Italian campaign | |||||||||
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Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II and European theatre of World War II | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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Axis: ![]() • | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
May 1944: 619,947 men (ration strength)[10] April 1945: 616,642 men (ration strength)[11] 1,333,856 men (overall strength)[12] Aircraft: 3,127 aircraft (September 1943) 4,000 aircraft (March 1945)[13] |
May 1944:![]() (ration strength)[10] April 1945: ![]() (ration strength)[11] ![]() (overall strength)[11] ![]() (military only)[11] Aircraft: ![]() (September 1943)[14] ![]() (April 1945)[13] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Sicily: Vehicles: 8,011 aircraft destroyed ![]() |
Sicily: Aircraft: ![]() | ||||||||
152,940 civilians killed |
The Italian campaign of World War II, also called the Liberation of Italy following the German occupation in September 1943, consisted of Allied and Axis operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to 1945. The joint Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre and it planned and led the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the campaign in Italy until the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy in May 1945.
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.[32][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.[32][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.[34] 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.[35][36][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.[37] Casualties among infantry in Italy were proportionally higher than they were on the Western Front of WWI.[38]
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