01x11 - Italy

[bunniefuu]

After their victory over
Germany in North Africa,

American generals want
to attack the Third Reich

directly through Northern Europe,

but Prime Minister Winston Churchill

and the British believe an operation

of that size and scope is premature.

Failure would be catastrophic.

Churchill proposes they
attack Germany from the south,

for what he considers the soft
underbelly of Europe,

Italy.

[rousing music]

All wars change the world,

but none of them changed the world

like the Second World w*r did.

Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.

No one can imagine the nightmare

they're about to unleash.

The most destructive
w*r in human history.

Suddenly the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

[suspenseful music]

The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.

[rousing music]

You get the Allies
led by the big three,

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin,

Men who were dealing with
immensely complicated questions.

It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

The Allies have to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

They have to fight in every climate,

from the Arctic to the
jungles of the Pacific,

to the deserts of Africa,
and the depths of the ocean.

[rousing music]

But there was no certainty of victory.

It was going to be a
horrific bloodbath.

We see humans at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings,

and we see them at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

World w*r II was a struggle

in which there could be one
victor and one vanquished.

[rousing music]

[expl*si*n booming]

[air raid siren wailing]

[slow suspenseful music]

[Tom] In May, 1943,

the prime minister of Great Britain

and the president of the United
States meet in Washington DC

for the third time since
American entry into the w*r.

[suspenseful music]

Rarely in history
have political leaders

forged as personal a bond

as Winston Churchill
and Franklin Roosevelt.

Churchill still feels
he's the senior partner.

He can get what he
wants out of Roosevelt.

[Robert] So after Tunis, after
the big victory in North Africa,

Churchill's argument is that
there's one logical next step,

and that next step is Sicily.

So campaigning in the Mediterranean

will not only knock over one
of the three big Axis powers,

Mussolini's Italy,

it will also open a back
door to Hitler's Germany.

And the American
commanders are saying, "Why?

Let's just go straight for Berlin.

What are we doing?

Why are we dancing
around the edges here

with this Mediterranean nonsense?"

And they think that Franklin Roosevelt

is being persuaded by
Churchill's pretty words.

There were charges then and since

that Churchill wanted to go up
through the bottom of Europe

in order to preserve
the British Empire.

Britain was a Mediterranean power.

The Americans suspected
that this was all about

defending British interests
in Egypt, in the Suez Canal

that controlled India
and the Persian Gulf

where British oil was.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] FDR's not interested

in preserving the British Empire,

but he understands there
are sound, strategic reasons

to capture Sicily.

One of Churchill's arguments was,

they had these commitments

to take some pressure
off the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin has been
pushing for a second front.

Churchill says, "You
have all of these armies

that are now freed up

after the North African
campaign is over.

What are you gonna do with them?

They're right there."

[Sarada] The truth is that the Allies

still don't have enough actual material

to conduct a cross-channel
invasion and land in France.

[Tom] Allied military leaders

are already planning a
cross-channel invasion,

Operation Overlord,

but it will not be ready for months.

To relieve the military
pressure on the Soviets,

and sustain the momentum established

by the victory in North Africa,

FDR agrees to attack Sicily.

[Robert] After Sicily, they
will pull, let us say,

the Allied A-team out
of the Mediterranean,

the leadership team, most
of the landing craft,

most of the air power,
deploy it to Great Britain

to begin, finally,
preparations in earnest

for an invasion of Western Europe.

[Dan S.] Churchill's like,
"Yes, of course,

I'm sure things will go really fast.

We'll be back in time for a
nice early D-Day in 1944."

He goes, "Look, we're all dressed up,

we're ready to go to the ball.

Let's do Sicily."

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] The invasion of
Sicily is given the code name

Operation Husky.

At the time, Operation Husky

is the biggest amphibious
operation in history.

The scale of shipping and
manpower is unprecedented.

They're gonna put
onshore, 160,000 troops.

[shellfire booming]

[Tom] Both Italian and German troops

oppose the Allied landings.

