Background
In May 1943, the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were defeated in the North African Campaign. Two months later, the Allied powers of Great Britain and the United States, successfully invaded Sicily. The island being completely occupied by the end of August, the Allies next turned their attention to the invasion of Italy.
On 3 September 1943, the British Eighth Army crossed the Straits of Messina from Sicily and landed in Calabria during Operation Baytown to seize the ports of Reggio and San Giovanni. The main invasion was planned for 9 September, with the US Fifth Army landing at Salerno on the western coast in Operation Avalanche, with Naples their immediate objective. The Allies hoped that the invasion would persuade the Italian forces to surrender. If they did, the five Italian divisions in France and the 29 in the Balkans would have to be replaced by German formations. Also, if the Germans then decided to continue the fight in Italy, they would have to redeploy some of their divisions engaged on the Eastern Front or on occupation duties in France.
During secret surrender negotiations with the Allies in early September, the Italian government offered to open the ports of Taranto and Brindisi on the eastern coast. German forces in that area were very weak and would be expected to withdraw rather than fight if the Allies landed there. General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, quickly planned a third landing, codenamed Slapstick, to take advantage of the offer.
Slapstick was in part an operation of deception, to divert German forces away from the main Allied landings at Salerno on the same day, while also attempting to capture Taranto and Brindisi intact. The main value of Taranto was its large port. Its seizure would, with the expected capture of Naples in the west by the Americans, give the Allies supply points on both Italian coasts.
The military operation played a major political role, since the King Vittorio Emanule III of Italy, the queen Elena, the crown prince and future king Umberto, the prime minister Generale Badoglio, and other high ranking Italian officers hastily escaped from Rome and the German danger, early in the morning of the 9th of September, embarked the Corvetta Baionetta in Ortona, and arrived the same day into the port of Brindisi. The town of Brindisi was at the time controlled only by the Italian army, but it was soon to be protected by the British forces, supporting the diplomatic, political and military contacts between the Italian government and the allied forces, leading to the declaration of war by Italy against Germany.
Read more about this topic: Operation Slapstick
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