L15: Invasion of Italy

Question 1

reasons for the invasion of Italy

Answer 1

• to help relieve the pressure on forces in Russia.
• needed to launch a major offensive to help support the Russians.
• Italy lay across the Mediterranean from N Africa where the Allies had plentiful resources + men.
• would force the Gr to divert forces away from E Front and N France.
• could knock Italy out of the war, removing Gr main ally in Europe.

Question 2

the role of Operation Mincemeat in the invasion of Italy

Answer 2

• a plan organised by Brit intelligence to trick the Gr into thinking that an invasion would come through Sardinia and Corsica, rather than Sicily.
• British intelligence dressed a dead homeless man as an officer in the Royal Marines. They then placed fake documents in his jacket that included maps of an upcoming British invasion of Sardinia and Corsica. The body was then dropped off on the Spanish coast where the Germans would find it. The plan proved successful.

Question 3

the nature of the fighting in Italy

Answer 3

• brutal attritional conflict
• Gr built strong defensive lines which allies would constantly have to try and break through
• costly and slow process

Question 4

the outcomes of the invasion of Italy

Answer 4

• the capital Rome fell to allies on 4 Jun 1944
• try to keep as many Gr in the country as possible to prevent Gr from being sent to Fr to reinforce the troops repelling the major allied landings in Normandy
• ~300,000 US and Brit troops who fought in Italy had been killed or were wounded or missing.
• Gr casualties= around 434,000.
• Italian leader Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans who had been fighting to support the Allies (and he was executed on the 28th April 1945. His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down on display to the Italian public)