Operation Avalanche (World War II)
1940–1945: Air raids on Italy
1940: Attack on Taranto
1943: Operation Husky - Invasion of Italy ( Baytown , Avalanche , Slapstick ) - Armistice of Cassibile - Fall of the Axis
1944: Battle of Monte Cassino - Operation Shingle - Position of Goth
1945: Spring Offensive
Operation Avalanche was the code name for the Allied landings in the Gulf of Salerno on September 9, 1943, as part of the invasion of mainland Italy . This operation was carried out by the 5th US Army under the American General Mark W. Clark . The primary goals were to take the port of Naples in order to establish our own supply routes and at the same time to split up the German armed forces and push them to southern Italy.
initial situation
Between July 10 and August 17, 1943, the Allies wrested Sicily from the Axis powers . Italy had signed an armistice with the Allies on September 3 and officially withdrew from the war on September 8. The Allies nevertheless ended up in areas controlled by the German Wehrmacht . So that the German troops could be diverted from the planned new landing point at Salerno, the British 8th Army (General Bernard Montgomery ) was already in Operation Baytown on September 3 with their XIII. Corps (GenLt. Miles Dempsey ) landed near Reggio on the southern tip of Calabria . Simultaneously with the landing of the US 5th Army in the Gulf of Salerno was also on September 9 at the port of Taranto , the Operation Slapstick by the British 1st Airborne Division conducted. The German commander-in-chief in Italy, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring , rightly expected the main Allied landing at Gaeta or Salerno and withdrew strong forces from Calabria to the north.
The landing at Salerno
The 5th US Army landed on September 9 in the Gulf of Salerno simultaneously in four places. The amphibious direction of the operation was in the hands of Rear Admiral Richard L. Connolly . Before the landing, the Allies deliberately refrained from carrying out supporting bombing by the air forces, but the element of surprise was still limited. German units were already stationed on the slopes to the east with artillery and machine gun posts. In the northern section, Lieutenant General Clark let the US Ranger Force under Lieutenant Colonel William O. Darby go ashore at Maiori and the British Commando Brigade under Brigadier Robert Laycock at Vietri in order to get their hands on the railway line between Naples and Salerno. The main landing, however, was carried out by the British X. Corps (Lieutenant General Richard McCreery ) with the 46th (Major General John Hawkesworth) and the 56th Division (Major General Douglas Graham) on the south coast of Salerno between the Picentino and Tusciano. The VI. US Corps (Major General Ernest J. Dawley) landed the 36th Division (Major General Fred L. Walker) at Paestum in the southern section , and the 45th Division (Major General Troy H. Middleton ) followed in the landing head the next day .
The rapid advance of the Allies was made very difficult by the strong German defenses, but the flatter beach area and the airfield of Montecorvino were successfully taken by the British. When the first Americans had settled on the coast of Paestum, a spokesman for the German side announced in English "Give up, you are surrounded!" ("Come on in and give up. We have you covered.") However, this did not prevent American troops from continuing their attacks as planned. At 7 o'clock in the morning the German 16th Panzer Division under Major General Rudolf Sieckenius from the Persano area carried out its first counterattack, which was repulsed with heavy losses. Both the British and the Americans made slow progress, despite their superiority in the air and the use of naval artillery; at the end of the first day there was more than 10 km between them and they did not unite until the end of the second day. The US Ranger - Brigade wrestled with the Panzer Division "Hermann Goering" for the possession of Amalfi and secured the north of it and the Chiunzi Pass.
Between September 12 and 14, the German 10th Army (Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff ) organized a strong counterattack with six divisions of motorized troops (Panzer Division "Hermann Göring" and the 16th and 26th Panzer Divisions as well as the 3. , 15th and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions ) - together almost 600 tanks and self-propelled guns, and hoped they could still prevent American and British troops from advancing further inland. The height 424 at Altavilla and Albanella were recovered and the VI. US Corps at times hard pressed.
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The use of the Allied bomber forces and the artillery of the cruisers USS Philadelphia and USS Boise and the battleships HMS Warspite and HMS Valiant under Fleet Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham finally brought the German motorized units to a standstill on September 14th. The use of the German Kampfgeschwader 100 against the Allied warships with the new FX 1400 glide bombs brought some successes, the cruisers USS Savannah and HMS Uganda had to turn off badly damaged , as did the Warspite for repairs. The at VI. The 82nd Airborne Division (Major General Matthew B. Ridgway ), which was followed by the US Corps, recaptured altitude 140 west of Albanella in the course of the day . The counterattack of the British 56th Division in the direction of Eboli captured Battipaglia , the 46th Division set to the north and the Commando Brigade consolidated their positions at Salerno. Allied losses amounted to 2,100 dead, 4,100 missing and 7,400 wounded.
consequences
The Allies initially suffered heavy losses in the Landungskopf because their troops were too far apart to withstand a targeted attack. Already on September 17th the connection between the British 8th Army advancing north from Calabria and the Americans at Paestum was achieved. Salerno itself was firmly in the hands of the British X Corps.
On September 17, further reinforcements ( 1st US Panzer Division , 3rd and 34th US Divisions ) arrived by sea , which strengthened the landing head by September 18 and formed the basis for the subsequent eruption. The Allied operations objective, the capture of Naples , was achieved by the 5th US Army on October 1, 1943.
The German troops withdrew to the so-called " Gustav Line ", about 100 kilometers south of Rome (before that Volturno, Barbara and Bernhardt Line).
See also
- Four days from Naples , uprising of the people of Naples just before the capture
literature
- Gerhard Muhm: German Tactics in the Italian Campaign [1]
- Gerhard Muhm: La Tattica tedesca nella Campagna d'Italia , in Linea Gotica avanposto dei Balcani, (Ed.) Amedeo Montemaggi - Roma: Edizioni Civitas 1993.
- Helmut Wilhelmsmeyer: The war in Italy . Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 1995. ISBN 3-7020-0716-4 .
- Norman Lewis: Naples '44. An intelligence officer in the Italian labyrinth . Vienna u. Bolzano 1996.