<P> The United States did not have a smooth entry into the war against Nazi Germany . Early in 1943, the U.S. Army suffered a near - disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in February . The senior Allied leadership was primarily to blame for the loss as internal bickering between American General Lloyd Fredendall and the British led to mistrust and little communication, causing inadequate troop placements . The defeat could be considered a major turning point, however, because General Eisenhower replaced Fredendall with General Patton . </P> <P> Slowly the Allies stopped the German advance in Tunisia and by March were pushing back . In mid April, under British General Bernard Montgomery, the Allies smashed through the Mareth Line and broke the Axis defense in North Africa . On 13 May 1943, Axis troops in North Africa surrendered, leaving behind 275,000 men . Allied efforts turned towards Sicily and Italy . </P> <P> The first stepping stone for the Allied liberation of Europe was, in Prime Minister Winston Churchill's words, the "soft underbelly" of Europe on the Italian island of Sicily . Launched on 9 July 1943, Operation Husky was, at the time, the largest amphibious operation ever undertaken . The American seaborne assault by the U.S. 7th Army landed on the southern coast of Sicily between the town of Licata in the west, and Scoglitti in the east and units of the 82nd airborne division parachuted ahead of landings . Despite the elements, the operation was a success and the Allies immediately began exploiting their gains . On 11 August, seeing that the battle was lost, the German and Italian commanders began evacuating their forces from Sicily to Italy . On 17 August, the Allies were in control of the island, U.S. 7th Army lost 8,781 men (2,237 killed or missing, 5,946 wounded, and 598 captured). </P> <P> Following the Allied victory in Sicily, Italian public sentiment swung against the war and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini . He was deposed in a coup, and the Allies struck quickly, hoping resistance would be slight . The first Allied troops landed on the Italian peninsula on 3 September 1943 and Italy surrendered on 8 September, however the Italian Social Republic was established soon afterwards . The first American troops landed at Salerno on 9 September 1943, by U.S. 5th Army, however German troops in Italy were prepared and after the Allied troops at Salerno had consolidated their beachhead, The Germans launched fierce counterattacks . However they failed to destroy the beachhead and retreated on 16 September and in October 1943 began preparing a series of defensive lines across central Italy . The US 5th Army and other Allied armies broke through the first two lines (Volturno and the Barbara Line) in October and November 1943 . As winter approached, the Allies made slow progress due to the weather and the difficult terrain against the heavily defended German Winter Line, they did however manage to breakthrough the Bernhardt Line in January 1944 . By early 1944 the Allied attention had turned to the western front and the Allies were taking heavy losses trying to breakthrough the Winter line at Monte Cassino . The Allies Landed at Anzio on 22 January 1944 with the aim of outflanking the Gustav line and pulling Axis forces out of it so other allied armies could breakthrough . After slow progress, the Germans counterattacked in February but failed to stamp out the Allies, after months of stalemate, the Allies broke out in May 1944 and Rome fell to the Allies on 4 June 1944 . Following the Normandy invasion in on 6 June 1944, the Equivalent of seven US and French divisions were pulled out of Italy to Participate in Operation Dragoon: the allied landings in southern France, despite this the remaining US forces in Italy with other Allied forces pushed up to the Gothic line in northern Italy, the last major defensive line . From August 1944 to March 1945 the Allies managed to breach the formidable defenses but they narrowly failed to break out into the Lombardy Plains before the winter weather closed in and made further progress impossible . In April 1945 the Allies broke through the remaining Axis positions in Operation Grapeshot ending the Italian Campaign on 2 May 1945, US forces in mainland Italy suffered between 114,000 and over 119,000 casualties . </P>

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