Vintage Military - Part 23

 WWII - Italy

After the Allies took Sicily, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was deposed.  A new government signed an armistice with the Allies, but Hitler was unwilling to give up Italy so easily.  German forces took over Italy and Mussolini was put in charge of a puppet state, actually controlled by Germany.   German soldiers fought in Italy against the British Eighth Army under General Montgomery and the American Fifth Army under General Mark Clark.  The operation to retake Italy lasted from Sept. 1943 to April 1945, moving from south to north.

The caption of the December 1943 British photo above says: "Sapper B. Rainey of 1 Whalley Rd, Northwich, Cheshire enjoys a most welcome shower bath."  This and today's other British photos are from the Imperial War Museum collection, which often gives the names of soldiers in the photos, and in this case, it even gave his home address.  Well, there's no privacy in the Army!

This photo of American soldiers stripping to shower is from a set called "Air Artillery, Italy" in the LIFE photo archive.  It was taken in February 1944 by Margaret Bourke-White, who was a rare female war photographer.

March, 1944.  To bypass heavily defended German fortifications, the Allies staged a beach landing at Anzio, which in a way was a practice run for the D-Day invasion of France a few months later.  These are soldiers of the British Fifth Army at Anzio.  Caption: "Water supply at Anzio.  A batch of infantrymen back from the front line take a shower."

June, 1944.  British troops find more civilized shower facilities in the Royal Palace in Naples.  Caption: "Private Smith takes a shower in the shower baths available to visiting troops."  Although I doubt that these shower stalls would have been used by royalty, they are made of marble.  Perhaps they were built for the servants.

June, 1944.  American troops, one of them stark naked, heading across a lake in a rubber boat.  Photo by LIFE photographer Carl Mydans.

June, 1944.  Caption: "Three British soldiers take advantage of a rest from the line and cleanse themselves in Lake Trasieno. The far end of the lake is still in German hands."

October, 1944.  Caption: "At a front line bath unit, well within range of enemy shellfire, men of the 16-5 Lancers take advantage of a break in the weather to rid themselves of some of the accumulated mud of Italy."

October, 1944.  Caption: "Trooper D.H. Ireland of Hounslow, Middlesex, enjoys his newspaper as he lies soaking in a mountain stream."

In April 1945, Mussolini was captured and executed by the Italian resistance.  This photo from April 28, 1945 shows his naked corpse.  Mussolini's Fascist dream was to recreate the empire of ancient Rome by conquering the countries around the Mediterranean.   Perhaps this should be a warning to other dictators who seek to recreate vanished empires by conquering neighboring countries.