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The failure of the Italian war effort and the imminent invasion of the Italian mainland by the Allies led to a rebellion within the Fascist Party. Two days after the fall of Palermo on July 24, the Fascist Grand Council rejected the policy dictated by Hitler through Mussolini -
code named Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers -
The main landings were scheduled to take place on 9 September, during which the main force would land around Salerno on the western coast. Its primary objectives were to seize the port of Naples to ensure resupply, and to cut across to the east coast, trapping Axis troops further south -
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies. Weeks later, Badoglio finally approved a conditional surrender, allowing the Allies to land in southern Italy and begin beating the Germans back up the peninsula -
Adolf Hitler ordered that the occupied Italian territory be divided into three zones, with the area around Rome extending south toward the front lines against the Allies -
The Daring Mission. Furious and fearful of the implications of a potential alliance between the Allies and what he presumed would now be a hostile Italy, Hitler decided the only course of action was to annex former Italian territory and overseas possessions and rescue his fellow dictator from captivity. -
Nine days after the Armistice of Cassibile, Allied troops landed in Cagliari. The Armistice marked the end of the air raids over Sardinia, and over the course of 1944 most of the inhabitants returned to the city; Cagliari was gradually rebuilt during the following years. -
Allied troops captured Naples, which was left in very poor conditions by retreating Germans. -
They quickly moved north from the southern port city to assemble in Bari on the Adriatic coast, which would serve thereafter as the main staging base for newly arrived New Zealand troops. -
the government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the battle on the side of the Allies. On the day of Italy's surrender, Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy.