Thursday, April 10, 2008

"Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945" The Italian Campaign That Sould NOT have Happened

The ANNOTICO Report

 

In WWII, the Allies had defeated the Axis in North Africa in the spring of 1943. Americans now wanted to take the shortest route to Berlin. with an invasion of France, but the Allies felt they would not be logistically prepared for 15 months (mid-1944,).

 

Churchill argued strongly for an assault on Italy, the soft "under belly" of Europe, would knock Italy out of the war and require Hitler both to reinforce his army in the peninsula and to replace half a million Italian troops in the Balkans. And then be better positioned when invading France/Normandy/Europe.  

 

The Americans never saw Italy as a priority, but in the end reluctantly agreed at Churchill's insistence, and in part to satisfy Stalin's repeated calls for a "Second Front".

 

The Allies would rue that decision, because that supposed "soft underbelly" turned into a torturous narrow gauntlet of a series of easily fortified "lines", with the advantage of mountainous terrain.As a result, When the Allies were ready to invade Europe, the Allies had NOT conquered Italy, and at that time had only reached Rome,

 

The Italian campaign was totally unnecessary, counterproductive and cruel.  The entire Italian peninsula was devastated by bombing and shelling. Germans slaughtered civilians in retaliation for activities of the partisans. Hundreds of thousands of Italians were sent to do forced labour in Germany despite Mussolini's protests. The failure of the Allied Military Government to do much about the starvation and social breakdown in the liberated areas is an uncomfortable echo of today's Iraq.

He does not skate over the conduct of Allied troops who apparently looted more freely than the Germans, or the appalling record of French Moroccan troops, who raped their way through the mountains south of Rome without being held to account then or later. Meanwhile in the areas still occupied by the Germans, there was civil war between the partisans and the diehard Fascists of the Republic of Salo. 

The Second World War in Italy

Caught in the Middle


From The Economist

Apr 10th 2008

Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945

By James Holland

St Martin's Press; 656 pages; $39.95. HarperPress; #25

TWENTY months separate the landings at Salerno in September 1943 and the surrender of German forces in Italy a few days before VE Day. Progress was painfully slow. Geography favoured the defence. The Allied armies, made up eventually of contingents from no fewer than 17 countries, were depleted by the removal of experienced units for the landings in France and never enjoyed numerical superiority over a German army capably led by Field-Marshal Kesselring. Against well-trained troops, the massive Allied air superiority was rarely decisive.

The Americans' mistrust of Winston Churchill's Mediterranean strategy was part of the problem. They wanted to take the shortest route to Berlin. But since an invasion of France was not feasible before mid-1944, there were strong arguments for an assault on Italy. It was the only area where the Allied armies, which had defeated the Germans and Italians in north Africa in the spring of 1943, could realistically engage them on land that year. A successful invasion would knock Italy out of the war and require Hitler both to reinforce his army in the peninsula and to replace half a million Italian troops in the Balkans. The Americans were in the end convinced but they never saw Italy as a priority.

James Holland, a historian of the second world war, provides a thorough and impartial overview, drawing on many eye-witness accounts. They provide insights into aspects of the war that are not well known outside Italy though occasionally at the expense of the narrative flow.

He who holds Rome

But his chosen focus on the last year of the war means that he does not deal in detail with what is surely the key event in this tragic period in Italian history: the bungled arrangements for an armistice in September 1943. Mr Holland quotes Churchill as remarking to Franklin Roosevelt that -he who holds Rome holds the title deeds of Italy- but, thanks to this bungling, it was the Germans who held the city and they did so until June 5th 1944 when publicity-hungry General Mark Clark stole a march on the British 8th Army and drove in proclaiming this was a great day for the American 5th Army, which he commanded.

The slow progress of the war brought great hardships to the Italian people, particularly those caught near the front-line. So did the brutal German retaliation for the activities of the partisans. Hundreds of thousands of Italians were sent to do forced labour in Germany despite Mussolini's protests. Mr Holland's account of the failure of the Allied Military Government to do much about the starvation and social breakdown in the liberated areas is an uncomfortable echo of today's Iraq.

He does not skate over the conduct of Allied troops who apparently looted more freely than the Germans, or the appalling record of French Moroccan troops, who raped their way through the mountains south of Rome without being held to account then or later. Meanwhile in the areas still occupied by the Germans, there was civil war between the partisans and the diehard Fascists of the Republic of Salo, led by an increasingly irrelevant Mussolini. It was not the war in Russia but it was a cruel affair.

 

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