World War II: Italy 1943 - 1944

Allies land in Italy, September 3-9, 1943. British at Calabria and Taranto and the Americans at Salerno. An invasion of Italy, a second front in mainland Europe. A campaign that will not end until May 1945. It would tie down considerable German forces in Italy. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, had been strongly pressuring Churchill and Roosevelt to open a “front" in Europe, which would lessen the German Army's focus on the Eastern Front and Russia. Two Allied armies would advance up the Italian Peninsula until stopped at the German defense, the “Gustav Line” and a mountain top named Monte Cassino. The campaign would come to a sudden halt because of weather, terrain, supplies, and politics.