Why did the allies decide to invade north Africa and Italy?
1 Answer
The British convinced the US in 1942 the an attack across the channel wasn't going to work before 1944. Africa was where the British were fighting and they should start there.
Explanation:
When the US entered the war they proposed a rapid build up to a cross channel invasion in 1942 or 1943. It took some convincing and the disastrous Dieppe Raid for the British to persuade them that Africa was where they should start. The real problem was to get control of an operational port in France. Dieppe showed just how hard that was going to be.
In Africa the Americans learned that the Germans were still fighting well and hard. After the Germans and Italians were pushed out of Africa The cross Channel invasion still wasn't ready. The possibility of knocking Italy out of the War and maybe coming into Europe from the south had some merit.
Italy turned into a successful defensive campaign for the Germans but wasn't so in the beginning and had not Kesselring the German Commander made it so. The invasion of Sicily in 1943 affected Hitler's thinking as he called off the faltering German Summer Offensive in Russia to move SS Armored divisions to Northern Italy to backstop the defense.
Slow progress made the fall of Rome seemed unimportant to the D Day invasion was the next day. The Invasion of Northern France was what everyone had been waiting for and was the main Allied Offensive of the War. The preparation time really paid off and combined with the Russian summer offensive in 1944 the German defenses began to collapse. By the War was at the borders of Germany.
