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Essay on Italy and World War Two
Allied victory in Sicily had resulted in the overthrow of Mussolini's government, and the capitulation of Italy was only a matter of negotiation and time. An armistice was announced on September 8. The Italian surrender resulted in German evacuation of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, gave the Allies the Italian Navy, and, in effect, made Italy a co-belligerent with the Allies. Nevertheless, the Germans still had a firm hold on the Italian boot.
One of the most sustained, difficult, and costly offensives of the Anglo-American armies in Europe unfolded from September 1943 to June 1944 in the least likely of regions: the steep mountains, deep valleys, narrow coastal littoral of Italy's Apennines south of Rome, made virtually impassable by the rains and snows of winter. Within a week of Italy's declaration of war, the British 11th Hussars had seized Fort Capuzzo and, in an ambush east of Bardia, the Tenth Army's Engineer in Chief, General Lastucci, was captured. Mussolini ordered Marshal Graziani, commanding the Tenth Army in Libya, to attack into Egypt. Graziani wondered how he was possibly expected to succeed, but tried anyways. On September 13, 1940, the Tenth Army crossed the border and the assault would eventually carry through to Sidi Barrani, ~95km inside the Egyptian border. The Italians would then begin to entrench themselves.
The initial Italian assault would carry through to Sidi Barrani, ~95km inside the Egyptian border before the attack came to a halt. At this time there were only ~30,000 British troops available to defend against ~250,000 Italian troops. However, Graziani did not know how weak the British were and instead chose to stockpile fuel and ammunition, a task which was made difficult due to the activity of Royal Navy forces operating within the Mediterranean to interfere with Italian supply lines......
