萨勒诺：1943年9月9日至10月6日

图中有18幅地图和24幅插图
1943年9月初，英美军队入侵意大利南部，袭击了一个主要轴心国的中心地带，并攻破了希特勒的“欧洲堡垒”入侵的背后是盟军数月来之不易的胜利。5月，当英国和美国军队歼灭了在突尼斯陷入绝境的德国和意大利军队时，轴心国被清除出了非洲。西西里岛是从非洲到欧洲的垫脚石，随后在38天的战斗中被征服。8月17日，西西里岛的最后一支德国驻军越过墨西拿海峡逃往意大利大陆。9月3日，英国第八集团军在追击中越过海峡，向卡拉布里亚半岛推进。9月9日，在第八集团军进攻的配合下，美国第五集团军和英国第一空降师分别在萨勒诺和塔兰托登陆盟军。在萨勒诺登陆事件中，强大的美国军队自1918年以来首次在欧洲大陆作战。
甚至在西西里行动开始之前，盟军陆、海、空军的参谋人员就已经计划入侵意大利。一旦在意大利大陆建立起来，我们可能希望确保地中海完全由海军和空军控制，并获得战略港口和机场，以备未来对抗欧洲大陆的行动。如果我们能把意大利从战争中赶出去，我们就会迫使德国人从阿尔卑斯山以北撤退，或者在意大利使用可能在俄罗斯前线作战的军队。
在马克·W·克拉克中将的指挥下，第五军是一支由英国第十军和美国第六军组成的伟大盟军，首次大规模入侵欧洲大陆，并为未来在意大利的行动奠定了坚实的基础。萨勒诺：美国从海滩到沃尔图诺的行动是对登陆萨勒诺湾海滩的美军的描述。
Salerno: 9 September – 6 October 1943
Illustrated with 18 maps and 24 Illustrations
EARLY IN SEPTEMBER 1943, British and American armies invaded southern Italy, striking at the heart of a major Axis nation and breaching Hitler’s “Fortress Europe.” Behind the invasion lay long months of hard-won Allied victories. The Axis was cleared out of Africa in May, when British and American armies annihilated the German and Italian forces cornered in Tunisia. Sicily, the stepping stone from Africa to Europe, was next conquered in a 38-day battle, and on 17 August the last of its German garrison fled across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. On 3 September the British Eighth Army crossed the Strait in pursuit and drove up the Calabrian Peninsula. Coordinated with the Eighth Army’s attack, Allied landings at Salerno by the United States Fifth Army and at Taranto by the British 1 Airborne Division were made on 9 September. In the Salerno landings, strong American forces were fighting on the continent of Europe for the first time since 1918.
Even before the beginnings of the Sicilian operations, the staffs of Allied land, naval, and air forces had been planning an invasion of Italy. Once established on the Italian mainland, we might hope to secure complete naval and aerial domination of the Mediterranean and to obtain strategic ports and airfields for future operations against continental Europe. If we could knock Italy out of the war, we would force the Germans to retreat north of the Alps or to use in Italy armies which might be fighting on the Russian front.
Under the command of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, the Fifth Army, a great Allied force composed of the British 10 Corps and the United States VI Corps, carried out the first large scale invasion of the European mainland and secured a firm base for future operations in Italy. Salerno: The American Operations from the Beaches to the Volturno is an account of the American forces who landed on the beaches in the Gulf of Salerno.

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