Backwater War

After disagreeing about whether to open an Italian front at all, the Allies began their campaign by invading Sicily in July 1943. In September the battle shifted to Italy, where the Allies landed at Salerno and Taranto and then pushed inland only to encounter unexpectedly stiff German resistance. Not until June 1944—after landing at Anzio in January and subsequently destroying the monastery at Monte Cassino—did the Allies finally break the German line and capture Rome. By then the invasion of France had overshadowed the Italian campaign, ensuring that its final ten months would indeed be a backwater war.