Summer, 1943

Chapter 25

The Fall of Italy

July - September

Europe: The Eastern Front

Waffen SS soldiers advance with a Tiger tank at Kursk
German Federal Archives

In the East, all eyes were on the massive armored battle raging at the Kursk Salient. As the German Operation Citadel finally launched and subsequently began to break down, the Soviets launched their own counteroffensive, turning the German armies back decisively. By the end of August, the Red Army had launched a major operation intended to throw the Germans back to the Dnieper, and began to penetrate deeper into the Ukraine. As they retreated, German forces were ordered to instigate a scorched earth policy, destroying any valuable resources as they withdrew in a mirror of the actions taken by the Soviets two years earlier.

A Soviet crew operates an anti-tank rifle at Kursk
Russian International News Agency

As the withdrawal continued, the Soviets liberated Novorossiysk, tightening the chokehold on the German units entrenched at Kuban on the Black Sea Coast. As September drew to a close the Soviets reached the Dnieper, with Kiev firmly in their sights for the coming months.

Europe: Italy

British Highlanders come ashore in Sicily
Royal Navy

Meanwhile, in the West, the Allies launched their invasion of Sicily just days after the opening moves at Kursk. In response, the demoralized and depleted Regio Esercito quickly collapsed, and as the Allies cleared the island of what remained of Italian and German forces King Victor Emmanuelle III dismissed Mussolini and ordered him arrested. The resulting crisis saw the Germans moving to ensure that Italy remained in the war, one way or another, as the new government of Marshal Pietro Badoglio struggled to balance their enemies and their allies as the country was effectively invaded from both north and south.

Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the new Italian Prime Minister

The situation for the Italians was tenuous to say the least, as Allied shells fired from Sicily began to land on the mainland and the German government became increasing distant in direct proportion to their ballooning military presence in the country. As the threat of Allied bombers became acute, Badoglio declared Rome an open city, but the situation was rapidly getting out of his control. The Regio Esercito was collapsing in earnest by now, and Allied POWs were roaming the countryside as their guards simply deserted. On 8 September an Armistice was announced as having been authorized by Badoglio and the King, and the German reaction was swift and decisive.

Italian soldiers are marched into captivity by German soldiers
German Federal Archives

Unlike Allied plans to assist the Italians, which never came to fruition, the Germans moved immediately to disarm and intern the remnants of the Italian Armed Forces in a pre-planned contingency designated Operation Achse. The King and government were forced to flee Rome as the Germans overran the units still in transit to secure the capitol for them, and in most areas the Italian troops were not even aware that that the armistice had been signed, and thus offered no resistance. By 12 September, the bulk of Italy was under German occupation.

US troops come ashore at Salerno
US Navy

Allied forces had commenced their own landings on the mainland, however, with British troops having taken the naval base at Taranto and the Americans landing and engaging the Germans at Salerno. Heaving fighting raged around the beachhead, with the Americans slowly pushing back determined defenders, until they were forced to halt on 12 September. The Allied forces were then subjected to large scale German counterattacks that continued over the next four days, until Allied airpower broke their units.

Luftwaffe Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the new commander of German forces in Italy, confers with officers
German Federal Archives

Further Allied advances would see a drive northward toward Naples, and a popular uprising there against the Germans would see them withdrawing in disarray as the month came to an end.

Europe: The War at Sea

The naval war in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean continued unabated as well. As the Allied fleets approached Sicily they were opposed by scattered elements of the Regia Marina as well as the Germans, but the main events would come later, after the downfall of the fascist government and the conclusion of the Armistice. Just as they had with the Vichy French fleet, the Germans considered securing the Italian surface fleet to be a critical objective, but their efforts were frustrated as the Regia Marina moved immediately to comply with the orders of the Allies to sail to ports in Malta and Sardinia.

