‘My God! Now they’ve started shooting’

Abstract

There were by now signs that the Italian Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Badoglio, was ready to break with Mussolini, and the British increasingly were convinced that an invasion could knock Italy out of the war. Churchill argued that if the Germans made strong efforts to defend Italy, that would draw forces away from the Russian front. To allay American suspicions, Churchill continued to emphasise that he was not advocating intervening in the Balkans. By the time Churchill left Algiers, he believed that Eisenhower accepted the advantages of invading Italy but Marshall continued to insist that a decision should be deferred until Sicily was captured.