Just got done reading Rick Atkinson's book about WWII in both Sicily and Italy...

Finished reading it a few days ago and have come to the conclusion that the war in Italy was a complete and total waste of time, a vanity product of the British - particularly Winston Churchill - that was run by politicians and not by the military. I think Mark Clark gets an undeserved bad reputation though I can understand why he is criticized for his anti-British paranoia and his blatant refusal to follow orders during the battle that led to the capture of Rome.

While some historians have gone on to justify our campaign in Italy, saying that it diverted resources away from western Europe and the Eastern Front, I feel like they were ultimately negligible. Germany had but 22 divisions facing off against us in Italy, compared to the 60+ that remained in France and the low countries and the 130+ that remained on the Eastern Front. The fighting in Italy became a slog that was very similar to the fighting on the Western Front in World War I. The Fifth and Eighth armies could have been utilized elsewhere.