Why Cassino? Putting the Italian Campaign into Global Context

[@Pam_N]

Outstanding, does justice to the big picture: aptly titled, "Putting the Italian Campaign into Global Context."

[@philbosworth3789]

A great presentation from Alan explaining the lead up to Monte Cassino.

[@jrdj87]

Alan is brilliant. More please!

[@WW2TV]

Yes he is

[@jimwatts914]

Howdy folks. Brilliant presentation by Dr Allport. His analysis shows why the Allies fought in Italy despite the Americans desire for a confrontation with the German army. Persuasive and clear.

[@Thumpalumpacus]

Spot-on. Gets the details without bogging down.

[@OliBP]

Awesome presentation! I heard a lot about Monte Cassino, and the Italian campaign, but never knew really about the context. Now i know! Thanks!

[@davidlavigne207]

This was a good primer for the further study of Monte Cassino by Alan and Paul. Great open ended questions to ponder towards the end of the presentation. One thing for sure, I will always be in awe of the soldiers who fought there, regardless of whatever historians have concluded. No one can fault the men on both sides who engaged in the Italian campaign. Bravery was a common denominator throughout the fighting.

[@ewok40k]

Cassino gets a lot of coverage here in Poland, due to obvious reasons - it was major victory of Polish forces in exile to capture the ruins of the monastery. We got even a movie made about the batlle this year... As for the Cassino itself, as some general who I forgot once quipped: In war, as in high society, position is everyrthing.

[@Rusty_Gold85]

What was that movie called ?

[@georgecooksey8216]

Excellent presentation and discussion. Thank you Paul and Alan.

[@1089maul]

Woody/Alan. Watched this on catch-up but of sequence for Cassino week. Should have watched this first for excellent and detailed presentation of the build up to Cassino. I loved Alan’s style of presentation which was really interesting. Thanks both. Bob

[@tonyvart7068]

Superb pitch from Alan....very good slides indeed!!

[@peterfriedenspfeife9230]

Very, very good presentation, explaining the bigger context and also the questions and doubts about this campaign. I always had took it for granted that it was necessary to attack the German sphere of influence also from the South, liberate Europe as much as possible and as quick as possible, and be it only to drag away forces from France, but I realize now that it was not that obvious.

[@johnlucas8479]

Very interesting presentation especially, the questions at the end.

[@rollotreadway9251]

An excellent overview of the strategic context of the Italian campaign and thankfully no use of the word sideshow either. The decision of Hitler to send The First SS Panzer Division from the Eastern Front to Italy to shore up Mussolini shows how the different campaign theatres were intertwined. The guest speaker does an excellent job of explaining the allied discussions and available options in a clear and concise manner.

[@dermotrooney9584]

Lovely stuff. I've raided Alan's "Browned Off" many times. 🌟

[@timbrown1481]

I love Alan’s “Global Context” presentations. It gives one the whole situation in a given time frame. So many moving parts. 7:44

[@WW2TV]

Me too, I think they are a great addition to our collective learning

[@alexfitzgeraldblack]

Amazing presentation by Alan. I do take issue that Sicily is characterised as "slow progress". Slow based on what? Sure, it was pretty casualty intense -- especially on the Axis (particularly German) side! That comment about the lack of a decision on mainland Italy and its role in the successful Axis evacuation is very interesting.

[@merdiolu]

Great show tonight ( I wote al lengtrhy reply but lost all) Italian theater is a favorite campaign in WWII because it was ignored in popular history. Not only Allied armies staying idle after Tunisian Campaign in May 1943 till June 1944 would be politically unacceptable when Red Army was shouldering fighting the weight of Wehrmacht in Eastern Front ( Stalin became much more bearable in Teheranm Conferance in December 1943) , by May 1944 , Italian Campaign and holding Gustav Line and Anzio bridgehead south of Rome diverted 22 German divisions in Italy and 12 more in Balkans to compansate Italian occupation zone after surrender and disarming of Italian military. If one or two more of German divisions were entrenched in Normandy in May or June 1944 there would be no D-Day , the stakes were that high. Pushing German defensive linesa to north to capture Rome and threaten industrial zone of Northern Italy and grainfields on Po Valley (both which German war economy in dire need) was only was to stretch German Army resources to utmost limit so D-Day in 1944 became possible

[@garyaugust1953]

Yes the onus fell on Stalin and the Red Army. That stemmed from the Nazi Lebensraum. It has to be said that the German offensive was the largest ever committed. The politics of the time, however unfruitful, did not consider Soviet doctrine, just their compliance, and hugely significant war effort.

[@extrahistory8956]

In terms of forgotten fronts, the 1,000 mile dash from Mogadishu to the Ethiopian highlands by the Nigerian troops to this day remains the reason why the East African front is mt favorite of the WW2 forgotten fronts. It was also the first front where the Allies won an indisputable total victory

[@maikelvane5185]

I was in Italy last year. Driving from Naples to Rome and came across Cassino.. Still had to jump in the battle why it had to be done. Thanks a lot Paul!

