Operation Avalanche - American Sector: 1. Operations at the Beachhead

"Operations at the Beachhead" is the first of a five-part history of the American sector of Operation Avalanche, that took place on the coast of Salerno province in southern Italy in September 1943.Chapter One describes the composition of Italian and German forces already present in the area, while Chapter Two gives a detailed description of the Allied naval and air-sea operation that was required to ensure the success of the US landings. The largest part of the book, Chapter Three, deals with the US landings themselves in and around the Paestum area, and the initial fighting that ensured that the beachhead was - albeit not without difficulty - finally established.Operation Avalanche saw a great deal of aerial activity and the author has paid special attention to all aspects of this, from air raids, to aerial combat and the construction of temporary landing-strips, mapping relevant 1943 references to present-day sites. Chapter Four deal with the subsequent advance inland, which used the territory of Albanella as a springboard for the hard-fought battles that had as their objectives Eboli, Altavilla and Persano, the subjects of Parts 2, 3 and 4 of this American Sector series. Read more