1943 German campaign to disarm Italy following its surrender to the Allies during WWII
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Operation Achse
Part of the Italian campaign of World War II
Disarmed Italian soldiers marching to captivity in Bozen.
Location
Italy, Balkans, Southern France
Result
Axis victory
Italian Social Republic formed
Benito Mussolini freed
Italian government flees to Southern Italy
Italy declares war on Germany
German annexation of the Alpine Foothills and the Adriatic Littoral
German occupation of North and Central Italy
Failure to occupy Sardinia, Corsica and South Italy
Belligerents
Italy
Germany Croatia Romania
Commanders and leaders
Vittorio Emanuele III Pietro Badoglio Vittorio Ambrosio Mario Roatta Ezio Rosi (POW) Mario Vercellino (POW)
Albert Kesselring Erwin Rommel Gerd von Rundstedt Maximilian von Weichs Alexander Löhr Miroslav Navratil Horia Macellariu
Strength
60 divisions (26 in Italy, 31 in the Balkans, 3 in France)
40 divisions (17 in Italy, 19 in the Balkans, 4 in France)
Casualties and losses
20,000–30,000 killed 1,006,370 disarmed Captured by Germans: 977 armored vehicles 16,631 vehicles 17,058 artillery pieces and mortars Many warships
Captured by Romanians: 496 prisoners[1] 5 midget submarines[2]
Unknown
v
t
e
Italian Campaign
Invasion of Sicily
Corkscrew
Mincemeat
Barclay
Animals
Chestnut
Narcissus
Fustian
Ladbroke
Gela
Troina
Centuripe
Invasion of Italy
Baytown
Avalanche
Slapstick
Armistice with Italy
Achse
Naples
Devon
Vatican bombing
Volturno Line
Barbara Line
Bari raid
Winter Line
Bernhardt Line
Monte la Difensa
San Pietro
Moro
Ortona
Rapido
Monte Cassino
Anzio
Cisterna
Diadem
Strangle
Chesterfield
Trasimene Line
Ancona
Elba
Gothic Line
Rimini
San Marino
Gemmano
Monte Castello
Garfagnana
1945 Spring Offensive
Tombola
Bowler
Roast
Bologna
Argenta Gap
Herring
Collecchio
Trieste
Italian Civil War
Operation Achse (German: Fall Achse, lit. 'Case Axis'), originally called Operation Alaric (Unternehmen Alarich), was the codename for the German operation to forcibly disarm the Italian armed forces after Italy's armistice with the Allies on 3 September 1943.
Several German divisions had entered Italy after the fall of Benito Mussolini in July 1943, while Italy was officially still an ally of Germany, despite the protests of the new Italian government under Pietro Badoglio. The armistice was made public on 8 September. German forces moved rapidly to take over the Italian zones of occupation in the Balkans and southern France, and to disarm Italian forces in Italy.
Some Italian troops, with no orders from superiors, and hampered by desertions, resisted the Germans. On the Greek island of Cephalonia, 1,315 Italian soldiers were killed in action against the Germans and over 5,100 Italian soldiers from the 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui" were summarily executed by the German Army after running out of ammunition and surrendering. In Rome, with the royal family and the government having fled, a disorganized defense by Italian troops of the capital was unable to withstand a German attack. Some individual soldiers and sometimes whole units, like the 24th Infantry Division "Pinerolo" in Thessaly, went over to the local resistance. Only in Sardinia, Corsica, Calabria and the southern part of Apulia were Italian troops able to offer successful resistance and hold off the Germans until relieved by the arrival of the Allies.
^Axworthy, Mark (1995). Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 978-1854092670., p. 217
^Maurizio Brescia, Seaforth Publishing, Sep 30, 2012, Mussolini's Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930–1945, p. 174
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