Operation Baytown: The first attack
Above: British soldiers unloading cargo after they landed in Calabria, 1943.
While American G.I.`s, such as myself, were waiting in the wings, the British and Canadians went ahead with "Operation Baytown", in Calabria, Italy. This would be the first Allied attack on the Italian mainland during the war. The plan was simple enough for everyone on our side to understand: To lighten resistance in that area so that they could launch a larger assault farther north. General Montgomery felt that it would be easy enough, since he believed that there would be no, or at least very little, German resistance in the area. He was somewhat skeptical about their difficulty in traveling across Italy, however.
It was September 3, 1943. The first group to land in Calabria was General Montgomery`s British 8th army. This army was made up of both British and Canadian soldiers. Once they landed, they soon encountered light resistance from an Italian military defensive unit. Through a brief fight, the Italian forces quickly surrendered. Soon afterward, Montgomery`s men met German defenses, but they were spread too thinly: In order to completely halt the eighth army`s advance, they would have needed to blockade 17 miles of Italian coastline. A nearly impossible task, given that there was only a lone German regiment to do so.
Unfortunately for the Allied Powers, however, German military leader Albert Kesselring correctly predicted that this assault on Calabria was not the Allied master attack plan. He ordered fellow German leader Heinrich von Vietinghoff to have his men ready to defend against a potential later Allied attack on Salerno or the coastline directly north of Rome, the Italian capital. Vietinghoff`s 10th army was concentrated and ready for a future Allied invasion attempt by September 8.
In the meantime, other Germans in the area demolished bridges and scraped up roads, effectively hindering the advance of Montgomery`s advance, along with the naturally difficult Italian terrain. Montgomery was right to be skeptical about this attack.