| September 1943 Allied Invasion of Southern Italy |
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| On 1 September the Italian government announced that
it would accept Allied surrender terms, and an armistice was concluded two days later. However,
the move came as no surprise to the Germans, who had begun rushing troops into Italy after Mussolini’s
arrest in late July. By the end of August there were no less than eighteen German divisions there
ready to fight off an expected Allied invasion.
General Montgomery’s British Eighth Army crossed the Straits of Messina, which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland, on September 3, and began a slow northward advance. Six days later British and American forces landed at Salerno, just south of Naples. The Germans had been expecting such a landing, however, and concentrated their forces in that area. They put up a fierce resistance, launching intensive air attacks and a full-scale land offensive involving two armored corps. However, the Allied beachhead at Salerno held, and by the middle of September had met up with the Eighth Army. Histories: Campaign Map: Personal Accounts: Photographs: |
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