The Forgotten D-Day - Operation Avalanche - WWII - Part 1 - Extra History
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- Опубліковано 22 лют 2023
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Operation Avalanche was the allied invasion of Italy at Salerno during World War II and is known as "The Forgotten D-Day".
Miss an episode in our Operation Avalanche Series?
The Forgotten D-Day - • The Forgotten D-Day - ...
D-Day Nearly Fails - • D-Day Nearly Fails - O...
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Meh 😑
No
Just for the record Corps is pronounced core lol
Please do Texas revolution please extra history
Pls make a video over the 80 years war of dutch independence
The art style looked reminiscent of early episodes of Extra History, like the Resource War series. Is that a call back to the channels first look at World War II some 6 years ago?
I think they use different artists for the one-off type episodes
@@thetruerift Correct! We use different artists for different series. The one for this is the amazingly talented David Hueso
@@extrahistory woah 😳, wish for Devil's Brigade soon
Yep
@@extrahistory nice emoji!
One reason the italian front never got much attention was that it quickly turned into a massive embarrassment for the allies, who'd gone in expecting a quick run to Rome and ended up smashing face-first into some of the toughest defenses of the whole war. A lot of higher officers had gone in hoping this would make them the next Patton or Montgomery and instead found the campaign to be a persistent black mark on their future careers.
I feel like this is a good point & one that some people completely underestimate: What battles were chewed down into boredom in media like films & videos & games tend to be the ones that passed several media filters (and even then those that did get attention were altered in their retelling, same thing with WW1)
Especially mark clark with his decision to capture Rome instead of encircling kesselrings forces
It's likelier because US troops did not make up the majority of the Allied forces in Italy meaning that US education spends less time on it. It's a much more known part of the war in Europe.
I think in America it would also be due to the massive (mostly comunist) Italian resistance movement that self-liberated in 45, some macabre and gruesome episodes from the Allies etc
If you want a deep dive on Italian front and on ww2 in general the worldwartwo UA-cam channel is for you
Rob’s great grandparents must have given an awesome comeback to Patton insulting them.
Who is rob
Patton was murdered by the zionist communist globalist NWO
@@mcperson8455 Robin deez nutz
My paternal Grandfather was a British Army Colonel assigned as one of the liaison officers to Patton's 3rd Army Headquarters. He wrote that he spent the war safe from the Germans but under constant attack from General Patton.
"safe from the Germans but under constant attack from general Patton"
This quintessentially reads British in its wording.
I love it.
Just gonna drop this here because I think y'all will find it interesting. My grandfather was actually from Assergi, a village close to where Mussolini was held (actually the one from where the funicular railway starts): he was paid a small sum to bring supplies to the garrison stationed there, as he was only 14 back then. When the germans came he first heard several gunshots, took cover in the street where he was strolling, and then briefly ventured in the village outskirts: there he saw the body of Pasqualino Vitocco, one of the only two italian soldiers killed by the germans during that day. The body scared him shitless though, and he thought that the germans would come back to shoot the rest of the town, so he ran home and hid through the rest of the day, to the point that he never saw the planes taking off (probably he remembered this so vividly because he was very afraid they would still be around the mountains somewhere).
Thank TriiR for sharing this part of your family history.
thanks for sharing rlly cool story
My great gramps was the driver of a Sherman tank in Italy with the Canadian 14th Armored Regiment and saw service throughout the majority of the Italian Campaign. He then fought in the Netherlands and ended the war in Germany. The troops in Italy were nicknamed "The D-Day Dodgers" despite the fact that the Italian campaign was often far more gruesome.
As someone who always enjoys the lesser known stories of WW2, this series is going to be a banger
WE LOVE doing these lesser known episodes. It makes you realize how intricate these situations are.
@@extrahistory another aspect of history during that era, but not necessarily part of the war is the spainish civil war. and i've heard almost nothing about it! i never covered it in any of my history classes, and i only recently discovered it actually happened thanks to hearts of iron 4. i'd absolutely love to hear more about it, especially since the nationalists won the war, but for some reason that i've never found out about didn't join the axis powers.
i love hearing about history in all aspects, and i've been loving this channel since you guys talked about mary seacole and john snow. i wish i could donate to help keep it going, but i'm a broke college graduate. so all i can give you are my deepest thanks and this suggestion of the civil war. thank you for keeping the love of history alive for almost 3 million of us! and i can't wait to hear what happens in italy next!
@callmecatalyst the war itself ended in 1939.
