The second Italian Facist regime : la Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) was set up today, with its capital, not in Rome, but Salo, a small town in Lombardy on Lake Garda, Northern Italy, where the RSI had his Foreign Office.
Mussolini was its head, but it was nothing more than a German puppet, dependent on its military and financial support.
Mussolini had been rescued from captivity in a daring raid by a soon to be famous German SS Colonel, Otto Skorzeny on September 12th.
Italy had surrendered on the 8th and the Allies had landed at Salerno on the 9th and were fighting the Germans in the south of Italy at this time, though they had not yet captured the city port of Naples.
Patton's invasion plan for France
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Does anyone have any details on it, or where I could find info on it?
all I really know is a few lines from the movie Patton, which isn’t saying a lot.
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Rick Atkinson, a pulitzer prize winning author, has come out with a Liberation Trilogy for the European theater. The first book, “Army at Dawn” covers the African campaign; the second, “The Day of Battle” covers the Italian and Sicilian campaigns. The third book is not out yet nor does it have a title, but I am sure Rick will cover Patton’s proposed Normandy landings and other French invasion plans he had at the time. The third of course covers D-Day to the fall of Berlin. These books are great reads. He covers many personal accounts from most of the key generals and leaders in the campaigns, as well as mapping out and explaining most of the key battles that took place throughout the Euro theater.
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Neat. :-D
Does he cover Patton’s plan for Italy? I know about the Sicily campaign, but I’m wondering about the Italian boot. Had the Allies landed north of Rome, they could have cut off the Germans and taken all of Italy much sooner, and perhaps had pressed further north and east.
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I haven’t gotten to “Day of Battle” yet, I am just finishing up “An Army at Dawn.” With the template he uses, he gathers a lot of personal journal entries and witness accounts. So I think it would be fair to say that there will be a high probability that he will shed some light on Italian battle plans he may have had. I know he goes in depth about Operation Husky which would be a given. Even if there is not that much substantial info about that specific topic, I would still suggest buying and reading the books. Its probably one of the best historical war narratives I have ever read.