[shellfire booming]

[airplane droning]

[expl*si*n booming]

But the Allies achieve surprise,

and quickly secure the beaches.

[Saul] You've got two field
commanders on Sicily,

Montgomery for the British.

Montgomery is given the key
role, Patton for the Americans.

Patton's job is really as a shield.

[Tom] The British Eighth Army,

under general Bernard Montgomery,

will advance north to Messina,

while the American Seventh Army,

under General George Patton,
guards his left flank.

If you get to
Messina, any troops that are

on Sicily cannot cross back over
it into Italy proper.

And now you've captured all
the troops that are on Sicily

and you own Sicily.

[Robert] And that's especially crucial

for the German divisions,

so that the Allies
won't have to face them

at some future point
in some future battle.

[Tom] As in North Africa,
British and American forces

are required to operate as one force.

[Dan S.] This is a really
ambitious attempt

to just bring two nations
with two different traditions

very, very close into harmony.

And as you might expect,
there's teething trouble.

[Saul] Montgomery and the
British senior commanders

all had a similar
attitude to the Americans,

which is, they're green.

There were disasters and
setbacks in North Africa,

they're still learning their trade.

We've been at this since 1940.

Patton, on the other
hand, thinks Montgomery

has no kind of understanding

of what American servicemen
can actually achieve.

[explosions booming]

[Tom] Both armies
endure horrendous conditions.

[g*nf*re cracking]

The mountainous terrain,

the 100-plus degree heat,
thousands are felled by malaria.

[Col. Douds] Sicily in the
summertime is incredibly hot,

it is disease ridden.

Fighting there is brutal for everyone.

Fire!

[shellfire booming]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Facing stiff German resistance,

Montgomery's army stalls.

He's given access to the road

Patton's army has already taken.

[Robert] Patton goes ballistic.

To his credit, Patton doesn't
just sit there seething.

He comes up with a plan.

[Col. Douds] What Patton sees
is, a drive north up to Palermo

would put a feather in his cap.

[Robert] The Americans overrun
the western half of Sicily

before the Germans and Italians
know what is happening.

[Tom] Patton captures
the Sicilian capital of Palermo

less than two weeks after
the initial landings.

[rousing music]

[Robert] This is the signal
moment for the US army

so far in World w*r II.

[spectators cheering]

Patton's forces are greeted
in the streets of Palermo

by Sicilians who were never a
hundred percent on board

with fascism anyway,

and they're gonna greet
the arriving American army

as liberators.

[spectators cheering]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Yet again,
Adolf Hitler must adjust

for Italian military weakness.

[Robert] His major ally on
the European continent,

Benito Mussolini, seems unable

even to defend his own home territory.

[Tom] Benito Mussolini

and his Italian fascist movement

had set the stage for Adolf Hitler

and the rise of the
n*zi party in Germany.

[Mussolini speaking in Italian]

[spectators cheering]

[rousing music]

Mussolini is the inventor of fascism,

is the embodiment of the
virility of the fascist man.

In the early phases
of this relationship,

Hitler himself looks up at
Mussolini, and he aspires to do

what Mussolini has been
able to achieve in Italy.

[Tom] Hitler consciously copied

Mussolini's grab for power.

[Crowd] Duce! Duce! Duce!

[Tom] The symbolism.

Sieg heil.

[spectators cheering]

[Tom] The political tactics,

[spectators chanting]

the violence.

But Mussolini no longer commands
an iron grip on his nation

like Hitler does.

[Robert] Mussolini's w*r has
brought Italy

nothing but misery.

The Italian people
wanted very little part

of this w*r at the beginning,
they want no part of it now.

Things cannot go on like this.

[Saul] Hitler's getting
situation reports

of what's going on in Sicily,

basically saying the
Italians aren't fighting.

He makes the decision to go to Italy

to put some spine into Mussolini.

[ominous music]

He is shocked by the
sight of Mussolini,

who's really a broken man after
the defeat in North Africa.

There isn't much fight left in him,

and Hitler is horrified
by what he's seeing.

