Invasion of Italy
59-559: Winter Line Gothic Line 1945 Spring Offensive The Armistice of Cassibile ( Italian : Armistizio di Cassibile ) was an armistice that was signed on 3 September 1943 between Italy and the Allies during World War II . It was made public five days later. It was signed on September 3rd by Major-General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brigade-General Giuseppe Castellano for Italy. The armistice's signing took place at
118-652: A half of launching the assault but German operations persisted in the area for months. Some authorities define the Bernhardt Line as crossing Italy from coast to coast following not just the western defensive positions described above but incorporating also the eastern defences of the Gustav Line. Other authorities use the Winter Line name interchangeably with the Gustav Line . Enrico Caviglia Enrico Caviglia KCB (4 May 1862 – 22 March 1945)
177-656: A month before the end of World War II . His body was interred in the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Finale Ligure Marina, but on 22 June 1952, under the eyes of Luigi Einaudi , President of the Italian Republic, and former prime minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando , his remains were finally reinterred in the tower of Capo San Donato, just east of Finale. Caviglia left a diary, which documented
236-506: A proposal to restore direct control of politics to the King. After the Council, held on 25 July 1943, a majority vote adopted the "order of the day", and Mussolini was then summoned to meet the King and dismissed as prime minister. Upon leaving the meeting, Mussolini was arrested by carabinieri and spirited off to the island of Ponza . Badoglio became President of the Council of Ministers or
295-507: A summit in an Allied military camp at Cassibile , Sicily , which had recently been occupied by the Allies . The armistice was approved by both Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Pietro Badoglio , who was serving as Prime Minister of Italy at the time. The signing of the armistice was kept secret on that day, and was announced to the media on September 8th. Nazi Germany responded by attacking Italian forces in Italy , southern France and
354-832: The Balkans , and freeing Benito Mussolini on 12 September. The Italian forces were forcefully disbanded in the north and centre of the country, with most of Italy being occupied by the Germans, who established a puppet state , the Italian Social Republic led by Mussolini. The king, the Italian government and most of the Navy fled to southern Italy under the protection of the Allies. An Italian resistance movement emerged in German-occupied Italy. After
413-979: The Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, through the Apennine Mountains to the mouth of the Sangro River on the Adriatic coast in the east. The two subsidiary lines, the Bernhardt Line and the Hitler Line , ran much shorter distances from the Tyrrehnian Sea to just northeast of Cassino where they would merge into the Gustav Line. Relative to the Gustav Line, the Hitler Line stood to
472-605: The Prime Minister of Italy . However, Grandi had been told that another general of more significant personal and professional qualities ( Marshal Enrico Caviglia ) would have taken the position. On July 27, the new First Badoglio government began to undertook measures by banning all Fascist organizations throughout Italy as well as disbanding the National Fascist Party and it's other elements associated with it. The appointment of Badoglio did not change
531-518: The Strait of Messina and began landing in the southernmost tip of Calabria during Operation Baytown . The day after the armistice had been made public, 9 September, the Allies made landings at Salerno and at Taranto . The Allies failed to take full advantage of the Italian armistice and were quickly checked by German troops. In terrain that favoured defence, the Allied forces took 20 months to reach
590-500: The heel of Italy , to sail for Malta . At 02:30, on 9 September, the three battleships Roma , Vittorio Veneto , and Italia "shoved off from La Spezia escorted by three light cruisers and eight destroyers". When German troops, who had stormed into the town to prevent the ships from sailing, became enraged by the ships' escape, "they rounded up and summarily shot several Italian captains who, unable to get their vessels underway, had scuttled them". That afternoon, German bombers attacked
649-807: The military college "Teulié" in Milan . In 1880 he became a cadet in the Military Academy of Turin ; three years later he received his first promotion to second lieutenant in the artillery corps. Caviglia took part in the African campaign of 1888/89 in Eritrea as a First Lieutenant in the II Artillery Regiment; in 1891 he was admitted to the War School.The year 1893 saw him promoted to captain. In 1896 and 1897 he took part anew in
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#1732765503652708-521: The royal family and Badoglio, fled Rome on the early morning of the 9th and took shelter in Brindisi , in southern Italy. Their initial intention was to move army headquarters out of Rome with the King and the Prime Minister, but few staff officers reached Brindisi. Meanwhile, the Italian troops, without instructions, collapsed and were soon overwhelmed. Some small units decided to stay loyal to