The Italian battleship Roma earlier in the war

This exodus was not without incident, however, as the Luftwaffe set upon the escaping Italians. Attacks were made using the latest German weapons, the Fritz-X guided bomb, which succeeded in destroying the battleship Roma, which went down with significant loss of life, including Admiral Carlo Bergamini, commander in chief of the Italian Navy. Smaller actions took place at sea off Bastia and Rhodes between small vessels of the Kriegsmarine and the Regia Marina as well in the chaotic aftermath of the Italian collapse.

The battleship Tirpitz leads a flotilla into a Norwegian fjord
German Federal Archives

Farther north, the Kriegsmarine was active as well. The Norwegians had landed a force to set up a meteorological station on the small island of Spitzbergen, and in early September a German task force led by the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst sortied from their bases in Norway to attack it. The Germans subjected the station to a massive bombardment, followed by a landing of German troops, who destroyed the island’s infrastructure and withdrew. The result was a German victory, although the decision not to garrison the island, in part due to a fear of the Royal Navy catching the Tirpitz in the open, the island was later reoccupied by Allied forces.

Europe: The Air War

An RAF Lancaster bomber silhouetted over the blazing city of Hamburg

In the skies of Europe, the unrelenting bombing campaign was continuing as well. The Luftwaffe continued to raid British cities when they could, including a raid on East Grinstead that killed a number of children when bombs destroyed a crowded theater. Despite this and some success against the Allied invasion fleets off of Sicily, the campaign against Germany by the USAAF and the RAF continued to escalate.

The ruins of Hamburg after the raid

Allied bombers were by now becoming a ubiquitous sight in the skies over Axis Europe, with raids striking both the German and Italian capitols along with an ever increasing frequency and scale. In July the RAF launched Operation Gomorrah, striking the industrial center of Hamburg with hundreds of planes on several successive nights, with the USAAF joining in for daylight operations. An estimated 37,000 people were killed in the massive raids, and the city was reduced to ruins. It would not recover during the war, and the effects of the raid shocked the Germans up to the highest levels of government, with even Hitler expressive grave concerns about the raid. Of particular note was the RAF’s deployment of a new anti-radar technology, codenamed “Window” (aluminum shards dropped to confuse the signature of the aircraft) to great effect at confusing German interceptors.

B24s flying at low altitude past an exploding Romanian oil refinery
US Air Force

Another major raid was launched by the USAAF at the beginning of August, this time against the main source of oil for the German war machine. Operation Tidal Wave saw almost 200 B24 Liberator heavy bombers strike major refineries around Ploiesti in Romania. This critical area was surrounded by the strongest anti-air defenses anywhere in Europe save for Berlin, Vienna and the Ruhr Valley, bolstered by Romanian and German fighters based in the area. The raid was carried out at low level, but although this initially surprised the defenders they quickly adapted, and the Americans suffered severe losses, eventually losing 50% of the force sent for the attack. Oil production was only stalled for a few weeks before production resumed at a higher capacity than before the raid, leaving the operation to be considered a failure.

The B24 Sandman emerges from a cloud of smoke during the Ploiesti Raid
US Air Force

Europe: Under Occupation

German trucks assembled in Rome after the city was occupied
German Federal Archives

In the summer of 1943 the bulk of Italy joined the ranks of the nations subjugated and occupied by the Wehrmacht. The new Nazi authorities lost no time in beginning the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, joining into a program that was accelerating throughout the Reich and its territories. Elsewhere in Italy, the Germans set to demanding ransom from the Holy See as they surrounded the Vatican City as Rome was occupied, and skirmishes took place between German units and their erstwhile Italian allies in various theaters. Notably, the Italian Acqui Division stationed on the Greek island of Cephalonia attempted to resist the Germans and suffered a massacre of over 5,000 of its men after they surrendered when their ammunition ran out.

All was not well within German ranks, however, as a unit of Bosnian recruits in the Waffen SS staged a mutiny in France, killing their officers and hoping to defect to the Allies. The Germans were able to supress this uprising, however, with the aid of loyal men of the unit and their Imam. The surviving mutineers were sent to concentration camps. Elsewhere, the Danish Government, which the Germans had permitted to exist in a neutered form since the occupation of the country in 1940, was formally dissolved and replaced directly with a German military administration.

Commissioner Wilhelm Kube speaks with SS officers in Minsk
German Federal Archives

On the Eastern Front partisan activity continued unabated as well, including the assassination of the German Commissioner for occupied Belarus. A local woman hired as a maid in his residence in Minsk concealed a timed bomb in the Commissioner’s mattress, killing the senior official despite a mistimed detonation. In response the SS killed 1,000 men from the city, although the senior SS leadership, including Himmler, were privately glad to see the end of a man who they perceived as less willing to participate in the extermination of German Jews.

The Pacific: Pacific Islands

In the Pacific, the Americans were poised to commence their next offensive after the victory on Guadalcanal, targeting the island of New Georgia. Another grouping of the Solomon Islands Chain, New Georgia was the home of a Japanese airbase that had been put to good use during the Battle of Guadalcanal, and was now a threat to the US hold on the island. Its capture would also serve to expand the Allied foothold in the region, working toward a strike on the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul.

US Army soldiers move cautiously through the jungles on New Georgia
US Army

American troops began to land at the beginning of July, with Marine Raiders striking first before the main force began to come ashore at Munda on 2 July. Japanese reinforcements were quickly brought to the island, and both sides quickly set in for another brutal jungle campaign as had occurred on Guadalcanal. Japanese counterattacks were attempted, but initial gains were quickly checked as the American pressed them back toward their airfield.

Despite the harsh environment and stiff resistance, the Americans pushed the Japanese to the fortified area around the airfield at Munda Point, although Japanese counterattacks later in July resulted in the headquarters of the 43rd Infantry Division being captured. Despite this setback, the Japanese were soon after exhausted, and the Americans resumed their drive, reinforced by the newly arrived 37th Infantry Division and Munda was secure by early August.

A flamethrower is fired against Japanese positions at Munda

Subsequent to the fall of Munda, the Japanese attempted again to reinforce the beleaguered garrison on New Georgia, but were intercepted by the Americans at sea resulting in heavy casualties. As a result, the Japanese garrison on the island was left to fight a delaying action, buying time for the further reinforcement of the remaining Solomon islands that remained in their hands. This came to an end on 23 August, as the Americans overran the last Japanese positions on the island.

Australian soldiers in a position at Salamaua

Likewise, the bitter campaign in the jungles of New Guinea continued to rage, as US and Australian forces fought a Japanese Army that bitterly contested every scrap of ground. Advancing toward Salamaua, the Allied force had run into heavy resistance at Mount Tambu, a 280 meter elevation that represented te highest point on the line of advance.

Australian Corporal Leslie “Bull” Allen carries a wounded American soldier from danger during the Battle for Mount Tambu

Initial Australian attacks in mid July on the mountain resulted in the capture of the southern slope, but counterattacks continued to come from the summit, wearing down the Australians and leading to US Army units being brought forward to bolster their defense. A prompt American assault up the hill ended in disaster, and in a notable incident Australian Cpl. Leslie Allen carried twelve wounded Americans out of the murderous Japanese fire, earning him the American Silver Star medal for his bravery.

The battle for Mount Tambu would drag into August, with the Australians moving to envelop the mountain and eventually forcing the Japanese to abandon it the middle of the month. As a result of the capture of Mount Tambu, the Allied forces were able to capture Salamaura in mid September, as the focus of the campaign in New Guinea switched to Lae.

US troops land on Kiska
US Army

Meanwhile, in the north, the Japanese began to evacuate their forces from the Alaskan Island of Kiska in late July, making use of heavy fog banks to conceal their movements. As a result, when US and Canadian troops landed on the island in mid August they encountered no active resistance, with casualties coming from booby traps as well as a mistaken battle between US and Canadian troops in a major friendly fire incident.

The Pacific: The War at Sea

Gunfire from the cruisers USS St. Louis and USS Helena lights the night at Kula Gulf
US Navy

At sea on the Pacific, as US forces moved against New Georgia a series of naval clashes would ensue around the island. Fighting in the Kula Gulf area included two notable battles, with the first one in early July resulting in significant disruption to the attempts by the IJA to reinforce the island’s garrison. In a second engagement the Japanese were able to sink one US destroyer and damage three Allied cruisers, while succeeding in landing their reinforcements. The two American cruisers would be laid up for months, while the third, from the Royal New Zealand Navy, would not be repaired before the end of war.

Lt. (JG) John F. Kennedy aboard the PT109
US Navy

In a smaller, but still notable incident, a small US motor torpedo boat, PT109, was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri in early August. In the fog of the pre-dawn hours the Japanese destroyer hit the smaller American craft, splitting it in two as it proceeded away. Despite efforts by other boats of the flotilla, the Amagiri slipped away, and the survivors were left to drift toward land on the wreckage before a four hour swim to the nearby Plum Pudding Island. Eventually the survivors would be rescued by native scouts sent by an Australian coast watcher, including the commander of the PT109, Lt. John F. Kennedy, who would go on to become the 35th President of the United States after the war.

The damaged USS St. Louis after being hit by a Japanese Torpedo at Kolombangara
US Navy

The destruction of the PT109 took place amid the backdrop of the continued fighting in the seas around the Solomons, and was followed by the Battle of Vella Gulf in early August. In this engagement US destroyers ambushed a Japanese task force bringing reinforcements to New Georgia, sinking three of the four Japanese destroyers, as well as damaging two of three cruisers with no damage in return.

The Pacific: The Air War

Two of the new Grumman F6F Helcat Fighters
US Navy

New developments were also afoot in the skies over the South Pacific, as the USAAF began to increase their raids against the Japanese in New Guinea, as well as the oil facilities of Borneo, while the Japanese continued to make sporadic raids on Australia. Perhaps the most important development was the introduction of the US Navy’s new Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, a new design intended to replace the aging F4F Wildcat. This aircraft had been designed with the specific intention of countering the Japanese Zero, and in its first combat mission on 1 August, shooting down a Japanese flying boat. This aircraft would go on to become the most potent weapon in the Navy’s arsenal during the war, with over 5,000 kills by the end of the war.

The Homefront

A military checkpoint along the road at the entrance to Oak Ridge Tennesee
US Department of Energy

At home, restrictions continued to tighten in all belligerent nations. In the US citizens were forbidden from photographing or even painting beach scenes for fear these could be used by enemy intelligence, while the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee was sealed off as a closed city for the Manhattan Project.

Political Developments

Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria
Bulgarian State Archives

In the political arena, it was the Axis nations that endured the most upheaval. In Bulgaria the Tsar, Boris III, died of heart failure at the age of 49. This left his son, the six year old Simeon II, to assume the throne under a regency. Rumors swirled that the death of the relatively young Boris may have been an assassination, with fingers pointed at the Germans, Italians and Soviets.

A German fallschirmjager stands in front of a glider at Gran Sasso
German Federal Archives

Meanwhile, the Fascist Regime in Italy had collapsed in the wake of the Invasion of Sicily, and the new Government had sued for peace. The now deposed Duce, Benito Mussolini, had been arrested by the order of King Vittorio Emanuele III, and was being held at a resort on the peak of the Campo Imperatore mountain near Rome. Although his location was a secret, Hitler had personally ordered SS commando leader Otto Skorzeny to locate the deposed Duce, while an elite unit of Fallschimjager were prepared to execute a rescue.

Benito Mussolini stands with the German commandos that rescued him at Gran Sasso
German Federal Archives

On 12 September the Germans were landed by glider atop the Campo Imperatore, as additional units stormed and secured the railway station in the valley below to cut off the Italians from escaping. With an Italian General accompanying them and ordering surrender, the Germans were able to take the building with no losses as the 200 Carabinieri guards capitulated. The Duce posed for a photograph before being whisked away to a waiting FI156 Storch liaison aircraft, which started his journey to Hitler’s East Prussian headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair at Rastenburg. While there, the Duce was instructed to form a new government at once, which in turn led to the creation of a new Fascist regime in Northern Italy; the Italian Social Republic.