[Robert] Hitler harangues Mussolini

for hours about his failures.

His failure to instill
a w*r-like spirit

into the armed forces,

his failure to make true
fascists of the Italian people,

his failure to prosecute the
w*r with sufficient vigor,

and Mussolini has no choice
but to sit there and take it.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] As Hitler and Mussolini meet,

[bombs whistling]

[expl*si*n booming]

the Allies begin a
bombing campaign on Rome.

[Marco] The news comes as
a shock to Mussolini,

and he tries to convey to Hitler

the gravity of the situation.

Hitler continues as if
nothing had happened.

[suspenseful music]

[Martin] The bombing of Rome adds fuel

to this already simmering fire

of questioning and doubt
about Mussolini's leadership.

[suspenseful music]

[ominous music]

[Tom] The bombing of
Rome is a shock to the Italians.

The battles have been fought elsewhere,

but now the price of
Mussolini's w*r hits home.

[Robert] There's grumbling
in the streets.

Mussolini thinks he has the fascist

brand counsel in his pocket,

he thinks he has the top leadership

in the military in his pocket,

he thinks he has the
King in his pocket.

[Marco] Victor Emmanuel III has been

the King of Italy since 1900,

and he's the one that
handed the government

over to Mussolini in 1922.

[Tom] On July 25th, the
day after the fascist council

passes a vote of no
confidence for Mussolini,

the King summons him to his palace.

And he's told not to wear his uniform.

This should have been
an indication to him

that trouble was afoot,

and his wife, in fact,
advises him not to go.

Mussolini tells her, "No
problem, I've got this."

[Tom] But the King
has Mussolini arrested.

He's rushed away in the
back of an ambulance

to hide him from public view.

[rousing music]

[radio host speaking in Italian]

[Tom] His 21-year fascist
reign is over.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] The fall of Mussolini

leads to a very confusing situation.

The new head of state is the
marshal of the Italian army,

Pietro Badoglio.

He actually makes an announcement

that the w*r goes on,

"We remain Germany's loyal ally."

[Tom] After Mussolini is deposed,

FDR addresses the nation.

My fellow Americans,

our terms to Italy are still the same,

unconditional surrender.

[Marco] Publicly, Badoglio
states repeatedly

that the w*r effort is going
on alongside the Germans.

Privately, he is actually
starting to make arrangements

for the Italians to get out of the w*r.

[Tom] Badoglio signals
that Italy might be open

to an armistice.

He sends one of his generals

to secretly negotiate
directly with the Allies.

[Robert] Badoglio might
wish to surrender,

but he needs to have
someone at his back.

He knows that there will be retribution

from the angriest man
in Europe at the time,

and that will be Adolf Hitler.

[rousing music]

[tank rumbling]

[Saul] In Sicily, Patton's
army leaves Palermo

to get to Messina,

while the British are
advancing from the south.

Meanwhile, the Germans
are taking advantage

of the delay in getting to Messina

to begin getting off the island.

[rousing music]

It's effectively the German Dunkirk,

because pretty much
everyone who could walk

and was able-bodied, got off,

and not only that, they got
off with all their equipment.

[Robert] The entire purpose of
the Allied operational plan

was to trap the Germans
on Sicily, and they fail.

[suspenseful music]

[Dan S] Still, things in Sicily

go pretty much as
Churchill would've wished.

Not only do Allied troops successfully

drive Axis forces outta of Sicily,

and it also proves to be the death nail

of Mussolini's fascist regime.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] With the potential deal

for an Italian surrender in the works,

FDR and Churchill meet in Quebec.

[Saul] And it's at this point

that Churchill is able
to say to Roosevelt,

"Look, the Italians are
pulling out of the w*r.

We have an opportunity bloodlessly take

the Italian peninsula.

You know, what's not to like
in this operation?"

[Dan S.] Churchill says, "The
Italians are begging us

to come and help liberate
them and switch sides.

We could be in Rome in
a couple of weeks here.

If we land in Italy,
it'll be a cakewalk.

