Italian Campaign, 1943

The long succession of Italian disasters, such as the rout in North Africa and the loss of Sicily, resulted in the overthrow of Mussolini on July 25. Italian morale was low and Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who now assumed power, was eager to take Italy out of the war. Terms of surrender were accepted, but news of the action was withheld until after Allied troops began to land on the Italian mainland in the hope that the German forces could be driven out of the country. However, the Germans rallied and fighting continued in Italy until the close of the war. Italy joined the Allies on October 13, 1943.

British, American, and Canadian forces crossed from Sicily to land near Reggio Calabria on the Italian mainland on September 3. As the Eighth Army marched northward, the Fifth United States Army under General Mark W. Clark landed near Salerno on September 9. A strong German force backed by air power opposed the landing. Not until September 15 were the beaches secured by seizing the heights behind them. The next day contact was made between the Fifth and Eighth armies, and the Americans moved on Naples, while the British attacked the German air base at Foggia. Both fell on October 1 and troops of Field Marshal General Albert Kesselring fell back to a line along the Volturno River.

The Volturno line was broken by an attack on October 12 and 13, and the Germans took up a winter line along the Garigliano and Sangro rivers near Cassino. Allied attacks from November to January made small gains. On December 24 General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson succeeded Eisenhower as supreme commander in the area, and Montgomery was replaced by Lieutenant General Sir Oliver W. H. Leese.