Ditto
@@ShackleYT Yeah, but if you just finished a Civil war, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to fight in a World War immediately After.
I often look at the plan behind this campaign and have to wonder: "what the heck were they thinking?" My grandmother's family was from Italy, having moved to the US gradually over the 1920s and 30s. I've been back there several times to visit family (the children and grandchildren of my grandmother's one brother who stayed), and I've seen the Salerno coast and what the Apennine Mountains look like. Those areas looked every bit as nightmarish to land on or advance through as the episode describes (and, of course, that's exactly how it turned out).
Plus, there's a bigger conceptual issue with the "soft underbelly" argument. Say you land, and fight your way out of the "baseball stadium" landing area, and up through the hundreds of miles of narrow mountainous peninsula, and clear all of Italy. So this is farther than the Allies ever actually got, but say you do all that. Congratulations, now the next task on your way to attack Germany is to CROSS THE GODDAMN ALPS. That's an *opposed* crossing, mind you, nothing like Hannibal's march. Most likely, you're in for another dozen Isonzos.
Churchill wanted to keep the Russians away from the Balkans. In France the front would be as far west as possible, in Italy it would start more to the east. Maybe they should have tried Greece after Sicily, the partisans in Yugoslavia and the Greek resistance would have helped them tremendously
Italy is a great country to climb mountains when no one is trying to kill you...
oh and not only that, say you manage to get to the alps, guess what country is there, switzerland. which means, while you won't have germans attacking you, GOOD LUCK TRYING TO CROSS THROUGH SWISS TERRITORY
Hold the phone. Rob's great grandfather served with Patton in Hawaii? And came to blows? Who was this man? I want to know his story now!
Great grand father they said ^^
Who's Rob?
@@dark_zAzas8052 Probably one of the guys behind the channel ^^
@@dark_zAzas8052 The historian who writes the script for the episodes.
Robert Rath, historian and author who writes the scripts. And some very good 40k books.
Lady Astor a member of the UK parliament referred to British troops in Italy as "D-Day Dodgers". The troops responded with a satirical song depicting their bloodiest battles as a holiday trip, starting with:
We landed at Salerno, a holiday with pay,
Jerry brought the band down to cheer us on our way
Showed us the sights and gave us tea,
We all sang songs, the beer was free.
We are the D-Day Dodgers, way out in Italy.
The last verses turns to a more serious reply:
Now Lady Astor, get a load of this.
Don't stand up on a platform and talk a load of p***.
You're the nation's sweetheart, the nation's pride
We think your mouth's too bloody wide.
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in Sunny Italy.
When you look 'round the mountains, through the mud and rain
You'll find the crosses, some which bear no name.
Heartbreak, and toil and suffering gone
The boys beneath them slumber on
They were the D-Day Dodgers, who'll stay in Italy
Wasn't she the one who told Churchill that if she were his wife, she'd poison his coffee?
@@typacsk Yep, that's the one. His reply was that if she were his wife he would gladly drink the poison.
Wow, it’s not even Saturday and We already have an episode? How lucky are we? thank you extra history.
Thank you for watching!
@@extrahistory At least 5 years now.
The campaigns in Italy aren’t given as much credit as they should be, likely due to the hardened German defense and stalemate that occurred right in the middle of Italy, requiring a second foothold to be gained elsewhere. One of my ancestors was in the 45th, so this is important to me.
Also not only that, the Poles didn't get enough credit during the campaign and they were one of the most hard fighting nations not only in the campaign but the whole war
Yeah ok but you are Belisarius, of course you are biased toward this kind of campaign...
@@Kaiyanwang82 ;D
my entire family has always been 45th. Its a mark of great pride
There was actually 2 soldiers that Patton slapped, the other one everyone knows being SGT Paul Bennet, with Patton previously expressing the idea to find & shoot a few 'cowards' to make examples anyways. The other soldier was PV2 Charles Kuhl, who had undiagnosed Malaria at the time Patton slapped and threatened to execute him, too. He and his parents actually wanted the matter dropped in _defense_ of Patton. He passed in 1971.
For anyone wondering: that hotel, in which the dictator of Italy was prisoner, is is still standing today.
And is available to receive guests.
The name is "hotel Campo Imperatore" (emperor field hotel). And is situated at 2130 m on the sea level.
3:29 Italy was one of the victorious powers in WW1 and thus had no treaty limiting their army or defence spending, so they didn't break any treaties
Well, there were treaties even among vicious nations to limit weapons production
@@NoName-hg6cc Which of those treaties did Italy violate? A lot of countries violated the chemical warfare one.
@@puppetguy8726 I know, but this means Italy is one of them. For example, there was a naval treaty on limit of weight class and numbers of frigates, submarines, battleship that EVERYONE violated
@@NoName-hg6cc Italy declined to sign the second London naval treaty. They did sign the first London naval treaty and mostly complied. I don't think extra history was referring to the London naval treaties though.
My grandpa’s uncle served with Patton in the North African campaign and the invasion of Sicily. Glad to see the story I always wanted to hear is being told!
My friend August Caccavone was with the 7th Army and 106th Infantry in the Battle Of The Bulge
We landed at Salerno, a holiday with pay
Gerry brought the band out to welcome us on our way
Showed us the sights and gave us tea
We all sang songs, the beer was free
To welcome D-day dodgers to sunny Italy
You saying D-Day is not just the Normandy Landings made me so very happy. I always have to tell people this.
Oh man, Clark's behaviour during the Italian campaign was certainly something. Can't wait to see how that will be covered.
Well, we can look on the bright side. At least he wasn't Lloyd Fredendall
@@mcwildstyle9106*reads the wiki* He makes Clark look like a saint!
As a Canadian who loves history I actually had a military history class in High School where we talked about the Italian Campaign where Canadians were on of the larger armies that landed. I also love the resistance movement behind the Partisans
Also learned about this while in high school in Ontario. I actually got to take part in the "Remembering Ortona" trip in 2008 where we visited a lot of the towns affected from this campaign and we even got to see some of the buildings that were affected by the corners of the buildings being destroyed by the mouseholing tactics used to try and avoid the deathtraps that were the streets.
I'm really glad y'all talked about Gen. Mark Clark. There are some amazing photos in his personal collection because he wanted his personal photographer to document as much as possible.
I like when extra history covers specific military missions that are part of a bigger conflict in detail
I've been waiting for this since I was a teenager! Both of my grandma's brothers served in the 3rd infantry division from north Africa, to sicily, then to Anzio, and as a result I've always had a fascination with the Italian campaign.
Hearing names like Patton and Kesselring will never not feel weird as someone who learned of them through Rance first and then looking into their historical references.
History has treated Kesselring quite sadly. He was an excelent comander who was able to hold down allies in Italy even after losing battles and been in disadvantage many times. Rommel and Paulus of Germany side are more known unlike this smiling man.
It's funny you mentioned Rob's great-grandfather having a personal hatred of Patton as my grandfather, a European Theatre Bomber Pilot, and future Air Force General had a similar adversarial relationship with Chuck Yaeger. They couldn't stand each other.
May I ask the reasoning?
@@charliefarmer4365Clashing personalities mostly.
@@cerberus144 ah, I see.
Maybe my favourite video so far, awesome job! Props to the EH crew
Thank you so much!
4:33 I really like stories like this because it shows how small the world can be, and how close our past, even from 80 years ago really is. One interesting fact is that if you're a US citizen, and have a family that has been in the US for a long time, you are very likely to be not so distantly related to at least one president.
The Italian Front was were the FEB (Expreditionary Brazilian Force) first acted in WW2, around 25.000 people volunteered to go, those heroes gave a sense of pride and unity for the whole country by doing that, while also doing awesome music! I recomend searching "Malagueta FEB" to hear the music they made
The Italian theater ranks up there with the Korean War as some of the most bloody, yet forgotten battles in American history.
Rick Atkinson's excellent book, "The Day of Battle" is a great start for anyone curious about it.
I love how Eisenhower was animated as the one disturbed by the news, it wouldn't have been his first time being at odds with Patton.
Also love Eisenhower whole attitude during this. Just makes him more of a legend.
I can't hear about Operation Avalanche without hearing those cool whistles from Sabaton's "To Hell and Back"
I remember learning about general patton he had a big tank battle win because of luck and the fact that he didn't want to be were he said he will be to his allies, his gamble won but it shouldn't have worked, that's why luck was a big part of his victory in that battle.
Kesselring implemented an excellent defensive effort in depth in Italy.
It's always a good feeling when you read an Extra History title and see that it's only part 1.
As an Italian, this part was far from being unkown of corse... and there is so much to tell. Mafia involvement, Monte Cassino and the Goumier, the Repubblica sociale, the division that lasted up to the 70s, the Resistenza and the Partisans, the retaliations.... there is much of it in Italian Cinema for anyone interested.