767-520: The "Instrument of Surrender of Italy.", which General Campbell had presented to another Italian general, Zanussi in Lisbon. Zanussi, who had also been in Cassibile since 31 August, for unclear reasons had not informed Castellano about them. Nevertheless, Bedell Smith explained to Castellano that the other conditions would have taken effect only if Italy had not taken on a fighting role in the war alongside
826-523: The 50th Infantry Division Regina on the island of Kos , who were shot in early October 1943 after the Germans captured the island. Only on the islands of Leros and Samos , with British reinforcements, would the resistance last until November 1943, and in Corsica , Italian troops forced the German troops to leave the island. In other cases, individual Italian units, mostly more minor, remained loyal to
885-405: The 8th Army to capture Orsogna however put an end to the Allied plans of a strong drive up the eastern coast. Rain, flooded rivers, and high casualties, as well as the departure of General Montgomery, all put a halt to Allied plans until the spring of 1944. The Gustav Line thus fulfilled the wishes of Field Marshal Kesselring , the commander of German forces in Italy, of keeping the Allies south of
944-727: The African campaign and was present when the Italian army suffered a dreadful defeat in the Battle of Adowa in Ethiopia . By this time, he was known especially for the quality of his work in geography . After several other assignments, in 1904 he was appointed as extraordinary military attaché in Tokyo , Japan , where he was tasked with observing Japanese military operations in the Russo-Japanese War . From 1905 to 1911, he became
1003-671: The Allied request for a meeting to be held in Sicily , which had been suggested by the British Ambassador to the Vatican . To ease communication between the Allies and the Italian government, a captured British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, Dick Mallaby , was released from Verona Prison and secretly moved to the Quirinale . It was vital for the Germans to remain ignorant of any suggestion of Italian surrender, and
1062-599: The Allies. On the afternoon of the same day, Badoglio had a briefing with the senior commanders of the Regia Marina (Italy's Royal Navy) and the Regia Aeronautica (Italy's Royal Air Force), with the War Ministers and with the King's representatives. However, he omitted any mention of the signing of the armistice and referred only to ongoing negotiations. The day the armistice entered into force
1121-539: The Allies. A bombing mission on Rome by 500 airplanes was stopped at the last moment and had been Eisenhower's inducement to accelerate the procedure of the armistice. Harold Macmillan , the British government's representative minister at the Allied Staff, informed Winston Churchill that the armistice had been signed "without amendments of any kind". That evening Castellano met with Allied officers to discuss what
1180-517: The Axis powers. Many of the units formed the nucleus of the armed forces of the puppet Italian Social Republic . Both the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) and the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) virtually disintegrated with the announcement of the armistice on 8 September. The Allies coveted the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy), with its 206 ships in total, including
1239-834: The Cross of Cavalier of the Military Order of Savoy "for the skill and valor he exhibited". On 14 June 1917 Caviglia was promoted to lieutenant general for his merits on the battlefield: in August, as commanding officer of XXIV Army Corps , he overran the Austro-Hungarians on the Bainsizza plateau, the most brilliant Italian advance in the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo . After the disastrous Twelfth Battle of
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#17327655036521298-611: The Fascist regime. To help the execution of his plan, the King asked for the assistance of Dino Grandi (1st Count of Mordano), one of the leading members of the Fascist hierarchy who, in his younger years, had been considered the sole credible alternative to Mussolini as leader of the National Fascist Party . The King was also motivated by the suspicion that the Count of Mordano's ideas about Fascism might be changed abruptly. Various ambassadors, including Pietro Badoglio himself, proposed
1357-464: The German ally. From 8 to 12 September, the German forces occupied all of the Italian territory that was still not under Allied control, except Sardinia and part of Apulia , without meeting organized resistance. In Rome, an Italian governor, with the support of an Italian infantry division, nominally ruled the city until 23 September, but in practice, the city was under German control from 11 September. On 3 September, British and Canadian troops crossed
1416-482: The Gustav Line crossed the main route north to Rome at strategically crucial Highway 6. It followed the Liri valley and was anchored around the mountains behind the town of Cassino . Above it stood the ancient Benedictine sanctuary of Monte Cassino , which dominated the valley entrance, and Monte Cassino, which gave the defenders clear observation of potential attackers advancing towards the valley mouth. The U.S. 5th Army
