What was the Italian Campaign in World War 2?

Answer 1

Answer The campaign to capture the German and Italian forces in Italy is what is referred to as the Italian Campaign. After the Allies fought the Germans in North Africa and won a victory there, they wanted to continue their advance against the German/Italian forces. They were not ready to invade Germany or France---that would come in June 1944 at Normandy. So in July 1943, they invaded Sicily, an island belonging to Italy. This was captured in 2 months and then they invaded mainland of Italy on 8 September 1943. This began the Italian Campaign This campaign continued until the end of the war; the German forces in Italy surrendered on 2 May 1945. Churchill thought it would be easy to advance up the "boot" of Italy and attack through Austria and into Vienna. But Hitler choose General Kesselring to command the defense of Italy and they fought to hold back the Allies at every Mountain and river. It was a long campaign. After the fall of Rome on 4 June 1944, almost 1/3 of the Allied forces were pulled out of Italy and sent to southern France to assist the campaign to drive into Germany. This reduced the forces such that the Allies had almost equal strength of the Axis forces. The campaign became called "the forgotten front" and some soldiers called themselves "the D-Day Dodgers", because they did not have to fight at Normandy. Even today, most history books will hardly mention any battles fought in Italy from June 1944 until May 1945. Reference LInk on last 12 months of the Italian Campaign: www.custermen.com

Answer 2

Italy, which included Sicily. That is really a good question because most history books stop talking about the battles in Italy after the fall of Rome on 4 June 1944. But after that, the Allies continued to fight northward towards the Arno River. Then they had to break through the heavy German defenses they built along the peaks of the Apennine Mountains in Sept 1944. The pushed through but the heavy rains and cold weather required them to halt their advance in the mountains. They continued their attacks in February and launched their Spring Offensive that pushed out of the mountains and across the Po Valley in 21 days. Elements of the US 5th Army chased the retreating Germans all the way to Brenner Pass along the border with Austria when the Germans in Italy surrendered on 2 May 1945. My father was one of those American soldiers who fought from May 1944 until May 1945 in Italy. If you don't find any mention of the Italian Campaign after May 1944, then you need to look for another book. See the link below.