Allied Invasion of Sicily and Fall of Mussolini
On 9-10 July 1943, Anglo-American forces launched Operation Husky — the largest amphibious operation to that date — landing 160,000 troops in Sicily. The campaign, though tactically muddled (German and Italian forces escaped across the Strait of Messina with much of their equipment), achieved its decisive strategic effect not in the island itself but in Rome: on 25 July, the Italian Fascist Grand Council voted to depose Mussolini, who was arrested by King Victor Emmanuel III and replaced by Marshal Badoglio. Italy's armistice was announced on 8 September 1943. Germany, which had anticipated Italian collapse, immediately occupied northern and central Italy, turning the Italian peninsula into another hard-fought theatre of war. The Sicily campaign ended the original Axis partnership — the Rome-Berlin Axis that had sent volunteers to Spain, annexed Austria, and signed the Pact of Steel — and demonstrated that Fascism could collapse under military pressure even in its homeland.
- Year: 1943 CE
- Category: Military
