On 25 July 1943, Benito Mussolini was removed as the head of the Italian government and power reverted to the King of Italy. Secret discussions with the Allies regarding Italy’s surrender soon took place.

The Italians wanted the surrender to be conditional on the Allies landing on Italy in order to protect it from Germany. On 31 August 1943, the Italians signed an armistice at Cassibile in Sicily. The Germans intercepted a telegram that was sent to the Allies and they devised Operation ACHSE (Axis) to disarm the Italian military.

The armistice was announced by radio on 8 September 1943, five days after the British and Canadian forces invaded under Operation BAYTOWN.

Upon the announcement German forces immediately attacked, forming a buffer zone (Italian Social Republic) in Northern Italy ostensibly headed by Mussolini. The Italian king fled the country. Over a million Italian soldiers were captured with 20,000 killed. Just under 200,000 Italian soldiers joined the Italian Social Republic and fought with the Germans. Over 600,000 captured Italians were send to Germany and used as forced labour with upwards of 50,000 dying there.

The distance from Messina to the Reggio region of Italy was sufficiently short that the landing area could be covered with Sicily-based fighter aircraft and heavy artillery. It also meant that landing craft could be used for the entire voyage (under 7 miles).

The landings were conducted by the British VIII Corps composed of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade and the British 5th Infantry Division’s 13th and 17th Brigades. Armour support was to be provided by 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade. Two squadrons from CalR would support 3CIB and two squadrons from OntR were to support the British 17th Brigade. The TRR would stay in reserve.

The area was to be defended by the German LXXVI Panzer Corp (76th) but the Germans believed that the key landing area was somewhere else and pulled out all of their units with the exception of a single regiment.

The landings were largely unopposed with the German units withdrawing northwards and the Italians generally surrendering. The tanks of both regiments landed at 0900 hours, 3 September 1943 but neither of the attacking infantry brigades had run into any resistance so there was little for them to do.

Over the next couple of days, the Allies moved inland.

The OntR tanks have been tasked to support the advance of the 5^th British Division. However, due to the bad roads and worse terrain, they do not fire a single round in their fifteen days with the British

Operation AVALANCHE was the primary attack on mainland Italy after Operation HUSKY. The Allied expectation was that Operations BAYTOWN and SLAPSTICK would siphon German forces away from the primary attack. This was not to be.

There were at least eight German divisions deployed in the area of Salerno.  These included the Hermann Goering Division, 26^th and 16^th Panzer, the 15^th and 29^th Panzer grenadier, and the 1^st and 2^nd Fallschirmjäger (parachute).

The landing was initially opposed by Italian beach defences but these were overcome. The first counter-attack by 16^th Panzer was defeated only by the use of naval gunfire.

By the end of the second day, the Allies controlled a beachhead front of 45 miles of coast line extending 7-8 miles inland.

A major counterattack on 12-14 September almost threw the US forces out but it was repulsed with heavy causalities.

The movement of the British 8^th Army (including 1^st Canadian Infantry Division and 1^st Canadian Army Tank Brigade) up the east coast of Italy began to threaten the Germans at Salerno. The German reaction was to swing back from Salerno and begin a delaying action. They would continue to utilize demolitions of bridges and essential infrastructure to slow the Allied advance and would consolidate in a line Salerno-through-Potenza-to-Altamura, the latter a communications centre about fifty miles north-west of Taranto. The left wing would then continue to swing back until they were holding a defensive line passing to the south of Foggia and reaching the Adriatic at Manfredonia, just below the Gargano peninsula.

The Allies would attempt to disrupt this plan by striking out and taking Potenza faster than the Germans could react.

TRR was set as the 1^st Canadian Army Tank Brigade reserve. On 24 September, they arrive in Italy and move to Potenza. Their tanks are on board ships from Sicily to Manfredonia - which is the closest port to them.

The Ontario Regiment is also in Potenza but is also waiting on their tanks to arrive (again by sea) from Scalea on the western coast.