We can't do Sicily and then go home."

[Tom] FDR agrees,

but only with assurance
that Operation Overlord

will remain the Allies'
highest priority.

[Saul] The difficult trade off
in the Italian campaign

is that the key resources,

the landing craft and the best troops,

are gonna go back to the
UK to prepare for D-Day.

[rousing music]

[Tom] Supreme Allied
Commander Dwight Eisenhower

now picks one of America's
youngest generals

to lead the Italian invasion,

Mark Clark, commander
of the US Fifth Army.

[Martin] Clark has a flare
for showmanship.

Because once you pin on a star,

you're also becoming a little
bit of a politician as well.

[Col. Douds] Mark Clark has an
immense amount of talent,

but he also has a corresponding ego.

He travels with a press corps.

He will only let them take
pictures of his favorite side,

which I think is his left side,

based on all the
pictures we see of him.

[rousing music]

[Tom] The Allied strategy in Italy

calls for two large forces.

The first will land in and Calabria,

and the second will land a
few days later at Salerno.

The two forces will then link,
and push north towards Rome.

[tanks rumbling]

At Calabria, Montgomery's Eighth Army

lands almost uncontested

[Robert] Badoglio was supposed
to take to the airwaves

on the evening of September 8th

and announce the Italian surrender,

and this is crucial to the plan,

because it will tell the
hundreds of thousands

of Italian troops how in
beach defense positions

not to fire at the Allies as they land.

[Tom] At his headquarters,

Eisenhower waits by his radio.

The Salerno landings
are just hours away.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] 6:30 comes, no Badoglio.

Seven o'clock, no Badoglio.

The entire plan hinges
on a well announced,

orderly Italian surrender.

[Tom] Eisenhower
decides to force the issue

by going on the radio himself.

The Italian government

has surrendered its armed
forces unconditionally.

All Italians who now act to help eject

the German aggressor from Italian soil

will have the assistance

and the support of the United Nations.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Hitler
anticipates the announcement

of the armistice.

[Saul] From the moment Mussolini falls,

Hitler's convinced that
Badoglio's government

is going to withdraw from the w*r.

[Tom] For weeks,

Hitler has been moving
German troops into Italy.

He orders Operation Axis.

[Saul] The Germans have an operation

they've been preparing,

which is that, if the
Italians do the dirty on us,

we're gonna disarm them

and we're gonna take over
the security of all of Italy.

[Tom] Italy will
become an occupied nation.

[suspenseful music] [train whistling]

Operation Axis is the
disarmament of the Italian army

and the occupation of
the entire Italian Boot

by German forces.

[vehicles rumbling]

It occurs with lightning rapidity.

[suspenseful music]

The Italian army is on its back foot.

They aren't so sure about
who they should be firing at,

if anyone.

[automatic g*nf*re cracking]

[Tom] Local Italian
resistance movements

form and fight the Germans.

n*zi retaliation is fierce.

[Dan C.] The Italians were
being ex*cuted by the Germans

after they switched sides.

There were a lot of
terrible things going on,

villages wiped out.

[ominous music]

[Tom] When the Allied invasion force

lands at Salerno,

they believe they'll be
welcomed by Italian troops.

[Robert] Underlying this
operational plan is intelligence

that the German army
may evacuate Italy,

that it has no desire to defend Italy.

If all goes well, the
Allies should be up to Rome

with almost no casualties at all.

[Saul] So what they're gonna
do is they're gonna land

without any pre-bombardment,

and they're gonna hope
for tactical surprise.

[Robert] The Allies are
expecting to meet

happy Italian faces,

perhaps handshakes, taking
over Italian positions

now that Italy had surrendered,

and instead, what the troops
at Salerno experienced

was a wall of German fire.

[shellfire booming]

[g*nf*re cracking]

[expl*si*n booming]

[Saul] The whole of the beach

is being saturated with shellfire.

It's an absolute inferno.

[shellfire booming]

[g*nf*re cracking]

[suspenseful music]

It was a grim experience for
those first few crucial days

in which they're trying
to defend the beachhead.

