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Africa To The Alps: The Army Air Forces In The Mediterranean Theater [Illustrated Edition]
Africa To The Alps: The Army Air Forces In The Mediterranean Theater [Illustrated Edition]
Africa To The Alps: The Army Air Forces In The Mediterranean Theater [Illustrated Edition]
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Africa To The Alps: The Army Air Forces In The Mediterranean Theater [Illustrated Edition]

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Includes over 14 photos and maps
By the time the U.S. declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941, most of Europe had fallen under the domination of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany’s Third Reich. In the west, only Great Britain, her armies expelled from the European continent, remained defiant; in the east, Hitler faced an implacable foe-the Soviet Union. While the Soviets tried to stave off a relentless German attack that had reached Moscow, Britain and her Commonwealth allies fought a series of crucial battles with Axis forces in North Africa.
Initially, America’s entry into the war changed nothing. The U.S. continued to supply the Allies with the tools of war, as it had since the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. U.S. military forces, however, had to be expanded, trained, equipped, and deployed, all of which would take time.
With the U.S. in the war, the Allies faced the question of where American forces could best be used. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill had already agreed that defeating first Germany and then Japan would be their policy, but that decision raised further questions.
Roosevelt wanted U.S. troops in combat against German troops as soon as possible. Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader, demanded a second front in northern Europe to relieve pressure on his armed forces. Churchill, fearing German power in France, hoped for a strike at the Mediterranean periphery of Hitler’s conquests-what he called the “soft underbelly” of Europe.
Churchill proposed an invasion of northwest Africa for late 1942 and Roosevelt agreed...
Africa to the Alps describes the participation of the Army Air Forces in the war in the Mediterranean theater of operations, as it developed a practical air-ground doctrine, established an effective interdiction strategy, and gained valuable experience in airborne operations and close air support of ground troops.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 15, 2014
ISBN9781782898894
Africa To The Alps: The Army Air Forces In The Mediterranean Theater [Illustrated Edition]
Author

Edward T. Russell

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    Book preview

    Africa To The Alps - Edward T. Russell

    This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

    To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

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    Text originally published in 1999 under the same title.

    © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II

    Africa to the Alps: The Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater

    Edward T. Russell and Robert M. Johnson

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

    Africa to the Alps — The Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater 5

    America Comes to the Desert 5

    El Alamein 7

    North Africa 7

    Casablanca 7

    Oran 8

    Algiers 9

    Tunisia 9

    Birth of a Doctrine 13

    Sicily 14

    Italy 16

    The Fifteenth Air Force: A Strategic Punch from the Mediterranean 19

    The Gustav Line 21

    Rome 21

    Anzio 23

    Operation Strangle 25

    Invasion of Southern France 29

    Support for Resistance Movements 31

    The Balkan Partisans 31

    The Italian Resistance 32

    Evacuation from Enemy Territory 32

    Breaching the Gothic Line 34

    The Final Offensive: Advance to the Po River 35

    Conclusion 35

    SUGGESTED READINGS 37

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 38

    Africa to the Alps — The Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater

    By the time the United States declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941, most of Europe had fallen under the domination of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany’s Third Reich, In the west, only Great Britain, her armies expelled from the European continent, remained defiant; in the east, Hitler faced an implacable foe—the Soviet Union. While the Soviets tried to stave off a relentless German attack that had reached Moscow, Britain and her Commonwealth allies fought a series of crucial battles with Axis forces in North Africa.

    Initially, America’s entry into the war changed nothing. The United States continued to supply the Allies with the tools of war, as it had since the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. U.S. military forces, however, had to be expanded, trained, equipped, and deployed, all of which would take time.

    With the United States in the war, the Allies faced the question of where American forces could best be used. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill had already agreed that defeating first Germany and then Japan would be their policy, but that decision raised further questions.

    Roosevelt wanted U.S. troops in combat against German troops as soon as possible. Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader, demanded a second

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