I hope Audie Murphy comes up in this series. His biography us one of the best firsthand accounts of the Italian campaign.
You can thank the Mafia for Sicily. They were behind a lot of the defection and help from islanders that the allies received during the invasion.
Do a Extra Pre-History series, where you talk about Earth's History like the dinosaurs.
Check stefan milo's channel!
that would be awesome!
My grandfather lead a platoon in the invasion of Italy. A few years ago we finally tracked down his original commendation for the medal he won during the early parts of it. It read like a script excerpt from saving Private Ryan. They had to crawl prone over sand through a mine field of tiny shoe box mines laid by the Germans. Even when his friends around him were getting blown up the only thing they could do was keep crawling forward.
Ah yes Pattons famous slaps. Wish you mentioned the second slap and the fact the slappings weren't an issue till after the second one. He famously threatened to execute the solider during the second slap.
I would be interested in a extra history series on Patton. His life is really interesting
Rob might have an anuerysm but agreed. Man is like 90% more myth than man at this point
I know where this is going, and I'm still on the edge of my seat for the next installment. My grandpa used to tell me stories about this (and upcoming) operations. Thank you for bringing more attention to it.
Monty being undiplomatic was so notorious that even people close to him considered Monty insufferable or unbearable. After the Allied captured Paris, the was a debate about Narrow-front vs. broad-front strategies. Monty proposed a narrow thrust toward the north into Belgium, Netherlands, and eventually the Ruhr region. Although his proposal made sense, Monty explained rudely and narcissistically that most American commanders, including Eisenhower, were turned off and rejected Monty's plan out of spite.
Great episode! My grandfather and his brother both served under Mark Clark and parachuted into Avellino, just north of Salerno. Can't wait for the next episode!
The real forgotten D-Day was Operation Dragoon, the landings in Provence (southern France) in August '44.
A lot is made of the tensions and difficulties in the allied coalition effort but I think its important to stress that this was the literally the most cooperative and closest military alliance in history
I would love to see some episodes of extra history about the units from the various commonwealth countries, like the Gurkha's, the Maori Battalion from NZ or the Canadians.
Australian soldiers weren't in the 8th army for the Italian campaign if there were they were there in small numbers. At this points in the war Australian soldiers were mainly fighting in PNG
The lesser known stories of the war are the best ones. Perhaps a series on Finland?
dod_avalanche will always have a place in my heart
Very excited to see a new episode!!
I love your Punic war series.
holy crap, i'm actually excited about the advertising bit! Awesome video, can't wait for the rest of the series! The Italian front in bith WW1 and 2 is really intense interesting stuff taht often gets overlooked
Always informative and entertaining
I have never heard of this before but I am delighted at a chance to learn more so thank you EH!
Love the channel!! Keep up the amazing work!!
Thank you for the kind words!
Love you guys!
Appreciate this series. My grandfather fought in the Italian campaign.
I remember this battle before while I was playing Call of Duty: Roads to Victory on my PSP. I think in that game, it takes place on Atavilla when you are playing as a member of the US 82nd Airborne Division.
‘With their bare hands’ gives a really detailed history of these operations too, can’t recommend enough
This video simplified the Allied plans for the Sicily Campaign and the personality clashes of the leaders involved too much. Patton argued for the split attack that the video talked about so the Allies could press the island on 2 sides and one group (in Patton's mind it would be his) would be able to take Messina in the North and prevent the Axis from escaping the island. Montgomery was skeptical of this idea and argued for a joint push up the East side of the island. Eisenhower agreed with Montgomery and approved the joint push approach. This plan eventually ran into issues when the defenders bogged down the Allied advance due to the terrain and the limited routes through it. Patton essential broke off on his own under a loose interpretation of an approval for a scouting operation and drove all the way west to get the split sides of the island as described in the video, though by this point it had taken so much time the Axis managed an orderly withdraw to the Italian Mainland.
They follow the movie "Patton" more than history. They also miss the role of 15th Army group commander, British Field Marshal Alexander who commanded Patton and Montgomery in the campaign and was overall ground commander in Italy as well.
As a Sicilian, grazie.
There is so much more to say... The campaign in the hinterland was especially bloody, my Grandpa always remembered that...
Just when I needed a break u upload. Great episode. Keep up the amazing content
I have always wondered about the Italy side of the war. Thanks for talking about it.
2 of my great grandfathers, served under Patton too. One from pre-war in Hawaii to the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and the other in France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Germany.
