Salerno is an ancient city and comune in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the province of the same name. He had already therefore ordered General Traugott Herr's LXXVI Panzer Corps to pull back from engagement with the Eighth Army, leaving only 29th Panzergrenadier Division's 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment in the 'toe' of Italy. The city is divided into three distinct zones: the medieval sector, the 19th century sector and the more densely populated post-war area, with its several apartment blocks. The stubborn initial resistance by 16th Panzer Division's battlegroups and the Germans' ability to reinforce them by land more quickly than the Allies could land follow-up forces by sea or air had almost tipped the battle. They found themselves attacked from the north by a mobile force from 26th Panzer Division and from the south by the Krüger Battle Group which was withdrawing from the Nicotera position. By early October 1943, the whole of southern Italy was in Allied hands, and the Allied armies stood facing the Volturno Line, the first of a series of prepared defensive lines running across Italy from which the Germans chose to fight delaying actions, giving ground slowly and buying time to complete their preparation of the Winter Line, their strongest defensive line south of Rome. [36] However, the 142nd Infantry fared better and with the support of the 143rd Infantry, the reserve formation which had landed by 08:00, were able to push forward. The armoured column following up was intercepted and driven back, leaving the German infantry exposed. [25] In Calabria, Herr's LXXVI Panzer Corps had two divisions concentrated in the Castrovillari area. Richardson. [19] Army Command South (OB Süd) under Albert Kesselring continued to be responsible for southern Italy[20] and the German High Command formed a new army headquarters to be Army Command South's main field formation. During the afternoon, two German battlegroups, the Kleine Limburg and the Krüger, had attacked Persano and overrun the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry before crossing the Sele to engage the 2nd Battalion of the 143rd Infantry and virtually wipe it out. On 8 September (before the main invasion), the surrender of Italy to the Allies was announced, first by General Eisenhower, then in the Badoglio Proclamation by the Italian government. On 9 September, he decided to halt his formations in order to reorganise before pushing on but General Alexander replied on 10 September that "It is of the utmost importance that you maintain pressure upon the Germans so that they cannot remove forces from your front and concentrate them against Avalanche". The remainder were court-martialled. Having (very!) However, with the signing of the armistice with the Italians on 3 September the picture changed. 2 (Army) Commando and No. The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943 during the early stages of the Italian campaign of World War II. [28], Operation Avalanche–the main invasion at Salerno by the American Fifth Army under Lieutenant General Mark Clark–began on 9 September 1943, and in order to secure surprise, it was decided to assault without preliminary naval or aerial bombardment. Get answers to your questions about Salerno, Hotels near Stazione Marittima di Salerno, Hotels near Museo Diocesano San Matteo di Salerno, Hotels near Museo Archeologico Provinciale di Salerno. The build-up is slow and they are pinned down to a bridgehead which has not enough depth. Related: What are the most popular tours in Salerno? On 7 September, contact was made with the Krüger Battle Group. Tonnes of history here during the war. Instead they jumped inside the beachhead, guided by Rebecca/Eureka beacons and moved immediately into the line on the right of VI Corps. [22] Von Vietinghoff specifically positioned the 16th Panzer Division in the hills above the Salerno plain. [32] German observers on Monte Soprano directed fire onto the landing craft. LST 336 took 18 hits, and some LCTs and DUKWs sheered away to avoid German shellfire. In addition, it would tie down German forces. While the Herman Göring battle groups attacked the northern flank of the beachhead, the main attack was on the boundary between the two Allied Corps which ran roughly from Battipaglia to the sea, with the greatest weight due to fall on the VI Corps side[51] On the morning of 13 September elements of Major General Walker's 36th Division attacked and captured Altavilla in the high ground some 14 km (9 mi) behind Paestum, but a counterattack forced them to withdraw as darkness fell. If you're interested in visiting a few of these sites, the book A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy makes a good companion. A night drop of 600 paratroops of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion to disrupt German movements behind the lines in the vicinity of Avellino was widely dispersed and failed,[57] incurring significant casualties. However, as Admiral Henry Hewitt, the amphibious force commander, had predicted, tactical surprise was not achieved. Meanwhile, on the Adriatic Coast, the Eighth Army advanced to a line from Campobasso to Larino and Termoli on the Biferno river. 2 Commando suffered casualties, including 31-year-old Captain Henry Wellesley, the then-Duke of Wellington, who was killed. [57], On 9 September, Montgomery's formations had been strung out along the coastal roads in the 'toe' of Italy. Minesweepers cleared an inshore channel shortly after 09:00; so by late morning destroyers could steam within 91 m (100 yd) of the shoreline to shell German positions on Monte Soprano. Opposition to the landings was light and the Italian units surrendered almost immediately. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando, were also unopposed and secured the high ground on each side of the road through Molina Pass on the main route from Salerno to Naples. This had left its right wing too thinly manned to defend X Corps' right flank and left a particular weakness at the corps boundary. The Allies had been fortunate that at this time Adolf Hitler had sided with the view of his Army Group commander in Northern Italy, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, and decided that defending Italy south of Rome was not a strategic priority. The main invasion force landed around Salerno on 9 September on the western coast in Operatio… In addition, the invasion left the Allies in a position of supplying food and supplies to conquered territory, a burden which would otherwise have fallen on Germany. Progress was slow as demolished bridges, roadblocks and mines delayed the Eighth Army. This was intended to aid Italian forces in saving Rome, possibly the most historically important city in the world, from German razing, a condition of the Italian armistice. The main invasion force landed around Salerno on 9 September on the western coast in Operation Avalanche, while two supporting operations took place in Calabria (Operation Baytown) and Taranto (Operation Slapstick). He predicted it would be a waste of effort since it assumed the Germans would give battle in Calabria; if they failed to do so, the diversion would not work, and the only effect of the operation would be to place the Eighth Army 480 km (300 miles) south of the main landing at Salerno. However, both Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. President, accepted the necessity of Allied armies continuing to engage the Axis in the period after a successful campaign in Sicily and before the start of one in northwest Europe. The build-up across the Straits of Messina had proved slow and he was therefore short of transport. [45] On 10 September, Clark visited the battlefield and judged that it was unlikely that X Corps would be able to push quickly east past Battipaglia to link with VI Corps. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. The arrival of the British battleships HMS Warspite and Valiant, with 38 cm (15 in) guns, off the beaches provided the Allied troops with a morale boost, although Valiant was not required to shoot and Warspite's 29 rounds were awe-inspiring but a minor contribution to the 2,592 naval rounds fired that day. [26] Meanwhile, Balck's XIV Panzer Corps was positioned to face possible landings from the sea with 16th Panzer Division in the Gulf of Salerno, the Hermann Göring Division near Naples and the 15th Panzergrenadier Division to the north in the Gulf of Gaeta.[27]. Following the defeat of the Axis Powers in North Africa in May 1943, there was disagreement between the Allies as to what the next step should be. [2] Popular support in Italy for the war was declining, and he believed an invasion would remove Italy from the Axis, and thus the influence of Axis forces in the Mediterranean Sea, opening it to Allied traffic.