By mid-1943, Italy was in a difficult position. She lost all the North African colonies, and the 8th Italian Army was destroyed at Stalingrad. And the allied troops of the anti-Hitler coalition landed on July 10, 1943 in Sicily, and on September 3, of the same year, in mainland Italy. On September 8, the government of Italy fell. But the German troops stationed in Italy continued to resist. In southern Italy, the Allies advanced quickly, but further north, several lines of fortifications awaited them. In addition, the mountainous terrain of Northern Italy made it possible to defend effectively. Therefore, the Allies advanced slowly and with stubborn battles, and in winter the offensive completely stalled. In the spring of 1944, the offensive resumed and Rome was taken on June 4, 1944. But then the landing of the allies in Normandy began and many parts of the allies were transferred there. Therefore, the further offensive was delayed. And only on May 8, 1945, Italy was completely liberated.

The total losses of the allied troops (including the wounded and missing) in the campaign amounted to about 320,000 people, for the Axis countries - about 658,000 people. No other campaign in Western Europe cost the belligerents more than the Italian campaign, in terms of the number of dead and wounded soldiers.

American tank M4A1 "Sherman" on the street of the Italian city of Pisa.

An American M4A1 tank equipped with a turret-mounted T34 Calliope multiple launch rocket system during a firing demonstration at the US 5th Army in Italy. The installation consists of 54 guides for launching 4.5-inch M8 rockets. The horizontal guidance of the launcher was carried out by turning the turret, and the vertical guidance was carried out by raising and lowering the tank gun, the barrel of which was connected to the guides of the launcher with a special thrust. Despite the presence of missile weapons, the tank completely retained the weapons and armor of the conventional Sherman. The crew of the Sherman Calliope could fire rockets while inside the tank, the withdrawal to the rear was required only for reloading.

RAF Marshal Guy Garrod talking to American generals in Italy.

An American soldier fixes flowers on his helmet in a field in Italy.

Captured Wehrmacht soldiers captured by the US 3rd Infantry Division in Femina Morta, Italy.

Destroyed M4 Sherman tanks of the 6th South African Panzer Division on a mountain road near the Italian city of Perugia.

American soldiers stand near a Bofors anti-aircraft gun being bulldozed ashore from a landing craft.

Aerial photography of the bombing of the harbor of the Italian city of Palermo by American bombers.

Soldiers of the 10th American mountain division on the march along the road near the Italian Lake Garda.

Three soldiers of the US 10th Mountain Division watch the enemy on the road in the Italian town of Sassomolare.

Crew with a German 75mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun and a captured French SOMUA MCG artillery tractor in northern Italy.

American soldiers on a platform with a German 20 mm anti-aircraft gun in Caserta

British King George VI with Canadian Generals E. Burns and B. Hoffmeister in Italy.

German 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun on a hill in Italy.

Destroyed German tank Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H near the Italian city of Salerno.

American 240-mm howitzer M1 in position in the San Vittore area.

German tank "Tiger", blown up and abandoned by the Germans on the streets of the Sicilian city of Biscari.

Black pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force during a pre-flight briefing at the Italian airfield Ramitelli.

A black pilot of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force signs an aircraft maintenance log before taking off at the Italian Ramitelli airfield.

Black pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force William Campbell and Thurston Gaines in the storage room for flight equipment at the Italian Ramitelli airfield.

US Air Force Colonel Benjamin Davis, a black man, talks to subordinates near a P-51B Mustang fighter.

Black American pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron Woodrow Crockett and Edward Gleed for a discussion at the Italian airfield Ramitelli.

Black American pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron play cards at a club at Italy's Ramitelli Airfield.

A wounded German prisoner is awaiting medical attention near the Italian town of Volturno.

Commander of the French Expeditionary Force, General Alphonse Juin (Alphonse Pierre Juin, 1888-1967) on the street of an Italian town.

B-24 "Liberator" of the 721st American squadron during an emergency landing on the Italian airfield Manduria.

British aircraft technicians train Yugoslav partisans to maintain Spitfire fighters at an airfield in Italy.

American generals D. Eisenhower and M. Clark are looking at a map in a forest in Italy.

A burning bomber B-24 "Liberator" of the 753rd American squadron at the Italian San Giovanni airfield.

An American B-24 Liberator bomber crash-landed at an Italian airfield.

A German self-propelled 37-mm (3.7cm FlaK36 L/98) anti-aircraft gun Sd.Kfz 7/2 knocked out in Italy.

US military personnel carry a B-24 Liberator bomber that was injured in an accident at the Italian airfield in Bari.

Soldiers of the 5th Canadian Tank Brigade in the fighting compartment of the German self-propelled gun "Nashorn", lined with an anti-tank grenade launcher on the street of the Italian village of Pontecorvo.

Private US Army D. Saipra inspects an abandoned German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV near the Italian village of Sedze.

An American soldier inspects an abandoned German FlaK 38 anti-aircraft gun near the Italian village of Castellonorato.

A soldier of the French army at the foot of a hill in the vicinity of Monte Cassino.

New Zealand General Bernard Freyberg on the street of the Italian town of Cassino.

Portrait of the commander of the XIV Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin.

American tank destroyer M18 "Hellket" on the road in the outskirts of the Italian town of Firenzuola.

British tanks "Churchill" (Churchill) on top of a hill in Italy.

An American soldier watches an explosion on a street in the Italian town of Livorno.

Soldiers of the 5th Army of the Free French Forces with German prisoners on the street of an Italian town.

New Zealand soldiers in battle on the ruins of the Italian city of Cassino (Cassino).

Indian gunners of the British army at the German 75-mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun captured in Italy.

British Lieutenant General Richard McCreary in the square of the Italian city of Salerno.

An American jeep drives down the street of an Italian town past two abandoned Pz.Kpfw. IV of the 26th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht.

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring conducts reconnaissance of the area with officers from the armor of the StuG IV self-propelled guns.

Soldiers from the US Army's 3rd Battalion, 338th Infantry Division inspect a German machine gun nest of two MG42s at Hill 926 in Monte Altuzzo, Italy.

SS officers L. Thaler and A. Giorleo on the Italian front.

Soldiers of the 143rd Infantry Regiment of the US 36th Infantry Division land on the beach from landing craft (LSVP) near the Italian city of Salerno.

Black soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division of the US Army carry a wounded comrade on a stretcher during the fighting in Italy.

Black gunners from the US 92nd Infantry Division clean a 105mm howitzer.

The mutilated bodies of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci after their execution.

Italian 194-mm railway gun and its crew.

Italian 105 mm artillery pieces captured by the Allies in Sicily.

Italian 152-mm gun 152/45 coastal battery of Elba Island.

The boys of the Italian city of Naples, one of whom lost his leg during the fighting.

American Admiral G. Hewitt and war correspondent K. Reynolds on board the ship during the landing in Sicily.

Canadian Lieutenant General Guy Symonds examines a map on the hood of a Jeep "Willis".

Canadian soldier M. D. White, armed with a Lee-Enfield rifle, watches the area through a hole in the wall.

Canadian gunners service an 87mm 25lb field gun in Italy.

Canadian artilleryman Sgt. George Stratton at the charges of the 87-mm 25-pounder gun in Italy.

Canadian aviators view a map from a Taylorcraft Auster aircraft at an airfield in Italy.

Canadian generals Henry Crerar and Edson Burns at the map.

Canadian gunners examine photographs and letters on a mountainside in Italy.

British King George VI and Canadian Lieutenant General E. Burns in Italy.

British King George VI shakes hands with Kamal Ram, a soldier of the 8th Punjab Regiment, during the awarding of the Victoria Cross for bravery in the battles for the liberation of Italy.

Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Foulkes with officers in Italy.

Allied firefighters put out a burning twin-engine bomber at an Italian airfield.

German paratrooper in the mountains in Italy. Winter 1943-1944

A broken German 88 mm 8.8 cm Flak 18 anti-aircraft gun against the backdrop of a pillbox in the Gesso region in Sicily.

A jeep with soldiers of the 5th American Army near a destroyed German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV on the road near the Italian village of Pontedera.

Canadian Major General Guy Symonds during the fighting in Italy.

One of two German Krupp K5 280 mm railway guns captured by the Allies in Italy.

German soldier from the airfield division of the Luftwaffe with a machine gun MG-42.

An American M4A1 Sherman tank and a British inflatable model of a tank in Anzio.

Fighter Macchi C.205 "Veltro" of the 360th Italian squadron at the airfield in Sicily.

Bodies hanged by the feet of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci.

U.S. Army Private Joseph Feft learns to pick up objects with a device on his prosthetic left arm

American soldiers dig up their comrade, covered with earth as a result of a German bombing in an Italian city.

A Canadian soldier fires in a street fight in the Italian town of Kupa.

British soldiers move along the street of one of the Italian cities.

Jeeps of the US 5th Army crossing a river washed out by rain near the Italian city of Volterra.

German prisoners of war in the Anzio region near Rome.

American artillerymen fire from a 155-mm M1 / ​​M2 cannon at the positions of German troops near the Italian city of Nettuno.

An American P-47D Thunderbolt aircraft from the 66th Fighter Squadron in Grosseto.

P-47 fighters of the Brazilian squadron are preparing to take off.

Italian partisans after the liberation of Florence.

Soldier of the Italian battalion Alberto Bellagamba with a Panzerfaust grenade launcher.

German tank PzKpfw IV Ausf.G, captured by the Allies in Sicily.

Trophy tankette "Renault", captured by units of the British army in Italy.

US Coast Guard sailor Kenneth Quick, wounded by shrapnel during the landing in Sicily, on the bunk of a hospital ship.

US military personnel open Christmas presents.

Italian self-propelled guns "Semovente" 90/53, captured by the allies in Sicily.

Italian children play on an abandoned German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger".

The great crisis of 1929-1932 gave rise to profound social and psychological transformations in Europe and beyond. The value disorientation of many social groups led to their alienation from the basic principles of the form of political consciousness that was established on the continent as a result of the French Revolution. As a result, democracy was no longer perceived as the optimal way of political organization of society, and an authoritarian and even totalitarian type of government became more and more popular. In a number of countries, the trend towards radical and violent methods of solving domestic and foreign political problems (racism, terror, military aggression) has intensified. A grouping of fascist states (Japan, Germany, Italy) launched a struggle for the redivision of the world. In post-crisis conditions, the powers that dominated the world political scene after the First World War (USA, Great Britain, France) were unable to adequately respond to this challenge.

In 1931, a military center arose in the Far East, when Japan, a country with long-standing militaristic traditions, began open military operations against China. On September 18, 1931, its troops invaded Manchuria (Northeast China) and occupied it; the puppet state of Manchukuo was created on the occupied territory. Japan's attempt to continue aggression in a southerly direction (Shanghai) provoked a strong protest from the United States (January 7, 1932). On February 24, 1933, the League of Nations demanded that Japan withdraw its troops from Manchuria. In response, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations; on December 13, 1934, it denounced the Washington Agreement of 1922, which regulated the size of the naval forces of the great powers and guaranteed the inviolability of China's territory.

Another hotbed of aggression arose in Europe. On January 30, 1933, the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) headed by A. Hitler came to power in Germany; The Nazis liquidated the Weimar Republic, established a totalitarian regime and headed for accelerated preparations for war in order to destroy the Versailles system. October 14, 1933 Germany left the League of Nations and refused to participate in the Geneva Disarmament Conference. On July 24, 1934, she made an attempt to annex Austria by organizing an anti-government putsch in Vienna, but was forced to abandon her plans due to the sharply negative position of the Italian dictator B. Mussolini, who moved his troops to the Austrian border. On March 16, 1935, the Nazis passed a law on universal military service, thus violating a key clause of the Treaty of Versailles. This prompted France to intensify efforts to create a system of alliances with the participation of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy and even the USSR to prevent the German threat (Mediterranean Locarno, Balkan Entente). At a conference in Stresa on April 11-14, 1935, France, Great Britain and Italy acted as a united front in defense of the Treaty of Versailles and in support of the independence of Austria. On May 2, 1935, a Soviet-French treaty of mutual assistance was concluded. But on June 18, 1935, the British government of S. Baldwin agreed to sign an agreement with Germany on naval armaments, which allowed the latter to significantly increase its navy.

In 1935, Italy switched to a policy of open military expansion. On October 3, 1935, she attacked Ethiopia and captured it by May 1936. In this conflict, Britain and France took an inconsistent position. On the one hand, the capture of Ethiopia threatened their strategic interests in the Red Sea region, and they supported the decision of the League of Nations on economic sanctions against Italy. On the other hand, in an effort to preserve the unity of the anti-German "Stresa Front", Great Britain and France tried to reach a compromise with Mussolini on the Ethiopian issue (Hore-Laval agreement on December 9, 1935), but this attempt ended in complete failure.

The deterioration of relations with the Western powers pushed Italy towards rapprochement with Germany. In January 1936, Mussolini agreed in principle to the annexation of Austria by the Germans on the condition that they renounce expansion in the Adriatic. Having found an ally, Hitler decided to violate the Locarno Treaty of 1925 and send troops into the demilitarized Rhineland (March 7, 1936). Great Britain and France did not put up effective resistance to him, limiting themselves to a formal protest.

On February 16, 1936, the Popular Front (left republicans, socialists, communists) won the elections in Spain, but on July 18, conservative forces (the generals, monarchists, clerics), led by General F. Franco, rebelled against the new regime. Germany and Italy provided active support to the rebels, the USSR took the side of the Popular Front. The Western powers, not interested in the victory of either side, chose a policy of non-intervention in the civil war in Spain (an agreement of September 9, 1936).

October 25, 1936 Germany and Italy signed an agreement on the delimitation of spheres of influence in Central and South-Eastern Europe ("Berlin-Rome Axis"). On November 25, the German-Japanese "Anti-Comintern Pact" was signed on the joint struggle against Bolshevism. On July 7, 1937, Japan launched an invasion of Central China (Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945). On November 6, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.

By the end of 1937, Germany completed the rearmament program and, hiding behind the slogan of the return to Germany of all territories inhabited by Germans, switched to open aggression. March 12, 1938 she annexed Austria (Anschluss). Great Britain and France, hoping to satisfy Hitler's appetites with partial concessions (the policy of "appeasement"), did not interfere with the Anschluss. September 29–30, 1938 N. Chamberlain, E. Daladier, B. Mussolini and A. Hitler signed Munich Agreement about the transfer of German-speaking Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany. Hungary joined the fascist powers: on November 2, 1938, it seized part of Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ukraine, and on February 24, 1939, it officially joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.

March 13, 1939 Germany provoked the separation of Slovakia from the Czech Republic; puppet "Slovak state" was created. March 15, rejecting the slogan of the reunification of all Germans, Germany occupied the Czech Republic and turned it into the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia." Thus, the Western policy of "appeasement" of the aggressor has suffered a complete collapse.

At the end of March, the Spanish Civil War ended with the defeat of the Republicans; On March 27, the Francoist regime joined the Anti-Comintern Pact. The appearance of a state allied to Hitler on the southern border of France sharply worsened the strategic position of the Western powers, which forced Great Britain and France to return to plans to create an anti-German bloc. On March 21, they entered into negotiations with the USSR on mutual assistance against aggression.

Meanwhile, the Italo-German expansion was expanding: on March 21, Germany presented an ultimatum to Poland demanding that Gdansk (Danzig) be ceded to it; on March 22, it captured the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda; On 7 April Italy annexed Albania; On April 28, Germany denounced the 1934 Polish-German non-aggression pact. For their part, on April 13, the Western powers pledged to Greece and Rumania to assist them in the event of German aggression; On May 19, France entered into a military alliance with Poland, which Britain joined on August 25.

As the conflict between the Anglo-French and German-Italian blocs escalated, the position of the USSR acquired key importance. On August 11, negotiations began in Moscow between the military missions of the USSR, Great Britain and France, but on August 21 they were interrupted. The Soviet leadership decided not to ally with the Western powers in order to avoid participation in the rapidly impending war. On August 21, it concluded a non-aggression pact with Germany; in a secret annex to it, Germany recognized Finland, the Baltic countries, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Bessarabia as Soviet spheres of influence. Having secured the rear in the east, Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. The Second World War began.

Defeat of Poland

(September 1 - October 2, 1939). The plan of the German offensive against Poland provided for strikes from the northwest, north and southwest in the direction of Warsaw with the aim of encircling and destroying Polish troops east of the Vistula. With a relative equality of forces (58 German and 54 Polish divisions), the Wehrmacht had a significant advantage in tanks (more than 3 times) and aviation (almost 5 times). However, the Polish command made a major strategic mistake by concentrating the main forces in the border areas and putting them under the threat of a quick encirclement; while a third of the Polish Army was in the most vulnerable to attack the Polish corridor (West Prussia).

On the morning of September 1, 1939, units of the Wehrmacht crossed the Polish border. The 4th Army from East Pomerania struck in West Prussia, while the 3rd Army from East Prussia moved south into Masovia. Army Group South launched an offensive against Lodz (8th Army), Warsaw (10th Army) and Krakow (14th Army). In two days, the German Air Force destroyed almost the entire Polish aviation. The 4th Army cut the Polish corridor, on September 3 crossed the Vistula north of Bygdoszcz and approached Torun; By September 7, the 3rd Army reached the river. Narew on the Wizna-Modlin section; On September 6, the 8th Army crossed the Warta and reached the approaches to Lodz; The 10th Army crossed Pilica on September 4 and captured Kielce on September 6; The 14th Army captured Krakow on 3 September and reached Tarnow on 7 September.

September 3 Great Britain and France declared war on Germany; they were joined by the British dominions of Australia and New Zealand (September 3), the Union of South Africa (September 6) and Canada (September 10). But the Allies did not have time to provide effective assistance to Poland, since already in the first week of fighting, German troops cut through the Polish front in several places and occupied part of Mazovia, western Prussia, southern Poznan, the Upper Silesian industrial region and western Galicia. On September 8, the Germans were already on the outskirts of Warsaw, and on September 9, a bloody battle for the Polish capital began. On September 10, the Polish commander-in-chief E. Rydz-Smigly ordered a general retreat to southeastern Poland, but the main part of his troops failed to retreat beyond the Vistula and was surrounded. The Poles failed to organize defense at the turn of the Vistula and San. The 14th German Army reached the San near Przemysl, and the 10th and 3rd armies rushed towards each other, carrying out a wide coverage of the Warsaw region from the east. By mid-September, the Polish armed forces ceased to exist as a single entity; only local centers of resistance remained. On September 17, the Polish government and high command fled to Romania.

On the same day, Soviet troops (Ukrainian and Belorussian fronts) launched a swift offensive in Eastern Poland; On September 18, they captured Vilna (modern Vilnius), on September 22, Grodno and Lvov, and on September 23, they reached the Bug River. September 28, the Germans occupied Warsaw, September 30 - Modlin, October 2 - Hel. On October 6, the last units of the Polish army capitulated. OK. 70 thousand Polish soldiers were able to leave for Romania, approx. 20 thousand - to Lithuania.

On September 28, 1939, a Soviet-German demarcation line was established along the Bug and San rivers: Western Ukraine and Western Belarus entered the Soviet zone, and Western Prussia, Greater Poland and Western Galicia entered the German zone. Poznan, Pomeranian, Silesian, Lodz, part of the Kielce and Warsaw voivodeships were included in the German Empire (October 8), and the “general government” was formed from the rest of the Polish lands occupied by the Germans (October 12).

strange war

(September 3, 1939 - May 10, 1940). After the defeat of Poland, there was a long pause in hostilities, during which Germany and the Anglo-French bloc actively developed plans for offensive operations. The Allied Supreme Military Council (SVVS) considered the possibility of striking the Reich either through Scandinavia, then through Belgium, then through Greece and the Balkans; even the project of bombing the Baku oil fields (USSR) was discussed, which provided a significant part of Germany's needs for this strategic raw material. However, these options were invariably rejected due to lack of funds. In mid-November 1939, Plan D, proposed by the French commander-in-chief M. Gamelin, was approved, which provided for, in the event of a German offensive, a strike through central Belgium against the Ruhr industrial region, the industrial heart of Germany.

On October 6, 1939, Hitler made a proposal to convene a peace conference, but Great Britain and France rejected it, demanding as a precondition the restoration of the independence of Czechoslovakia and Poland. The danger of the allied capture of the Ruhr, which sharply reduced the Germans' chances of victory, and the Wehrmacht's continued superiority in new types of weapons (tanks, aircraft, anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery) pushed Hitler to decide on an early offensive in the West. On October 9, the Fuhrer signed a directive on the preparation of an offensive operation against France; according to the plan of the German General Staff, the main (tank) attack was supposed to be delivered through central Belgium, the auxiliary one - through the difficult-to-pass mountainous regions of the Ardennes. However, the original date of the invasion (November 12) was repeatedly postponed due to unfavorable meteorological conditions, and on January 10, 1940, the operational plan for the offensive in the West generally fell into the hands of the Allies. On February 24, Hitler had to replace it with a new plan (“Gelb”): he assumed the main tank attack through the Ardennes, the breakthrough of the Maginot Line at Sedan, access to the English Channel at the mouth of the Somme and the encirclement of the main grouping of allied forces in Belgium and northern France. But the campaign in Scandinavia delayed its implementation by two and a half months.