[@DanielHammersley]

Except for the Internet Gremlins of JFC Fuller, that was a great synopsis of why Italy at all, and thus the road to Cassino (after SHINGLE's failure) by Alan, Woody! I did not know about the TRIDENT conference at all, but yes, '43 was the "year of the Conferences" of the Allied Powers., agreed! I do wonder how much of Sir Churchill's aims to end the war by December '44 as a thought idea for around, since we know after Falaise, until the September fuel shortage hauled the Armies in France to a halt a majority of Allied troops had the same infectious idea war to end soon, home by Christmas '44? Not a huge rabbit hole, but it gave me pause during the presentation. PS> 2nd time I've heard "Tunis-grad' (May 43 A,K, surrender) called that. Contemporary nicknaming, since the February '43 ending of Stalingrad :)

[@PalleRasmussen]

Another busy day Paul.

[@DDB168]

This was a great presentation, a great overview of the war up to Cassino. Great stuff. P.P Obrien loves to take the contrarian/controversial view.

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you.

[@Rusty_Gold85]

Has the Channel ever got an author in who has done a specialty summarisation of all the Conferences ? I reckon it is one area that is important to the way they travelled in the war .

[@timwaycaster7538]

Idea for a show: have Ian McCollum from the KZbin channel Forgotten Weapons on to talk about WW2 small arms

[@WW2TV]

There are plenty of weapons channels, it's not a direction I want to take thanks

[@garyaugust1953]

My take on the Italian campaign in general was Churchills' insistence in preventing a Russian domination of the balkan countries (later to be a reality), the removal of an inferior ally to the Nazis (namely Benito Mussolini), but overall the priority with a planned Overlord. Despite the previous named ops from 1943 onwards, the logistics remained the overriding priority. The Italian campaign and Cassino were a nessacary component of the overall objective, committing German resources (lets face it, Italian commitment was reverse gear lol), A number edits on i have to say what a very good presentation this was.

[@jim99west46]

Churchill was a very sly fellow. Its possible that the Italian campaign or his still born Balkans front was as much to keep the Germans bleeding the Russians by prolonging the war as it was to liberate Italy.

[@zainmudassir2964]

It's similar to Burma campaign active throughout the Pacific war which drained Japanese Army divisions and kept them from reinforcing elsewhere as Japanese cities came under bombing range.

[@jaywhite38]

The invasion of Italy was probably overall a mistake after the fall of Sicily, the ouster of Mussolini and Italian capitulation.

[@merdiolu]

Italian capitulation happened because Allies started Italian Campaign by landing Reggio di Calabria, Salerno and Taranto and after that pushed north. Without initialization of Italian Campaign Italy in under Marshall Bodoglio instead of Musssolini would remain in Axis as a German vassal

[@lesliebeilby-tipping6854]

What happened to the third part of the day Woody?

[@WW2TV]

I had to postpone because of a lack of internet - see the community post and the one in the sidebar for the delayed show

[@Tancred73]

French internet workers went on strike at the end of the video?

[@WW2TV]

Yep, pretty much

[@aegirkarl1411]

Without the surrender of Italy would there have been Italian divisions in Normandy or more German divisions in 1944? Would the Balkans be as troublesome for Germany and would the Mediterranean be as secure for the Allies with the Italian navy still on the Axis side?

[@gqs1]

The intro a bit long , and everybody who tunes in are already aware of 95% of the context around Cassino

[@WW2TV]

But for people who don't know the context, it's invaluable. And if you did know all the context, why watch?

[@OliBP]

@@WW2TV I heard a lot about Monte Cassino, but i really needed a video like this to really understands the context! Thank you!

[@JakubUrbanowicz-bc1td]

I disagree, I have intrest in ww2 and rather comolex knowledge of the topic, but for me ir was good review, and also pointed me out in durection of things I overlooked. In my case it was the disputes about Casablanca conference, other stuff I knew. But I believe for other peapole different aspect could be gap-filler. I found this video a good introduction before going into Cassino campaign itself. Also I was surprised by the info that British industry reached its peak in 1943.

[@chrissasin6676]

False advertising

[@WW2TV]

How? The show was called Why Cassino, Putting the Italian Campaign into Global Context, which is EXACTLY what we discussed. What were you expecting?

[@chrissasin6676]

@@WW2TV why they decided that taking monte Cassino was so important? Did I miss something?

[@WW2TV]

It seems you did yes. Alan explained exactly why. The fact it sat on Highway 6. But again, it was about the contextual history, why the Allies found themselves fighting on the Italian mainland at all, why and how Anzio failed and therefore why Cassino stood in the way. Again, literally all in the title