Italian campaign (World War II)

Italian campaign
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II and European theatre of World War II
Clockwise from top left:
Date9 July 1943 – 2 May 1945
(1 year, 9 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Italy, San Marino, Vatican City
Result

Allied victory

Territorial
changes
  • Division of Italy between the "Kingdom of the South" and the Italian Social Republic (1943)
  • Collapse of Fascist Italy and the Italian Social Republic
    • Belligerents

    Allies:
     United States
     United Kingdom

     Australia[b]
    Italian Resistance
    Kingdom of Italy (from 13 October 1943)

    Axis:

     Germany

     •  Bohemia & Moravia[c]
     • Chetniks Chetniks
     Italian Social Republic (from 23 Sep. 1943)

     Italy (until 25 July 1943)
     Kingdom of Italy (until 8 September 1943)
    Commanders and leaders
    Strength
    May 1944:
    619,947 men
    (ration strength)[9]
    April 1945:
    616,642 men
    (ration strength)[10]
    1,333,856 men
    (overall strength)[11]
    Aircraft:
    3,127 aircraft
    (September 1943)
    4,000 aircraft
    (March 1945)[12]    		 May 1944:
    Nazi Germany 365,616 men
    (ration strength)[9]
    April 1945:
    Nazi Germany 332,524 men
    (ration strength)[10]
    Nazi Germany 439,224 men
    (overall strength)[10]
    Italian Social Republic 160,180 men
    (military only)[10]
    Aircraft:
    Nazi Germany 722 aircraft
    (September 1943)[13]
    Nazi Germany 79 aircraft
    (April 1945)[12]
    Casualties and losses

    Sicily:
    24,900 casualties[14][15]
    Italian mainland:[d][e][f]
    United States 119,200
    United Kingdom 89,440
    35,000
    Free FranceProvisional Government of the French Republic 32,171
    Canada 25,890
    British Raj 20,000
    Polish government-in-exile 11,000
    Dominion of New Zealand 8,668
    Kingdom of Italy 5,927
    Union of South Africa 3,860
    Vargas Era 2,300
    Kingdom of Greece 452
    Total:
    358,295–376,637 casualties

    Vehicles:
    8,011 aircraft destroyed
    United States 3,377 armoured vehicles destroyed[20]

    Sicily:
    Fascist Italy 150,000[21]
    Nazi Germany 27,940[22][14][23]
    Italian mainland:[g][h][i]
    Nazi Germany 336,650–580,630
    Italian Social Republic 35,000 (dead only)
    Surrender at Caserta:
    1,000,000 captured[j][10]
    Total:
    1,549,590–1,793,570 casualties

    Aircraft:
    Nazi Germany ~4,500 aircraft lost[29]
    152,940 civilians killed

    The Italian campaign of World War II, also called the Liberation of Italy following the German occupation in September 1943, consisted of Allied and Axis operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to 1945. The joint Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre and it planned and led the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the campaign in Italy until the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy in May 1945.

    The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 led to the collapse of the Fascist Italian regime and the fall of Mussolini, who was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III on 25 July. The new government signed an armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943. However, German forces soon invaded northern and central Italy, committing several atrocities against Italian civilians and army units who opposed the German occupation and started the Italian resistance movement. Mussolini, who was rescued by German paratroopers, established a collaborationist puppet state, the Italian Social Republic (RSI), to administer the German-occupied territory. On 13 October 1943, the Allies recognized Italy as a co-belligerent in the war against Germany. Thereafter, the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the Italian partisans fought alongside the Allies against German troops and the collaborationist National Republican Army; an aspect of this period is the Italian civil war. In the summer of 1944, after the Axis defeats at Cassino and Anzio, central Italy, including Rome, was liberated. Northern Italy was liberated following the final spring offensive and the general insurrection of Italian partisans on 25 April 1945. Mussolini was captured by the Italian resistance and summarily executed by firing squad. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on 2 May 1945, one week before the formal German Instrument of Surrender. Both sides committed war crimes during the conflict, and the independent states of San Marino and Vatican City surrounded by Italian territory also suffered damage.

    It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, 60,000–70,000 Allied and 38,805–50,660 German soldiers died in Italy.[30][k] The number of Allied casualties was about 330,000 and the German figure (excluding those involved in the final surrender) was over 330,000.[30][l] Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly prisoners-of-war taken in the invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing.[22] Over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 35,828 anti-Nazi and anti-fascist partisans and some 35,000 troops of the Italian Social Republic.[32][33][m] On the Western Front of World War II, Italy was the most costly campaign in terms of casualties suffered by infantry forces of both sides, during bitter small-scale fighting around strongpoints at the Winter Line, the Anzio beachhead and the Gothic Line.[34] Casualties among infantry in Italy were proportionally higher than they were on the Western Front of WWI.[35]

    1. ^ "Royal Artillery". www.heritage.nf.ca.
    2. ^ Gaujac 2003, p. 68.
    3. ^ "Canada and the Italian Campaign". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.
    4. ^ Canada, Veterans Affairs (23 June 2021). "Canada - Italy 1943-1945 - The Second World War - History - Remembrance - Veterans Affairs Canada". www.veterans.gc.ca.
    5. ^ "History". hrad.army.cz. Army of the Czech Republic. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
    6. ^ Thomas 2012, p. 11.
    7. ^ Littlejohn 1985, p. 22.
    8. ^ "A Look Back … Barbara Lauwers: Deceiving the Enemy". cia.gov. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
    9. ^ a b Frieser 2007, p. 1151.
    10. ^ a b c d e Frieser 2007, p. 1158.
    11. ^ Jackson & Gleave 2004, p. 230.
    12. ^ a b Frieser 2007, p. 1156.
    13. ^ Frieser 2007, p. 1129.
    14. ^ a b Mitcham & Von Stauffenberg 2007, p. 305.
    15. ^ Liddell Hart 1992, p. 627.
    16. ^ a b Ellis 1993, p. 255.
    17. ^ "The Italian Campaign". Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
    18. ^ a b Blaxland 1979, p. 11.
    19. ^ Jackson & Gleave 2004, p. 335.
    20. ^ Zaloga 2006, p. 44.
    21. ^ Ufficio storico dello Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito (USSME) (1993). Le operazioni in Sicilia e in Calabria. Rome. pp. 400–401.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    22. ^ a b Santoni 1989, p. 401.
    23. ^ Messerschmidt et al. 2007, p. 1,114.
    24. ^ Jackson & Gleave 2004, p. 400.
    25. ^ Overmans 2000, pp. 174, 336.
    26. ^ Marshall 1996, p. 202.
    27. ^ Frieser 2007, p. 1162.
    28. ^ Atkinson 2014, p. 616.
    29. ^ Don Caldwell. "Luftwaffe Aircraft Losses By Theater, September 1943-October 1944". The Air Force Historical Foundation. Retrieved March 1, 2016. 4,468 operational losses are given from the brief period of September 1943 to October 1944 alone, but including the Balkans.
    30. ^ a b Frieser 2007, p. 1,162.
    31. ^ Blaxland 1979, p. 284.
    32. ^ "Updated studies (2010) by the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro of the Italian Ministry of Defence, p. 4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
    33. ^ Giuseppe Fioravanzo, La Marina dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto, p. 433. In 2010, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro of the Italian Ministry of Defence recorded 15,197 Italian partisans killed; however, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro only considered as partisans the members of the Italian Resistance who were civilians before joining the partisans, whereas partisans who were formerly members of the Italian armed forces (more than half those killed) were considered as members of their armed force of origin
    34. ^ Keegan 2005, p. 368.
    35. ^ Holland 2023, p. 393.


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