Capture of Denmark and Norway

(April 9 - June 10, 1940). The most important element of the Anglo-French strategy was the intention to economically strangle the Reich with the help of a blockade, to deprive it of scarce sources of raw materials (chromium, nickel, copper, tin, oil). As early as the end of September 1939, the SVVS had been discussing projects to mine Norwegian territorial waters and invade Norway in order to prevent the transit of Swedish iron ore through the port of Narvik to Germany. During the Soviet-Finnish "winter" war (November 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940), the Allies, under the pretext of helping Finland, planned to land a 150,000-strong expeditionary force in Narvik. The end of the "winter war" did not prevent the SMAF from making a decision on March 28 to conduct a military operation in Norway in early April.

On February 16, 1940, British destroyers attacked the German ship Altmark in Norwegian territorial waters. On March 1, Hitler, previously interested in maintaining the neutrality of the Scandinavian countries, signed a directive to capture Denmark and Norway in order to prevent a possible Allied landing. The slowness of the British allowed the Wehrmacht to occupy Denmark almost unhindered (April 9) and the main Norwegian ports of Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Narvik (April 9-10). Denmark accepted the terms of surrender; in response, the British occupied the Faroe Islands (April 12) and Iceland (May 10), which belonged to her. The allies began active operations only 5 days later, when the German troops had already reached the Norwegian-Swedish border. On April 14, an Anglo-French landing force landed near Narvik, on April 16 - in Namsus, on April 17 - in Ondalsnes. On April 19, the Allies launched an offensive against Trondheim, but failed and were forced to withdraw their forces from central Norway on May 1–2.

The success of the Germans in Scandinavia led to the fall of the Chamberlain government and the coming to power in Great Britain of a more energetic W. Churchill (May 10). On May 27, the Allies managed to capture Narvik, but the defeat of France ( see below) forced them to evacuate from northern Norway (5–8 June). On June 7, King Haakon VII and his government emigrated to England. On June 10, the Norwegian army capitulated, the country was under the control of the German occupation administration (Reichskommissariat); Denmark, however, declared a German "protectorate", retained independence in internal affairs until August 29, 1943.

Capture of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg; defeat of France

(May 10 - June 10, 1940). In May 1940, Germany struck on the Western Front. On the Dutch and north-Belgian border, the Germans concentrated Army Group B (T. Bock; 29 divisions), on the border with Luxembourg and southern Belgium - Army Group A (G. Runstedt; 45 divisions, the core is Panzer Group E. Kleist), against the Maginot Line, a powerful French defensive line from Montmedy to the Swiss border, - Army Group C (V. Leeb; 19 divisions). The Allied forces opposing them (North-Eastern Front under the command of J. Georges) included two army groups - the 1st Army Group (G.Biyot; 44 Anglo-French divisions) on the Belgian border and the 2nd Army Group (A.-G .Pretla; 25 French divisions) on the Maginot Line. In the event of a German attack on Belgium and the Netherlands, the Allies could rely on the Belgian (22 divisions) and Dutch (10 divisions) armies.

On the morning of May 10, the Wehrmacht invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and Holland without declaring war. The governments of these countries turned to the Anglo-French bloc for help. The 1st Allied Army Group entered Belgian territory. However, the Allies did not even have time to help the Dutch, since the German army group "B" carried out a swift throw into southern Holland and reached Rotterdam on May 12th. On May 13, the government of the Netherlands and Queen Wilhelmina fled to London, and on May 15, the commander of the Dutch armed forces, G. Wilkelman, ordered the surrender. In retaliation for the unexpected resistance of the Dutch, Hitler ordered the massive bombing of the largest industrial center and port of Rotterdam, which was practically destroyed after the signing of the act of surrender. The destruction of Rotterdam, once one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, turned out to be so great that after the war the Dutch authorities abandoned the idea of ​​​​restoring it in its former form and built a new modern urban complex of glass and concrete in its place. Only the majestic building of the old city hall has survived to this day, now surrounded by glass masses of modern offices and banks.

In Belgium, on May 10, German paratroopers captured the bridges across the Albert Canal, which made it possible for the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions to force it to the approach of the Allies and enter the Belgian Plain. Brussels fell on 17 May.

But the main blow was dealt by Army Group A. Having occupied Luxembourg on May 10, H. Guderian's three tank divisions crossed the southern Ardennes and on May 13–14 crossed the Meuse River west of Sedan. At the same time, Gotha's tank corps broke through the northern Ardennes, difficult for heavy equipment, and on May 13 crossed the Meuse River north of Dinan. The German tank armada rushed to the west. Belated French attacks failed to delay her. On May 16 Guderian's units reached the Oise; On May 20, they reached the coast of the Pas de Calais near Abbeville and turned north into the rear of the 1st Allied Army Group. 28 Anglo-French divisions were trapped. On the same day, the Allies began to withdraw their troops to the Scheldt. An attempt by the French command to organize a counterattack near Arras on May 21-23 failed. On May 22, Guderian cut off the Allied retreat to Boulogne, on May 23 to Calais and went to Gravelin, 10 km from Dunkirk, the last port through which the Anglo-French troops could evacuate, but on May 24 he was forced to stop the offensive for two days due to an inexplicable Hitler's personal order ("miracle near Dunkirk"). The respite allowed the Allies to strengthen the defenses of Dunkirk and launch Operation Dynamo to evacuate their forces by sea. On May 26, the German 6th Army broke through the Belgian front in West Flanders; King Leopold III turned to the enemy with a request for a truce. On May 28, Belgium capitulated. On the same day, in the Lille region, the Germans cut off a large French grouping, which surrendered on May 31. Part of the French troops (114 thousand) and almost the entire English army (224 thousand) were taken out on British ships through Dunkirk.

As a result of the first phase of the campaign, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and a small territory in northern France were in the hands of the Germans. The French lost the most combat-ready part of their troops (30 divisions). The line of the Somme and the Aisne became the new line of French defense.

The second phase of the campaign began on June 5, when the Wehrmacht launched an offensive in the Laon-Abbeville sector. Despite the stubborn resistance of the French, on June 7-8, the Germans broke through the front in the Rouen and Compiègne directions. On June 9, Guderian's tanks crossed the Aisne; The 12th Army rushed through Champagne and Burgundy to the Swiss border, taking the 2nd French Army Group in pincers. The defense of the French fell apart, and the command began to hastily withdraw troops to the south. On June 10, Italy declared war on Britain and France. On the same day, the government of P. Reynaud left Paris. On June 11, the Germans crossed the Marne at Château-Thierry. On June 14, they entered Paris without a fight, and two days later they entered the Rhone Valley. On June 16, Marshal F. Petain formed a new government of France, which already on the night of June 17 turned to Germany with a request for a truce. On June 18, Charles de Gaulle, who had fled to London, urged the French to continue resistance. On June 21, the Germans reached the Loire in the Nantes-Tours section, on the same day their tanks occupied Lyon.

On June 22, the Franco-German armistice was signed in Compiègne, according to which France agreed to the occupation of most of its territory, the demobilization of almost the entire land army and the internment of the navy and aviation. The armistice signing ceremony on Hitler's personal order took place in the same railway car and in the same Compiègne forest, where on November 11, 1918, defeated Germany concluded an armistice with the Entente countries. According to Hitler, this was to forever destroy the shame of defeat in the First World War in the memory of the Germans.

In the free zone, as a result of a coup d'état on July 10, the authoritarian regime of F. Petain (Vichy regime) was established, which headed for close cooperation with Germany (collaborationism).

Battle for England

(July 3, 1940 - May 10, 1941). Great Britain, after the capitulation of France, remained the only enemy of Nazi Germany in Europe, decided to continue the fight. The firmness of the British government, which destroyed Hitler's hopes of achieving a compromise peace (recognition by Great Britain of German hegemony in Europe in exchange for keeping the former German colonies behind it), forced him to give an order on July 16, 1940 to prepare for the invasion of the British Isles. The operation "Sea Lion", developed by the German General Staff, provided for the landing of the main German forces on the southeast coast of England between Folkestone and Brighton, the creation of a wide bridgehead and an offensive to capture London from the west; part of the troops was planned to be landed in southwestern England in Lyme Bay with the aim of breaking through to the mouth of the Severn River. However, the command of the Navy and ground forces, referring to the power of the British fleet and the Wehrmacht's lack of experience in landing operations, demanded that the Air Force first ensure air supremacy.

The air offensive was entrusted to the 2nd and 3rd German air fleets (875 conventional and 316 dive bombers, 929 Me-109 and Me-110 fighters). The British, despite losing in combat in France ca. 400 fighters were able to restore the previous strength of their Air Force by mid-July: the Germans were opposed by approx. 650 Hurricane and Spitfire fighters, which surpassed the Me-109 and Me-110 in maneuverability and speed, and anti-aircraft artillery (1204 heavy and 581 light guns).

In the preliminary phase of the "Battle of England" (July 3 - August 7), the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) carried out non-systematic attacks on British ships and convoys in the English Channel. A large-scale air offensive began only in August, when the main task was the destruction of British fighter aircraft. During the first wave of raids (August 13–18), airfields in southern England were the main object of bombing, during the second (August 24–September 3) - air bases in the vicinity of London. By the end of August, most of the airfields in the southern part of the island were out of action; British fighter losses in August were twice the German losses (338 against 177).

But from September 4, the Luftwaffe switched their attention to aircraft factories (in Rochester, Brookland, etc.), and on September 7 they began massive daytime bombing of London. British air power was given a much-needed respite; her resistance intensified. The sharp increase in German losses forced Hitler to postpone Operation Sea Lion on September 17 indefinitely, and on October 12 to postpone it to the spring of 1941. From the beginning of July to the end of October, the Germans lost 1733 bombers and fighters, the British - 915 fighters. In early November, the Luftwaffe had to switch exclusively to night air strikes on London and the largest British industrial centers (Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Plymouth). The most devastating was the raid on Coventry on the night of November 14, when almost the entire city was destroyed. After this barbaric raid, the German Minister of Propaganda J. Goebbels on the radio threatened the British to "coventry" all the British Isles if they continued to resist.

However, already from the end of December, the activity of German attacks decreased significantly due to adverse weather conditions, but in March 1941 it increased again. Then, preparations for an attack on the USSR forced the Wehrmacht command to abandon the continuation of the air attack on Great Britain. The last massive raid was a raid on London on the night of May 10th. On May 16, the main forces of the Luftwaffe were redeployed to the east.

The "Battle of England" ended with the defeat of Germany. Despite significant destruction and human losses (12.5 thousand people died in London alone), Great Britain retained its military and industrial potential and was able to continue the fight. The Wehrmacht had to start a campaign in the east without achieving victory in the west, i.e. wage war on two fronts.

Expansion of the bloc of fascist powers. US position.

The victory over France contributed to a sharp strengthening of Germany's foreign policy positions and the expansion of the bloc of fascist states. On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan entered into a Triple Alliance ("Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis"); the parties agreed on the division of spheres of influence (German-Italian hegemony in Europe and Japanese hegemony in East Asia) and on mutual assistance in the event of a military conflict with the United States. On October 12, by agreement with the dictator I. Antonescu, the Wehrmacht troops entered Romania. Hungary joined the Triple Alliance on November 20, Romania on November 23, and the Slovak State on November 24. In 1941 Bulgaria, Finland, Spain and Thailand joined it.

On the other hand, US foreign policy became increasingly hostile to the Triple Alliance. As early as November 4, 1939, the American Congress amended the law on neutrality, which allowed Great Britain and France to purchase weapons and military materials from the United States. On September 2, 1940, the United States transferred 50 destroyers to Great Britain in exchange for the lease of 8 military bases in the British colonies in the Western Hemisphere. On March 11, 1941, Congress passed a law on helping Britain with weapons, ammunition, raw materials, food and information on credit (Lend-Lease). On March 27, a common Anglo-American military strategy was agreed upon in case the United States entered the war. In April, American troops occupied Greenland, which belonged to Denmark. On May 6, Lend-Lease was extended to China.

Campaign in North and Northeast Africa

(July 10, 1940 - end of November 1941). Italy's entry into the war and the establishment of the pro-German Vichy regime in France worsened Britain's strategic position in the Mediterranean and on the African continent. Churchill's government, engaged in the defense of the British Isles, did not have the opportunity to allocate large forces to protect its possessions in northeast and east Africa, primarily from Italy, which planned to seize Egypt, Sudan, British Somalia and Kenya and disrupt England's communications with India through Suez Canal, Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb and Gulf of Aden.

Libyan-Egyptian campaign

(September 13, 1940 - June 17, 1941). For a throw into Egypt, the Italian command concentrated R. Graziani's army in Libya (about 215 thousand), which was more than six times superior to the forces of the British (36 thousand). On September 13, 1940, Graziani crossed the Egyptian border and on September 16 occupied Sidi Barrani, setting up a fortified camp there. However, taking advantage of the further inaction of the Italians and having received reinforcements (three tank regiments), the British organized a counteroffensive. The Western Desert Detachment (30,000) defeated 80,000 troops with a bold attack on December 9–11. the Italian grouping and recaptured Sidi Barrani; the remnants of the Italian army withdrew to Cyrenaica. Pursuing them, the British captured the fortress of Bardia on January 3, 1941, Tobruk on January 21-22, February 4-7 utterly defeated Graziani's troops at Beda Fomm and captured Benghazi; all Cyrenaica was in their hands; the way to Tripoli was open.

However, on February 12, Churchill, in connection with the start of the operation in Greece ( see below) ordered to stop the offensive. At the same time, at the request of Mussolini, Hitler sent German troops to Libya (“Afrika Korps” by E. Rommel). On March 31, Rommel struck at El Agheila and forced the British to retreat. On April 3, the British units left Benghazi, and by April 11 they were driven out of Cyrenaica; they managed to hold only Tobruk. All winter successes of the British were nullified.

On April 11, Rommel launched an operation to capture Tobruk. After several unsuccessful assaults, he began the siege of the fortress. At this point, the completion of the "Battle of England" allowed the British government to transfer large tank reinforcements to Egypt (late April - early May). But two British operations to liberate Tobruk from the German siege (May 15-27 and June 14-16) failed. The front has stabilized along the Bardiya - Es-Salloum line.

Defeat of the Italians in Northeast Africa

(beginning of July 1940 - end of November 1941). The grouping of the Duke of Aosta in Northeast Africa (in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Italian Somalia) numbered more than 90 thousand Italians and 200 natives. Against her, the British could put up approx. 15 thousand stationed in Sudan, British Somalia and Kenya.

The actions of the Italians in this region, however, did not differ in decisiveness. In early July 1940, they occupied Kassala on the Sudanese-Eritrean border, but did not dare to continue the offensive in the direction of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Their only significant success was the occupation of British Somalia in the first half of August. The British, on the contrary, having received reinforcements in the fall of 1940 and having brought the number of their troops in Kenya to 75 thousand (A. Cunningham), and in Sudan to 28 thousand (W. Platt), at the beginning of 1941 undertook an operation to defeat the army of Aosta. Having recaptured Kassala from the Italians on January 19–21, the Platt group invaded Eritrea from Sudan; after fierce fighting near Keren (February 3 - March 27), she broke through the Italian defenses and captured Asmara (April 1) and the port of Massawa (April 8). In February, Cunningham's troops from Kenya infiltrated Italian Somalia; On February 25, they occupied the port of Mogadishu, and then turned north and entered the Ogaden (southeastern Ethiopia); On March 16, an English landing liberated British Somalia; March 17 Cunningham took Jijiga, March 29 - Harar (Harer) April 6 - the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.

In early April, the remnants of the Aosta army retreated to the northern Ethiopian province of Tigre, where they took up a mountainous position near Ambo-Alagi, but capitulated on May 15th. Scattered Italian detachments in northwestern and southwestern Ethiopia continued to resist until the end of November 1941.

The Italian colonial empire in northeast Africa ceased to exist; Ethiopia regained its independence. Britain secured its communications in the western Indian Ocean.

Establishment of Free French control over French Equatorial Africa

(August 26 - November 14, 1940) . In Equatorial and West Africa, which was under the rule of the Vichy regime, the Free French movement created by de Gaulle acted as an ally of Great Britain. In August-November 1940, the Free French managed to establish control over the French colonies of Chad (August 26), Cameroon (August 27), Congo (August 29), Ubangi-Shari (September 30), Gabon (November 10-14). On October 27, in Brazzaville, the supreme governing body of the liberated French territories was formed - the Council of Defense of the Empire.

In September 1940, the de Gaulles made an attempt to expel the Vichy from French West Africa. However, a joint Franco-British military expedition to capture Dakar (Senegal) on 23–24 September failed.

German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece

(October 28, 1940 - May 31, 1941). On October 28, 1940, Mussolini delivered an ultimatum to the Greek government, demanding that it agree to the occupation by Italian troops of several strategically important points on Greek territory. Prime Minister I.Metaksas refused, counting on the help of Great Britain. On the same day, a 200,000-strong Italian army invaded Northern Epirus and Northwestern Macedonia. However, as a result of the heroic resistance of the Greeks in the mountainous regions of Pindus, the advance of the Italians was stopped by November 8, and on November 14 the Greek troops launched a counteroffensive along the entire front. In December, the Italians were driven out of Greece. The Greeks entered the territory of Albania and occupied a part of the south-east of the country up to the line of Mount Tomar - Lake Ohrid.

The defeat of Italy seriously worsened the military-strategic position of the countries of the fascist bloc in the Balkans. The German leadership, planning an attack on the USSR, was afraid of the landing of the British in southern Thrace and their attack on the right flank of the German invasion army. On December 13, 1940, Hitler approved the plan of operation against Greece (“Marita”), according to which the Wehrmacht units, advancing from southwestern Bulgaria, were to break through the Metaxas line (defensive line on the Bulgarian-Greek border) in Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis directions and occupy the northern coast Aegean Sea. After Bulgaria joined the Tripartite Pact on March 1, 1941, the German 12th Army entered Bulgarian territory and took up positions on the Greek-Bulgarian border.

For his part, the new Prime Minister of Greece, A. Korizis, accepted the British offer of military assistance. On March 2, 1941, the British Expeditionary Force began landing in Greece (about 50,000). The place of its deployment was the central section of the Greek defense line (the border with Yugoslavia) between the right (border with Albania) and the left (border with Bulgaria) of its flanks, which were respectively defended by the 1st (Epirus) and 2nd (East Macedonian) Greek armies ( 19 divisions).

On March 9, Italian troops launched a new offensive against the Greeks, however, during six days of fierce fighting, they were completely defeated and by March 26 were forced to withdraw to their original positions.

On March 25, the political leadership of Yugoslavia (Prince Regent Pavel and the government of D. Cvetkovic), pursuing a course of rapprochement with Germany and Italy, signed an agreement on the accession of this country to the Tripartite Pact. But as a result of a military coup, already on March 27, the government of D. Simovic came to power, which declared the young Peter II king and proclaimed the neutrality of Yugoslavia. Britain welcomed the coup and offered Simovic military assistance. On April 5, Yugoslavia signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with the USSR.

Immediately after the coup, Hitler decided to conduct a simultaneous military operation against Yugoslavia and Greece and occupy them completely. In this regard, on April 1, he postponed the date of the attack on the USSR from May 15 to June 22. On April 3, German diplomacy managed to get Hungary's consent to participate in the Yugoslav operation. The attack was planned to be carried out by the forces of the Italian, German and Hungarian armies, which were supposed to strike from northeastern Italy, southern Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Defeat of Yugoslavia (April 6–17, 1941)

On April 6, after a massive bombardment of major cities, railway junctions and airfields, units of the 12th German Army from Bulgarian territory invaded Yugoslav Macedonia and southern Serbia, launching an offensive against Nish, Skopje and the upper reaches of Strumica. The Yugoslav front began to quickly collapse. On April 7, German tanks occupied Skopje; in the north, the German 2nd Army rushed to Zagreb. By April 8, the armed forces of Yugoslavia actually ceased to exist as a single entity. On April 9, the 1st German Panzer Group captured Nis and moved along the Morava valley to Belgrade; Hungarian troops crossed the Drava and launched an attack on Novi Sad; The 2nd Italian Army entered Slovenia and occupied Ljubljana; The German 2nd Army captured Maribor. Zagreb fell on April 10, Belgrade fell on April 13. On April 14, Peter II, and on April 15, the government of Simovich fled to Athens. On April 16, German troops entered Sarajevo. On April 16, the Italians occupied Bar and the island of Krk, and on April 17, Dubrovnik. On the same day, the Yugoslav army capitulated.

Yugoslavia was divided into parts. Germany annexed northern Slovenia, Hungary annexed western Vojvodina, Bulgaria annexed Vardar Macedonia, Italy annexed southern Slovenia, part of the coast of Dalmatia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the "Independent State of Croatia" under the Italo-German protectorate. Serbia and eastern Vojvodina were placed under the control of the German occupation administration.

Capture of Greece

(April 6 - May 31, 1941). On April 6, the German 12th Army from Bulgaria attacked the center and right wing of the Metaxas Line, but ran into stubborn resistance. However, the Germans, having broken through Yugoslav territory, entered the Vardar valley, on April 9 rounded the Metaxas line from the west, took Thessaloniki, cut off most of the 2nd Greek army (70 thousand) and forced it to surrender. The German tank formations, which captured Skopje on April 7, turned south on April 8, crossed the Monastir pass on April 9–10, invaded Greek Macedonia, broke through the Edes-Florin defensive line and rushed to the northwest. On April 13, the 9th Italian Army launched an offensive in southern Albania and captured Korcha, Permet and Gjirokastra. On April 19, German tanks, having taken Metsovon and Grevena, completed the encirclement of the Greek 1st Army in northern Epirus; On April 20, its commander G. Tsolakoglu capitulated. In the central sector of the front, the British Expeditionary Force and the Greek troops were forced to leave the defensive line of Alyakmon to the north of the city of Olympus and begin a retreat to the south (April 12-18). On April 18, Larisa fell. An attempt by the British to create a defensive line at Thermopylae in order to close the Wehrmacht's path to central Greece was unsuccessful (April 18–19), and on April 20 the command of the expeditionary corps decided to evacuate. On April 21, Yanina was taken. On April 23, Tsolakoglou signed the act of general surrender of the Greek armed forces. On April 24, King George II fled to Crete with the government. On the same day, the Germans captured the islands of Lemnos, Thasos and Samothrace. On April 27, they entered Athens, and on May 1, they completed the occupation of all of Greece, except for Crete. However, they failed to completely defeat the English corps, most of which (50 thousand out of 62 thousand) were evacuated on April 24–29 through the ports of the South Peloponnese (Nafplion, Kalame, Monemvasia).

On April 25, Hitler ordered an amphibious operation to capture Crete, which the British planned to turn into their most important base in the eastern Mediterranean: the possession of Crete allowed them to strike at the Romanian oil fields, which were of great strategic importance for Germany, and at the main communications of the fascist powers in southeastern Europe. The German airborne assault began on May 20. Although the British fleet thwarted a German attempt to bring in reinforcements by sea, on May 21, the paratroopers managed to capture the airfield at Maleme and ensure the transfer of reinforcements by air. Despite the stubborn defense, the British troops had to leave Crete on May 28–31. By June 2, the island was completely occupied. But due to the heavy losses of German paratroopers, Hitler abandoned plans for further landing operations to capture Cyprus and the Suez Canal.

After the defeat of Greece, Bulgaria annexed eastern Macedonia and western Thrace; the rest of the country was divided into Italian (western) and German (eastern) occupation zones.

Failures of the fascist bloc in the Middle East

(May-July 1941). On April 1, 1941, as a result of a coup in Iraq, the pro-German nationalist group Rashid Ali-Gaylani seized power. By agreement with the Vichy regime (May 7), on May 12, Germany began transporting military equipment through Syria, under French mandate, to Iraq. But the Nazis, busy preparing for the war with the USSR, could not provide significant assistance to the Iraqi nationalists. British troops entered Iraq and overthrew Ali Gailani's government.

On June 8, the British, along with units of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon and in mid-July forced the Vichy troops to capitulate.

On June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht invaded the USSR. Cm. THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR .

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States and British and Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

Liberation of North Africa

Libyan-Egyptian campaign 1941–1942

(November 18, 1941 - November 27, 1942). The British leadership considered the defense of the Middle East a priority strategic task of Great Britain. A special role was assigned to inflicting a decisive blow on Rommel's army and expelling the Germans and Italians from North Africa. Therefore, the bulk of the reinforcements were sent to Egypt. By the autumn of 1941, the British troops had achieved a twofold superiority over the German-Italian in manpower and equipment; of these, the 8th Army (A. Cunningham) was formed.

According to the plan of the British command, it was supposed to defeat the Germans and Italians in Cyrenaica with a counterattack by the 8th Army and the Tobruk garrison (Operation Crusader). November 18, 1941 the British launched an offensive on the Libyan-Egyptian border. However, Rommel, who was nicknamed the “desert fox” for the speed and surprise of his decisions, skillfully maneuvering, managed to stop them by November 23, and on November 24-25 launched a counterattack by the Afrika Korps, which, however, ended in failure. On November 26, the British released Tobruk. On December 8–11, Rommel withdrew troops to El Ghazal, and on December 16 began a retreat to the Tripolitan border. On December 19, the 8th Army occupied Derna, on December 20, Benghazi. But on December 26-27, the further advance of the British was stopped by the Germans at Ajdabiya.

January 21, 1942 Rommel, having received tank reinforcements, broke through the British defenses at Antelat and rushed to the northeast. On 28 January he took Benghazi and on 4 February forced the 8th Army to retreat to El Ghazal. On May 26, Rommel resumed the offensive. On June 14, due to heavy losses, especially in tanks, the British had to continue their retreat. On June 20–21, Rommel, who by that time had received the rank of field marshal general, forced the capitulation of 35,000 troops with a sudden blow. English garrison of Tobruk. On June 23, his troops reached the Egyptian border, on June 26 they defeated the 8th Army at Mersa Matruh, and on June 30 they approached the English defensive line at El Alamein, 60 km from Alexandria. Panic broke out in Cairo; the British Mediterranean Fleet even hastily left Alexandria for the Red Sea. However, the increased resistance of the British and the growth of German losses forced Rommel's army to stop the offensive. The Germans failed to achieve their strategic goal - the capture of the Suez Canal.

The setbacks in North Africa prompted the Churchill government to make changes in command. The 8th Army was led by Lieutenant General B. Montgomery. On August 30, the battle near Al-Alamein resumed: E. Rommel tried to break through the English defenses at Alam-Khalfa, but suffered a complete failure, which was the turning point of the entire campaign. By mid-autumn, the British managed to ensure a significant superiority over the enemy in manpower (3 times), aircraft (4 times) and tanks (6 times). Thanks to the active actions of British aircraft and submarines, the supply channels of Rommel's army were seriously disrupted, which began to experience a significant shortage of food, artillery shells, and especially fuel for tanks.

On October 23, 1942, the British 8th Army launched an offensive and on November 4 broke through the enemy defenses. Only the slowness of the British allowed Rommel's troops to avoid encirclement at that moment. In mid-November, they withdrew to Mersa Breguet, and on December 12 - to Buerat el-Hsun. On November 13, the 8th Army occupied Tobruk, on November 20 - Benghazi, and on November 27 reached the border with Tripolitania. The whole of Cyrenaica was in the hands of the British.

Allied landings in French North Africa

(November 8 - December 27, 1942). After the US entered the war, disputes began between the Western Allies about the location of the main strike against the fascist powers in 1942. Under pressure from Churchill, who categorically objected to the American landing plan in northern France, the joint Anglo-American headquarters decided on July 24-25, 1942 to conduct a landing operation ("Torch"), in French North Africa. It would allow, with the successful implementation of the parallel operation "Lightfoot", the complete expulsion of the German-Italian troops from the African continent. The Torch plan involved the landing of Anglo-American units in Algiers and Morocco; naval support was entrusted to the British Mediterranean Fleet. At the same time, the Americans reached a secret (even from the allies) agreement with some French senior officers (General Ch.E. Mast in Algeria, General E. Betoire in Morocco) on their support for the invasion forces and on the appointment of General A. Giraud, who had escaped from German captivity, as supreme commissioner and head of the French troops in North Africa.

On October 22 and 26, the allied troops under the command of D. Eisenhower set off from the southern English ports to the Mediterranean Sea and on November 8 landed at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. The Eastern Task Force (K. Anderson), thanks to the actions of the Masta group, was able to take the port of Algiers almost unhindered on the same day. However, the central task force (L. Friedendall) only managed to break the Vichy resistance and capture Oran only on November 10, while the western task force (J. Patton) got stuck on the outskirts of Casablanca. However, the Americans managed to negotiate a cease-fire with Admiral J. Darlan, commander-in-chief of the Vichy armed forces, who flew to Algeria (November 9). In response, on November 10, Petain announced the removal of Darlan; Hitler, with the consent of P. Laval, Prime Minister of Vichy, ordered the occupation of the southern zone of France and the transfer of German units to Tunisia. But the French civil and military administration in northern and western Africa supported Darlan, who on November 13 officially assumed full power in the French African colonies. On November 22, he concluded an agreement with the American command on joint actions against Germany and Italy. Darlan was appointed high commissioner of French North Africa and head of its naval forces, and Giraud was appointed commander of the ground forces and aviation. The deal between the Americans and the Vichy Darlan aroused sharp discontent between de Gaulle and the British government. On December 24, Darlan was killed in an assassination attempt, and Giraud became high commissioner.

The cessation of Vichy resistance in Algeria and Morocco created an opportunity for the Allies to capture Tunisia, while the Germans and Italians had not yet transferred sufficient forces there. On November 10, the British landed in the port of Buzhi, on November 12 - in the port of Beaune. On November 13, Anderson's troops launched an attack on Tunisia from Bougia and Algiers. On November 15, the American landing took possession of Tebessa, and then the airfield in Gafsa. On November 16, Souk-el-Arba and the port of Tabarka were occupied. But then the suspension of the allied offensive for just one week (November 17-24) allowed the enemy to triple his Tunisian grouping and launch active operations. On November 19–22, they captured Medjez el-Bab, Sousse, Sfax, Gabes and Sbeitla, driving French units out of eastern Tunisia. On November 25, Anderson's troops resumed their advance, on November 26 they recaptured Medjez el-Bab from the Germans, but by November 30 they were finally stopped.

As a result of the campaign, French western and almost all of northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Western Tunisia) came under the control of the Allies. At the same time, the Germans and Italians were able to hold an important foothold in eastern Tunisia.

The defeat of the German-Italian troops in Tunisia

(January 15 - May 13, 1943). January 15, 1943 Montgomery, with a 14-fold superiority in tanks, launched an offensive in Tripolitania, attacking Rommel's positions at Buerat el-Hsun. But he again failed to pincer the Germans: on January 17, Rommel withdrew to the Tarhuna-Homs line, on January 23 - to the Tunisian border; on the same day, the British 8th Army occupied Tripoli. In early February, the Germans retreated to the Maret position in southern Tunisia. On February 16, Montgomery's troops crossed the Tunisian border.

By mid-February, the German-Italian forces in Tunisia had increased to 100 thousand. This made it possible for the "desert fox" to organize an offensive against American troops in the southwest. On February 14, he struck a strong blow from the Faida region in a northwestern direction, on February 15 he took Gafsa, on February 17 - Sbeita, and then, at the request of Mussolini, moved north to Tala and El-Kef. On February 20, its units broke through the Kasserine Pass, but the resistance of the allies, which had intensified by that moment, forced them to withdraw to their original positions (February 22-24).

On February 26, German-Italian troops attempted an offensive in northern Tunisia, but failed. Rommel's attack on 6 March against the line of defense of the 8th Army at Medenin ended in an even greater failure. The offensive capabilities of the fascist powers in North Africa were exhausted. However, Hitler rejected the proposal of his commander-in-chief of the Afrika Korps to evacuate troops from Tunisia and removed him from command.

The new plan of the Allies provided for the capture of the approaches to Tunisia from the south, the connection of the 8th Army and Anderson's units that made up the 1st Army, and the final defeat of the Tunisian grouping of German-Italian troops. On March 17, 1943, the 2nd American Corps (1st Army) launched an offensive north of the Chott Jerid salt marshes, captured Gafsa without a fight and moved towards the coast, but could not break through to Gabes. On March 20, Montgomery's troops attacked Maret's position; On March 27, the British managed to bypass it from the west and reach Gabes through El-Hamma. The main forces of the Germans and Italians withdrew to the position of Wadi Akarit. Southern Tunisia was under the complete control of the allies.

On April 5-6, the British 8th Army broke through the position of Wadi Akarit, on April 6, the German-Italian units began to retreat to the north. The Americans, by attacking Sousse from the west, tried to cut off their escape routes. On April 9, they overcame the Fonduk Pass and reached Kairouan on April 10, but the Germans managed to retreat to Anfidaville. As a result, the German-Italian grouping concentrated in the northeastern corner of Tunisia, while its defense line was reduced to 100 km.

The Allies decided to strike the main blow in the operation to destroy it from the west with the forces of the 1st Army; The 8th Army was given a supporting role. On April 19-23, the Anglo-American troops, having a significant superiority in strength over the enemy, launched an offensive in four converging directions, which, however, ran into a stubborn defense and by April 25 was drowned in all sectors. But by this time, the resources of the German-Italian group were practically depleted; the supply lines were almost completely cut by the British fleet and air force, which dominated the Mediterranean. In addition, the Allied command strengthened the direction of the main attack due to the formations of the 8th British Army.

On April 26, the 2nd American Corps went on the offensive in the north and on May 1–2 forced the Germans and Italians to withdraw to Bizerte. On May 6, the general offensive of the allied forces began. The 5th English Corps quickly broke through the enemy defenses and rushed to the capital of Tunisia, which they occupied on May 7; the German-Italian grouping was cut in two. On the same day, the 2nd American Corps entered Bizerte. German and Italian soldiers began to surrender en masse. The tanks of the 5th Corps turned to the southeast, crushed the German barrier at Hamman Lifa, reached Hammamet and went to the rear of the German-Italian troops at Anfidaville. By May 13, all formations of the Tunisian grouping of the Afrika Korps of Germany and Italy capitulated, according to various sources, from 130 to 250 thousand people were captured.

As a result of the defeat of the German-Italian army in Tunisia, all of northern Africa passed into the hands of the Allies; their military-strategic positions in the Mediterranean were significantly strengthened. The surrender of the most combat-ready Italian troops and the German Afrika Korps exposed the defenses of southern Europe and made possible the Anglo-American invasion of Italy.

Allied capture of Sicily

(July 10 - August 17, 1943). At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, the American proposal to carry out a landing operation in France in 1943 again ran into sharp objections from the British military leadership. On January 19, the joint Anglo-American headquarters decided, after the end of hostilities in North Africa, to invade Sicily in order to ensure the Mediterranean communications of the allies and undermine the political positions of the Mussolini regime. According to the Husky plan approved on May 13, the Anglo-Americans were supposed to land simultaneously on the southern and eastern coasts of the island. The invasion force numbered 478,000 under Eisenhower; they were opposed by nine Italian (195 thousand) and two German (60 thousand) divisions.

On the eve of the operation, on June 11, 1943, the Allies captured the island of Pantelleria, the base of the Italian fighter aviation. On July 7-9, thanks to superiority at sea and in the air, the allied fleet managed to deliver landing troops from Malta to the coast of Sicily without hindrance. On July 10, Patton's 7th American Army landed in Gela Bay, and the 8th British Montgomery - between Syracuse and Cape Passero. They easily overcame the Italian defenses and launched an offensive inland. By July 13, the 8th Army had occupied all of southeastern Sicily; its further advance to the north was stopped on July 18 by the Germans near Catania. The 7th Army reached the northern coast of Sicily on July 22 and captured Palermo, and on July 23 established control over its western coast. But she failed to cut off the retreat of the German-Italian units to the east. Pursuing them, by July 31, the Americans reached the Nicosia region. The enemy troops concentrated in northeastern Sicily.

On July 25, Mussolini was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III and arrested. The Italian and German command decided to evacuate the Sicilian group to the mainland. The evacuation, despite attempts by the Allies to disrupt it, was successfully carried out on 11–17 August. On August 17, Anglo-American units entered Messina, completing the occupation of Sicily.

Liberation of Southern Italy

(September 3, 1943 - January 7, 1944). Upon learning of the fall of Mussolini, Hitler ordered the invasion of Italy. On July 30, German units crossed the Italian border and, under the pretext of protecting their supply routes, occupied mountain passes in the eastern Alps. In August, eight German divisions were stationed in northern Italy and two near Rome; in the south there were six more divisions (10th Army).

On August 6, the new Italian government of P. Badoglio turned to Germany with a request to release Italy from allied obligations. On August 19, in Lisbon, it entered into separate negotiations with the Anglo-American command, which ended on September 3 with the signing of a secret agreement under which Italy was withdrawing from the war, and the allies were given the right to use Italian airfields and naval bases.

On the same day, the English 8th Army crossed the Strait of Messina and landed in southern Italy. By September 8, she had reached the Catanzaro–Nicastro line with little resistance. On September 8, the surrender of Italy was officially announced. But the Germans managed to disarm the Italian units everywhere and occupy almost the entire Apennine peninsula; the king and government fled from Rome to the south under the protection of the allies. On September 9, the 5th American Army (M. Clark) and a number of formations of the 8th Army landed in the Gulf of Salerno (Operation Avalanche), but ran into stubborn resistance from the Germans. On September 12–13, units of the Wehrmacht counterattacked Clark's troops and pinned them to the sea. Only thanks to the transfer of reinforcements and the active operations of aviation and naval artillery, the Allies were able to hold on to the Salerno bridgehead. A new German attack on 16 September was repulsed.

On September 9, an English landing landed in Taranto (Operation Slapstick) and on September 11 occupied Brindisi and Bari. On the same day, the 8th Army reached Castrovillari, clearing all of Calabria from the Germans. By September 16, Montgomery's troops had liberated Eastern Apuleia and most of Basilicata, and on September 20 captured the important transport hub of Potenza. At the same time, the British took control of Fr. Sardinia. The approach to the Salerno bridgehead of the 8th Army forced the Wehrmacht command to begin withdrawing its forces to the river. Volturno. On October 1, the 5th Army entered Naples, on October 2 - in Benevento. On October 3, the British landed in the Adriatic port of Termoli in the rear of the German units defending the Biferno River; after an unsuccessful attempt to drop a landing force into the sea (October 5), the Germans retreated beyond the Trigno River. On October 4, detachments of the French Resistance liberated the island of Corsica.

In October 1943, the pace of the Allied offensive slowed down considerably. On the right flank, the 8th Army was able only on November 3 to make a hole in the German defenses on the Trigno River; On December 10, she crossed the Moro River and captured Ortona on December 28, but was unable to break through to Pescara. On the left flank, the 5th American Army launched an offensive on the Volturno River on October 12; On October 16, the Germans withdrew to the Garigliano River. But the efforts made by Clark's troops on November 5-15 to break through the Garillian line were unsuccessful, just as their offensive on December 2, 1943 - January 7, 1944 on the Gustav Line (along the Garigliano and Rapido rivers) was unsuccessful. The exhausted allied troops were forced to stop at the turn of the Garigliano River - the Rapido River - the Sangro River - Ortona.

Nevertheless, the result of a series of Allied operations in the second half of 1943 was the withdrawal of Italy from the war and the liberation of the south of the Apennine Peninsula. However, they failed to prevent the Germans from taking over most of Italy.

Liberation of Central Italy

(January 18 - December 31, 1944). At the Tehran Conference (November 28 - December 1, 1943), Churchill and Roosevelt pledged to open a Second Front in France in 1944; operations in Italy were given secondary importance.

At the beginning of 1944, the allied forces in Italy were already almost twice as large as the Wehrmacht: 30 Anglo-American divisions against 22 understaffed German, most of which (10th Army) was concentrated on the Gustav Line. According to the winter campaign plan (“Shingle”), the leading role was assigned to the 5th US Army, which was supposed to strike at the 10th German Army simultaneously from the front and from the rear (landing on the Tyrrhenian coast behind the “Gustav Line” at Anzio) and then liberate Rome.

The new offensive of the 5th Army on the "Gustav Line" began on January 18, 1944, but it was unable to break through the German defenses on the Rapido River (January 20) and concentrated its efforts on capturing Monte Cassino, which covered the way to the Liri valley. However, all three attempts to master it (at the end of January, in February and March) failed.

The Allies failed to carry out the offensive from the bridgehead they captured on January 22 near Anzio. Their slowness gave the Germans the opportunity to quickly bring up large forces and stop the advance of the Anglo-Americans to the north (January 30). On February 3, German troops launched attacks on the bridgehead. The Allies repulsed two powerful Wehrmacht strikes on February 16–20 and February 28–March 4, but they had to abandon offensive operations.

On February 25, the joint Anglo-American headquarters decided to carry out Operation Diadem in late spring, in general terms repeating Shingle. In it, in addition to the 5th Army, it was planned to use a number of formations of the 8th Army (O. Lis).

On May 11, 1944, Fox's troops launched an offensive on Monte Cassino, and Clark's army on the Garigliano River. On March 14, the French corps of Jouin, which was part of it, broke into the Aucente valley; the German defense on the right flank began to crumble. After fierce battles with the Polish corps of Anders, which was part of the 8th British Army, the Germans left Monte Cassino on May 17, the Allies entered the Liri Valley. On May 23, units of the 5th Army struck from the bridgehead at Anzio on Valmontone to cut off the retreat of the 10th German Army. However, Clarke then turned most of the troops on Rome, allowing the 10th Army to escape through the Apennine passes. For several days the Germans held back the US 5th Army on the "Caesar Line" south of Rome, but on May 30 the Americans took Velletri and broke through the "Caesar Line". On June 4, the allies entered Rome.

The 5th Army moved along the Tyrrhenian, and the 8th Army along the Adriatic coast. By June 20, the Germans, who received reinforcements (four divisions), stopped M. Clark's troops at the lake. Trasimene; in early July, the 5th Army broke through the position of Trasimene, but a few days later was detained at Arezzo. After the enemy retreated on July 15 to the Arno River, the 8th Army captured Ancona (July 18), and the 5th Army captured Livorno (July 19). However, in the last ten days of July, Clark's troops got stuck on the Pisa-Florence line. The pace of advancement of the Fox army also significantly decreased: only by August 22 did it reach the Metauro River.

On August 26, the Allies launched an offensive against the Gotic Line (5th Army) and Rimini (8th Army). Clark's troops on August 30 reached the Goth line and broke through it on September 3. On September 5, Lucca was taken. On September 8, the Germans began to withdraw their forces from the Gotha line. On September 11, Pistoia and Viareggio fell, and the 5th American Army rushed to Bologna. However, at the end of September, she got stuck on the distant approaches to the city; throughout October, the Americans unsuccessfully tried to break through to him and on October 27 they were forced to stop on the Viaregdo-Vergato-Forli line.

The 8th British Army captured Pesaro on September 2, reached the Conca River on September 3, but was detained on September 4 at the Coriano Ridge. Having overcome the resistance of the enemy near Coriano on September 13, the troops of Lys occupied San Marino on September 20, entered Rimini on September 21, and crossed the Uzo River on September 26. But further progress was slowed down due to the large number of water barriers: Cesena was captured only on October 20–21, and Forli only on November 9.

On December 3, the 8th Army launched an offensive in the Bologna and Ravenna directions. On December 4–5, her right wing captured Ravenna; troops of the left wing on December 16 reached Faenza and on December 20–21 drove the enemy out of the river. Senio. However, the 5th Army, which resumed the offensive on December 13, again failed to break through to Bologna. On December 26, the Germans carried out a counterattack against its left flank on the Serkio River, but by December 31 they were driven back to their original positions. By the beginning of 1945, the front had stabilized along the line Viareggio - Vergato - the Senio River - Ravenna.

The result of the 1944 campaign was the liberation of central Italy. At the same time, the allies failed to make a strategic breakthrough into the northeastern part of the Apennine Peninsula and reach Austria through the eastern Alpine passes.

Landing of the Allies in Normandy and the liberation of France, Belgium and South Holland

(June 6 - December 15, 1944). The main Allied operation in 1944 in Europe was Operation Overlord, the invasion of northern France. For its implementation, 20 American, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish divisions were concentrated in southern England. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander in chief, and Montgomery was appointed commander of the ground forces. It was planned to land in Normandy, then launch an offensive to the east, occupy northwestern France and, together with the troops that landed in Provence (Operation Envil), surround the German Army Group G stationed in southwestern France. The allies in Normandy were opposed by the German Army Group B (29 understaffed divisions), which was 2.5 times inferior to the allies in manpower, almost 3 times in tanks, and 22 times in aircraft. Powerful defensive fortifications (“Atlantic Wall”) were erected on the French and Belgian coasts since 1942, but their construction had not yet been completed, although German propaganda deliberately fanned rumors about the power of this fortification zone.

Landing in Normandy and the defeat of Army Group "B"

(June 6 - August 25, 1944). On June 6, 1944, the 1st American (O. Bradley) and 2nd British (M. Dempsey) armies landed on the Normandy coast east of the Cotentin peninsula and created four bridgeheads. The success of the operation was facilitated by the absolute dominance of the allies in the air and the complete surprise of the operation for the enemy. Thanks to the previously launched effective campaign to misinform the enemy, the Wehrmacht command expected a landing on the coast of the Pas de Calais and kept large forces there (15th Army). However, Dempsey's army failed to capture Caen on the move. True, the British took Bayeux on June 7, but then the Germans brought up reserves, and the Allies were drawn into protracted battles. Only on June 12, they were able to unite the local bridgeheads into a common line of defense with a length of approx. 80 km. In the second half of June, their only major achievement was the capture by the 1st American Army of Cherbourg (June 27) and the liberation of the Cotentin Peninsula (by June 30). The 2nd English Army advanced southward with great difficulty; only on July 10 she occupied Cannes. On July 18, the Americans took Saint-Lo. On the same day, the British launched a powerful tank attack south of Caen (Operation Goodwood), which, however, ended in complete failure.

On July 25, the 1st American Army launched an offensive west of Saint-Lô (Operation Cobra) and on July 31 broke through the enemy defenses at Avranches. The American units introduced into the breach made up the 3rd Army (Patton); they were given the task of moving west towards Brittany. On August 2, Hitler ordered a tank attack near Mortain in order to reach the sea at Avranches and cut off the 3rd Army that had broken through from the rest of the allied forces. On the same day, Patton's troops had already reached Dinan; On August 4, they captured Rennes and broke into Brittany; parts of the Wehrmacht stationed on the peninsula retreated to the ports of Saint-Malo, Brest, Lorient and Saint-Nazaire. On August 7, the Germans launched an offensive near Mortain (Operation Luttich), but it ran into stubborn resistance from the 1st American Army and by August 10 completely fizzled out. At the same time, part of Patton's army, after the capture of Laval (August 6), turned to the east, and after the capture of Le Mans (August 8), to the north, creating a threat of encirclement of Army Group B between Mortain and Falaise. On August 12, she captured Alençon, on August 13, Argenton. The 1st Canadian Army was moving towards the Americans from the north with heavy fighting.

Only on August 17, when the 1st Canadian Army finally captured Falaise, did the commander of Army Group B, G. Kluge, order a general retreat to the Seine without Hitler's permission. On August 19, the Canadians connected with units of the 3rd American Army at Chambois, and on August 21, the Falaise pocket was completely closed. Only 20 thousand Germans managed to escape from the encirclement; Wehrmacht losses amounted to 25 thousand killed and 40 thousand prisoners.

On August 8, formations of the 3rd American Army moved towards the Loire and the Seine: on August 10 they reached the Loire and occupied Nantes, on August 16 they took Chartres, on August 17 - Dreux, Chateaudun and Orleans, on August 19 they went to the Seine, on August 21 they entered Sens.

On August 19, an uprising broke out in the capital of France against the invaders. By August 24, the rebels defeated the main forces of the German garrison. On August 25, the French division of F. Leclerc entered Paris.

By August 24-25, the allied forces, having reached the Lower Seine-Loire Loire line, completed the liberation of northwestern France.

Landing in Southern France

(August 15–28, 1944). On August 15-16, the 7th American Army (A. Patch) and the 2nd French Corps (Delattre de Tassigny) landed in Provence, meeting weak resistance from the 19th German Army. On August 21, the 7th American Army captured Aix-en-Provence, on August 22, with the support of the French Resistance - Grenoble, on August 24 reached the Rhone and occupied Arles, on August 25 entered Avignon. On August 23–28, Delattre de Tassigny's troops took Toulon and Marseille as a result of fierce fighting.

The Allied landing in Provence forced Army Group G to begin a retreat from southwestern France to the Seine: on August 19, the Germans left Toulouse, August 20 - Saint-Quentin, August 24 - Bayonne, August 28 - Bordeaux.

Allied offensive at the end of August - the first half of September 1944.

Having defeated Army Group B, the Allied troops rushed to the Belgian and German borders without encountering noticeable and organized resistance. The 3rd American Army, moving along the Marne Valley, occupied Chateau Thierry on August 27, Reims on August 29, crossed the Meuse on August 31, took Verdun on September 1, and crossed the Moselle near Metz on September 3. The 1st American Army, having captured Cambrai, crossed the Belgian border on September 2 and liberated Mons on September 3. The 2nd English Army entered Beauvais on August 30, occupied Amiens on August 31 and formed the Somme; September 1, she took Arras, September 2 - Douai and Lance; On September 3, her tank vanguard entered Brussels. The 1st Canadian Army reached Dieppe on 1 September. By September 4, in the north, the Allies reached the line of the mouth of the Somme - Lille - Brussels - Mons - Sedan - Verdun - Commerce - Troyes.

In the south, Nimes and Montpellier were liberated on August 29. On August 31, formations of the 7th American Army occupied Valence, on September 1 - Narbonne. On September 3, the 2nd French Corps entered Lyon. The main part of Army Group G (130 thousand) managed to withdraw to the north-west of France, but 80 thousand were captured.

On September 4, Eisenhower ordered the 2nd British and 1st American armies to advance on the Ruhr, the “forge” of Germany, and the 3rd Army on the Saar coal basin, the purpose of the operation was that the capture of these areas would make it impossible for the Germans to continue war. On September 4, the 2nd Army captured Antwerp. On September 5, the 1st American Army took Charleroi, Namur and crossed the Meuse at Sedan. On September 7, formations of both armies entered the Albert Canal. On September 8, the 1st Canadian Army reached Bruges and liberated Ostend. On the same day, the 1st American Army captured Liège; On September 9, she crossed the Dutch border, on September 10 she captured Luxembourg, on September 11 - Malmedy and reached the German border at Aachen. After the capture of Besancon (7th Army) on September 8 and Dijon (2nd French Corps) on September 11, the southern and northern groupings of the Allied forces united. On September 15, the 3rd American Army occupied Nancy and Epinal, and the 1st American Army occupied Maastricht in southeastern Holland. By mid-September, almost all of Belgium and most of France were liberated, with the exception of Alsace, East Lorraine and several ports in Brittany and on the banks of the Pas de Calais.

Military operations on the Western Front in mid-September - early November 1944.

In early September, a gap of 100 km was formed in the German defense in the west, which there was nothing to close. By this time, the Anglo-American troops had a 20-fold superiority in tanks and 25-fold superiority in aircraft. However, small German formations, skillfully using the rugged terrain of Lorraine and eastern Belgium (forests, mountains, numerous rivers), managed to delay the advance of the Allies by mid-September, compacted the defenses along the entire front and thwarted the plan to capture the Ruhr and Saar.

On September 13, the 3rd American Army launched an offensive on the Moselle River and liberated Luneville on September 20, but then got bogged down in protracted battles on the Sey River and was forced to stop by October 8. Also, the assault on Metz, launched by her on September 27, did not bring success.

On September 17, the 2nd British Army launched Operation Market Garden (a breakthrough through the lower reaches of the Meuse and the Rhine into northern Germany). Troops were landed in the Dutch cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem; at the same time, the 30th English Corps moved from the south. Eindhoven fell on September 17, Nijmegen fell on September 19-20. However, the 30th Corps failed to break through to Arnhem (September 21–23), and on September 26 the Arnhem landing group capitulated.

All efforts of the 1st Canadian Army since September 23 have been focused on the liberation of the estuary of the Western Scheldt (the goal is to ensure the possibility of using the port of Antwerp). Only in the first days of November, she was able to clear the Beveland peninsula from the Germans, about. Walcheren and the south coast of the estuary.

On October 1, the 1st American Army launched an operation to capture Aachen, but was drawn into heavy fighting and only three weeks later managed to capture the city.

On October 15, the 7th American Army launched an offensive in the Strasbourg direction, and the French troops in the Vosges. On October 17, the Germans stopped the French; the Americans failed to break through to Saint-Dieu (October 19).

On October 22, 1944, the advance of the American armies actually stopped along the entire front. The British, on the other hand, threw their forces into clearing the western part of North Brabant from the enemy: on October 24 they took 's-Hertogenbosch, on October 28 - Tilburg, on October 29 - Breda. The 1st Canadian Army liberated Zealand from 1–9 November.

The Allied offensive on the Western Front in November - the first half of December 1944.

In the first half of November, the Allies launched a general offensive with the aim of capturing the left bank of the Rhine and breaking into the western part of Germany. The 3rd American Army moved to the Saar River (November 8); the assault on Metz was resumed. The 7th American Army launched an attack on Strasbourg (November 13), the 2nd British Army - in southeastern Holland (November 14), the French - in southern Alsace (November 14), the 1st and 9th American armies - near Aachen on the Jülich and Cologne directions (November 16). On November 19, French troops reached the Swiss border at Basel, on November 20 they occupied Belfort, on November 22 - Mulhouse. On the same day, the 7th Army captured Saint-Dieu, on November 23 - Strasbourg, and then turned north to Zweibrücken. On November 24, the 3rd Army reached the Saar River near Saarbrücken and on December 2 completed the liberation of the Saar left bank. By December 4, the 2nd Army had completely cleared the western bank of the Meuse from the Germans. By December 12, the 1st and 9th armies occupied the area west of the Ruhr River (except for the Roermond Triangle at the confluence of the Ruhr with the Meuse), and the 3rd and 7th armies completed the liberation of Eastern Lorraine. On December 13, the operation to capture Metz ended. But by mid-December, the 3rd Army was bogged down in heavy fighting on the right bank of the Saar; the Germans stopped the advance of the 7th Army on the Maginot Line and prevented the French from breaking through to Colmar (December 14). The front stabilized along the rivers Meuse - Ruhr - Ur - Saar - Lauter - Rhine.

The result of the campaign was the liberation of eastern France (except for the Colmar Sack) and southern Holland. However, the Allies failed to occupy the entire left bank of the Rhine and capture the industrial centers of the Ruhr and the Saar coal basin. .

The failure of the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes and Northern Alsace

(mid-December 1944 - early February 1945).

Ardennes operation(December 16, 1944 - January 26, 1945). Intending to turn the tide of the war on the western front, Hitler ordered a counterattack against the 1st American Army in the Ardennes in order to arrange a "second Dunkirk" for the Allies (break through to the sea, cut off the 2nd British Army and force it to evacuate from southern Holland). According to the Greif plan, the German 6th Panzer Army was ordered to cross the Meuse between Liege and Huy and go to Antwerp, and the 5th Panzer Army to cross the Meuse between Namur and Dinan and take Brussels. 30 divisions of the Wehrmacht (250 thousand people, 2 thousand guns, 1 thousand tanks and 1.5 thousand aircraft) were concentrated on the Belgian and Luxembourg borders. They were opposed by 6 American divisions. Preparations for the operation were carried out in the utmost secrecy.

The offensive in the Ardennes began on December 16, 1944. Although it turned out to be a complete surprise for the Allies, the Wehrmacht was unable to fulfill its tasks. The right wing of the German 6th Army failed to break the American defenses at Monschau. The troops of the left wing broke through under Udenbrat, bypassed Malmedy from the south, crossed Amblev on December 18, reached Stavelot, but were then stopped. The 5th German Army, having crossed the Ur, reached Bastogne on December 18; her attempts to take the city on December 19–20 were unsuccessful and, leaving it under siege, she moved towards the Meuse. On December 24, the Germans reached the outskirts of Dinan, but failed to capture it.

The offensive of the 7th German army in the Meziers direction (December 16–19) also bogged down. By order of the allied command, the 3rd American army struck at the left flank of the German troops and on December 26 made its way to the desperately defending Bastogne. The Wehrmacht was forced to go on the defensive in all sectors.

On January 3–4, 1945, the 1st American and 2nd British armies from the north and the 3rd American from the south launched an attack on the Ardennes bridgehead. By that time, the Wehrmacht's forces were weakened: due to the expected new Soviet offensive (Vistula-Oder operation), Hitler had to transfer the 6th Army to the Eastern Front (January 4–5). On January 10-11, the Germans, pressed by the Allies, retreated from the western edge of the bridgehead across the Urt River, by January 16 - to the Monschau - Saint-Vith - Houffalize - Wiltz - Echternacht line, and on January 20-26 they retreated to positions that they occupied until the start of the operation. The last major attempt by the Wehrmacht to defeat the Allied forces failed. During it, the Germans lost 100 thousand, the British and Americans - 82.5 thousand.

German counter-offensive in North Alsace

(January 1 - early February 1945). In Northern Alsace, on January 1, the Wehrmacht launched an offensive against Saverne from the north and Strasbourg from the east. Eisenhower ordered the 7th Army to leave Strasbourg and retreat to the Vosges, but at the insistence of de Gaulle and Churchill, this order was canceled (January 3); On January 5, French troops were additionally transferred to Strasbourg from southern Alsace. The Germans managed to reach only the line Vingen - Morbronn-les-Bains; they could not get through either to Saverne or to Strasbourg. By 25 January, their advance finally came to a halt, and by the beginning of February they were driven back behind the Siegfried Line.

The defeat of German troops on the Western Front

(mid-January - early May 1945).

Actions of the Allies on the Western Front in late January - late February 1945.

After pushing the Germans out of the Ardennes, the Allies conducted a series of operations to strengthen their positions before the spring attack on the Rhine. As a result of Operation Blackcock, on January 16–26, the 2nd English Army captured the Roermond Triangle. The French offensive in South Alsace on January 20 - February 9 led to the elimination of the "Colmar Sack". During Operation Veritable on February 8-21, Anglo-Canadian troops occupied the area between the Meuse and the Rhine southeast of Nijmegen.

Rhine operation

(February 23 - March 22, 1945). On February 23, 1945, the Allies launched a general offensive with the aim of capturing the left bank of the Rhine: the 3rd US Army crossed the Ur, and the 1st and 9th US Army crossed the Ruhr near Jülich and Düren. The 9th Army took Jülich on February 24, Erkelenz on February 26, Venlo, Mönchengladbach and Neuss on March 1, reached the Rhine at Düsseldorf on March 2 and reached Reinhausen on March 5. The 1st Army occupied Düren on February 25, crossed the Erft on February 27, entered Cologne on March 7, and on the same day captured a bridgehead on the right bank of the Rhine at Remagen; On March 9, she captured Bonn and Bad Godesberg. On February 24, the 3rd Army took Neuerburg, crossed Prüm on February 25, and reached the river on March 1. Mosel, on March 2, captured Trier, on March 5 crossed the Kiel River and, having made a swift throw to the northeast, reached the Rhine near Andernach. The Anglo-Canadian troops, who resumed their advance southeast of Nijmegen on February 26, captured Kalkar on February 27, Geldern on March 4, and Xanten on March 8. On March 9–10, the Germans retreated across the Rhine from the Dutch border to Koblenz. The entire area between the Meuse, the Rhine and the Moselle was in the hands of the Allies.

On March 14-15, the 3rd and 7th American armies launched an operation to seize territory between the Moselle, Rhine, Lauter and Saar rivers. The 3rd Army advanced from the Moselle and the Saar east towards the Rhine, while the 7th Army attacked the Siegfried Line from the south. On March 17, the 3rd Army crossed Prims and Nahe, on March 18 entered the Lower Palatinate and took Bingen and Bad Kreuznach; On March 19, she captured Koblenz, on March 20 - Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen and went to the Rhine at Mannheim, on March 21 captured Neustadt and Worms, and on March 22 - Landau. On March 16, Bitsch fell under the blows of the 7th Army, on March 18 she broke through the Siegfried Line, on March 20 she captured Saarbrücken and Zweibrücken, and on March 23 joined the 3rd Army. The Saar coal basin and the Lower Palatinate passed into the hands of the Americans.

As a result of the Rhine operation, the Allies occupied the entire left bank of the Rhine and created a bridgehead on its right bank. 20 divisions of the Wehrmacht were defeated (about 250 thousand). The German front in the west was exposed; in addition, all reserves were transferred to the east for the defense of the Oder.

Ruhr operation

(March 23 - April 18, 1945). The plan of the allied command to deliver a decisive blow to Germany provided for the offensive of the 21st Army Group (1st Canadian, 2nd British, 9th American) north of the Ruhr industrial zone with the aim of defeating Army Group B and breaking through to Berlin .

On March 23, the 1st Canadian and 2nd British Armies crossed the Rhine at Emmerich and Wesel; On March 24, the 9th Army crossed the Rhine south of Wesel. Easily overcoming the weak resistance of the Germans, the 2nd and 9th armies rushed to the northeast. At the same time, the 1st American Army, developing the offensive from the Remagen bridgehead, bypassed the Ruhr region from the south; On March 28, she reached the Lahn River and captured Marburg, and then turned north, on March 30 she reached the Eder River and on April 1 joined the 9th Army at Lipstadt. The Ruhr boiler slammed shut. Army Group B and part of Army Group X (350,000) were surrounded.

During the first half of April, the Allies gradually tightened the encirclement and on April 18 forced the Ruhr group to capitulate. The last pockets of resistance were crushed by 21 April. 325 thousand were captured; commander of army group "B" V. Model committed suicide.

Allied capture of western and southern Germany; liberation of North Holland

(March 23 - May 1, 1945). The encirclement of the main forces of the Wehrmacht near the Ruhr led to the collapse of the German front in the west. The organized resistance of the enemy actually ceased, and the allied armies poured into Germany, almost without meeting a rebuff. The change in the situation forced Eisenhower on March 28, despite the protests of the British, to change the direction of the main attack: the main goal was not Berlin, but Saxony and Austria; the armies operating in the northeast direction, henceforth secondary, were tasked with establishing control over the mouths of the Weser and Elbe and liberating Denmark.

The troops of the right wing of the 1st Canadian Army, after capturing Emmerich on March 30, rushed north, crossed the Ems between Meppen and Lathen on April 8, moved to the mouth of the Weser, and captured Oldenburg on May 2. Parts of its left wing, during fierce battles, took Arnhem on April 12-15, Groningen on April 16, reached the Züderzee Bay on April 18 and drove the Germans out of northern Holland by the end of April.

The 2nd English Army, having crossed Issel on March 27, launched an offensive to the northeast and invaded Westphalia. On April 2, the troops of its right wing reached the Dortmund-Ems canal and captured Münster, on April 4 - Osnabrück, then penetrated into Hannover, on April 8 they reached the river Leine near Nimburg, on April 11 they crossed the Aller at Celle, on April 14 they liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , on April 18 they took Soltau and Uelzen and, moving north, on April 19 they reached the Elbe near Lauenburg; On April 29, they crossed the Elbe and by the beginning of May reached the Baltic coast. The formations of the left wing of the 2nd Army, advancing in Lower Saxony, on April 8 broke through the German defenses on the river. Ems under Lingen, rushed to the lower reaches of the Weser and took Bremen on April 25–26.

The 9th American Army, moving east through Westphalia, reached the river on April 4. Weser near Hameln, on April 10 captured the city of Hanover and launched an offensive towards the Middle Elbe. On April 11, its units reached the Elbe at Magdeburg, on April 12 - at Verbena and Wittenberg. Brunswick fell on the same day. On April 15, the 9th Army was already at the river. Mulde. Having cleared the entire left bank of the Elbe from the Wittenberg to the Saale river from the enemy in the second half of April, on May 1 she stopped further advance to the east.

The 1st American Army, having taken Paderborn on April 1, rushed east and entered Saxony; On April 11, she captured Osterode and Nordhausen, on April 15 - Leuna, on April 19 - Halle and Leipzig, on April 24 - Dessau, on April 25 she reached the Elbe at Torgau and on May 1 completed the offensive at the turn of the Mulde River. In the Torgau area, the advanced units of the 1st American Army were met by Soviet soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Before the meeting, both groups - both the Soviet and the American - received detailed instructions on how to identify themselves. The Soviet troops were to fire a series of red rockets and unfurl the red flag, the US soldiers were to fire a series of green ones and raise the American flag. However, already at the last moment, on April 25, it turned out that the American unit did not have green rockets and even a national flag, and the soldiers got out of the situation by drawing stars and stripes on a white sheet.

The American 3rd Army, which had crossed the Rhine at Nierstein on March 22, launched an offensive south of Mainz on March 25. The troops of its left wing reached the Main on March 26, captured Frankfurt on March 29 and began to rapidly move north to the Eder river and northeast to the Fulda river. On April 4, they took Kassel and, having entered Thuringia, occupied Gotha. Erfurt fell on April 12, Jena fell on April 13. On the same day, units of the left wing crossed the Weisse-Elster and liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp. Then they penetrated into Saxony, on April 15 they crossed the Mulde River and by the end of April they stopped west of Chemnitz.

Formations of the right wing of the 3rd Army on March 25 captured Darmstadt and moved east. On April 11, having captured Coburg, they turned southeast into Upper Franconia and the Upper Palatinate, reached the Czechoslovak border in the Czech Forest on April 18, took Ingolstadt on April 26, Regensburg on April 27, and then entered Bavaria and on April 29 reached the river. Isar.

The 7th American Army, having crossed the Rhine south of Worms on March 26, invaded Baden, crossed the Neckar on March 28, and occupied Mannheim and Heidelberg on March 29. The troops of its left wing rushed east to Lower Franconia, captured Aschaffenburg on April 3, crossed the Franconian Saale - Neustadt on April 7, and turned southeast on April 11, took Bamberg on April 13, Bayreuth on April 14, Fürth on April 18, April 20 - Nuremberg, where the American flag was raised over the main stadium of Nazi Germany. Then they moved to Upper Bavaria and Swabia, crossed the Danube on April 22, entered Augsburg on April 28, liberated the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, and captured Munich on April 30.

Formations of the right wing of the 7th Army, having risen up the Neckar, invaded Württemberg, met with French troops and besieged Stuttgart with them, then turned to the southeast, captured Ulm on April 24, crossed Swabia and reached the Austrian border by the beginning of May .

The left-flank units of the 1st French Army crossed the Rhine north of Karlsruhe on March 31 and took the city on April 3. Thereafter, one column headed southwest into the northern Black Forest and occupied Baden-Baden on 12 April; another column went southeast, penetrated into Württemberg, on April 7 crossed the Enz River at Mühlakker, entered Stuttgart on April 21, and then occupied the Tübingen area. The troops of the right wing, who crossed the Rhine north of Strasbourg on April 15, by April 19 established control over the Western Black Forest and rushed east to Sigmaringen. On April 30 they entered Austria east of Lake Constance and on May 1 took Bregenz.

By May 1, West and South Germany were occupied and northern Holland was liberated. The Allies reached the line Wismar - Ludwigslust - Elba - Mulde, to the western border of Czechoslovakia and to the northern border of Austria.

Defeat of German troops in Northern Italy

(April 9 - May 2, 1945). The plan for the Allied spring offensive in Italy provided for the encirclement of Army Group C south of the Po River, the capture of northern Italy and a breakthrough into Austria. With the approximate equality of the warring parties in manpower, the Allies had a 2-fold superiority in artillery, 3-fold superiority in tanks and completely dominated the air. In addition, approx. 60 thousand Italian partisans.

On April 9, 1945, the 8th British Army attacked the Senio River in a northwestern direction, crossed Santerno on April 12, and on April 18 punched a hole in the enemy defenses near Argenta west of Lake. Comacchio. On April 14, the American 5th Army began its offensive on Bologna; On April 17, she broke through into the Po Valley. The German front began to fall apart. On April 20, the commander of Army Group "C" G. Vitingoff, without Hitler's permission, ordered a general retreat. But the allies managed to pincer the main part of the enemy grouping. By April 25, German resistance had practically ceased. In northern Italy, a general uprising broke out against the invaders. On April 25, the 5th Army occupied Verona, on April 27 - Genoa. On April 26, the 8th Army crossed the Adige and broke through the Venetian defensive line. All alpine passes were blocked by partisans. On April 28, they captured and shot in the vicinity of Lake. Como of the former Duce, Benito Mussolini, and his mistress K. Petacci; their corpses were hung upside down in the central square of Milan.

On April 29, the command of Army Group C signed an act of surrender in Caserta. On the same day, the British entered Venice, and the Americans entered Milan, liberated by the partisans. On April 30, units of the 5th Army occupied Turin. On May 1, the vanguard of the 8th Army reached the Isonzo River (Socha) and came into contact with detachments of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. On May 2, the advanced units of the 5th Army met near Bolzano with units of the 7th Army, which had penetrated into Trentino from Austria through the Brennen Pass.

Capitulation of Germany.

In late April - early May 1945, the western and eastern fronts joined on the Elbe and in western Czechoslovakia: the 1st American Army met with Soviet troops at Torgau (April 25), the 9th American - at Abbendorf and Balou (May 2), 3 -I American - south of Pilsen (May 3). The 2nd British Army captured Lübeck and Wismar on May 2, entered Hamburg on May 3 and reached the Kiel Canal; On May 5, she crossed the Danish border and landed troops in Copenhagen. The 3rd and 7th American armies crossed the Austrian border in early May: Salzburg and Innsbruck were liberated on May 4, and the Mauthausen concentration camp on May 7. On May 8, Anglo-Norwegian troops landed in Norway.

On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. On May 3, his successor, Admiral K. Doenitz, entered into negotiations with the Allies and on May 4 signed with Montgomery an act of unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht in the north (in Holland, Denmark and West Germany). On May 5, Army Group G surrendered in Bavaria. May 7 in Reims Representatives of the German command A. Jodl and G. Friedeburg, during negotiations with D. Eisenhower in Reims, tried to get his consent to the partial surrender of the Wehrmacht to the Western allies, but ran into his decisive refusal and were forced on May 7 to sign a preliminary protocol on general surrender of all armed forces of the Reich. Over the next two days, hostilities in Europe ceased completely.

On May 8, a general act of surrender was signed in Karlhorst: on behalf of the command of the Wehrmacht, V. Keitel (ground forces), G. Friedeburg (Navy) and G. Stumpf (Air Force) signed on behalf of the Soviet - G.K. Zhukov, from the allied - A .Tedder; C. Spaats (USA) and J. Delattre de Tassigny (France) signed the act as witnesses. The territory of Germany and Austria was divided into four occupation zones. In Germany, the Soviet zone included Western Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia; American - Bavaria, Swabia, Upper Palatinate, Franconia, Hesse, Northern Württemberg and Northern Baden; French - South Württemberg, South Baden, Lower Palatinate and Saar; English - Rhineland, Westphalia, Hanover, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. In Austria, the Soviet zone included Burgenland, Lower and Northern Upper Austria, the American zone included the rest of Upper Austria and Salzburg, the English zone Styria and Carinthia, and the French zone Tyrol and Voralberg. Berlin and Vienna were also divided into four respective sectors. The Control Council became the supreme governing body in Germany, and the Federal Council in Austria; both of them consisted of the commanders-in-chief of the occupation zones.

War in the Pacific

(December 7, 1941 - September 2, 1945). The defeat of France in May-June 1940 contributed to the strengthening of the positions of the military party in Japan, which sought to create a vast Japanese empire in Southeast Asia - the "Great East Asian Common Prosperity Sphere" consisting of China, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, Burma and Philippine Islands. On July 22, the government of F. Konoe came to power in Japan, putting forward a program of large-scale foreign policy expansion. On September 22, it secured from the Petain regime the provision of military bases to the Japanese in northern Indochina, and on September 27, it concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.

On July 1, 1941, the military-political leadership of Japan decided on the priority of the southern direction of expansion. On July 24–27, by agreement with the French colonial administration, Japanese troops occupied Southern Indochina. The establishment of Japanese control over Indochina, located in close proximity to the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, threatened the strategic interests of the United States and Great Britain. On July 25, the American government demanded that Japan withdraw its troops from Indochina. On July 26, the United States, Great Britain, and Canada sequestered Japanese assets and terminated trade agreements with it, and on July 28, the Dutch government in exile followed suit. In early October, the United States imposed an embargo on the export of oil to Japan. The US-Japanese talks in Washington on November 20-26 ended in failure: Japan rejected the demand to liberate the captured Chinese territories (to the north of the Yangtze River) and French Indochina, i.e. to restore the status quo in the Far East that existed in 1931. On December 1, at a meeting with the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, a decision was made to start a war against the USA, Great Britain and Holland. Japan set as its main goal the mastery of Malaya and Indonesia with their rich reserves of oil, tin and rubber. Its invasion forces numbered 400 thousand people. and 1600 aircraft. American, British and Dutch troops in the Far East totaled 420,000, but more than half of them were local formations with low combat capability; they had 700 aircraft, mostly of obsolete designs. The number of ships was approximately equal, but the Japanese had a significant superiority in aircraft carriers (10 versus 3). In addition, for the Churchill government, the defense of the Far Eastern possessions of Great Britain seemed much less important than the defense of the Middle East, where the main reserves were sent.

Japanese weapons victories

(December 7, 1941 - May 1942). On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft delivered a sudden and crushing blow to the base of the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Oahu (Hawaii), knocking out 18 warships, including all 8 battleships, and destroying more than 300 aircraft. After that, the Japanese were able, through landing operations, to freely seize American, British and Dutch possessions in the western Indian Ocean. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan.

On December 8, Japanese troops besieged Hong Kong (British), landed on the island of Luzon (Philippines) and in British Malaya. On the same day they entered Thailand. The Thai government agreed to the occupation of their country and concluded a military alliance with Japan on December 21; in January 1942 it declared war on the USA and Great Britain.

On December 10, 1941, the Japanese fleet captured the island of Guam (USA), on December 23 - Wake Atoll (USA). Hong Kong fell on 25 December.

On December 10, Japanese aviation destroyed the British naval formation covering the eastern coast of the Malacca Peninsula. On January 8, 1942, Japanese troops advancing from the north (from Thailand) broke through the British defenses on the Slim River and captured Central Malaya. By January 30, they had pushed the British back to Singapore, and on February 9-15 they stormed this main British base in the Far East.

On January 11, 1942, the Japanese, having landed on the island of Kalimantan and the island of Sulawesi, invaded the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). On January 27-28, they defeated the Anglo-Dutch squadron in the Java Sea, and on March 1, they launched an operation to capture the island of Java and on March 5 occupied Batavia (modern Jakarta). On March 9, Dutch troops in Indonesia surrendered.

In mid-December 1941, the Japanese crossed the Burmese-Thai border and on March 8, 1942 entered Rangoon. Early in April they launched an offensive northward up the Irrawaddy valley; at the end of April the British left Mandalay. Japanese troops cut off the road along which the military supplies from British India went to China, and by the end of May they occupied the entire Burmese territory. However, the main part of the British grouping in Burma managed to retreat to India. The beginning of the rainy season and the lack of forces did not allow the Japanese to build on their success and invade southern China or the Ganges valley.

In the Philippines, by the end of December 1941, Japanese troops captured the island of Mindanao and most of the island of Luzon; January 2, 1942 they took Manila. The Americans entrenched themselves on the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor (west of Manila). Their resistance lasted for several months, but on April 9 the Bataan group capitulated, on May 6 - the garrison of Corregidor.

On January 23, 1942, the Japanese captured the Bismarck Archipelago, including Fr. New Britain, January 26-28 - Western Solomon Islands (Bougainville Island, Choiseul Island), in February - Gilbert Islands (Brit.). On March 7, they occupied the northeast of New Guinea.

By the end of May 1942, at the cost of insignificant losses (15 thousand), Japan managed to establish control over Southeast Asia and Northwestern Oceania.

A turning point in the Pacific theater of operations (May 1942 - early February 1943). In early April, the Anglo-Americans divided the theaters of operations into zones of responsibility: the United States took over the leadership of operations in the Pacific Ocean and in China, Great Britain - in Burma. The American sector, in turn, was divided into two zones: southwestern (D. MacArthur) and southeastern (C. Nimitz).

In the spring of 1942, a dispute broke out in the Japanese military elite about the future strategy of waging war. Under pressure from the command of the ground forces, which objected to the transfer of significant contingents from China and Manchuria, the command of the Navy had to abandon plans for large-scale offensive operations in the western (capture of Ceylon, establishing control over the Indian Ocean) and in the southern (invasion of Australia) directions.

On April 18, 1942, American aircraft carried out a raid on Tokyo, which had a great moral and military-political effect. This prompted the Japanese leadership to decide to strike to the southeast in order to capture the nearest approaches to Australia (southeast of New Guinea and the eastern Solomon Islands) and at the same time to the east in order to capture Midway Atoll and defeat the American Pacific Fleet in a pitched battle. .

On May 3, 1942, the Japanese invaded the eastern Solomon Islands; On May 5, they occupied the island of Guadalcanal. But on May 7, the Japanese squadron, heading to New Guinea to capture Port Moresby, collided with the 7th American fleet in the Coral Sea and, after a fierce battle (May 8), was forced to turn back. On July 21, the Japanese launched a ground attack on Port Moresby, but at the end of August they were stopped by Australian troops.

In early June, a powerful Japanese armada (about 200 ships, including 8 aircraft carriers, 11 battleships, 22 cruisers and 65 destroyers) moved east to take control of Midway Atoll with a sudden blow. To divert the American Pacific Fleet, the Japanese attacked the western Aleutian Islands on June 3; On June 7, they occupied the island of Kyska and the island of Attu. But the Americans guessed the plans of the enemy. On June 4–6, the battle of two fleets took place at Midway, ending in the defeat of the Japanese. They lost 4 aircraft carriers, the Americans - only one. The Japanese command lost the opportunity to use the fleet for offensive operations.

On July 2, the US military leadership decided to launch an offensive in the southwestern zone in order to liberate the occupied Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. On August 7, American troops landed on Guadalcanal. All attempts by the Japanese to destroy it failed. Several fierce naval battles took place near the island, which did not bring decisive success to either side. In early February 1943, the Japanese left Guadalcanal.

At the end of September, the Australians launched a counteroffensive in New Guinea, and by January 21, 1943, the entire southeastern part of the island had been cleared of the enemy.

The only major failure of the Allies was the failure of the Anglo-Indian troops to capture the Arakan region in southwestern Burma (December 1942 - May 1943).

As a result of defeats in the Coral Sea, at Midway and on Guadalcanal, the Japanese were forced to go on the defensive on all fronts except Burma. The war marked a turning point in favor of the allies.

Allied offensive

(May 1943 - June 1945). By the spring of 1943, the Allies had achieved superiority over the Japanese at sea and in the air. This allowed them to start large-scale operations in the Pacific theater of operations. At the Washington Conference in May 1943, it was decided to strike through New Guinea and from the central Pacific Ocean to liberate the Philippines and then invade China.

The offensive in the southeastern zone began with an operation to expel the Japanese from the western Aleutian Islands: on May 11–12, 1943, the Americans occupied Attu Island; in mid-July - Kyska Island. At the end of November, the US 5th Fleet captured the Gilbert Islands, in February 1944 - the Marshall Islands, after which the US Air Force attacked the Japanese bases on Truk Island (Caroline Islands) and forced the enemy to leave them. However, the Americans abandoned plans to capture the Caroline Islands and decided to take possession of the Marianas, which represented a convenient springboard for striking both the Philippines and Japan itself. On June 15, 1944, Nimitz's troops landed on Saipan. An attempt by the Japanese fleet to disrupt the landing operation failed: in the battle with the American 5th Fleet in the Philippine Sea on June 19–20, the Japanese suffered heavy losses, especially in aviation (480 aircraft). By July 9, the Americans had captured Saipan; On July 23–30, they captured about. Tinian, July 20 - August 10 - Guam and by mid-August established full control over the Mariana Islands.

The inner ring of Japan's defenses was broken. In the southwestern zone, MacArthur's troops launched an offensive at the end of June 1943 on the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. In early August, the Americans ousted the Japanese from the island of New Georgia, on November 1 they landed on the island of Bougainville, on December 15 - on the island of New Britain. In March 1944, an enemy attempt to crush the American landing on New Britain was repulsed. In the same month, the 7th Fleet captured the Admiralty Islands. The advanced Japanese base at Rabaul was completely neutralized.

By the end of October 1943, the Australians drove out the enemy from the Huon Peninsula in the eastern part of New Guinea and, developing an offensive to the west, captured the port of Madang on April 24, 1944. Two days before, the Americans landed on the northern coast of the island, captured the Hollandia base, cut off the Japanese grouping in Wewak; in May-August, after fierce fighting, they occupied the island of Biak, creating a springboard for a throw to the Philippines.

In the Burma theater, the British planned to carry out an offensive in northern Burma in the spring of 1944. To thwart it, Japanese troops struck in Assam in mid-March 1944; in early April, they went to Kohima and Imphala, but could not take them and in July they were thrown back to the Chanduin River, having suffered huge losses (54 thousand against 17 thousand). The bloodless Japanese grouping in Burma has lost the ability to actively resist.

At the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944, the Allies set as their primary task not the invasion of Japan, but the liberation of the Philippines and Burma.

On September 15, the US 7th Fleet occupied Marotai Island in the Moluccas archipelago south of the Philippines. On September 15–26, the 5th Fleet captured the Palau Islands in the western part of the Caroline Archipelago east of the Philippines. The two lines of the American offensive closed. On October 20, the Americans landed on Leyte Island in the eastern part of the Philippine archipelago. Trying to prevent the landing, on October 23–26, the Japanese fleet fought three times (in the Surigao Strait, near Samar Island and Cape Enganyo) with both American fleets: here the Japanese used suicide pilots (kamikaze) to destroy enemy ships for the first time. In the end, however, the Japanese suffered a heavy defeat; their losses amounted to 4 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 8 destroyers and 9 cruisers, the losses of the Americans - 3 aircraft carriers and 3 destroyers.

On December 15, the Americans created a bridgehead on the island of Mindoro, and by December 25 they completely captured Leyte. On January 10, 1945, D. MacArthur's troops landed in Mangaen Bay on the west coast of Luzon and moved to Manila. On January 29-31, the Americans dropped two landings under the walls of the Philippine capital. After bloody battles, Manila was cleared of the Japanese on March 4. In some remote areas of the Philippines, however, Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war.

In Burma, the decisive Allied offensive began in the autumn of 1944; its success was facilitated by the redeployment of the main forces of the Japanese Navy and Air Force from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Ocean. On October 14, the 14th British Army moved through Kaleva (on the Chanduin River) into central Burma. In the first half of December, D. Salten's grouping (Anglo-Indian and Chinese units) broke into northern Burma; On December 16, she joined units of the 14th Army near Kata on the Irrawaddy River. In southwestern Burma, on December 11, 1944 - January 21, 1945, the British captured Western Arakan with the port of Akyab.

In January 1945, the 14th Army launched an offensive in the Mandalay direction. On March 3, its right wing captured Meithila, cutting off the supply lines of the Japanese 33rd Army, which was defending Central Burma. All attempts by the Japanese to return Meithila failed. On March 20, Mandalay fell. The remnants of the 33rd Japanese Army, which had lost 2/3 of its strength, withdrew to southern Burma. By the end of March, overland communication between India and China was fully restored.

In April, the 14th Army launched an offensive into South Burma from the north; the British moved down the Irrawaddy and Seatown valleys. By this time, the Japanese troops had actually lost their combat effectiveness. On May 1 they left Rangoon, which was occupied by an English landing the next day. Most of Burma was liberated. Blockaded in Arakan, the Japanese 28th Army twice unsuccessfully tried to break through to the east in May; only 6,000 of the 60,000 managed to escape Seatown at the end of July.

From the end of November 1944, the US Air Force, using the airfields on the Marianas, began massive continuous bombing of Japanese cities. Attacks by B-29 heavy bombers almost completely paralyzed the Japanese military industry: more than 600 military enterprises were destroyed or seriously damaged, approx. 100 cities; production of petroleum products decreased by 83%, aircraft engines - by 75%.

In February 1945, the Nimitz group launched an offensive against the Japanese Islands. On February 19, the Americans landed on the island of Iwo Jima in the Kazan (Volkano) archipelago, halfway between Saipan and Tokyo, and on March 26, after fierce fighting, having lost 26 thousand people, they captured it. Then the 5th Fleet struck at the Ryukyu Islands, trying to reach the nearest approaches to Japan and cut off Japanese troops in Southeast Asia from the mother country. On April 1, American troops landed on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. 100 thousand the Japanese garrison offered desperate resistance: kamikazes caused serious damage to the 5th fleet, sinking 13 destroyers and damaging 3 aircraft carriers. But on April 6, the Americans destroyed the naval formation led by the battleship Yamato and by June 17 broke the enemy defenses. The losses of the Americans amounted to 49 thousand, the Japanese - 97 thousand (of which 7 thousand were captured).

On May 1, 1945, Australian troops, supported by the US 7th Fleet, launched an operation to liberate Kalimantan. On June 10 they captured the hall. Brunei, and by the beginning of July they already had most of the island in their hands.

Japanese surrender

(August - September 2, 1945). From the beginning of 1945, Japanese diplomacy probed the ground for concluding peace with the USA and Great Britain. In February-May, Japan several times turned to the USSR with a request for mediation, but was refused. On April 5, Moscow denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact. On April 7, the Cabinet of K. Suzuki came to power in Japan, the majority of which were supporters of a speedy exit from the war. On July 26, at the Potsdam Conference, the Allies adopted a declaration of Japan's unconditional surrender.

On August 6 and 9, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In these cities, 447,000 people died and were maimed, mostly civilians, and the cities themselves were almost completely destroyed.

On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and on August 9 launched military operations in Manchuria. On August 10, the Japanese government announced the adoption of the Potsdam Declaration, subject to the preservation of the prerogatives of the emperor, but the allies refused to give appropriate guarantees. Nevertheless, on August 14, the Council of Elders, convened at the initiative of Emperor Hirohito, decided at his insistence on unconditional surrender. The act of surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay on board the American battleship Missouri by MacArthur (from the Allied command), the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs M. Shigemitsu and the Chief of the General Staff of Japan E. Umazda, representatives of the USA, Great Britain, and China also put their signatures , USSR, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Holland. American troops occupied Japanese territory.

post-war settlement.

Post-war settlement in Europe.

The main problems of the post-war settlement in Europe were resolved at the Yalta (February 4–11, 1945) and Potsdam (July 17–August 2, 1945) conferences of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, and the meetings of the foreign ministers of the four victorious powers in London (September 11–2 October 1945), in Moscow (December 16-26, 1945), in Paris (April 25 - May 16 and June 15 - July 12, 1946), in New York (November 4 - December 12, 1946) and at the Paris Peace Conference (29 July - October 16, 1946). The question of the eastern borders of Czechoslovakia and Poland was settled by the Soviet-Czechoslovak (June 29, 1945) and Soviet-Polish (August 16, 1945) agreements. Peace treaties with Germany's allies Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Finland were signed in Paris on February 10, 1947 (entered into force on September 15, 1947).

Borders in Western Europe remained virtually the same. The political map of other European regions has undergone a number of significant changes. The borders of the USSR moved to the west: the region of Petsamo (Pechenga) moved away from Finland, from Germany - the northern part of East Prussia with Königsberg (Kaliningrad region), from Czechoslovakia - Transcarpathian Ukraine; Finland leased the territory of Porkkala Udd to the USSR for 50 years to create a naval base (in September 1955, Moscow abandoned it ahead of schedule). Poland recognized the inclusion of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in the USSR; for its part, the USSR returned to Poland the Bialystok Voivodeship and a small area in the upper reaches of the river. San. East Pomerania, Neumark, Silesia and the southern part of East Prussia, as well as the former Free City of Danzig, passed from Germany to Poland; its western border was the line Swinemünde (Swinoujscie) - Oder - Neisse. Bulgaria retained Southern Dobruja, transferred to it by Romania under an agreement on December 7, 1940. Italy ceded to Yugoslavia the peninsula of Istria and part of the Julian Krayna, and Greece - the Dodecanese; she lost all her colonies in Africa (Libya, Somalia and Eritrea). Trieste with the district received the status of a Free Territory under the control of the UN (in 1954 it was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia). It was supposed to restore the independent Austrian state on the basis of denazification and democratization; The occupation of Austria by the Allies, however, continued for another 10 years - only under the agreement on May 15, 1955, she regained political sovereignty.

Significant reparations were entrusted to Germany and its allies in favor of the countries affected by their aggression. The total amount of German reparations amounted to $ 20 billion; half of them were intended for the USSR. Italy pledged to pay Yugoslavia $125 million, Greece $105 million, the USSR $100 million, Ethiopia $25 million, Albania $5 million; Romania - USSR 300 million dollars; Bulgaria - Greece $45 million, Yugoslavia $25 million; Hungary - USSR $200 million, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia $100 million each; Finland - USSR 300 million dollars

The Allies proclaimed demilitarization, denazification and democratization as the main principles of the internal reorganization of Germany. German statehood was restored in 1949. However, under the conditions of the Cold War, Germany was divided into two parts: in September 1949, on the basis of the American, British and French zones of occupation, the Federal Republic of Germany arose, in October 1949 the Soviet zone was transformed into the German Democratic Republic.

Post-war settlement in the Far East.

The main provisions of the post-war settlement in the Far East were determined by the Cairo Declaration of the USA, Great Britain and China of December 1, 1943 and the decision of the Yalta Conference. Japan lost all its overseas possessions. South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Port Arthur (on a leasehold basis) passed to the USSR, Taiwan Island and the Penghuledao Islands - to China; On April 2, 1947, the United Nations transferred the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands to the custody of the United States. Port Dairen (Far) has been internationalized. Korea gained independence. Japan had to pay 1,030 billion yen in reparations. Its internal reconstruction was carried out on the principles of demilitarization and democratization.

Results of the Second World War.

World War II was the largest military conflict in human history. More than 60 states with a population of 1.7 billion people took part in it; military operations took place on the territory of 40 of them. The total number of fighting armies amounted to 110 million people, military spending - 1384 billion dollars. The scale of human losses and destruction turned out to be unprecedented. More than 46 million people died in the war, including 12 million in death camps: the USSR lost more than 26 million, Germany - approx. 6 million, Poland - 5.8 million, Japan - approx. 2 million, Yugoslavia - approx. 1.6 million, Hungary - 600 thousand, France - 570 thousand, Romania - approx. 460 thousand, Italy - approx. 450 thousand, Hungary - approx. 430 thousand, USA, Great Britain and Greece - 400 thousand each, Belgium - 88 thousand, Canada - 40 thousand. Material damage is estimated at 2600 billion dollars.

The terrible consequences of the war strengthened the global tendency to unite in order to prevent new military conflicts, the need to create a more effective system of collective security than the League of Nations. Its expression was the establishment in April 1945 of the United Nations.

The Second World War had important political consequences. Gone is the system of international relations, born of the Great Crisis of 1929-1932. A grouping of aggressive fascist powers was defeated, whose goal was not only to redistribute the world, but to establish world domination through the liquidation of other states as independent political units, the enslavement of entire peoples, and even the destruction of a number of ethnic groups (genocide); two historical centers of militarism disappeared - German (Prussian) in Europe and Japanese in the Far East. A new international political configuration arose based on two centers of gravity - the USSR and the USA, which had become extremely strong as a result of the war, and by the end of the 1940s, led two opposing blocs - Western and Eastern (the system of the bipolar world). Communism as a political phenomenon lost its local character and became one of the determining factors of world development for almost half a century.

The balance of power within Europe has changed radically. Great Britain and France lost the status of pan-European hegemons, which they acquired after the First World War. In Central Europe, the border between the Germanic and Slavic peoples returned to the Oder, by the turn of the beginning of the 8th century. The socio-political life of the Western European countries has significantly moved to the left: the influence of the Social Democratic and Communist parties has sharply increased, especially in Italy and France.

The Second World War initiated the process of disintegration of the world colonial system. It was not only the Japanese and Italian colonial empires that collapsed. Weakened and the hegemony of the West over the rest of the world as a whole. The defeats of the colonial powers on the battlefields in Europe (France, Belgium, Holland in 1940) and in Asia (Great Britain, Holland, USA in 1941-1942) led to a fall in the authority of the white man, and the significant contribution that dependent peoples made to the victory over fascism, contributed to the growth of their national and political self-consciousness.

Ivan Krivushin

APPENDIX 1. MUNICH AGREEMENT

Agreement concluded in Munich, September 29, 1938 between Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy.

Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy, having regard to the agreement already reached in principle on the cession of the German Sudeten Territory to Germany, agree on the following terms and conditions for the implementation of this cession and the measures resulting from it, and in accordance with this agreement they take their own reasonable steps to ensure its implementation:

2. Great Britain, France and Italy agree that the evacuation of the territory must be completed by October 10th, without any destruction, and that the Czechoslovak Government will be held responsible for carrying out the evacuation without destruction.

3. The conditions for carrying out the evacuation will be set in detail by an international commission composed of representatives from Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia.

4. The occupation phase of the predominantly German territory by the German troops will begin on October 1st. The four territories marked on the attached map will be occupied by German troops in the following order:

Territory marked with Number I on October 1st and 2nd; territory marked No. II on October 2nd and 3rd; area marked Number III on 3rd, 4th and 5th October; area marked No. IV on October 6th and 7th.

The remaining territory of a predominantly German character will be established by the above-mentioned international commission immediately and will be occupied by German troops by October 10th.

5. The international commission referred to in paragraph 3 will determine the territories in which the plebiscite is to be held.

These territories will be occupied by international units until the plebiscite is completed. This same commission will set the conditions under which the plebiscite is to be held, taking as the basic conditions for the plebiscite in the Saar.

The commission will also set a date, no later than the end of November, for the holding of the plebiscite.

6. The final determination of the boundaries will be carried out by an international commission. The Commission will also have the right to recommend to the four Great Powers, Germany,

Great Britain, France and Italy, in some exceptional cases, minor changes in the strictly ethnographic definitions of the zones, which must be transferred without a plebiscite.

7. There will be a choice in and out of the transferred territories.

An election to be made within six months of the date of this agreement. The German-Czechoslovak Commission must determine the details of the choice, consider ways of facilitating the transfer of the population and settle the fundamental questions arising from said transfer.

8. The Czechoslovak Government shall, within a period of four weeks from the date of issuance of this agreement, release from its military and police forces any Sudeten Germans who may wish to be released, and the Czechoslovak Government shall, within the same period, release imprisoned Sudeten Germans who are imprisoned for political violations.

Neville Chamberlain,

EDOUARD DALADIER,

BENITO MUSSOLINI.

Munich Treaty: Annex to the Agreement

His Majesty's Government of Great Britain and the French Government enter into the above agreement as a basis that they support the proposal contained in paragraph 6 of the Anglo-French Proposals of September 19th concerning an international guarantee of the new frontiers of the Czechoslovak State against unprovoked aggression.

When the question of the Polish and Hungarian minorities in Czechoslovakia is settled, Germany and Italy on their part will give a guarantee to Czechoslovakia.

Neville Chamberlain,

EDOUARD DALADIER,

BENITO MUSSOLINI.

Munich Treaty: Declaration

The HEADS of Government of the four Parties declare that if the problems of the Polish and Hungarian minorities in Czechoslovakia are not settled within three months in accordance with the agreements between the respective Governments, a new meeting of the Heads of Government of the four Parties represented here shall be set up for this subject.

Neville Chamberlain,

EDOUARD DALADIER,

BENITO MUSSOLINI.

Munich Treaty: Additional Declaration

All matters that may arise from the transfer of territory must be considered as additional within the competence of the International Commission.

Neville Chamberlain,

EDOUARD DALADIER,

BENITO MUSSOLINI.

Munich Treaty: Composition of the International Commission

The four Heads of Government represented here agree that the International Commission provided for in the agreement signed by them today shall be composed of the Secretary of State of the German Foreign Office, the British, French and Italian Ambassadors accredited in Berlin, and a representative to be appointed by the Government of Czechoslovakia.

Neville Chamberlain,

EDOUARD DALADIER,

BENITO MUSSOLINI.

APPENDIX 2. YALTA CONFERENCE CONFERENCE OF THE LEADERS OF THE THREE ALLIED POWERS - THE SOVIET UNION, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE GREAT BRITAIN IN CRIMEA

Over the past 8 days, the Conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the British Prime Minister Mr. W. Churchill, the President of the United States of America, Mr. F.D. Roosevelt and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR I.V. Foreign Affairs, Chiefs of Staff and other advisers.

In addition to the Heads of the Three Governments, the following persons took part in the Conference:

from the Soviet Union

People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov, People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. Kuznetsov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army General of the Army A.I. Antonov, Deputy People's Commissars of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.Ya. Vyshinsky and I. .M.Maisky, Air Marshal S.A.Khudyakov, Ambassador to Great Britain F.T.Gusev, Ambassador to the USA A.A.Gromyko;

from the United States -

Secretary of State Mr. E. Stettinius, Chief of Staff of the President, Admiral of the Navy W. Legi, Special Assistant to the President, Mr. G. Hopkins, Director of the Department of Military Mobilization Judge J. Byrnes, Chief of Staff of the US Army, General of the Army J. Marshall, Commander-in-Chief of the Military US Navy Admiral E. King, Chief of Supply of the American Army, Lieutenant General B. Somervell, Administrator for Naval Transportation Vice Admiral E. Land, Major General L. Cooter, Ambassador to the USSR Mr. A. Harrimap, Director of the European Division of the State Department, Mr. F. Matthews, Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs of the State Department, Mr. A. Hiss, Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. C. Bolen, along with political, military and technical advisers;

from Great Britain - Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. A. Eden, Minister of Military Transport Lord Leathers, Ambassador to the USSR Mr. A. Kerr, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. A. Cadogan, Secretary of the Military Cabinet Mr. E. Bridges, Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal A. Brook, Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal C. Portal, First Sea Lord Admiral of the Fleet E. Cunnipgham, Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Defense General H. Ismay, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater Field Marshal Alexander, Chief of the British Military Mission in Washington, Field Marshal Wilson, a member of the British Military Mission in Washington, Admiral Somerville, along with military and diplomatic advisers.

On the results of the work of the Crimean Conference, the President of the United States, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Prime Minister of Great Britain made the following statement:

I. Defeat of Germany

We examined and determined the military plans of the three Allied Powers for the final defeat of the common enemy. The military headquarters of the three allied nations met daily in meetings throughout the Conference. These meetings were highly satisfactory from all points of view and resulted in a closer coordination of the military efforts of the three Allies than ever before. A mutual exchange of the most complete information was made. The timing, size and coordination of the new and even more powerful strikes that will be delivered in the heart of Germany by our armies and air forces from the east, west, north and south have been fully agreed and planned in detail.

Our joint military plans will only become known when we have carried them out, but we are confident that the very close working cooperation between our three headquarters achieved in this Conference will lead to hastening the end of the war. Meetings of our three headquarters will continue whenever the need arises.

Nazi Germany is doomed. The German people, in trying to continue their hopeless resistance, only makes the price of their defeat harder for themselves.

II. Occupation and control of Germany

We have agreed on a common policy and plans for the enforcement of the terms of unconditional surrender, which we will jointly impose on Nazi Germany after German armed resistance has been finally crushed. These terms will not be published until the complete defeat of Germany has been achieved. In accordance with the agreed plan, the armed forces of the three powers will occupy special zones in Germany. The plan provides for coordinated administration and control through a Central Control Commission, composed of the Commanders-in-Chief of the three Powers, seated in Berlin. It was decided that France would be invited by the three Powers, if she so desired, to take over the zone of occupation and participate as the fourth member of the Control Commission. The dimensions of the French zone will be agreed between the four governments concerned through their representatives in the European Advisory Commission.

Our inexorable goal is the destruction of German militarism and Nazism and the creation of guarantees that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the whole world. We are determined to disarm and disband all German armed forces, to destroy once and for all the German General Staff, which has repeatedly contributed to the revival of German militarism, to withdraw or destroy all German military equipment, to liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for military purposes. production; subject all war criminals to just and speedy punishment and exact compensation in kind for the destruction caused by the Germans; wipe out the Nazi Party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions; remove all Nazi and militaristic influence from public institutions, from the cultural and economic life of the German people, and to take jointly such other measures in Germany as may be necessary for the future peace and security of the whole world. Our goals do not include the destruction of the German people. Only when Nazism and militarism are eradicated will there be hope for a dignified existence for the German people and a place for them in the community of nations.

III. Reparations from Germany

We have discussed the damage caused in this war by Germany to the allied countries, and have recognized it as just to oblige Germany to compensate this damage in kind to the maximum extent possible.

A Commission for Compensation for Losses will be set up, which will be tasked with considering the issue of the amount and methods of compensation for the damage caused by Germany to the allied countries. The commission will work in Moscow.

IV. United Nations Conference

We have decided in the near future to establish, together with our allies, a universal international organization for the maintenance of peace and security. We believe that this is essential both for preventing aggression and for eliminating the political, economic and social causes of war through the close and constant cooperation of all peace-loving peoples.

The foundations were laid at Dumbarton Oaks. However, no agreement was reached on the important issue of the voting procedure. This Conference has succeeded in resolving this difficulty. We have agreed that a conference of the United Nations shall be convened at San Francisco, in the United States, on April 25, 1945, to prepare a Charter for such an organization, in accordance with the provisions worked out during the informal negotiations at Dumbarton Oaks.

The Government of China and the Provisional Government of France will be immediately consulted and requested to take part, together with the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in inviting other countries to the conference.

As soon as the consultations with China and France are completed, the text of the proposals on the voting procedure will be published.

V. Declaration on a Liberated Europe

We drew up and signed the Declaration on a Liberated Europe. This Declaration provides for the harmonization of the policies of the three powers and their joint actions in resolving the political and economic problems of a liberated Europe in accordance with democratic principles. Below is the text of the Declaration:

“The Prime Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America consulted among themselves in the common interests of the peoples of their countries and the peoples of liberated Europe. They jointly declare that they have agreed among themselves to coordinate, during a period of temporary instability in liberated Europe, the policy of their three governments in helping the peoples liberated from the domination of Nazi Germany and the peoples of the former Axis satellite states in Europe in resolving by democratic means their pressing political and economic issues.

The establishment of order in Europe and the reorganization of national economic life must be achieved in such a way as to enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism and to establish democratic institutions of their own choosing. In accordance with the principle of the Atlantic Charter on the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live, the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government must be ensured for those peoples who have been deprived of this by violent nations by aggressive nations.

In order to improve the conditions under which the liberated peoples may exercise these rights, the Three Governments will jointly assist the peoples in any liberated European state or in a former satellite state of the Axis in Europe, where, in their opinion, the circumstances will require: a) to create conditions for internal peace; b) to carry out urgent measures to provide assistance to needy peoples; (c) to establish provisional government authorities, broadly representing all the democratic elements of the population, and obliged to establish as soon as possible, by free elections, governments in accordance with the will of the people, and (c) to facilitate, where necessary, the holding of such elections.

The Three Governments will consult with the other United Nations and with the Provisional Authorities, or with other Governments in Europe, when matters in which they are directly interested are considered.

When, in the opinion of the Three Governments, conditions in any European liberated state or in any of the former satellite states of the Axis in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult among themselves on the necessary measures to implement the joint responsibility established in this Declaration.

With this Declaration, we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our loyalty to the Declaration of the United Nations, and our determination to create, in cooperation with other peace-loving nations, an international order based on the principles of law, dedicated to the peace, security, freedom and general welfare of mankind.

By issuing this Declaration, the three Powers express the hope that the Provisional Government of the French Republic may join them in the proposed procedure."

VI. About Poland

We have gathered for the Crimean Conference to resolve our differences on the Polish question. We have fully discussed all aspects of the Polish question. We reaffirmed our common wish to see a strong, free, independent and democratic Poland established, and as a result of our negotiations we agreed on the terms on which a new Provisional Polish Government of National Unity would be formed in such a way as to be recognized by the three major powers.

The following agreement has been reached:

“A new situation was created in Poland as a result of its complete liberation by the Red Army. This requires the creation of a Provisional Polish Government, which would have a broader base than was possible before, until the recent liberation of Western Poland. The Provisional Government now operating in Poland must therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis, with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and Poles from abroad. This new government should then be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity.

V.M. Molotov, Mr. W.A. borders, bearing in mind the reorganization of the present Government on the basis indicated above. This Polish Provisional Government of National Unity must undertake to hold free and unhindered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage by secret ballot. In these elections, all anti-Nazi and democratic parties must have the right to participate and nominate candidates.

When the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity is properly formed in accordance with the above, the Government of the USSR, which currently maintains diplomatic relations with the current Provisional Government of Poland, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the United States will establish diplomatic relations with the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity and exchange ambassadors whose reports will inform the respective governments of the situation in Poland.

The Heads of the Three Governments believe that Poland's eastern frontier should run along the Curzon line, with deviations from it in some areas from five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland. The Heads of the Three Governments recognize that Poland must receive substantial increases in territory in the North and in the West. They consider that the opinion of the new Polish Government of National Unity will be sought in due course on the question of the amount of these increments, and that thereafter the final determination of Poland's western frontier will be postponed until a peace conference."

VII. About Yugoslavia

I) that the Anti-Fascist Veche for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia will be expanded to include members of the last Yugoslav Assembly who have not compromised themselves by collaborating with the enemy, and thus a body called the Provisional Parliament will be created;

II) that legislative acts passed by the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council will be subject to subsequent approval by the Constituent Assembly.

A general overview of other Balkan issues was also made.

VIII. Foreign Ministers Conference

Throughout the conference, apart from the daily meetings of the Heads of Government and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, separate meetings of the three Ministers of Foreign Affairs took place every day with the participation of their advisers.

These meetings proved extremely useful and it was agreed at the Conference that a permanent mechanism should be set up for regular consultation between the three Foreign Ministers. Therefore the Foreign Ministers will meet as often as necessary, probably every 3 or 4 months. These meetings will take place alternately in the three capitals, with the first meeting to be held in London after the United Nations Conference on the Establishment of the International Security Organization.

IX. Unity in the organization of the world, as well as in the conduct of war

Our meeting in the Crimea reaffirmed our common determination to preserve and strengthen in the coming period of peace that unity of purpose and action which has made victory in modern war possible and undeniable for the United Nations. We believe that this is the sacred obligation of our Governments to their peoples, as well as to the peoples of the world.

Only with continued and growing cooperation and understanding between our three countries and among all peace-loving peoples can the highest aspiration of mankind be realized - a lasting and lasting peace, which should, as the Atlantic Charter says, “ensure a situation in which all people in all countries could live their whole lives without fear or want."

The victory in this war and the formation of the proposed international organization will provide the greatest opportunity in the history of mankind to create in the coming years the most important conditions for such a world.

Winston S. Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, J. Stalin

AGREEMENT

The leaders of the Three Great Powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - agreed that two or three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies, provided:

1. Maintaining the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic);

2. Restoration of the rights belonging to Russia, violated by the perfidious attack of Japan in 1904, namely:

a) the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of about. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands;

b) the internationalization of the commercial port of Dairen with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union in this port and the restoration of the lease on Port Arthur as a naval base of the USSR;

c) joint operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway, which gives access to Dairen, on the basis of organizing a mixed Soviet-Chinese Society with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union, while it is understood that China retains full sovereignty in Manchuria;

3. Transfer to the Soviet Union of the Kuril Islands.

It is assumed that an agreement regarding Outer Mongolia and the aforementioned ports and railways will require the consent of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. On the advice of Marshal I.V. Stalin, the President will take steps to ensure that such consent is obtained.

The Heads of the Governments of the Three Great Powers agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union should be unconditionally satisfied after the victory over Japan.

For its part, the Soviet Union expresses its readiness to conclude a pact of friendship and alliance between the USSR and China with the National Chinese Government for rendering assistance to it with its armed forces in order to liberate China from the Japanese yoke.

I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt, Winston S. Churchill

APPENDIX 3. POTSDAM DECLARATION

Statement by the Heads of Government of the United States, the United Kingdom and China (Potsdam Declaration)

1. We, the President of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing hundreds of millions of our compatriots, have conferred and agreed that Japan should be given the opportunity to end this war.

2. The vast land, sea, and air forces of the United States, the British Empire, and China, reinforced many times over by their troops and air fleets from the West, were prepared to deliver the final blows to Japan. This military power is supported and inspired by the determination of all the Allied Nations to wage war against Japan until she ceases her resistance.

3. The result of Germany's fruitless and senseless resistance to the might of the risen free peoples of the world is presented with terrible clarity as an example to the people of Japan. The mighty forces that are now approaching Japan are immeasurably greater than those which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, naturally devastated the lands, destroyed industry and disrupted the way of life of the entire German people. The full use of our military force, backed by our determination, will mean the inevitable and final destruction of the Japanese armed forces, the equally inevitable complete devastation of the Japanese metropolis.

4. The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be under the rule of those stubborn militaristic advisers whose unreasonable calculations have brought the Japanese empire to the brink of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason.

5. Below are our terms and conditions. We will not back down from them. There is no choice. We will not tolerate any delay.

6. The power and influence of those who deceived and misled the people of Japan, forcing them to follow the path of world conquest, must be removed forever, for we firmly believe that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible as long as irresponsible militarism will not be expelled from the world.

7. Until such a new order is established, and until there is conclusive proof that Japan's ability to wage war has been destroyed, the points on Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies will be occupied in order to ensure the implementation of the main goals that we set out here.

8. The terms of the Cairo Declaration will be fulfilled and Japanese sovereignty will be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such smaller islands as we indicate.

9. The Japanese armed forces, after they are disarmed, will be allowed to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead a peaceful and working life.

10. We do not want the Japanese to be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but all war criminals, including those who have committed atrocities against our prisoners, must be severely punished. The Japanese Government must remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, religion and thought will be established, as well as respect for basic human rights.

11. Japan will be allowed to have an industry that will support her economy and collect just reparations in kind, but not those industries that will allow her to arm herself again for war. For these purposes, access to raw materials will be allowed, as opposed to control over them. Ultimately, Japan will be allowed to participate in world trade relations.

12. Allied occupying forces will be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives are achieved and as soon as a peaceful and responsible government is established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.

13. We call upon the Government of Japan to declare now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese military forces and to give appropriate and sufficient assurances of their good intentions in this matter. Otherwise, Japan will face a quick and complete defeat.

“After the defeat and surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan turned out to be the only great power that still stands for the continuation of the war.

The demand of the three powers - the United States of America, Great Britain and China - dated July 26 of this year for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces was rejected by Japan. Thus, the proposal of the Japanese Government to the Soviet Union for mediation in the war in the Far East loses all ground.

Taking into account Japan's refusal to capitulate, the Allies turned to the Soviet Government with a proposal to join the war against Japanese aggression and thereby shorten the time for the end of the war, reduce the number of victims and help restore world peace as soon as possible.

True to its Allied duty, the Soviet Government accepted the proposal of the Allies and acceded to the Declaration of the Allied Powers of July 26 of this year.

The Soviet Government considers that such a policy of its own is the only means capable of hastening the onset of peace, freeing the peoples from further sacrifices and suffering, and enabling the Japanese people to get rid of the dangers and destruction that Germany experienced after its refusal of unconditional surrender.

In view of the foregoing, the Soviet Government declares that from tomorrow, that is, from August 9, the Soviet Union will consider itself in a state of war with Japan.

APPENDIX 4. GERMANY SURRENDER ACT

1. We, the undersigned, acting on behalf of the German High Command, agree to the unconditional surrender of all our armed forces on land, sea and air, as well as all forces currently under German command, to the High Command of the Red Army and simultaneously to the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.

2. The German High Command will immediately issue orders to all German commanders of the land, sea and air forces and all forces under German command to cease hostilities at 23.01 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945, to remain in their places where they are at this time. time, and completely disarm, handing over all their weapons and military equipment to local Allied commanders or officers assigned by representatives of the Allied High Command, not to destroy or cause any damage to steamships, ships and aircraft, their engines, hulls and equipment, as well as vehicles, weapons , apparatuses and all military-technical means of warfare in general.

3. The German High Command will immediately assign appropriate commanders and ensure that all further orders issued by the Supreme High Command of the Red Army and the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces are carried out.

4. This act shall not prevent its replacement by another general instrument of surrender, concluded by or on behalf of the United Nations, applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.

5. In the event that the German High Command or any armed forces under its command fail to act in accordance with this act of surrender, the High Command of the Red Army, as well as the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, will take such punitive measures or other action they deem necessary.

6. This act is drawn up in Russian, English and German. Only Russian and English texts are authentic.

On behalf of the German High Command:

Keitel, Friedeburg, Stumpf

in the presence:

On the authority of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army

Marshal of the Soviet Union

By authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force Air Chief Marshal

At the signing were also present as witnesses:

Commander of the US Strategic Air Forces

General Spaats

Commander-in-Chief of the French Army

General Delattre de Tassigny

APPENDIX 5. JAPANESE SURRENDER ACT

We, acting on the orders and in the name of the Emperor, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Staff, hereby accept the terms of the Declaration issued on July 26 in Potsdam by the Heads of the Governments of the United States, China and Great Britain, which was subsequently joined by the USSR, which four powers will hereafter be called Allied Powers.

We hereby declare the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Staff, all Japanese military forces and all military forces under Japanese control, no matter where they are located.

We hereby order all Japanese troops, wherever located, and the Japanese people to cease hostilities immediately, to preserve and prevent damage to all ships, aircraft and military and civilian property, and to comply with all demands that may be made by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or organs of the Japanese Government on its instructions.

We hereby order the Japanese Imperial General Staff to immediately issue orders to the commanders of all Japanese troops and troops under Japanese control, wherever located, to surrender unconditionally in person, and also to ensure the unconditional surrender of all troops under their command.

All civil, military and naval officials shall obey and carry out all instructions, orders and directives which the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers deems necessary to effect this surrender and which may be issued by him or by his authority; we direct all these officials to remain at their posts and continue to carry out their non-combat duties, except when they are relieved of them by special decree issued by or under the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.

We hereby undertake that the Japanese Government and its successors will faithfully carry out the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, issue such orders and take such actions as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or any other representative appointed by the Allied Powers shall require in order to implement this Declaration.

We hereby direct the Imperial Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Staff to immediately release all Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now under Japanese control and ensure their protection, maintenance and care, and their immediate delivery to the designated places.

The authority of the Emperor and the Government of Japan to govern the state shall be subordinated to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, who shall take such steps as he deems necessary to carry out these terms of surrender.

By order and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Government of Japan (Signed)

By order and on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Staff (Signed)

Bonded at Tokyo Bay, Japan at 09:08 am, September 2nd, 1945, on behalf of the United States, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and on behalf of the other United Nations at war with Japan.

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (Signed)

Representative of the United States (Signed)

Representative of the Republic of China (Signed)

Representative of the United Kingdom (Signed)

Representative of the USSR (Signed)

Representative of the Commonwealth of Australia (Signed)

Representative of the Dominion of Canada (Signed)

Representative of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (Signed)

Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Signed)

Representative of the Dominion of New Zealand (Signed)

MEMORANDUM OF THE CHIEF OF THE ALLIED POWERS TO THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE GOVERNMENT No. 677 JANUARY 29, 1946

1. The Imperial Japanese Government is hereby directed to cease exercising or attempting to exercise state or administrative authority in any area outside of Japan, as well as in relation to government officials or employees, or in relation to any other persons within these areas.

2. Without the permission of the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, the Imperial Japanese Government will not communicate with government officials or employees, or with any other person outside of Japan, except in matters of established navigation, communications, or meteorological service.

3. For the purposes of this Directive, the territory of Japan is defined as: the four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku) and approximately 1,000 minor adjacent islands, including the Tsushima Islands and the Ryukyu Islands (Nansei) north of 30° north latitude (excluding Kuchinoshima Island) and excluding:

a) Unur Island (Ullung), Liancourt Rocks (Take Island) and Quellnart Island (Saishu or Teju),

b) the island of Ryukyu (Nansei) south of 30 ° north latitude (including the island of Kutinoshima), the island groups of Izu, Nampo, Bonin (Ogasawara) and Volkano (Kazan or Iwo), as well as all other outlying Pacific islands, including the group of islands Wow Daito (Ohigashi or Oagari) and Pares Vela (Okinotori), Marcus (Minami-tori) and Ganjes (Na-kano-tori),

c) the Kuril (Tishima) Islands, the Habomai (Habomad-ze) group of islands, including the islands of Sushio, Yuri, Akiyuri, Shibotsu and Taraku), as well as the island of Sikotan.

4. The following areas are specifically excluded from the state and administrative jurisdiction of the Imperial Japanese Government:

a) all the Pacific islands captured or occupied by mandate, or otherwise acquired by Japan since the outbreak of World War 1914,

b) Manchuria, Formosa and the Pescador Islands,

e) Karafuto (Sakhalin).

5. The definition of the territory of Japan contained in this directive shall apply to all future directives, memorandums and orders of the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, unless otherwise specified.

For the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers, Colonel ALLEN H.W.,
Assistant Adjutant General

Italian campaign 1943–1945

The Italian army, after defeats in 1942-1943 on the Eastern Front (Stalingrad), in the East African and North African campaigns and the Tunisian operation, had a very low morale and, accordingly, reduced combat effectiveness. Italy lost all her African colonies. The territory of Italy itself was regularly bombed by allied aircraft. The resistance movement grew rapidly. Italy was in front of a real threat of invasion of the country by allied forces.

The main forces of Germany were pinned down by the war on the Eastern Front. Its ability to supply additional forces and assets to Italy was limited.

Under these conditions, the Allies decided to carry out an invasion of Italy, defeat the Italian army and withdraw Italy from the war.

Italian campaign began on July 10, 1943 with the landing of the allies in Sicily. After landings in mainland Italy, battles on the "Gustav Line", at Monte Cassino and Anzio, the Italian campaign ended with the surrender of German troops in Northern Italy on May 2, 1945.

To conduct operations in the Italian campaign, the Allies created a grouping of troops, the commander-in-chief of which was the American General Dwight Eisenhower. The ground forces of the grouping were consolidated into the 15th Army Group under the command of General Harold Alexander. It included the 7th American Army (General J. Paton) and the 8th British Army (General B. Montgomery). At the request of Canada, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, which arrived from England from the 1st Canadian Army, was included in the 8th British Army.

The combined allied air forces of the Mediterranean, which included the air forces of Northwest Africa, the air forces of the Middle East and the Air Force of Malta, had more than 4 thousand combat and 900 transport aircraft.

The Mediterranean Fleet of Great Britain (commanded by Admiral E. Cunningham) had 1,380 warships, landing and auxiliary ships, incl. 6 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 30 cruisers, and over 1,800 landing craft.

At different times, Australian (air force and navy), New Zealand, South African, Indian, Palestinian, Polish, Brazilian, Greek formations and units and troops of the Fighting France (Algerian, Moroccan, Senegalese). Italian partisans also took part in the battles, and from September 8, 1943, the troops of the Italian kingdom.

Italy by the beginning of the Italian campaign, it had 82 divisions and 8 brigades, 825 combat-ready combat aircraft, 263 warships, including 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 93 submarines. However, for the defense of the metropolis (mainland Italy), only 44 divisions of low combat readiness, 6 brigades, 600 combat-ready aircraft and 183 ships were concentrated. The rest of the troops fought with partisans in the Balkans and carried out occupational service in southern France.

The German command had only 7 divisions and one brigade, 500 aircraft and 60 ships in Italy.

Allied landing in Sicily

Operation Husky(Allied landing in Sicily) lasted from July 10 to August 17, 1943.

In Sicily, the 6th Italian Army was located under the command of General Alfredo Guzzoni. It included the 12th and 16th Coast Guard Corps and four infantry divisions, a total of nine Italian divisions and army units, as well as the German 14th Panzer Corps (two divisions, including the Hermann Goering Panzer Division) , later - four divisions). In total, there were 300 thousand Italian and 40 thousand German soldiers, 147 tanks, 220 guns and about 600 aircraft in Sicily. Italian troops soon received reinforcements: 12 thousand people. and 91 tanks.

For the landing of the allies in Sicily, the two armies of the 15th Army Group had 13 divisions, 3 tank brigades, 3 Commando detachments and 3 Rangers battalions. The grouping of allied forces consisted of 470 thousand people and 600 tanks. For most of the Americans and for the entire Canadian contingent, this was the first battle.

It began on the morning of July 10, 1943 simultaneously from the sea and from the air on the south coast in the Gulf of Gela and south of Syracuse.

Marine landings in strong winds landed on the southern (Americans) and southeastern (British) coasts of Sicily. The Canadian division, with strong enemy resistance, landed on the southernmost tip of the island near the village of Pacino.

Due to bad weather conditions, many troops landed at the wrong place and six hours later than planned. But, using the factor of surprise, the British almost without resistance approached Syracuse. The Canadians met with a decisive rebuff from the Italian defenses located on the hills. The Canadians were driven back to the shore, but with the approach of reinforcements, they continued to advance.

On the night of July 10, the allies dropped 4 airborne assault forces. The American landing force of the 505th Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, due to strong winds, deviated from the course, and half of the American paratroopers did not reach their destinations. In the British landing of 12 gliders, only one reached the target, while many fell into the sea.

Start of Operation Husky. Allied landing in Sicily 10 July 1943

First day of the Allied landings in Sicily, 10 July 1943


Source: Collections IWM Photo No.: A 17916

On July 11, Patton ordered the landing regiments, which were in reserve, to drop in the center of the coast. But the British Mediterranean Fleet was not informed of this and opened fire on the C-47 transport aircraft that were transporting troops to the landing site. As a result, out of 114 transport aircraft, 33 were shot down and 37 damaged, 318 people were victims of friendly fire.

By July 14, the landing on the bridgehead was completed. Vizzini was captured in the west and Augusta in the east. Then, in the British sector, enemy resistance increased.

On the western coast of Sicily, the Italians managed to hold back the American advance in the Castrofilippo Naro area.

The explosion of the American transport ship "Robert Rowan", hit by German bombers, near Gela during the Allied landings in Sicily, July 11, 1943


U.S. Army Signal Corps Photo no. MM-43-L-1-23. Photo: Lt. longini.

The explosion of the American transport ship "Robert Rowan" (the SS Robert Rowan) K-40 Liberty class hit by German Ju-88 bombers near Gela during the Allied landings in Sicily, 11 July 1943

Vessel "Liberty" The SS Robert Rowan was built by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. (the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company) in Wilmington, North Carolina (USA). It was laid down on 3 March 1943 and launched on 13 April. Its first voyage was launched on May 14, 1943 from Hampton Roads, Virginia (USA), to Oran (Algeria) as part of the UGS-8A convoy. In July, the ship took part in the Allied landings in Sicily and was sent to Gela. It reached Gela on 11 July 1943 with a load of ammunition and 334 soldiers of the 18th Infantry Division. It also carried 36 American sailors guarding the cargo and 41 crew members. At 2 p.m., German Junkers Ju-88 bombers launched an attack on landing craft in the bay. During the attack, "Robert Rowan" was hit by three 500-kilogram bombs. One bomb went through the ship, but two others exploded in the hold. Due to the nature of the cargo, the ship was abandoned without any attempt to put out the fire. All 421 men evacuated safely to neighboring destroyers. Twenty minutes later, the fire reached the ammunition, and a huge explosion tore the ship in half. Partially sunk aground, it illuminated Gela Bay with its fire all night.

Fighting in Sicily from 12 July to 17 August 1943


Source: Army brochure - Sicily 1943.

On July 22, American troops captured Palermo. Italian and German troops retreated to Messina. A fortified line was prepared around Messina ("Etna Line") to ensure an organized retreat of the Italo-German troops to the Apennine Peninsula (to mainland Italy).

On July 25, a palace coup took place in Italy. By order of King B. Mussolini was arrested, and the government was headed by Marshal P. Badoglio.

The Germans and Italians managed to keep the main forces of their troops in Sicily from capture and organizedly evacuate them from the island along with military equipment. After all the troops not engaged in the defense of the Etna line were evacuated, its defenders also crossed over to the Apennine Peninsula under cover of night. The evacuation was successful. The last German-Italian units left Sicily on August 17, 1943. Parts of the US 3rd Infantry Division entered Messina a few hours after the end of the evacuation of the German-Italian troops.

Losses German and Italian troops amounted to 29 thousand people killed, 140 thousand (mostly Italians) were captured. American losses were 2,237 killed and 6,544 wounded or captured. 2,721 British soldiers died, 10,122 were wounded or captured. Canadian troops lost 562 killed and 1,848 wounded or taken prisoner.

The Allied landing operation in Sicily was the largest amphibious operation at the time. In the future, the experience of landing in Sicily will be used to carry out the Normandy landings - an even larger amphibious operation - the largest amphibious assault in history.

The strategic goals that were set in the Allied landing operation in Sicily were achieved: Italian and German troops were driven out of the island, the Mediterranean sea routes became safer, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown, and soon the landing began on the Apennine Peninsula - in mainland Italy .

Allied landings in mainland Italy

On September 3, formations of the 8th British Army landed in the south of mainland Italy in the region of Reggio di Calabria during Operation Baytown. After the landing, the army formations began to advance north.

The loss of Sicily, the growth of the Italian Resistance, the defeat of German troops on the Kursk Bulge, and the beginning of the Allied landings in mainland Italy forced the government of Marshal Badoglio on September 3 to sign the terms of Italy's surrender. On September 8, the unified command of the allied forces announced the agreement on the surrender of Italy.

After the capitulation of Italy, the Wehrmacht High Command hastily transferred 10 more divisions to Italy. They disarmed almost the entire Italian army and occupied most of the Italian mainland. The Italian government and the high command of the Italian armed forces fled to the location of the Allied forces. On the territory of Italy occupied by German troops, a fascist Italian government was formed (the Italian Social Republic or the Republic of Salo, which lasted until April 25, 1945), headed by Benito Mussolini, who was released from prison by a detachment of paratroopers and SS men led by Skorzeny.

Allied landings in mainland Italy in 1943

On September 9, in the Salerno area, with strong German resistance, the troops of the 5th American army landed during Operation Avalanche, and an additional contingent of British troops landed in Taranto during Operation Slapstick and began to move north as part of the 8th British Army.

The coastal bridgehead of the 5th American Army at Salerno by the end of September 11, 1943

Allied artillery landing on the coast of Salerno. September 1943


Photo #80-G-54600 US Navy.

In the early days of the offensive, the 8th British Army advanced rapidly on the western coast of Italy, captured the port of Bari and large airfields near Foggia. The landing of American troops near Salerno, where they were opposed by the main forces of the 10th German Army, was on the verge of failure, but the Americans managed to create a bridgehead. Then the efforts of the American troops were directed to the capture of Naples. Assistance to the ground forces was provided by Allied aviation based in Sicily.

Fighting on the "Gustav Line", near Monte Cassino and Anzio

In the middle of mainland Italy, the Apennine mountains and numerous rivers, which were natural frontiers convenient for defense, were a serious obstacle to the advancing Allied troops. In addition to them, the German troops arranged additional obstacles in the form of flooding of large areas.

In October 1943, the commander of the German troops in southern Italy, Field Marshal Kesselring, began to build defensive lines in central Italy, using the difficult mountainous terrain.

To the south of Rome, several lines of defensive fortifications were created. The advanced defensive lines of the "Volturno Line" and "Barbara Line" were intended to temporarily contain the Allied forces while the construction of a powerful main network of fortifications, the "Winter Line", which consisted of the "Gustav Line" and two additional lines of fortifications starting in the Apennine mountains and descending to the Tyrrhenian Sea: the Bernhardt Line and the Adolf Hitler Line. The "Winter Line" and its basis - the "Gustav Line" at the end of 1943 - the beginning of 1944 were the main obstacle for the Allied troops.

German defensive lines south of Rome in 1943-1944

By the beginning of November 1943, German troops retreated to the prepared line of defense along the Garigliano and Sangro rivers - the “Gustav Line”.

On November 15, 1943, the command of the German troops in Italy was expanded and transformed into a command in the South-West, which included the newly formed Army Group C (Heeresgruppe C - 10th and 14th armies) and the command of the Luftwaffe in the South . Field Marshal Kesselring became commander in the South-West and commander of Army Group C, to whom all German armed forces in Italy were now subordinate.

"Gustav Line" stopped the advance of the 5th American army along the western coast of Italy and in the area of ​​Monte Cassino. On the eastern Adriatic coast, the British 8th Army broke through the "Gustav Line" and captured Ortona. However, in late December, heavy snowfall and blizzards halted the British advance. On the western coast of Italy, sheltered by the Apennine mountains, the weather was better, and the Allies launched an offensive through the valley of the Liri River, from where a direct route to Rome opened, but failed.

Between November 1943 and May 1944, the Allied forces made several unsuccessful attempts to break through the enemy defenses on the Gustav line.

Repair of the German tank Pz.Kpfw IV during the battle near Monte Cassino,
January 1944


Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-312-0998-27, Monte Cassino, Panzerreparatur während Kampf. Foto: Enz.

German paratroopers with a mortar at Monte Cassino, 1944


Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-577-1917-08, Monte Cassino, Fallschirmjäger mit Granatwerfer. Foto: Haas.

Monte Cassino. Paratroopers in a destroyed building, 1944.


Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-578-1928-23A, Monte Cassino, Fallschirmjager in Gebäude. Foto: Wagner.
Italy, Monte Cassino. A group of paratroopers takes up position in a destroyed building next to the Sturmgeschütz assault gun. Without a headdress, Captain Rudolf-Paul Renneke (Rennecke Rudolf-Paul), holder of the Knight's Cross (RK).

To loosen the German defenses on the Gustav Line, on January 22, the Americans landed an amphibious assault in the port area Anzio. By February 6, the entire 6th American Corps, consisting of three divisions, concentrated on the bridgehead, which by that time had been expanded. The Americans had a numerical superiority in forces and means, but could not break through the German defenses. The 6th American Corps found itself locked in a coastal bridgehead measuring less than 30 km along the front and 12-18 km in depth.

Expansion of the Allied beachhead at Anzio on February 1, 1944

U.S. Army Center of Military History Doc# 72-19

From January to May 1944, four major offensives were carried out on the Gustav Line. By the beginning of May 1944, the Allied forces in Italy (Commander-in-Chief General G. M. Wilson) were brought up to 25 divisions (including 5 armored), 8 brigades (4 armored and 1 commando brigade), which supported 3,960 aircraft. The German Army Group "C" consisted of 19 divisions (one tank) and 320 aircraft.

On May 11, 1944, the Allied troops went on the offensive in the area south of Monte Cassino. The strike force of the 5th American and 8th British armies was concentrated on a 32-kilometer front between Monte Cassino and the west coast. The Allied forces included American, British, Canadian, French and Polish formations. After stubborn fighting, the "Gustav Line" was finally broken through.

At the same time, the 6th American Corps, located in the Anzio region, broke through the German defenses, left the bridgehead into the operational space and began to advance along the west coast towards Rome. At the same time, he missed the opportunity to cut off the retreat of the retreating German 10th Army with its subsequent destruction.

By May 26, the Allied troops advancing from the Monte Cassino region advanced 30-60 kilometers and connected with the 6th American Corps.

The Germans declared Rome an "open city" and withdrew their garrison from the city. On June 4, American troops entered Rome.

Allied offensive from the Gustav Line near Monte Cassino (Operation Diadem) and Allied breakthrough from the bridgehead at Anzio, 11-30 May 1944

On the territory occupied by German troops, a broad resistance movement unfolded. The partisan detachments were led by the Communist Party, socialists, Catholics, the Action Party, and others. In May 1944, there were about 80,000 partisans in Italy. They controlled a significant part of the regions of Lombardy, the Marche, and others. To fight the partisans, the Germans were forced to send large military units.

Fighting in Northern Italy

After the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, many American and French formations were transferred to France. The total number of troops withdrawn from Italy in the summer of 1944 was seven divisions. These troops took part in the Allied landings on the southern coast of France. To replace them, the Brazilian 1st Infantry Division and the Brazilian naval formation arrived in Italy.

From June to August 1944, Allied troops advanced from Rome to northern Italy. On August 13, they entered Florence, already liberated by Italian partisans.

On August 15, the 15th Allied Army Group reached the line southeast of Rimini - Florence - the Arno River and approached the last German defensive line - the "Gothic line". This defensive line ran from the west coast (30 km north of Pisa) along the Apennine mountains between Florence and Bologna to the Adriatic coast south of Rimini

On August 25, 1944, the Allied forces launched an autumn offensive - Operation Oliva. By September 5, the Allied troops had overcome the foreground and on September 15 began an assault on the "Gothic line". The enemy defense was stubborn. Only by the end of the year, the Allied forces were able to break through the "Gothic line" in several places, but a significant breakthrough could not be achieved. The planned exit to the Po Valley did not take place. In the autumn of 1944, the Allied forces suffered heavy losses during the fighting in Northern Italy. In December 1944, the commander of the 5th US Army, General Mark Wayne Clark, was appointed commander of the combined allied forces in Italy.

Bad weather conditions at the very beginning of 1945, as well as heavy losses in the autumn battles, did not allow the Allied troops to continue the offensive. In addition, some British formations were transferred from Italy to Greece, and the 1st Canadian Corps to Belgium. Therefore, the command of the Allied forces used the strategy of "offensive defense" and at the same time was preparing for the spring offensive.

In February 1945, the 4th American Corps, with the support of parts of the 2nd American Corps, knocked out German troops from the heights dominating Bologna, where German artillery was located, shooting through the approaches to Bologna and the surrounding area.

On March 21, Allied aircraft raided German transport ships with troops and equipment in the harbor of Venice (“Operation Bauler”).

In March 1945, General Heinrich von Fetinghoff was appointed commander of Army Group C to replace Field Marshal Kesselring, who had left for the Western Front.

Allied offensive in northern Italy in the spring of 1945

The last offensive of the Allied troops in Italy began only on April 9, 1945. Before the start of the offensive, the enemy troops were subjected to a massive air raid and a powerful artillery strike. At this time, the Allies had 27 divisions against 21 German. The superiority in the number of divisions was 1.3 times, in tanks and assault guns 7.5 times (3100 versus 396), in guns 3 times (3000 versus 1087) and in aviation 30 times (4000 versus 130). In the direction of the main attack (south of Bologna), the Allied command created a triple superiority over the enemy in the number of divisions, in artillery - six times and in tanks - fourteen times superiority.

On April 18, troops of the 8th British Army broke through the German defenses at the Argenta Pass. British armored units were advancing around Bologna on the right to meet with the troops of the 4th American Corps, which was moving through the Apennine mountains to complete the encirclement around the city.

By April 21, Allied troops had broken through the German defenses to the full depth and advanced 40 kilometers. On April 21, Bologna was taken by units of the 34th American Infantry Division and the 3rd Polish Carpathian Rifle Division with the active assistance of Italian partisans. The US 10th Mountain Division outflanked Bologna on the left and reached the Po River on 22 April. On April 23, the 8th Indian Infantry Division of the 8th British Army also approached the river. On April 24, Allied troops crossed the Po River.

On the night of April 25, in Genoa, Milan, Venice and other cities of Northern Italy, at the call of the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and other leftist forces, a general uprising began, led by the Italian Partisan Liberation Committee.

On April 25, after crossing the Po River, the troops of the British 8th Army, with their right flank, began to move northeast towards Venice and further to Trieste.

On April 26, a partisan uprising engulfed all of Northern Italy, most of whose territory was liberated by the Italian Resistance. Using the success of the uprising, units of the 5th American Army moved north towards Austria and northwest towards Milan. The US 92nd Infantry Division (a Buffalo trooper division, composed of African Americans) marched along the west coast towards Genoa. At the same time, the Brazilian division, with a rapid advance on Turin, caught the German-Italian army of Liguria by surprise, which led to its defeat.

At the end of April, the German Army Group C lost most of its troops and almost all of its territory after retreating in all sectors of the front. On April 29, the commander of Army Group C, General Heinrich von Fetinghoff, signed an agreement on the surrender of all troops in Italy. The treaty entered into force on May 2, 1945. Italian campaign 1943-1945 gg.

In the Italian campaign 1943-1945 gg. more than 50 thousand German soldiers died. The total losses of the Germans (including losses from the actions of the Italian partisans) amounted to 536 thousand people, of which 300 thousand were captured. Italian troops fighting on the side of Germany lost 122 thousand people.

The total losses of the allies in the Italian campaign amounted to 320 thousand people, of which about 60 thousand people were killed. The British Commonwealth of Nations lost 198 thousand people, the USA - 114 thousand, Brazil - 443 people. The troops of the Fighting France and Poland had losses.

Italian campaign 1943-1945 was the most bloody (in terms of the number of dead and wounded) of all military campaigns in Western Europe.

Literature:

History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945, vol. 3-5, M., 1963-64.

Kulish V. M., Second Front, M., 1960.

"Army brochure" - Army brochure - Sicily 1943.

Fascist Italy was the closest ally of Nazi Germany in World War II. Italy withdrew from the war after Germany's defeats on the Soviet front near Stalingrad and on the Don. After the allies landed in Sicily, Mussolini was forced to demand Germany's help, but Hitler could no longer provide it. Convened in July 1943, the Great Fascist Council decided to transfer the supreme command into the hands of the king, and Mussolini was arrested. The revolutionary energy of the population, held back by terror, found an outlet. Throughout Italy there were demonstrations and strikes. The population released political prisoners from prisons. The government of Mussolini was replaced by the government of Marshal Badoglio, which dissolved the Fascist Party and its affiliated organizations, including the Fascist trade unions. Democratic and communist parties were legalized. Fascism was destroyed throughout the country. In September 1943, Italy signed the terms of unconditional surrender and, in accordance with this, transferred its air and navy to the disposal of the Allies, but this surrender did not bring Italy an end to the war. Most of it (the industrial North, the capital Rome) remained occupied by Germany. Mussolini was released by the Germans and headed a puppet government. To fight fascism, the Communist Party united with other anti-fascist parties and groups, including the Christian Democratic and Socialist. The Christian Democratic Party subsequently led the government and is one of the dominant bourgeois parties. The social support of this party was big capital, the peasantry, and Catholic organizations. The united parties created the National Liberation Committee, and after the king and Badoglio were saved from the Germans, it was transformed into a government body. Partisan detachments operated throughout the country, which were first transformed into shock brigades named after Garibaldi, and then into divisions. A people's war unfolded in Italy. For the liberation of Northern Italy, the Milan Liberation Center was created, followed by regional and provincial centers. In April 1944, the partisan struggle in the general popular uprising against the Nazis ends in victory. On April 18, 1945, a partisan detachment detained a convoy of fugitives in the town of Dongo, who were trying to get into Switzerland, among whom was Mussolini, disguised as a German soldier. The Italian Communist Party was not set up during this period to fight for socialism. She believed that the aggravation of the political situation could cause the continuation of the occupation of the country by the American and British armies. The Italian Communist Party did not want a civil war at that time and declared that it would achieve a democratic republic only by democratic means, based on respect for the freely expressed will of the majority. Adhering to this, the Communist Party in April 1944 became part of the bourgeois government of Badoglio, and after the capture of Rome in June 1944, into the government of Bonomi. The Italian Communist Party was the initiator of the convening of the Constituent Assembly, which was called to draft a new constitution. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held on the same day as the referendum.

By mid-1943, Italy was in a difficult position. She lost all the North African colonies, and the 8th Italian Army was destroyed at Stalingrad. And the allied troops of the anti-Hitler coalition landed on July 10, 1943 in Sicily, and on September 3, of the same year, in mainland Italy. On September 8, the government of Italy fell. But the German troops stationed in Italy continued to resist. In southern Italy, the Allies advanced quickly, but further north, several lines of fortifications awaited them. In addition, the mountainous terrain of Northern Italy made it possible to defend effectively. Therefore, the Allies advanced slowly and with stubborn battles, and in winter the offensive completely stalled. In the spring of 1944, the offensive resumed and Rome was taken on June 4, 1944. But then the landing of the allies in Normandy began and many parts of the allies were transferred there. Therefore, the further offensive was delayed. And only on May 8, 1945, Italy was completely liberated.

The total losses of the allied troops (including the wounded and missing) in the campaign amounted to about 320,000 people, for the Axis countries - about 658,000 people. No other campaign in Western Europe cost the belligerents more than the Italian campaign, in terms of the number of dead and wounded soldiers.

An American M4A1 tank equipped with a turret-mounted T34 Calliope multiple launch rocket system during a firing demonstration at the US 5th Army in Italy. The installation consists of 54 guides for launching 4.5-inch M8 rockets. The horizontal guidance of the launcher was carried out by turning the turret, and the vertical guidance was carried out by raising and lowering the tank gun, the barrel of which was connected to the guides of the launcher with a special thrust. Despite the presence of missile weapons, the tank completely retained the weapons and armor of the conventional Sherman. The crew of the Sherman Calliope could fire rockets while inside the tank, the withdrawal to the rear was required only for reloading.

RAF Marshal Guy Garrod talking to American generals in Italy.

An American soldier fixes flowers on his helmet in a field in Italy.

Captured Wehrmacht soldiers captured by the US 3rd Infantry Division in Femina Morta, Italy.

Destroyed M4 Sherman tanks of the 6th South African Panzer Division on a mountain road near the Italian city of Perugia.

American soldiers stand near a Bofors anti-aircraft gun being bulldozed ashore from a landing craft.

Aerial photography of the bombing of the harbor of the Italian city of Palermo by American bombers.

Soldiers of the 10th American mountain division on the march along the road near the Italian Lake Garda.

Three soldiers of the US 10th Mountain Division watch the enemy on the road in the Italian town of Sassomolare.

Crew with a German 75mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun and a captured French SOMUA MCG artillery tractor in northern Italy.

American soldiers on a platform with a German 20 mm anti-aircraft gun in Caserta

British King George VI with Canadian Generals E. Burns and B. Hoffmeister in Italy.

German 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun on a hill in Italy.

Destroyed German tank Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H near the Italian city of Salerno.

American 240-mm howitzer M1 in position in the San Vittore area.

German tank "Tiger", blown up and abandoned by the Germans on the streets of the Sicilian city of Biscari.

Black pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force during a pre-flight briefing at the Italian airfield Ramitelli.

A black pilot of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force signs an aircraft maintenance log before taking off at the Italian Ramitelli airfield.

Black pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force William Campbell and Thurston Gaines in the storage room for flight equipment at the Italian Ramitelli airfield.

US Air Force Colonel Benjamin Davis, a black man, talks to subordinates near a P-51B Mustang fighter.

Black American pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron Woodrow Crockett and Edward Gleed for a discussion at the Italian airfield Ramitelli.

Black American pilots of the 332nd Fighter Squadron play cards at a club at Italy's Ramitelli Airfield.

A wounded German prisoner is awaiting medical attention near the Italian town of Volturno.

Commander of the French Expeditionary Force, General Alphonse Juin (Alphonse Pierre Juin, 1888-1967) on the street of an Italian town.

B-24 "Liberator" of the 721st American squadron during an emergency landing on the Italian airfield Manduria.

British aircraft technicians train Yugoslav partisans to maintain Spitfire fighters at an airfield in Italy.

American generals D. Eisenhower and M. Clark are looking at a map in a forest in Italy.

A burning bomber B-24 "Liberator" of the 753rd American squadron at the Italian San Giovanni airfield.

An American B-24 Liberator bomber crash-landed at an Italian airfield.

A German self-propelled 37-mm (3.7cm FlaK36 L/98) anti-aircraft gun Sd.Kfz 7/2 knocked out in Italy.

US military personnel carry a B-24 Liberator bomber that was injured in an accident at the Italian airfield in Bari.

Soldiers of the 5th Canadian Tank Brigade in the fighting compartment of the German self-propelled gun "Nashorn", lined with an anti-tank grenade launcher on the street of the Italian village of Pontecorvo.

Private US Army D. Saipra inspects an abandoned German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV near the Italian village of Sedze.

An American soldier inspects an abandoned German FlaK 38 anti-aircraft gun near the Italian village of Castellonorato.

A soldier of the French army at the foot of a hill in the vicinity of Monte Cassino.

New Zealand General Bernard Freyberg on the street of the Italian town of Cassino.

Portrait of the commander of the XIV Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin.

American tank destroyer M18 "Hellket" on the road in the outskirts of the Italian town of Firenzuola.

British tanks "Churchill" (Churchill) on top of a hill in Italy.

An American soldier watches an explosion on a street in the Italian town of Livorno.

Soldiers of the 5th Army of the Free French Forces with German prisoners on the street of an Italian town.

New Zealand soldiers in battle on the ruins of the Italian city of Cassino (Cassino).

Indian gunners of the British army at the German 75-mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun captured in Italy.

British Lieutenant General Richard McCreary in the square of the Italian city of Salerno.

An American jeep drives down the street of an Italian town past two abandoned Pz.Kpfw. IV of the 26th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht.

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring conducts reconnaissance of the area with officers from the armor of the StuG IV self-propelled guns.

Soldiers from the US Army's 3rd Battalion, 338th Infantry Division inspect a German machine gun nest of two MG42s at Hill 926 in Monte Altuzzo, Italy.

SS officers L. Thaler and A. Giorleo on the Italian front.

Soldiers of the 143rd Infantry Regiment of the US 36th Infantry Division land on the beach from landing craft (LSVP) near the Italian city of Salerno.

Black soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division of the US Army carry a wounded comrade on a stretcher during the fighting in Italy.

Black gunners from the US 92nd Infantry Division clean a 105mm howitzer.

Italian 194-mm railway gun and its crew.

Italian 105 mm artillery pieces captured by the Allies in Sicily.

Italian 152-mm gun 152/45 coastal battery of Elba Island.

The boys of the Italian city of Naples, one of whom lost his leg during the fighting.

American Admiral G. Hewitt and war correspondent K. Reynolds on board the ship during the landing in Sicily.

Canadian Lieutenant General Guy Symonds examines a map on the hood of a Jeep "Willis".

Canadian soldier M. D. White, armed with a Lee-Enfield rifle, watches the area through a hole in the wall.

Canadian gunners service an 87mm 25lb field gun in Italy.

Canadian artilleryman Sgt. George Stratton at the charges of the 87-mm 25-pounder gun in Italy.

Canadian aviators view a map from a Taylorcraft Auster aircraft at an airfield in Italy.

Canadian generals Henry Crerar and Edson Burns at the map.

Canadian gunners examine photographs and letters on a mountainside in Italy.

British King George VI and Canadian Lieutenant General E. Burns in Italy.

British King George VI shakes hands with Kamal Ram, a soldier of the 8th Punjab Regiment, during the awarding of the Victoria Cross for bravery in the battles for the liberation of Italy.

Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Foulkes with officers in Italy.

Allied firefighters put out a burning twin-engine bomber at an Italian airfield.

German paratrooper in the mountains in Italy. Winter 1943-1944

A broken German 88 mm 8.8 cm Flak 18 anti-aircraft gun against the backdrop of a pillbox in the Gesso region in Sicily.

A jeep with soldiers of the 5th American Army near a destroyed German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV on the road near the Italian village of Pontedera.

Canadian Major General Guy Symonds during the fighting in Italy.

One of two German Krupp K5 280 mm railway guns captured by the Allies in Italy.

German soldier from the airfield division of the Luftwaffe with a machine gun MG-42.

An American M4A1 Sherman tank and a British inflatable model of a tank in Anzio.

Fighter Macchi C.205 "Veltro" of the 360th Italian squadron at the airfield in Sicily.

Bodies hanged by the feet of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci.

U.S. Army Private Joseph Feft learns to pick up objects with a device on his prosthetic left arm

American soldiers dig up their comrade, covered with earth as a result of a German bombing in an Italian city.

A Canadian soldier fires in a street fight in the Italian town of Kupa.

British soldiers move along the street of one of the Italian cities.

Jeeps of the US 5th Army crossing a river washed out by rain near the Italian city of Volterra.

German prisoners of war in the Anzio region near Rome.

American artillerymen fire from a 155-mm M1 / ​​M2 cannon at the positions of German troops near the Italian city of Nettuno.

An American P-47D Thunderbolt aircraft from the 66th Fighter Squadron in Grosseto.

P-47 fighters of the Brazilian squadron are preparing to take off.

Italian partisans after the liberation of Florence.

Soldier of the Italian battalion Alberto Bellagamba with a Panzerfaust grenade launcher.

German tank PzKpfw IV Ausf.G, captured by the Allies in Sicily.

Trophy tankette "Renault", captured by units of the British army in Italy.

US Coast Guard sailor Kenneth Quick, wounded by shrapnel during the landing in Sicily, on the bunk of a hospital ship.

US military personnel open Christmas presents.

Italian self-propelled guns "Semovente" 90/53, captured by the allies in Sicily.

Italian children play on an abandoned German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger".