May 1944: 619,947 men (ration strength)[11] April 1945: 616,642 men (ration strength)[12] 1,333,856 men (overall strength)[13] Aircraft: 3,127 aircraft (September 1943) 4,000 aircraft (March 1945)[14]
May 1944: 365,616 men (ration strength)[11] April 1945: 332,524 men (ration strength)[12] 439,224 men (overall strength)[12] 160,180 men (military only)[12] Aircraft: 722 aircraft (September 1943)[15] 79 aircraft (April 1945)[14]
The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 led to the collapse of the Fascist Italian regime and the fall of Mussolini, who was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III on 25 July. The new government signed an armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943. However, German forces soon invaded northern and central Italy, commiting several atrocities against Italian civilians and army units who opposed the German occupation and started the Italian resistance movement. Mussolini, who was rescued by German paratroopers, established a collaborationist puppet state, the Italian Social Republic (RSI), to administer the German-occupied territory. On 13 October 1943, the Allies recognized Italy as a co-belligerent in the war against Germany. Thereafter, the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the Italian partisans fought alongside the Allies against German troops and the collaborationist National Republican Army; an aspect of this period is the Italian civil war. In the summer of 1944, after the German defeats at Cassino and Anzio, central Italy, including Rome, was liberated. Northern Italy was liberated following the final spring offensive and the general insurrection of Italian partisans on 25 April 1945. Mussolini was captured by the Italian resistance and summarily executed by firing squad. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on 2 May 1945, one week before the formal German Instrument of Surrender. Both sides committed war crimes during the conflict, and the independent states of San Marino and Vatican City surrounded by Italian territory also suffered damage.
It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, 60,000–70,000 Allied and 38,805–50,660 German soldiers died in Italy.[33][j] The number of Allied casualties was about 330,000 and the German figure (excluding those involved in the final surrender) was over 330,000.[33][k] Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly prisoners-of-war taken in the invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing.[35] Over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 35,828 anti-Nazi and anti-fascist partisans and some 35,000 troops of the Italian Social Republic.[36][37][l] On the Western Front of World War II, Italy was the most costly campaign in terms of casualties suffered by infantry forces of both sides, during bitter small-scale fighting around strongpoints at the Winter Line, the Anzio beachhead and the Gothic Line.[38] Casualties among infantry in Italy were proportionally higher than they were on the Western Front of WWI.[39]
^Clashes between Germans and Italians began on 8 September 1943, when Italy was invaded and largely occupied by German troops following the armistice of Cassibile. On 13 October 1943, Italy formally declared war on Germany and was recognized as a co-belligerent of the United Nations by the Big Three (UK, US, URSS) with the following declaration: "The Governments of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union acknowledge the position of the Royal Italian Government as stated by Marshal Badoglio and accept the active cooperation of the Italian nation and armed forces as a co-belligerent in the war against Germany. The military events since September eighth and the brutal maltreatment by the Germans of the Italian population, culminating in the Italian declaration of war against Germany have in fact made Italy a co-belligerent and the American, British and Soviet Governments will continue to work with the Italian Government on that basis."
^Mitcham, Samual W.; Von Stauffenberg, Stephen (2007). The Battle of Sicily: How the Allies Lost Their Chance for Total Victory. Stackpole Books. ISBN9780811734035.
^Ufficio storico dello Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito (USSME) (1993). Le operazioni in Sicilia e in Calabria. Rome. pp. 400–401.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Le Operazioni in Sicilia e in Calabria (Luglio-Settembre 1943), Alberto Santoni, p. 401, Stato maggiore dell'Esercito, Ufficio storico, 1989
^Rüdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Oldenbourg 2000. ISBN3-486-56531-1, P. 336 and P.174.
^George C Marshall, Biennial reports of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army to the Secretary of War : 1 July 1939-30 June 1945. Washington, DC : Center of Military History, 1996. Page 202.
^Giuseppe Fioravanzo, La Marina dall'8 settembre 1943 alla fine del conflitto, p. 433.
In 2010, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro of the Italian Ministry of Defence recorded 15,197 Italian partisans killed; however, the Ufficio dell'Albo d'Oro only considered as partisans the members of the Italian Resistance who were civilians before joining the partisans, whereas partisans who were formerly members of the Italian armed forces (more than half those killed) were considered as members of their armed force of origin
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