Allied invasion of Italy of historian Carlo D'Este, Clark "mistakenly believed he had saved the Allied invasion by his leadership, when in fact it was precisely his inexperience that precipitated most of the problems the invasion force faced." Allied invasion of Italy The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943 during the early stages of the Italian Campaign of World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group (comprising General Mark W. Clark's Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army) and followed the successful
Allied invasion of Italy 8 September. With such short notice to create plans, Operation Slapstick was soon nicknamed Operation Bedlam. The Avalanche plan using less than half the troops landed during Operation Husky was daring, considering possible resistance by six German divisions. The Fifth Army would be landing on a very broad front, using only three assault divisions (one American, the 36th, under Major General Fred L. Walker, in VI Corps, and two British, the 46th, under Major-General John Hawkesworth, and 56th, under Major-General Douglas Graham, in X Corps), and the two corps were widely separated, both in distance () and by the Sele