Sunday, September 8, 2013     Italy surrenders as the Allies
prepare to invade  (Operation Avalanche): The Convoy of Allied
ships carrying the United States 5th Army at sea en route to
Salerno.  The cheering died and I again put up the megaphone.
‘Well, that’s that. Now I am going to ask you to do a little
thinking. What does Italy’s surrender mean to you and me? It
means just this. It means that, instead of a reception committee
of a few half-hearted Italians on the beach at Salerno, we shall
find a first-class German armoured corps with its back well up.
We shall beat it, but to-morrow’s battle will be a trifle
tougher than it might have been.