Sicily:
22,000 casualties[13]
Italian mainland:[b][c][d]: 119,200
: 89,440
: 35,000
: 30,000
: 25,890
: 20,000
: 11,000
: 8,668
: 5,927
: 3,860
: 2,300
: 452
Total:
327,000–335,495 casualties
Sicily:
: 150,000[20]
: 30,000[21]
Italian mainland:[e][f][g]: 336,650–580,630
: 35,000 (dead only)
Surrender of Caserta:
1,000,000 captured[26][9]
Total:
1,551,000-1,795,000+ casualties
The Allies' final offensive commenced with massive aerial and artillery bombardments on 9 April 1945.[55] The Allies had 1,500,000 men and women deployed in Italy in April 1945.[9] The Axis on 7 April had 599,404 troops of which 439,224 were Germans and 160,180 were Italians
The Allies' final offensive commenced with massive aerial and artillery bombardments on 9 April 1945.[55] The Allies had 1,500,000 men and women deployed in Italy in April 1945.[9] The Axis on 7 April had 599,404 troops of which 439,224 were Germans and 160,180 were Italians.[9] By 18 April, Eighth Army forces in the east had broken through the Argenta Gap and sent armour racing forward in an encircling move to meet the U.S. IV Corps advancing from the Apennines in Central Italy and to trap the remaining defenders of Bologna.[47] On 21 April, Bologna was entered by the 3rd Carpathian Division, the Italian Friuli Group (both from the Eighth Army) and the U.S. 34th Infantry Division (from the Fifth Army).[56] The U.S. 10th Mountain Division, which had bypassed Bologna, reached the River Po on 22 April; the 8th Indian Infantry Division, on the Eighth Army front, reached the river on 23 April.[57]
By 25 April, the Italian Partisans' Committee of Liberation declared a general uprising,[58] and on the same day, having crossed the Po on the right flank, forces of the Eighth Army advanced north-northeast towards Venice and Trieste. On the front of the U.S. Fifth Army, divisions drove north toward Austria and northwest to Milan. On the Fifth Army's left flank, the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division (the "Buffalo Soldiers Division") went along the coast to Genoa. A rapid advance towards Turin by the Brazilian division on their right took the German–Italian Army of Liguria by surprise, causing its collapse.By 25 April, the Italian Partisans' Committee of Liberation declared a general uprising,[58] and on the same day, having crossed the Po on the right flank, forces of the Eighth Army advanced north-northeast towards Venice and Trieste. On the front of the U.S. Fifth Army, divisions drove north toward Austria and northwest to Milan. On the Fifth Army's left flank, the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division (the "Buffalo Soldiers Division") went along the coast to Genoa. A rapid advance towards Turin by the Brazilian division on their right took the German–Italian Army of Liguria by surprise, causing its collapse.[53]
As April 1945 came to an end, the German Army Group C, retreating on all fronts and having lost most of its fighting strength, was left with little option but surrender.[53] General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, who had taken command of Army Group C after Albert Kesselring had been transferred to become Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front (OB West) in March 1945, signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the German armies in Italy on 29 April, formally bringing hostilities to an end on 2 May 1945.[59]
![]() 1 July 1943 |
![]() 1 November 1943 |
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