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The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign of World War II.The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group (comprising General Mark W. Clark's American Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army) and followed the successful Allied invasion ...
5th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment 138th Infantry Brigade (Brigadier G.P. Harding) 6th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment 2/4th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment 139th Infantry Brigade (Brigadier R.E.H. Stott) 2/5th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment 5th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters
The 15th Army Group ration strength was 1,334,000 men, the Eighth Army having an effective strength of 632,980 men, and the Fifth Army 266,883. [ 3 ] [ 2 ] As of 9 April, the Axis in Italy had 21 much weaker German divisions and four Italian National Republican Army (ENR) divisions, with about 349,000 German and 45,000 Italian troops.
The Eighth Army then participated in the Italian Campaign which began with the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky. When the Allies subsequently invaded mainland Italy, elements of the Eighth Army landed in the 'toe' of Italy in Operation Baytown and at Taranto in Operation Slapstick.
The 5th Army captured Naples on 1 October, and reached the line of the Volturno River on October 6. This provided a natural barrier, securing Naples, the Campanian Plain and the vital airfields on it from counterattack. Meanwhile, on the Adriatic coast, the British 8th Army had advanced to a line from Campobasso to Larino and Termoli on the ...
However, General Alexander, the C-in-C of the AAI, had clearly laid down the army boundaries before the battle, and Rome was allocated to the Fifth Army. Leese's British Eighth Army was constantly reminded that their job was to engage the 10th Army, destroy as much of it as possible, and then bypass Rome to continue the pursuit northwards ...
Montgomery's objections were proved correct: German troops refused battle and the Eighth Army tied down none of them. The main obstacle to the Allied advance was the terrain and German demolitions. [3] [4] [5] Opposition to the landings was very light, because the few German troops in the area rapidly withdrew northward. [3]
Gothic Line order of battle is a listing of the significant formations that were involved in Operation Olive, the Allied offensive on the Gothic Line in northern Italy, August–September 1944, and in the subsequent fighting in the central Apennine Mountains and on the plains of eastern Emilia–Romagna up to April 1945.