1475-574: The Isonzo , in which he had no responsibility for the defeat, Caviglia received the Silver Medal for his skill in keeping his men united and disciplined throughout the retreat to the Piave line, contrary to what happened in large sectors of the Italian army. He was also transferred to serve as commander of X Army Corps . September 1918 saw Caviglia being made a titular commander of army corps by war merits, and by November he had been put in charge of
1534-491: The Italian Government should do. General Harold Alexander presided over the meeting with Smith, Lowell Ward Rooks , and John K. Cannon (commander 12th Air Force USAAF), Brigadier General Patrick W. Timberlake (of Mediterranean Air Command), Strong, and General Lyman Lemnitzer (Deputy Chief of Staff, 15th Army Group ). Only after the signing had taken place was Castellano passed the long terms contained in
1593-774: The Italian Peninsula and barred the way to Rome for the two Allied armies in Italy: the U.S. Fifth Army in the west and the British Eighth Army in the east. The Allies' grand strategy in the autumn of 1943 was for the Eighth Army to advance through the Sangro River defences, then hook south at Avezzano and enter Rome from the rear while the Fifth Army approached from the south. The center of
1652-542: The SOE was the most secure method under the circumstances. Badoglio still considered it possible to gain favourable conditions in exchange for the surrender. He ordered Castellano to insist that any surrender of Italy be conditioned on a landing of Allied troops on the Italian mainland. The Allies held only Sicily and some minor islands. On 31 August, Brigade General Castellano reached Termini Imerese , in Sicily, by plane and
1711-729: The United Nations, and all Italian land, air, and naval forces must surrender unconditionally. The armistice signed at Malta was considered the Additional Conditions for the Armistice with Italy by the Italians, but for the Allies it was considered the Instrument of Surrender of Italy . Winter Line Invasion of Italy Winter Line Gothic Line 1945 Spring Offensive The Winter Line
1770-486: The acceptance of the Allied conditions. He had no written authorization from Badoglio, the head of the Italian government, who wanted to dissociate himself as much as possible from the forthcoming defeat of his country. The signing ceremony began at 14:00 on 3 September. Castellano and Bedell Smith signed the accepted text on behalf of Badoglio and General Eisenhower, respectively. The armistice includes that all Italian land, air, and naval forces must cease hostilities against
1829-478: The actions were to be conducted contemporaneously with the signing, not to precede it, as the Italians had wanted. The following day, Castellano was received by Badoglio and his entourage. Italy's Foreign Minister, Raffaele Guariglia , declared that the Allied conditions were to be accepted. Other generals, such as Giacomo Carboni , maintained that the Army Corps deployed around Rome was insufficient to protect
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1888-486: The armistice was announced by Allied radio on the afternoon of 8 September, German forces immediately attacked Italian forces by executing Operation Achse . Most of the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) had not been informed about the armistice, and no clear orders had been issued about the line of conduct to be taken in the face of the German armed forces. Some Italian divisions that should have defended Rome were still in transit from southern France. The king, along with
1947-479: The battleships Roma , Vittorio Veneto , and Italia (known as Littorio until July 1943). There was a danger that some of the Navy might fight on, be scuttled, or (most concerningly for the Allies) end up in German hands. As such, the truce called for Italian warships on Italy's west coast, mostly at La Spezia and Genoa , to sail for North Africa and to pass Corsica and Sardinia and for those at Taranto , in
2006-482: The city because of the lack of fuel and ammunition and that the armistice had to be postponed. Badoglio did not pronounce himself in the meeting. In the afternoon, he appeared before the King, who decided to accept the armistice conditions. A confirmation telegram was sent to the Allies. The message, however, was intercepted by the Wehrmacht , the German armed forces, which had long since begun to suspect that Italy
2065-477: The city. Badoglio told the delegation that his army was not ready to support the landing and that most airports in the area were under German control. He asked for a deferral of the armistice of a few days. When General Eisenhower learned that, the landing in Rome of American troops was cancelled, but the day of the armistice was confirmed since other troops were already en route by sea to land in southern Italy. When
2124-463: The defence. It took the Allies from mid-November 1943 to June 1944 to fight through all the various elements of the Winter Line, including the well-known battles at Monte Cassino and Anzio . The offensive on the Bernhardt Line was launched on December 1, 1943, as part of Operation Raincoat . British and American troops took the terrain around Monte Camino and the Mignano Gap within a week and
