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

quote:

---

You keep repeating this while ignoring that 22 divisions is 33% more strength in France.

---

Probably because not every single one of those divisions goes to France if Italy is not invaded in 1943. Most of them likely would have gone to the Eastern Front. And this works both ways. The Italian campaign tied down two entire Allied armies, composed of 25 divisions, that could have been used in either the Overlord or Dragoon campaigns in France in June and August of 1944 where the terrain is more advantageous to the attacker. Instead they were left on a mountainous peninsula to slowly bleed to death for 600+ days, suffering more than 300,000 casualties, without successfully pushing the Germans out of Italy until they surrendered to the Allies in May 1945.