(3/12)Battlefield I The Battle for Italy Episode 6 (GDH)

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Videos Running Time 01:54:00 in 12 Parts

Battlefield I: The Battle of Italy

Excellent episode chronicling the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

Opeartion Minemeat, The Allied deception plan prior to the Sicily invasion, worked perfectly. The Germans second guessed themselves and began shifting units away from Sicily. The German 1st Panzer Division was moved to Greece and the 16SS Panzer Grenadier Division redeployed to Corsica. Mincemeat was the placing of manufactured information on a dead Major Martin and floating him out to sea.

Sicily was invaded by the American 7th and the British 8th Armies on July 9th 1943. The Italian 6th Army defended Sicily with 300,000 men. However, the real offensive/defensive capability was the German 14th Panzer Korps. The Herman Goring Panzer Division, the 1st Fallschirmjager Division and the 15 and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions, conducted an excellent phased withdraw, saving thousands of troops. Cooperation between the 7th and 8th Armies was abysmal. The advance in Sicily degenerated into a race. The opportunity to trap thousands of elite German units and valuable equipment was lost. Lt. Gen. Pattons behavior, comments and insubordination to Gen. Alexander, cost him his 7th Army command, and quite possibly command of the 12th Army Group in 1944 France.

The Allied invasion of Salerno, Operation Avalanche, on September 9th 1943, came close to a disaster. Naval gunfire was able to blunt German counter-attacks. Luftwaffe attacks claimed several ships. The crisis was averted and both the 5th and 8th Armies advanced.

With elite German formations, defensive terrain and the Brilliance of Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, the Allies advance grind to a halt before the Gustav Line. The Anzio operation accomplished nothing, but serve into German propaganda. The taking of Monte Cassino by British, Polish, French, Indian and New Zealand troops could have assisted in surrounding thousands of German units. However, Lt. Gen. Clark was more interested in capturing Rome before Italy turned into the forgotten front.

Enjoy this excellent episode of Battlefield