[suspenseful music]

[planes droning]

[g*nf*re cracking]

And it's the fighting at Salerno

that really convinces Hitler

to make them fight for
every inch of Italy.

[Tom] Hitler moves
more forces to defend Italy.

[suspenseful music]

He also discovers that Mussolini

is being held at a hotel
in the Apennine Mountains,

and decides to take action.

[Robert] Hitler just can't
quit Mussolini, apparently.

He orders a commando
raid onto the Gran Sasso

to rescue Benito Mussolini.

[suspenseful music]

That force lands,

overcomes Mussolini's guards.

[Tom] Mussolini
is flown back to Germany.

[Marco] Hitler thinks that Mussolini

would give legitimacy to the
German occupation of Italy.

[Robert] For the rest of the
w*r, Mussolini will be ruling

a kind of puppet regime
in northern Italy.

But he's a shadow of the figure

who used to strut across the
world stage in the 1930s.

The situation has changed drastically

since Mussolini was the top
dog and Hitler the imitator,

to now, Mussolini as Hitler's lap dog.

[shellfire booming]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] After a massive
air and naval as*ault,

Clark's Fifth Army breaks out
of Salerno and moves inland.

[Martin] A modern mechanized
army is going to experience

great difficulty in driving north,

because the Germans recognized,

the terrain's gonna do
half the work for us.

[suspenseful music]

[Marco] Mountain ranges,
ravines, and fast flowing rivers

made Italy a sort of natural fortress.

[explosions booming]

[Saul] What the Germans do effectively

is scorched earth policy.

They rip up the railway tracks,

they flood the river valleys.

They make it almost impossible
to move through this terrain

unless you've taken the high ground.

[suspenseful music]

It was very clear very quickly
that they were gonna struggle

to fight their way up
the Italian peninsula.

General Mark Clark relabeled

Churchill's description of
Italy as the soft underbelly

as the tough old gut.

[suspenseful music]

[vehicles rumbling]

[Tom] It is said
that all roads lead to Rome,

but in the fall of 1943,

for the Allies, there was only one,

Highway 6.

As Allied forces are
lured deeper and deeper

by moving north up Highway 6,

the German strategy
very quickly becomes,

we're going to set up a
series of defensive lines,

and you come to us, and
we will then maul you.

[suspenseful music]

[explosions booming]

It looked a lot like
World w*r I defenses look.

There are mines, and
mortars, and machine g*ns.

[g*nf*re cracking]

On the high ground, you
have a*tillery observers,

who could have a full view
of the advance of the Allies,

and they would call a*tillery
to fire on the advances.

[shellfire booming]

The frustration grows with the
costliness of this advance,

the slowness of this
advance up the Boot.

[Robert] There's some
historical wisdom here,

and it traces back to the
great Napoleon who once said,

"Italy is a boot, and like all boots,

has to be entered from the top,"

where there's a nice broad plain,

plenty of room to maneuver.

[Dan C.] To fight up from
the toe of Italy

after coming from Sicily...

Look at the terrain of Italy.

Big mountain range all
down the center spine.

This is the big problem in Italy.

Who would wanna put an
army into that area,

especially if it's raining?

[Robert] It rains every day.

And General Clark once said,

"Anyone who ever talks
about sunny Italy

should be here in October,"

which is when the Allies were there.

Gains are measured not in
miles, but often in yards.

The Italian campaign soon turns
into a slog for the Allies.

[Col. Douds] And it's sapping
their energy.

They're wet, they're
cold, they're tired.

All of that is draining
morale, as well as manpower.

[mule neighing]

One of the things that they resort to

is using mules to
carry supplies forward,

'cause at least mules can get
through that kind of terrain

in those kind of conditions.

[Robert] I think it's fair to
say, when the w*r began,

in the w*r department in Washington,

no one was thinking of mules.

[Saul] It was arguably the
most horrendous fighting

that the Western Allies
had to experience

in the whole of the European theater.

