British Campaigns - Italy 1943 - 1945 on DVD

Description

This is the definitive film record of the war in Italy, focusing on the battles and campaigns fought by the British 8th Army and comprised almost entirely of front line footage recorded by combat cameramen. Much of this film has never appeared on video before and some sequences - only now discovered in the Movietone archives - have never been shown publicly before. Just some of the highlights are dramatic footage of landings from Operation Husky, Salerno and Anzio, the 8th Army street-fighting in the outskirts of Naples, the liberation of Rome and Florence, Seafires flying support from British aircraft carriers, the surrender of the Italian fleet in Malta and an extensive sequence devoted to the ferocious battles for Monte Cassino... Even as the Allies marched victoriously through Tunis in 1943 at the end of the North African campaign, Commanders were looking across the Mediterranean for their next objective. Churchill famously described Italy as 'the soft underbelly of Europe' - and at first it looked as if his assessment was correct. The islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa were swiftly captured. The largest amphibious assault in history was thrown against Sicily and the island fell in just 38 days. Two divisions of Montgomery's 8th Army crossed the Straits of Messina and Italy immediately surrendered. However, the occupying Nazi forces decided to fight on and the Allies found themselves waging a two year war of attrition often in the worst conditions imaginable - against some of Germany's finest troops...