Why did the Allies land in Normandy instead of Italy to attack Germany?
In 1943, the Allies invaded Italy, which eventually became one of the Axis powers, and the Allies shifted from strategic passivity to strategic offensive. Subsequently, it is known that the Allies mobilized their main forces to land in Normandy, France, opening up a second theater of war. Given Italy's geographical location in southern Europe, the Allies could have attacked Germany from Italy, so why did they bother to cross the English Channel and open a second battlefield from Normandy?
In fact, there are only a few reasons. First, Italy's geographical location was mountainous, which was very unfavorable for the deployment of large-scale mechanized forces of the Allies. In northern Italy, the Germans built a large number of pillboxes and fortifications to stop the Allied offensive, and the Allies suffered heavy losses in several previous attacks. If the Germans had continued their offensive from northern Italy, the losses of the Allies would have been even greater.
Secondly, on the Eastern Front, after the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet army gradually began to ** and infiltrated into Germany proper, thereby seizing the initiative in the war. If the Germans had repelled the Allies in northern Italy by this time, many territories would undoubtedly have fallen into Soviet hands, and Soviet dominance in post-war Europe would have been more secure.
In addition, if the Allies landed in northern Italy, Britain, which at that time was an important supply and transit base, would have to transport Allied troops by sea. Germany took it at the time"Wolves"Tactics caused a big problem for the logistics of the Allied forces at that time. Imagine that if the Allies were to be transported to Italy by sea, Germany would attack them, and the Allies would suffer heavy losses. If they had attacked from the British, their ** would have been much less due to a more favorable geographical location and easier supply.
There were other reasons why the Allies did not take advantage of the victory in Italy to attack Germany, but opened a second battlefield by surprise. From an objective point of view, this was undoubtedly correct, and the Allies ended up landing in Normandy at a relatively small cost. In addition, this exposed Germany to a situation of fighting on two fronts, thus laying a solid foundation for its later defeat and significantly reducing the losses of the Allies at that time.
The Allies could have attacked Germany from Italy, so why did they have to open a second battlefield from Normandy?