There's no question that
some of the Americans

who've given the go ahead
for the Italian campaign

are now having second thoughts.

[ominous music]

[Sarada] Churchill and the
British commanders

promised the Americans that, basically,

Italy would fall relatively quickly.

[Jon] Churchill argues again and again

that it would be folly not to continue

once one has set out on
the Italian campaign,

arguing they must
capitalize on their gains.

[Dan S.] What do you do,
evacuate Italy?

No, you fight the
enemy in front of you.

Before you know it, you're
embroiled in a massive, costly,

brutal w*r in Italy.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Highway 6
snakes into the Liri Valley

on its way up the Italian peninsula.

[suspenseful music]

Overlooking the valley is
a 1,700-foot rocky peak

called Monte Cassino.

Perched on top is a sixth
century Benedictine abbey.

Monte Cassino is the strong point

of the German's defensive formation,

the Gustav Line.

[suspenseful music]

[Saul] It must have seemed to
the Allies,

as they gazed up there,

that this is a kind of
perfect defensive position

for the Germans to use.

[Martin] From the commanding
heights of this terrain,

the Germans can rain down

accurate and effective
a*tillery fire at all times.

[suspenseful music]

[Col. Douds] There is no way
to get to Rome

without in some way
dealing with Monte Cassino.

[Tom] The Allies hope
to get to Rome by Christmas,

but it's here in the
shadow of Monte Cassino

that the advance stalls.

[suspenseful music]

In November, Allied
leaders gather in Tehran.

FDR is meeting Stalin
for the first time.

[Dan S.] And the first thing
that happens

is Roosevelt and Stalin

seem insistent on building
their own relationship,

sometimes freezing Churchill out,

and he takes this really badly.

[Jon] He has to cede center
stage with Roosevelt to Stalin.

And Churchill is in an
interesting kind of

no man's land.

[Robert] There's this old line

that Stalin didn't know much
English, but he knew two words,

second front,

because he said it over
and over and over again.

And when Stalin says second front,

he doesn't mean Sicily
or even mainland Italy,

he means France.

[suspenseful music]

[Jon] Churchill says, "I was
the little British donkey

sitting between the
great American eagle

and the Soviet bear,

and I was the only one
who knew the way home."

[Sarada] Churchill is still sticking

with his Mediterranean plan.

But he knows that,
coming out of Tehran,

it's really important
to be able to go back

and win this victory.

[Robert] Winston Churchill,
the master of

out-of-the box thinking,

has an idea for a left hook,

an amphibious landing on
the western shore of Italy

behind the Gustav Line.

[Tom] Troops will land at Anzio,



then drive inland,

drawing German defenders
away from Monte Cassino.

[Col. Douds] Winston Churchill thinks

that this could break
the whole thing free.

This is the wildcat we need
to shatter this stalemate.

[Saul] The Allies agree to do it,

mainly because Churchill
is convinced it can work.

[Robert] But because so many
men and landing craft

have been shipped back to
Britain to prepare for D-Day,

the an Anzio landing winds
up being two divisions only,

a drop in the bucket.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] The Allied force at
Anzio lands on an empty beach.

There are almost no
Germans in front of it.

Surprise has been achieved.

[Saul] Speed is of the essence.

As soon as you land, you
must get off the beachhead

as quickly as possible, strike inland.

One jeep patrol actually gets as far

as the outskirts of Rome.

So clearly, there is a
route of advance open.

[Tom] The commander of the invasion

is General John Lucas.

[Robert] Instead of driving
boldly into the interior

and seizing the high ground
over the Anzio beachhead,

General Lucas stays put.

His thought is, "I
need to secure this port,

'cause that is how we
will be reinforced",

and so he sits.

As he sits, the German
commander Kesselring

will basically pull
all the cooks, bakers,

and candlestick makers from round Rome

and build them up to pen
in the Anzio landing.

[suspenseful music]

[Marco] The Germans have
the high ground again,

and are able to control the situation

by subjecting the Allied
forces to constant shelling.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] Leading the way in
the German bombardments

were two enormous railroad g*ns,

known colloquially to the Allies

as Anzio Annie and the Anzio Express.

