Lesson 15: Invasion of Italy

Question 1

Reasons for the invasion of Italy

Answer 1

• It lay just across the Mediterranean from North Africa where the
  Allies had plentiful resources and men.
• It would force the Germans to divert forces away from the Eastern
  Front and northern France.
• They could knock Italy out of the war, removing Germany’s main ally
  in Europe

Question 2

The role of Operation Mincemeat in the invasion of Sicily

Answer 2

• British intelligence dressed a dead homeless man as an officer in the Royal
  Marines. They then placed fake documents in his jacket that included maps of an
  upcoming British invasion of Sardinia and Corsica. The body was then dropped off
  on the Spanish coast where the Germans would find it. The plan proved
  successful.

Question 3

The nature of the fighting in Italy

Answer 3

The invasion of Italy would almost immediately turn into a
brutal attritional conflict.

• The Germans built strong defensive lines which the Allies
  would constantly have to try and break through, and
  although the Allies would eventually take Italy it would be
  more costly and slower than they hoped.

Question 4

• The outcomes of the invasion of Italy.

Answer 4

more than 300,000 US and British troops who fought in Italy had been
killed or were wounded or missing. German casualties totaled around 434,000.

Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian
partisans who had been fighting to support the Allies.
* Mussolini was executed on the 28th April 1945.
* His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down on display to the Italian public