On 10 July 1943 the Allies landed in Sicily, starting the Italian Campaign. In 38 days the island was occupied and the German troops reinforcing the Italian units retreated to Calabria, pursued by the 8th British Army.
With the armistice signed on 8 September 1943, Italy ended the conflict, but the war continued on its territory for almost two years.
On 9 September the 5th American Army landed in Salerno, while the 1st British Airborne Division landed in Taranto. The peninsula was attacked by the Allies and the 10th German Army was forced to retreat northwards, despite having counterattacked vigorously at Salerno.
On 1 October Naples and Foggia were occupied, but from that moment the Allied advance suffered a notable slowdown: in the Adriatic sector the 8th British Army had to fight hard to overcome a series of waterways and then had to stop in Ortona; in the Tyrrhenian sector the 5th American Army was slowed down and weakened in overcoming the Brenard or Winter Line. During those fights, the 1st Italian Motorized Group had its baptism of fire alongside the Allies in the battle of Monte Lungo in mid-December 1943.
A month later, in mid-January 1944, the Allies found themselves facing the Gustav Line.
The fortified line had been built by the Germans at the narrowest point of the peninsula in order to be more effectively defended by the available forces and above all to keep the allies away from Germany for as long as possible. Along the route there were protected positions for machine guns and mortars, shelters for the troops, extensive minefields and hundreds of kilometers of barbed wire, but the focal point of that line was Cassino and Monte Cassino, strongholds in defense of the Liri Valley.
To overcome those defenses, the Allies would have needed four battles lasting four months and with a very high cost in civilian and military human lives.
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Livio Cavallaro
Author of the following books:
Cassino 1944 – Le battaglie per la Linea Gustav, Mursia Editore, 2004.
Assalto a Massria Albaneta – Cassino 19 marzo 1944, Mattioli 1885 Editore, 2018.
Assalto a Cassino – La stazione, il castello, la collina, Mursia Editore 2024.