[shellfire booming]

These fire a 500-pound shell 30 miles.

[shellfire booming]

[Saul] It would've sounded
like a freight train.

You could hear it kinda
whistling in, and then boom.

[expl*si*n booming]

[Robert] The Allies at Anzio
are sitting in a marsh.

They have no cover.

[shellfire booming]

Around them are mountains
and German a*tillery,

and the a*tillery never stops firing.

[shellfire booming]

[Saul] There was nowhere on
the beachhead you could go to

and get respite from enemy fire.

And so, what you basically gotta do

is burrow down into the
ground and hold tight.

It was just this horrendous grind

of being under fire for 24 hours a day.

[shellfire booming]

[Robert] This is as
miserable a position

as any force in World w*r II
found themselves.

[Saul] Anzio is Churchill's plan.

And he said, famously, after the event,

"I thought we landed a
wildcat on the shore.

What we got was a beach whale."

[g*nf*re cracking]

[Tom] The Luftwaffe strafes

Allied troops on the beachhead.

[plane droning]

[expl*si*n booming]

Included in the effort to help
Lucas's forces off the beach

is the 99th Fighter Squadron,

part of what will become
known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

[Col. Douds] During that era
of segregation,

most African Americans
serve in rear echelon units.

Tuskegee airmen are
frontline fighting units,

and they're changing everyone's minds.

[suspenseful music]

On one of their mission,


and then what they find
is the German aircraft

working over the landing craft.

[plane droning]

They sh**t down 10 of
those German aircraft.

[g*nf*re cracking]

[expl*si*n booming]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] To the south,

multiple attacks on the
Monte Cassino abbey fail.

The Allies debate whether to b*mb

the mountaintop Abbey from the air.

[Col. Douds] The Benedictine
abbey that sits on Monte Cassino

is a cultural relic.

The law of armed conflict would
say, we don't touch those.

[Marco] Of course, this is one
of the most important libraries

of Christian thought for millennia,

and many civilians had
taken refuge there.

[Martin] But the assumption
was that the Germans

were inside the abbey and using it

as the perfect field
a*tillery observer's position.

We cannot allow the enemy

to continue to harass
us with a*tillery fire.

So, the abbey's gotta go.

[suspenseful music]

Allied forces distributed pamphlets

warning that there
would be a bombardment,

and the residents, they thought,

they're not actually going to do it.

[bombs whistling]

[explosions booming]

[bombs whistling]

[Marco] Allied bombers flatten
this shrine of Christianity.

[explosions booming]

The bombing actually
resulted in the k*lling

of hundreds of civilians who
were taking refuge there.

[Tom] Allied intelligence was wrong.

The German observation posts

had not been inside
the monastery walls.

[Saul] The Germans who weren't
occupying the abbey

have now decided to occupy the rubble,

which is incredibly effective
for defensive purposes.

So the Allies got the exact opposite

of what they hoped to achieve.

[shellfire booming]

[Robert] Bombing the monastery
gets the Allies

no closer to their goal.

At some point, infantry
is going to have to

ascend a mountain under enemy fire.

[expl*si*n booming]

[suspenseful music]

[g*nf*re cracking]

[Tom] The Allies have
bombed the Monte Cassino abbey,

but the Germans still hold the summit.

[shellfire booming]

When the weather improves in May,

the Allies make yet another as*ault.

[Robert] They take nearly
their entire force in Italy

and cram it into the narrow
western half of the peninsula,

using overwhelming strength now,

tanks, aircraft, ceaseless
waves of a*tillery bombardment.

You've got this extraordinary
United Nations of troops.

I mean, people from all
over the world are Cassino.

[Col. Douds] We got the
British, we got the Americans,

we got New Zealand Maoris, we
got Canadians, we got Indians,

we got French Moroccans, Goumiers,

that are wonderful mountain fighters.

It is one of the places where
Japanese Americans fight.

