![]() ![]() German armies were bleeding to death in the Soviet Union. The Allies had just successfully overrun Sicily and were dominant on land, sea, and in the air. The code-name of the Allied operation was “Avalanche,” and for a time, it seemed all too accurate-only the rocks were hurtling down in the wrong direction.Īll the omens seemed favorable. A military operation that aimed high suddenly collapsed, and optimistic prospects for success gave way to desperate attempts to stave off catastrophe. About everything that could go wrong, did. ![]() Take the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943. World War II was full of tough moments like that. In the words of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, there will always be times when “things fall apart.” Unfortunately, he never discussed the follow-up question, “What then?” Do you fall apart with them? Or do you dust yourself off, keep on going, and find a way to put things back together again? Official US Coast Guard photograph, Gift of Stacy Hutchinson, from the Collections of the National WWII Museum. Top Image: American soldiers pinned down on the beach at Salerno, Italy, 1943. ![]()
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