Invasion of Italy

In late July of 1943, as they began to win the battle at Sicily, the Allies decided to go for a full invasion of Italy. Italy, knowing that they would lose, made secret negotiations with the Allies. This made the Germans suspicious, and they sent in their own troops to take control of the Italians and of the front. The British and U.S. soldiers under Mark W. Clark landed on the beaches on September 9th. Germans launched an attack, winning for four days. Then the Allies began to fight back, trying to keep the Germans concentrated in Italy to stop them from spreading their influence back to France or Russia. Once the Allies made it into Naples, they worked to obtain other fortified positions in Italy. Germans, led by Albert Kesselring, wanted to hold up the Allies enough that many would die before winning each of their victories. Next, the Allies moved north. It took them six months to cross a line of highly defended mountains around Cassino, called the Winter Line. They started this in October of 1943. United States troops under John P. Lucas failed to capture this area at first, waiting too long to attack. This gave Germans time to get back up and keep the Allies out. Finally, in May 1944, using bombs to get through mountain areas, the Allies found a gap in the line to get through. In June 1944, they entered Rome –just  2 days before D-Day. It is hard to image how people living in Italy could have felt during this time. The following is a personal account of Peter Ghiringhelli, an Italian civilian during World War 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/03/a1993403.shtml