Lupo, Giovanni Il vento del Tirreno

Lo sbarco di Salerno: storia di un disastro mancato

Il Vento del Tirreno describes the Allied landing in Salerno, starting with the dramatic events that preceded it. The narrative takes the reader through a human tragedy that destroyed thousands of lives like a hurricane. From a military point of view, Operation Avalanche was a missed opportunity due to gross errors on the part of the Allies and a serious underestimation of the enemy, who had deployed two heavily armed tank divisions in the area. The fact that the Anglo-Americans were not pushed back into the sea is solely due to the desperate courage of the fighters, the heroism of the commanders of the Allied ships, who often had to venture dangerously close to the beaches to support the landing operations, and the sacrifice of the pilots on the Royal Navy aircraft carriers, who repelled the constant attacks of the Luftwaffe. The narrative begins with the memory of the extraordinary figure of Mamma Lucia, the simple woman from Cava who cared for all those Mamma's sons, friends and enemies alike, whose remains lay unburied on the battlefield. Her testimony of forgiveness and mercy and her admonition that there must never be war again is more relevant than ever, and knowledge of our past is important so that the sacrifice of all those lives has not been in vain.