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Download December 2004 - Dr. Harold C. Deutsch WWII History Roundtable
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Transcript
May 2005 Volume 13 Number 9 Published by The WW II History Roundtable Edited by Jim Gerber Welcome to the May meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War Two History Roundtable. Tonight’s program is about the Italian Campaign. Our speaker this evening is Flint Whitlock, author and historian. Flint is the author of: Soldiers on Skis, Rock of Anzio, The Fighting First and his latest book, Given Up for Dead. Flint is a regular contributor to World War II magazine and World War Two History magazine. He is the co-founder of the Colorado Military History Museum, Inc. We look forward to his presentation tonight. Here is the preliminary schedule for the 2005 - 2006 season: September 13th Airborne Division October Seizing Nazi Technology November Truman and the Post-war Era December Saipan January War on the Eastern Front February Navy Patrol Planes March Operation Varsity April Hitler’s Final Defeat in the West May US First Army - The Longest Battle The Italian Campaign When the Allies decided to invade Italy, rather than southern France or the Balkins, they hoped for an easy task. The Italians were not going to fight, and the Allied High Command doubted whether the Germans could transfer sufficient troops into Italy to impede an Allied drive to the north. But there was a severe shock in store: Italy was no ‘soft underbelly’ geographically, and despite easy successes at Taranto and Messina, the landing at Salerno was the Allied forces’ most desperate and closely-run battle yet. The Allied invasions of North Africa and Sicily were concerned primarily with ensuring the safety of the sea lanes between Gibraltar and Suez, thereby making voyages around Africa unnecessary. The invasion of southern Italy marked a new strategic phase, in which, General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander later wrote: “The Mediterranean theater would no longer receive the first priority of resources and its operations would become preparatory and subsidiary to the great invasion based on the United Kingdom.” The decision to invade southern Italy stemmed from the Casablanca Conference, held in French Morocco during January 1943, while the Tunisian campaign was still in progress. Having decided to invade Sicily in hopes of securing Mediterranean lines of communication, diverting German strength from the Russian front, and forcing Italy out of the war, Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt, together with their principal military advisors, discussed what to do after conquering Sicily. Since they had agreed to seek ultimate victory in Europe by means of a cross-Channel operation, was any other Mediterranean undertaking feasible? Because the available resources precluded simultaneous major campaigns in both areas, Mediterranean operations would draw off the buildup being accumulated in the United Kingdom for the cross-Channel attack and would probably postpone the decisive action. Yet the southern shoreline of Europe between Spain and Turkey, occupied by Axis troops, was close at hand and a tempting target for invasion. Was it better to halt after Sicily and conserve resources for a quicker thrust into north-west Europe, or to employ, against the European underbelly, the men and material gathered in the Mediterranean? The Americans, more conscious of the war in the Pacific, leaned toward an early cross-Channel invasion, while the British, who generally regarded a cross-Channel operation as the decisive strike against a weakened Germany, favored continuing the war in the Mediterranean. As it became clear during the spring of 1943 that shortages of assault shipping and the German strength would prevent a cross-Channel effort that year, Mediterranean ventures beyond Sicily became increasingly practicable and attractive. But where to go? The Americans generally looked toward the western Mediterranean, with the conquest of Sardinia and Corsica leading to an invasion of southern France in order to complement a main effort across the Channel. The British generally looked to the eastern Mediterranean, with landings at the foot of Italy leading to an invasion of the Balkans in order to support the Yugoslav Partisans, draw Turkey into the war, and open a shorter sea route to the USSR for lend-lease supplies. Both courses of action had serious disadvantages. One hope intrigued the Allies: If invasion of Sicily failed to force Italy out of the war, would an additional blow do so? If Italy surrendered, the Germans would be doubly stretched over the periphery of Europe; they might even withdraw from Italy, thereby giving the Allies the airfield they needed for intensified bombing attacks. But if the Germans chose to fight in the rugged Italian terrain, they might provoke a protracted campaign that would probably require the Allies to increase the resources in a theater relegated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to subsidiary importance. When the Allied leaders met in Washington for the Trident Conference during May 1943, they confirmed their plans to invade Sicily, scheduled the operation for July, and decided on their Mediterranean goals: they would try to knock Italy out of the war, and at the same time engage the maximum number of German forces. More Reading on Tonight’s Topic: The Rock of Anzio by Flint Whitlock Westview Press Boulder, Colo. 1998 Cassino; the Hollow Victory by John Ellis McGraw-Hill Book Company New York, New York 1984 Cassino by Dominich Graham Ballantine Books New York, New York 1970 Salerno; Foothold in Europe by David Mason Ballantine Books New York, New York 1972 Anzio; the Bid for Rome by Christopher Hibbert Ballantine Books New York, New York 1970 The Last Ridge by McKay Jenkins Random House Pub. New York, New York 2003 Climb to Conquer by Peter Shelton Scribner New York, New York 2003 Have a great summer and we’ll see you in the fall.