Mussolini had risen to lead Italy in 1922 by promising to restore its
ancient power and prestige. He planned that, while Britain concentrated
on defending itself against Hitler’s attempted invasion, Italy would
conquer its colonies in the Mediterranean, which Mussolini called mare
nostrum ("our sea"), beginning a new Roman Empire. Thus, the war in the
Mediterranean theatre took place on the deserts of North Africa, the
waters of the Mediterranean and the hills of Italy, and involved both
Italy and Germany.
Germany invaded Romania in 1940 without informing Italy, Mussolini felt
that Hitler was trying to keep south-eastern Europe for himself and
invaded Greece on October 28, 1940, to protect Italian interests. But
Italy lacked supplies and organization, and the action soon became a
humiliating failure. Hitler was forced to come to the rescue with a
full-scale invasion, delaying the invasion of Russia and using vital
troops and supplies. From mainland Greece, Germany captured Crete with
the largest airborne attack to date: more than 10,000 paratroops and 750
glider troops. A subsequent German attack on the island of Malta was not
successful, however, allowing the British air bases there to continue to
attack shipping and other naval activities in the Mediterranean for the
remainder of the war.
also came to Italy’s aid against the British in North Africa, sending
tank divisions led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (sometimes known as
the "Desert Fox") in February 1941. For two years, the adversaries
fought on desert sand that shifted almost as much as the fortunes of the
armies. It was especially difficult for the air forces--the heat made
crews ill, sand destroyed engines, and metal became too hot to touch.
The theatre was nicknamed the "Battle of Airfields" because the strength
of each army was connected with its air force’s access to airfields. The
air power of an advancing army diminished as it had to use an unprepared
airfield while that of a retreating army increased as it fell back onto
a prepared one. And when the winter rains arrived, the most forward
armies lost their advantage, as unprepared airfields became mud pits.
On November 8, 1942, while
the Afrika Korps was retreating westward from Egypt, the Allies invaded
French West Africa in Operation TORCH.
air forces were overtaxed because they were given too many different
missions: ground support, navy support, defence of supply routes, and
attacking enemy supply routes. The loss of men and equipment was high.
The Luftwaffe pulled air groups out of the Russian campaign to help--a
costly mistake. And the Royal Air Force had planes, but many could not
fly due to maintenance problems. Its special Maintenance Group was
created and assigned to maintain, repair, salvage, and store the
airplanes. This allowed the RAF to keep more planes flying, and after
several months, to maintain air superiority for most of the rest of the
Despite the RAF’s air superiority, Rommel and his ground troops were
able to continue advancing across Africa. But the entrance of the
Americans into the war started to change the equation. They began to
arrive during the summer of 1942, primarily one small unit, the 57th
Fighter Group flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, which assisted with the push
into Libya. But President Franklin Roosevelt, eager to see his military
fight the Germans en masse, ignored his generals’ advice and planned a
massive North African invasion--Operation Torch. On November 8, 1942,
U.S. troops, with some British support, landed in Morocco. Although they
progressed rapidly, they were impeded by inter-Allied rivalries. During
a meeting in Casablanca in January 1943, British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and Roosevelt were forced to organize the Mediterranean Air
Command, with RAF Air Chief Marshall Arthur W. Tedder in command.
British and American officers were interleaved down the command
structure, forcing international cooperation.
the winter of 1943-1944, in a project code-named "Ultra," the Allies
broke the Germans’ secret operational code. They could now detect
exactly when supplies were arriving and by which route, and could attack
the convoys. But they had to allow many to pass, careful that the
Germans not suspect their "luck" and suspect the code was broken. Not
until March 1943 were the air forces allowed to attack all convoys,
closing down Axis shipping completely.
13, 1943, Tunisia fell and the Allies took 250,000 prisoners, most
German. And more importantly, they now controlled airfields that
airplanes could use to reach Italy. Reconnaissance units began
photographing Sicily to make photomaps for invasion troops. And General
Jimmy Doolittle and the Strategic Air Force (SAF) started bombing. The
SAF was able to inflict enough damage to reach the critical point where
German losses surpassed their replacement rate. In Sicily, the Luftwaffe
rapidly began to retreat. Reports claimed that German pilots were afraid
to attack the massed machine guns of the tight American bomber
formations. On hearing this, an incensed Hermann Goering demanded that
one pilot from each group be chosen randomly and court-martialled for
A Fleet Air Arm Martlet fighter from HMS Formidable patrols over the
veteran battleship HMS Warspite off Sicily.
invasion of Sicily began on July 9, 1943, with the 82nd Airborne’s first
mission. However, a storm that night scattered many airborne units,
making rallying difficult. And the next morning, the navy arrived with
ships of seasick amphibious troops. The invasion was marked by friendly
fire (firing on your own men), uncoordinated air support, lost troops,
and miscommunications. Yet by mid-August, the island fell, and 10,000
German and Italian troops fled over the Straits of Messina, untouched.
B-24s over Ploesti, with bombs
bursting on the target.
July 19 the SAF flew the first bombing mission to Rome. The targets were
two marshalling yards, and careful planning ensured that no cultural or
religious sites were hit. Pamphlets were dropped ahead of time warning
citizens to stay away. The raid was a success. A week later, Mussolini
was overthrown and Italy’s new leaders asked the Vatican to begin
inquiries regarding surrender.
invading mainland Italy, the SAF was sent on the deadliest mission of
the war to the oil refineries of Ploesti, Romania, which supplied 35
percent of the oil used by Germany. To slip under the German air
defences, 176 B-24s bombers flew into Romania at a low altitude, making
them easy targets for anti-aircraft guns. Seventy-three airplanes were
lost, and 500 airmen were killed or injured. Five Medals of Honour were
awarded, the most for any single engagement during the war. But the raid
had no effect. The next summer, 20 missions were flown to Ploesti until
no oil refineries or anything else were left. The Allied toll for the
target was high--300 bombers, 200 fighters and over 1,000 airmen were
Italy's surrender was announced
on September 8, 1943.
September 8,1943, the same day that Italy’s surrender was announced,
Allied troops landed in Italy at Salerno and Bari. But the Germans were
still there, waiting for the troops. The air forces worked hard to
provide the Allied troops with air cover, while bombing strategic sites.
C-47s brought more paratroopers and P-51s helped direct naval
bombardments. But the ground troops were stuck at the Gustav line, a
heavily fortified and defended line across southern Italy, and a
miserable stalemate lasted through the winter. To break it, a second
landing was planned right above the Gustav line at Anzio on January 22,
1944. There, the Allies found Germans holding the high ground. It was
decided to starve the Germans out of the hills by bombing the supply
routes. By spring, the average German unit was reduced to 1,500 rounds
of ammunition a day, versus the 25,000 of their U.S. counterparts. But,
because they were unable to retreat after their fuel supply was cut off,
all the Germans could do was stay and fight to the death.
U.S. 15th Air Force in Italy was formed to operate strategic bombing
campaigns around Europe, such as at Romanian transportation hubs, French
harbours, Italian airfields and cities, and German factories. Although
less celebrated than its counterparts in England, the 15th flew longer
missions on average and aided in the final victory equally.
the Allies broke through the Gustav line in May 1944, the Germans formed
another defensive line along the southern edge of the Po River Valley
which they called the Gothic Line. But they were feeling the effects of
Operation Strangle, an attempt by the 15th to deprive the enemy of food,
weapons, or anything useful. In addition to the old targets, Allied
fighter-bombers now joined the action, strafing workers repairing the
bombing damage. By the time the Allies fought their way to the Gothic
Line in 1945, only one final assault was needed. On April 14, the
combined pressure of ground and air attacks sent the Germans running,
leaving their equipment behind. The Allies had defeated Italy. On May 2,
Germany surrendered and the war in Europe ended.