2183-411: The large naval base of Taranto, it watched a flotilla of Italian ships sailing out of Taranto Harbour towards their surrender at Malta. An agreement between the Allies and the Italians in late September provided for some of the Navy to be kept in commission; however, the battleships were to be reduced to care and maintenance and effectively disarmed. Italian mercantile marine vessels were to operate under
2242-669: The new 8th Army , which decisively crushed the crumbling Austro-Hungarian forces at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto . After the war, King George V of Great Britain invested him as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath ; Enrico Caviglia was now a Sir . On 22 February 1919 he was appointed Senator for life , and later took part in Vittorio Emanuele Orlando 's first government as Minister of War. When Gabriele D'Annunzio occupied Fiume with his "legionnaires", Caviglia
2301-526: The northern borders of Italy. Some of the Italian troops based outside Italy, in the occupied Balkans and Greek islands , held out some weeks after the armistice. Still, without any determined support from the Allies, all had been overwhelmed by the Germans by the end of September 1943. On the island of Cephalonia , the Italian Acqui Division was massacred after it had resisted German forces. A similar fate awaited 103 Italian officers of
2360-457: The northwest and the Bernhardt Line to the southeast of the primary defenses. Before being ultimately broken, the Gustav Line effectively slowed the Allied advance for months between December 1943 and June 1944. Major battles in the assault on the Winter Line at Monte Cassino and Anzio alone resulted in 98,000 Allied casualties and 60,000 Axis casualties. The Gustav Line stretched across
2419-477: The position of Italy as Germany's ally in the war. However, many channels sought a peace treaty with the Allies. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler sent several divisions south of the Alps , officially to help defend Italy from Allied landings but really to control the country. Three Italian generals (including Brigade General Giuseppe Castellano ) were separately sent to Lisbon to contact Allied diplomats. However, to open
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2478-807: The proceedings, the Allies had to determine who was the most authoritative envoy, and the three generals had started to quarrel about who had the highest authority. In the end, Castellano was admitted to speak with the Allies at the British Embassy to set the conditions for the armistice of Italy . Among the representatives of the Allies were the British Ambassador to Portugal , Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell , and two senior officers sent by Dwight Eisenhower : major-general Walter Bedell Smith (US Army, Eisenhower's chief of staff) and brigadier Kenneth Strong (British Army, Eisenhower's assistant chief of staff for intelligence). On 27 August, General Castellano returned to Italy and, three days later, briefed Badoglio about
2537-671: The repression; these doubts he expressed in his personal diary. On 25 June 1926, Caviglia was appointed Marshal of Italy ( Maresciallo d'Italia ). This was the highest military rank in the Kingdom of Italy . Four years later, he was made a Cavalier in the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation ( Ordine Supremo della Santissima Annunziata ). Caviglia thus became a 'cousin' of King Victor Emmanuel III . Unenthusiastic about Benito Mussolini 's policies, he
2596-486: The respect of its theoretical status as open city . By this time he had developed an intense dislike of Badoglio (who was defined by him once as "a barn dog that goes where there is the biggest morsel"), who had left him in dire straits thrice: in Caporetto (1917), in Fiume (1920) and then finally in Rome, benefiting in the meantime of the favors of the Fascist regime. Caviglia eventually retired to his villa , named Villa Vittorio Veneto, in Finale Ligure , to die just
2655-526: The same general conditions as the Allies. In all cases, the Italian vessels would retain their Italian crews and fly Italian flags. The Armistice of Cassibile signed at Sicily was considered the 'shorter' version of the whole armistice. On 29 September, the longer version of the armistice was signed at Malta between Italy and the Allies. It was signed by Badoglio and Eisenhower aboard the British battleship HMS Nelson . The agreement included that Benito Mussolini and his Fascist officials must be handed over to
2714-429: The ships sailing without air cover off Sardinia and launching guided bombs . Several ships suffered damage, and Roma sank with the loss of nearly 1,400 men. Most of the remaining ships made it safely to North Africa "while three destroyers and a cruiser which had stopped to rescue survivors, docked in Menorca ". The Navy's turnover proceeded more smoothly in other areas of Italy. When an Allied naval force headed for
2773-452: The so-called Winter Line. On the western side of the Apennines were two subsidiary lines, the Bernhardt Line in front of the main Gustav positions, and the Hitler Line some 8 kilometres (5 mi) to the rear. The Winter Line was fortified with gun pits, concrete bunkers, turreted machine-gun emplacements, barbed wire and minefields. It was the strongest of the German defensive lines south of Rome. About 15 German divisions were employed in
