their British partners with the first target being the country’s most southerly region: Sicily.
Codenamed Operation Husky, the island invasion of Sicily was critical to a future assault on the Italian mainland. Using hundreds of thousands of troops, Husky was actually the largest Allied amphibious invasion of the war. It was also innovative, with the Allies launching large airborne operations for the first time and successfully deploying pioneering landing craft. However, despite their numerical and technological advantage, the Allies met larger than expected resistance and argued among themselves. The “soft underbelly” turned out to be not so soft after all.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 121-utgaven av History of War.
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THE ANGELS OF BASTOGNE
In the middle of Germany’s final major offensive, a young nurse risked her life to help treat wounded American soldiers
REICH TO REPUBLIC
INTERVIEW WITH FRANK TRENTMANN From defeat and division to democracy, the historian examines Germany's struggle with post-war guilt, memory and reconciliation
THE SPARTACIST UPRISING
The fledgling democratic republic of Germany was forced to immediately fight for its existence against communist insurgents bent on its destruction
WHAT IF...MEXICO DEFEATED THE UNITED STATES?
Could Mexico have claimed vast swathes of territory, including the potentially gold-rich California, in a huge blow to US expansion?
THE MARCH ACTION
The final rising of the radical left during the Weimar period was followed by the sharp decline of communist influence in Germany
BALTIMORE
In the War of 1812, the Royal Navy launched an assault on the economic hub of Maryland, prompting an inspired American defence against the old enemy
THE RUHR UPRISING
After the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch, radical left-wing workers united in a violent bid to establish a Soviet-style government
THOMAS J HUDNER
This US Navy aviator fought a desperate battle against time, flames and the brutal North Korean winter in an attempt to rescue his trapped wingman
GHOSTS OF DYNAMO
Armed with the British Admiralty's battle summary, firsthand accounts and a 2023 seabed survey, it's now possible explore a number of Operation Dynamo wrecks to understand what was lost at Dunkirk
1944-45 BATTLE FOR EUROPE SNIPERS
These elite sharpshooters led the Allied advance in Normandy and eventually beyond the frontier of the Third Reich
