Italy in WW2
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2021
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On 13 October 1943, one month after surrendering to the Allies, Italy declared war on its former partner, Nazi Germany. In this episde from the History Hit archives, Dan talks to Paul Reed about the role of Italy in World War Two, from the battles that they took part in to the alliances they made. Paul is a leading military historian, specializing in the two world wars.
This photograph shows Warfare presenter James Rogers' grandfather, Sgt Ted Rogers (Coldstream Guards), leading his men into Impruneta, Italy, in 1944. The image was colourised by TIG.
Transcript
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| 0:16.0 | Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare podcast I'm your host James Rogers and as you know each week twice a week I bring you brand new original military histories but once a week I like to delve deep into the history of her archive and pull out an episode that needs some more attention. It just so happens that on this day October 13th, 1943, Italy declared war on Nazi Germany. |
| 0:24.0 | One month after Italy had surrendered to Allied forces. |
| 0:27.0 | So I wanted to bring back an episode with Paul Reed, |
| 0:30.0 | who tells us everything we need to know about Italy and the Second World War. |
| 0:33.6 | He's a man whose expertise know no bounds and he tells Dan about how Italy was perceived as |
| 0:38.9 | being the soft underbelly of the Third Reich but quickly became known as the tough old gut. |
| 0:45.3 | We hear about those initial invasions of Sicily, Operation Husky, and Operation Avalanche, |
| 0:51.0 | the landings at Salano, which were of course the first major D-Day style operation on European soil. |
| 0:57.0 | Now my granddad, Ted Rogers, was a sergeant in the Colstream Guards, he served here, so naturally this is an episode I wanted to bring back to all of you, and if you look closely, you'll see that Ted is leading his men in the photo for this episode, leading them through Italy. But now here is Paul Reed on Italy |
| 1:16.3 | and the Second World War. Enjoy. Paul Reed. Thank you very much for coming back on the podcast. |
| 1:24.0 | You are the man who knows more. Paul Reed, thank you very much for coming back on the podcast. |
| 1:34.0 | You are the man who knows more about the Second World War than anyone else alive. |
| 1:38.1 | So it's, we've come to the right source. |
| 1:40.5 | It's an absolute pleasure to be back, Dan. |
| 1:42.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:43.0 | Now, tell me what was going on today 75 years ago today, on the 3rd of September |
| 1:49.6 | 943. |
| 1:50.6 | Well, 75 years ago today was the first proper invasion of the European mainland. |
| 1:57.0 | I think if you ask the average person when did we arrive in Europe in the Second World War, |
| 2:02.0 | they'd probably say D-Day. But the reality was British |
| 2:06.1 | Commonwealth American Allied Forces landed on this day in 1943 on the tow of Italy and then a few days later in Operation |
| 2:15.9 | Avalanche at Salerno which was the main landings really to push towards Rome. |
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