2832-440: The surrender of the Axis powers in North Africa on 13 May 1943, the Allies bombed Rome on 16 May, invaded Sicily on 10 July and prepared to land on the Italian mainland . In the spring of 1943, preoccupied with the disastrous situation of the Italian military during the war, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini , removed several figures from the government whom he considered to be more loyal to Victor Emmanuel III than to
2891-457: The titular military attaché first in the Japanese capital, then in Beijing , China . On 22 September 1908 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel and honorary field assistant to the king . In 1912 Caviglia was sent to Tripolitania and Cyrenaica ; his task was to oversee both the negotiations for the pullout of Turkish troops resulting from the Italo-Turkish War and the pacification of Arab and Berber chieftains. On 6 February 1913 he
2950-478: The vague possibility of succeeding Mussolini as dictator. The secret rebels later involved Giuseppe Bottai , another high member of the Fascist Directorate and Minister of Culture, and Galeazzo Ciano (the 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari), the second most powerful man in the Fascist Party and Mussolini's son-in-law. The conspirators devised an "Order of the Day" for the next meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism ( Gran Consiglio del Fascismo ), which contained
3009-463: Was a distinguished officer in the Italian Army . Victorious on the bloody battlefields of the Great War , notably the Battle of Vittorio Veneto , he rose in time to the highest rank in his country, Marshal of Italy ; he was also a Senator of the kingdom . Caviglia was born in Finalmarina (the marine borough of Finale Ligure ), the sixth son of Pietro Caviglia and Antonietta Saccone. After early studies in his hometown, in 1877 he gained admission to
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#17327655036523068-439: Was a series of German and Italian military fortifications in Italy , constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt and commanded by Albert Kesselring . The series of three lines was designed to defend a western section of Italy, focused around the town of Monte Cassino , through which ran the important Highway 6 which led uninterrupted to Rome . The primary Gustav Line ran across Italy from just north of where
3127-453: Was appointed vice director of the Military Geographic Institute (IGM) in Florence , to reach the rank of colonel the next year. When in 1915 Italy entered the First World War against Austria-Hungary , Caviglia was made major general. Next year his troops distinguished themselves in the bloody battles of the Carso , where Caviglia led Brigade Bari in extremely harsh fights at Bosco Lancia and Bosco Cappuccio. Hence his being decorated with
3186-420: Was called to replace general Pietro Badoglio , dating from 21 December 1920, as troop commander and extraordinary commissioner in the Venezia Giulia . From 24 to 31 December 1920 he led the repression of D'Annunzio's movement, the so-called Natale di sangue (Bloody Christmas) in execution of the Treaty of Rapallo . For the rest of his life Caviglia felt doubts as to the wisdom and morality of his actions during
3245-474: Was held up in front of these positions through the winter of 1943-44. They attempted to flank the position by the landings at Anzio but bogged down quickly there. A bloody and protracted battle was waged over the monastery, known as the Battle of Monte Cassino . The eastern end of the line was held by the coastal town of Ortona , captured by Canadian forces in the fierce Battle of Ortona in December 1943 which became known as "the little Stalingrad." Failure by
3304-453: Was linked to a planned landing in central Italy and was left to the Allies' discretion. Castellano still understood that the date was intended to be 12 September, and Badoglio started to move troops to Rome. On 7 September, a small Allied delegation reached Rome to inform Badoglio that the next day would have been the day of the armistice. He was also informed about the pending arrival of the American 82nd Airborne Division into airports around
3363-415: Was overshadowed by other officers, less able than he on the battlefield but more ideologically sympathetic to the Duce. In 1943, from 8 to 13 September, as the King's court fled the incoming Germans after surrendering the country to the Allies , the aged Caviglia had to take the military command in Rome and to negotiate with Field Marshal Albert Kesselring the surrender of the capital in exchange for
3422-435: Was seeking a separate armistice. The Germans contacted Badoglio, who repeatedly confirmed the unwavering loyalty of Italy to its German ally. The Germans doubted his reassurances, and the Wehrmacht started to devise an effective plan, Operation Achse , to take control of Italy as soon as the Italian government had switched allegiance to the Allies. On 2 September, Castellano set off again to Cassibile with an order to confirm
3481-427: Was transferred to Cassibile , a town near Syracuse . It soon became evident that the two sides in the negotiations had adopted somewhat distant positions. Castellano pressed the request for the Italian territory to be defended from the inevitable reaction of the German Wehrmacht against Italy after the signing. In return, he received only vague promises, including launching a parachute division over Rome . Moreover,
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