Sicily and the fall of Italy this month

Site Issues 2005 Archive Room
#1

Sorry, I was going to post this earlier this month but between the heavy workload and a wedding in the family, I’ve been behind on things…

This month saw the surrender of Italy. What’s interesting about this is that the government was not forcibly toppled like what would happen to Germany and Japan later in the war. The government sort of fell apart after the people of Italy were so demoralized after the fall of Sicily under Allied control.

As usual, here’s the plug to my website :slight_smile:
http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=53

Any thoughts on that?

#2

As usual mate, nicely done.

I forget the actual battle, but an interesting little fact is that both british and German Paras jumped onto the same objective during one battle.

Anyone know what this one was?

#3

Sorry, I don’t :frowning: but I do not, the fall of Sicily did not mainly demoralize the Italians. They had like, no morale except for the few Facist supporters. Italy did not maily even want to go to war. Mussolini did…

#4

Firefly, what you’re thinking about is the advance for Messina. Monty was supposed to take Messina after taking the shorter route up the eastern coast of Sicily, but his troops were held up by fierce German and Italian resistance (Mostly German, I believe) at Mount Etna. One of the maneuvers around the western side of Mount Etna actually blocked part of Patton’s advance, which pissed off the eccentric American general. That, among other reasons, caused Patton to decide to ignore orders from Eisenhower and take the Messina area with his American troops, so at the next meeting of field generals Patton could laugh in Monty’s face.

Typical Patton eccentricity, but it’s also the reason why people love him :slight_smile: