HIST-3980 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Albert Kesselring, Meat Grinder, Friendly Fire
Document Summary
German field marshal kesselring evacuated to italy. Mistakes in sicily campaign: communication mistkaes led to friendly fire. Us anti aircraft guns shot down 82nd airborne planes. Nelson: clemson, savannah, shot down by firnedly fire in sicily: amphibious landing problems. Germans italinas counter attacked beach heads, but naval gunfire and artillery broke up counter attack: bad coordination between americans and british, allowed kesselring to escape with most troops and artillery and tanks. Montgomerys army left sicily and landed on southern tip of italy. Americans were supposed to land at salerno. Germans destroyed a lot of bridges and slowed british down. When americans (cid:272)a(cid:373)e ashore (cid:271)ritish were still where they la(cid:374)ded a(cid:374)d did(cid:374) t trap germans. Fall and winter of 1943 bad weather, roads sunk, italy is hilly and rivers. End of 1943 germans stopped allies on gustav line. Gustav line: fortified mountain defenses from coast to rapido river, through appenines mountains, middle was monestary called monte casino.
