This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. Hello and welcome to the World War II Podcast I'm Angus Wallace.

Hot on the heels of Victory in Sicily, the Allies crossed into Southern Italy in September 1943. They expected to drive the Axis

forces north and being roned by Christmas, and although Italy surrendered, the German forces

resisted fiercely and the swift hoped for victory

descended into one of the most brutal battles of the war.

Joining me today is James Holland, author of The Savage Storm, the Battle for Italy,

1943 and co-host of the We Have Waze podcast.

So James, welcome, and my starting point isky, I think, the invasion of Sicily in July 43.

I wondered, had the Allies always anticipated Sicily being a stepping stone with Italy as the ultimate objective or was there an element of

we've got this well we might as well carry on yeah it's very much the latter

really so grand strategy is is is sort of evolving in the first half of

of 1943 and the decision to go to Sicily following victory in Tunisia, which at the time of the decision

is made is absolutely not being achieved.

This is agreed in January 1943 at the Casablanca conference, which is just the Western

Allies. So this is, you know, Riesfeld Churchill and all the chiefs of staff.

And that's where they decide that it would be a good idea to go into in Sicily

primarily to get a toehold in in in Europe but also to try and knock Italy out of the war that's the key thing and then you know the advantages of knocking Italy out of the war. That's the key thing. And then, you know, the

advantages of knocking Italy out of the war are twofold. One, there's one less enemy to

worry about. But secondly, there's a large swave of the southern Mediterranean, which is

occupied by Italian troops. And so Germany would then be

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