Good job Matt as always another awesome video.When will part 2 come out😀
Another Amazing video! Keep up the great work! :)
My father landed in Salerno with the first waves..was wounded later on in the ensuing battles..thanks for this
Oh this is cool! My grandfather was in the 36th infantry and I kept seeing some information around, but he never liked to talk about it.
Always great getting another extra history video, I usually prefer less modern history, but this looks like it'll be great
September 9th is my birthday I always wondered what important history happened on that day thank you for this video ❤
Epic stuff coming up
My grandfather served as a tank driver in the canadian army during the invasion of italy. I hope you get to cover the canadians as they are often overlooked
MASSIVE HYPE
I hope you explore our Resistenza and Civil War during this series too!
Thank you for the video.
I hope you guys manage to at least mention the three days of Naples in this series!
Aside from that, I'm really excited!
Woo early episode? Thx extra history!
My grandfather also marched with Patton during WW2. His exact words, to my recollection, were "imagine the most disgusting, vile sack of garbage. Then give it a mouth and 0 tact. That was Patton" As I understand it, the man was not popular 😂
Nice. Always wanted to know more about the Italian campaign
In my near 40 years I have never heard of this. Thanks Extra History
Cool episode!
Good episode!
This brings to mind a meme that I saw way back. Pictured a British “carrier” next to an American one. The Brits was about 1/3 the size. Some limey posted “compensating for something Americans?”… The reply was “Yeah….weak allies”…. LMAO 😂
But the British carrier had an armored flight deck, much more durable than the wooden American ones, but limited the plane capacity
I already knew about this but this was fun to watch
I was intrigued by Company of Heroes 3, I'll definitely look into it.
Great episode, as usual! Could you add your sources to the video description, for those of us that would like do to some reading on their own?
The Med campaign is often overlooked, specially in the US, but was absolutely vital. It was in the Med that the US learned to fight a modern war, that combined allied air operations were tried and tested, that allied massed amphib and air drop invasions were trialed, including some of the equipment that would be used in Normandy. The Med showed the allies what worked and what _did not_ .
So family story, my grandpa (a barely educated Arkansas farmer and baseball player) served in Italy in WWII as an MP during the occupation after these landings. He became an impromptu translator with the locals because while he didn't speak Italian, he was Irish Catholic and spoke fluent Latin! When the Americans needed help communicating with locals they would bring him out and he would speak in Latin, which thankfully the heavily Roman Catholic Italias had better knowledge of than English.
Would love to see a video series on the first amphibious landing the Allies tried at dieppe and just how poorly planned it was
That art is like a boss what a content
This seems like it's gonna be great! We don't hear enough about what happened to Italy during the war!
In the written plan for the invasion or other operation, the actual day may need to be flexible depending on circumstances. So the plan says d-day. The day before is d-1, the day after in d+1. The hour of some point on d-day is h-hour, the hour before is h-1, etc
Thanks for getting me addicted to history!
You're VERY welcome!
Im surprised EH managed to make videos on ww1 and after because its just so controversial. Thanks for making these episodes!
3:48 HMS Victorious was sent to the Pacific in the middle of 1943.
Funny, I visited the D Day Memorial yesterday in Bedford. I kinda have recollection of the Italian campaign, but a lot of stuff is new.
One thing that doesn't get talked about a lot. People in the third world liked the Axis at least at the time. For example Italy freed the slaves of Ethiopia. There were 2 million enslaved peoples in Ethiopia at the time. That is around the amount of slaves in America during the civil war. Eastern European countries such as Ukraine and Romania liked the axis because the soviet union was trying to conquer them and the axis were the only ones who would take their independence seriously. The west didn't want to stop the soviets out of fear the soviets would side with the axis.
African countries and India saw the axis as their hope for liberation from racism.
Eastern Europe only thought of the axis as liberators for about as long as it took for the invaders to start stealing local produce for the war, and then massacring the locals, which usually only took a few days. Even then countries like Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria tried to escape or dodge the axis but couldn't because Germany would just crush them if they tried. Italy is the prime example, and Spain only just escaped as well
Edit: as evidenced by so much of east asia, those who sided with the axis hoping for liberation and freedom from imperialism and racism ended up propping up another racist foreign empire as collaborationists
History is never easy unfortunately
i love your vids
I love this
i saw the thumbnail and remembered the older episodes!! this is so cute
Nice, ww2 in realtime channel (hosted by Indy Neidell) is curretly on this topic. This serves as a refresher. 👍
Otto Skorzeny ! 00:01 - Campo Imperatore .