"Home Soil"

Here is my mini term paper I had to write for World War 2 and also give an oral presentation about.

The subject of my topic was to argue whether or not the Cross Channel invasion was postponed by the Allied Mediterranean Campaign in 1943, and also if it contributed at all to the defeat of Nazi Germany. I still argue that the Italian campaign was necessary and worthwhile.
The general feeling amongst the allies was to keep the Germans on their feet, not to give them a time to breathe and regroup. Although the Americans wanted to attempt an invasion in France first thing, Churchill argued otherwise and eventually his will won through. By 1942, the German offensive was the hardest on the Russian Front. Stalin felt that he was bearing the brunt of the casualties, and that his allies were content to let the Russians die. He was demanding for a second European front to be engaged immediately, but did not get it. Instead of a cross channel invasion, the allies would focus their efforts in the Mediterranean, first in North Africa followed up by an invasion of Italy.
The Americans had considered this option but deemed the invasion of France to be of greater value. It was British interests to take this course of action. They felt that their interests in the Middle East were in jeopardy, and they needed to secure a safe route to protect the British Empire. The oil fields in the Middle East, and also in Rumania must be denied to the Nazis. Only total control of the Mediterranean could secure Allied shipping routes in the region. Also, Churchill (wrongly) thought that Italy would quickly fall to the Allied strength.
After Operation Torch was concluded, once again the Americans and Russians pushed for a Cross Channel Invasion. The British however were fearful that the time it would take to prepare for such a staging would take to long, and would give Hitler precious time to fortify the French coastland. Once again Churchill argued to keep the pressure on the Germans, not to waste any time. The only way to achieve this would be to continue the Allied advancement in the Mediterranean. The troops were already in Tunisia, so why waste them? Furthermore, if Italy was to fall into Allied hands, then the Balkans would be in reach for a foothold to be set up. The British looked on this with strategic interests for the Post War era as much as their war time goals. If their was a strong British presence in the region, then Stalin would find it hard to impede his Communistic beliefs in the Balkans. Also, if the Allies had Italy, they would possess air bases within a closer proximity to German factories, and the oil fields in Rumania. This would stretch the Germans requirements for fighter deployment and anti-aircraft protection to the breaking point.
Churchill felt that Hitler would have two options to take if the Allies invaded Italy, and he knew rightly which one he would take. Hitler could either withdraw all troops from Italy, giving it freely to the Allies, or he could divert troops from France and from the Russian front. Obviously, Hitler chose the second option. Mussolini was obstinately foolish in fighting Hitler’s will to bring more German troops into Italy. Mussolini thought that the Italians could go at it as they were, with no additional troops needed. Hitler ignored these pleas, and put Kesselring and Rommel in charge of the war effort. He also put forth a contingency plan for a German coup should the Italians jump ship to the Allied cause.
With the invasion of Italy, Stalin finally got what he had been pushing for; breathing space. The timing of the invasion could not have come at a better time for the Russians. At the time the invasion began, the Russians were fighting the Germans at Kursk. At the time, the battle of Kursk was the single largest battle ever. Over one million troops and five thousand tanks were engaged in battle which lasted seven days. The Russians had the day when Hitler had to withdraw his troops from battle to bolster his defenses in Italy against the Allied invasion their.
One benefit of the Mediterranean campaign was the invaluable battle experience the Americans received. It was no secret that the bulk of the ground troops would be Americans, as the British did not have too large of an Army, focusing more on air and naval power. Actually, Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily would be the largest amphibious operation of World War Two, dwarfing even the Normandy invasion. It can be argued that if the troops were ready for an invasion of this scale in 1943, then why could they not have been used in a cross channel invasion then and there? I argue that it was because that even though the operation was larger, it did not mean it was a harder task. Even given the German Military status in Northern France in 1943, the Sicily Invasion seemed to be a logical move to make which did, as was stated, give invaluable training to the amphibious troops who were used in the Normandy Invasion.
The successful Invasion of Sicily resulted in Mussolini being ousted from power in Italy. He was imprisoned and later rescued by a German commando force, to be put in charge of Northern Italy in a puppet government serving Hitler. Italian King Victor Emmanuel II put Bagoglio in power of an Italy wishing to seek peace with the Allies. This proved an odd business of sorts as the Allies had declared they would only accept unconditional surrender from the belligerents, and though Italy wished to join the allies they were unsure if even an anti-nazi Italy would be accepted. Lucky for the Italians, the Allies accepted them to their cause. The Italians were true to the Allied cause at this point and it should with their sacrifice of life and resources. At the Battle of Malta, they lost the Roma with 1254 of her crew. Overall 500,000 Italians were captured as prisoners of war by the Germans, and few ever returned. In Greece, over 10,000 Italians died in attacking the Germans.
Although I have argued that the Allied Mediterranean Campaign was worthwhile, I cannot deny that it was not as effective on all fronts as Churchill would have wished it to be. The most glaring evidence of this would have to be the fact that the allies did not have secure victory until May second 1945, only five days before the Germans offered unconditional surrender. It had taken far longer to gain much less land in Italy than the invasion into France did. As has been stated previously, the Americans saw the whole campaign as a waste of time, lives, and resources and had deterred from the real objective which was the inevitable Normandy Invasion.
Also the terrain of Italy proved to be just as great an enemy as the Germans did. Rocky, mountainous muddy cold and rainy, the conditions were clearly miserable for the allies. For one thing, the terrain was much better suited for the defensive, and the Germans proved this fact brilliantly under the leadership of Rommel and Kesselring. Finally, a good number of infantry and armored divisions the Americans used in the Operation Avalanche were not present in the area even after Operation Torch. They could just have easily gone to England in preparation for Overload and no time would have been wasted.
Although my initial belief was that the Allied Mediterranean Campaign did not in itself delay the Cross Channel Invasion, I can no longer claim that. The operation did cause a delay in the invasion. I do still believe however that the operation did contribute to the overall effort to defeat Hitler as another front was opened up that Hitler must defend and commit troops to. As Hitler’s best chances of victories were through the Blitzkrieg method, a battle on numerous fronts simultaneously seemed the best way to defeat him.