Who gets assigned Monte
Cassino? The Pols.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] World w*r II began in Europe

when Germany invaded Poland.

As much as anyone, the Polish people

have suffered from the
brutal rule of the Nazis.

[suspenseful music]

[Col. Douds] The idea that Pols

would never miss an opportunity

to take it back out on the Germans

for what they did to them
should be lost on no one.

[suspenseful music]

[g*nf*re cracking]

At Monte Cassino,

the Pols are that
final wave of fighters,

and they, with incredible
bravery and toughness,

go up this huge inclines.

[rousing music]

[Saul] As you advance up the
hill, you have to show yourself.

You're gonna be picked
off, you're a sitting duck.

[rousing music]

[g*nf*re cracking]

[Col. Douds] We're talking
almost 4,000 casualties

for the Polish units attacking
against Monte Cassino.

[rousing music]

[Tom] The Pols

finally overrun the ruins of the abbey.

[Alexandra] The Polish flag is unveiled

on the top of the monastery.

[bugle sounding]

And they play this very,
very famous bugle call,

HejnaB Mariacki,

which translates to St.
Mary's trumpet call.

It's a symbol of resilience,
of national identity,

of hope for the future,
and of the fight for Poland

for every single Polish person.

[bugle sounding]

And it sounds out over the monastery

once the fighting has died down.

[Tom] The Gustav Line is broken.

The Americans are finally able

to break out of the Anzio beachhead.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] There's a plan to encircle

and destroy the Germans.

[Saul] The plan is for Mark Clark

to angle his troops to the northeast

and cut off Highway 6 at Valmontone.

Those were the orders he was given.

[Robert] But Clark decides to
make a swift left turn,

that is north, towards Rome.

[suspenseful music]

[Col. Douds] Rome is an
irresistible target.

Nothing screams we are making progress

than to have captured Rome.

And Mark Clark fundamentally
thinks that the Fifth Army,

who has slogged their way
up the Italian peninsula,

and him in particular,
should get credit for this.

[rousing music]

[Dan C.] The conquest of
Rome is to take out

one of the great Axis capitals

in the w*r.

And what you're doing

is pointing out to
the rest of the world

that we're on the
march, it's happening,

and next stop, Berlin.

[spectators cheering]

The first of the Axis
capitals is now in our hands.

One up

and two to go.

[Sarada] However, the
liberation of Rome

is gonna be entirely overshadowed

because the next day is going
to be the launch of D-Day,

and Roosevelt can't
say anything about it.

[spectators cheering]

[Tom] After 10 months,

the Allies have reached
the Italian capital.

But General Clark's
decision to take Rome

allows the Germans
to escape once again.

[Robert] Ever since, he's had
to answer questions

about those orders.

Was his ego simply too
large to pass up Rome?

[Tom] Ultimately,
the liberation of Rome

has more symbolic than strategic value.

The Allies would continue to
fight the Germans in Italy

for almost another year.

[Dan S.] I think Churchill
went to his grave thinking

there was an opportunity
there that was missed.

Churchill always believed
that it had been a good idea,

but it had been undone
by a bit of foot dragging

and some bad luck.

[tranquil somber music]

[Robert] The Italian
campaign is the moment

at which Churchill overreaches himself.

He had insisted on this
vast continental campaign

that had led to nothing but misery.

[Tom] Because of difficult terrain,

military miscalculation,

and determined resistance
from a skillful enemy,

the Allied effort in Italy
gained little and cost much.

[Jon] The Italian campaign
is the last time

the British will have
a predominant presence

in the Allied forces.

America has been building
airplanes and tanks,

and creating soldiers.

As the American strength rises,

Winston Churchill's influence wanes.

[tranquil somber music]

[Tom] The battle for Italy,

which will go on until
the end of the w*r,

was fought with
determination and bravery.

Ordinary soldiers
fought for their nation,

but also for each other.

This kind of comradery is found

in all theaters and
on all battlefields.

w*r tests the best of us.

And nowhere would men be tested more

than in the skies over Germany.