The Tide Turns 1093September 1944. Following a popular insurrection, the Soviet Union con
trolled the resulting coalition government, as in the case of Romania.
Soviet domination began to take shape.
The Allied Invasion of Italy
With North Africa and its airfields secure, the Allies decided to invade
Sicily as a first step in an invasion of southern Italy. The plunging morale
and material conditions of the Italian population, who had been promised
an empire by Mussolini but had received only hardship, contributed to the
Allied decision.
In July 1943, Palermo and Messina quickly fell to Allied troops. The fas
cist Grand Council asked King Victor Emmanuel III to end Mussolini’s
dictatorship. The king, eager to save his throne and fearing a complete
German takeover, dismissed the stunned Mussolini as prime minister and
ordered his arrest. The new government, while announcing that Italy would
continue to fight alongside Germany, began secret negotiations with the
Allies. When Hitler learned this in September 1943, he ordered his troops
to occupy Italian airfields.
At a minimum, an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland would tie up
considerable numbers of German troops and probably knock Italy com
pletely out of the war. Romanian oil fields would be within reach of bombers
taking off in Italy. The Italian resistance had gained momentum. Social
ists, Catholic groups, and above all, Communists began to print clandestine
newspapers and organize scattered attacks against fascists. The United
States, still pushing for a full-scale landing in France, reluctantly agreed to
the Italian invasion. In the meantime, the Italian king, fearing Hitler’s
wrath, reassured Germany of Italy’s loyal participation in the war as an
ally. However, the Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies
on September 3, 1943. Victor Emmanuel naively hoped that Italy could
make peace with both Germany and the Allies, and that his monarchy
would survive the end of the war.
On the same day that the armistice was signed between Italy and the
Allies, British and Canadian troops crossed the Strait of Messina, begin
ning the invasion of the Italian peninsula. The king and his family fled
Rome with the new prime minister, leaving a million Italian soldiers with
the choice of being interned by the Germans or deserting their units. Most
deserted and 80,000 Allied prisoners of war escaped from camps in Italy.
The Allies set up a new government in the south, its members drawn from
the resistance groups. In the meantime, on September 12, 1943, a daring
German commando raid freed Mussolini from a mountaintop prison. In
Berlin, Hitler proclaimed the Duce head of the “Italian Social Republic,” a
puppet regime. Mussolini ordered the execution of the members of the
Grand Council who had opposed him and denounced the Italian people for
having betrayed him.