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  • Boats-Ships--Amphibious Warfare Ships
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  • Theater of Operations--Mediterranean
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  • World War II 1939-1945
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Operation Avalanche: Landings at Salerno, Italy 

9–16 September 1943 


Photo #: USA C-175 USS LST-1
Vice Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt, USN, commander, Western Naval Task Force (TF-80), on the bridge of USS Ancon (AGC-4) during the Salerno landings, 12 September 1943. Note the recognition silhouettes of Italian aircraft painted on the weather screen (80-G-87334).

Overview 

"The U.S. Navy and the Landings at Salerno, Italy, 3–17 September 1943" discusses the background to Operation Avalanche and U.S. Navy participation in the amphibious landings.

Operation Avalanche Images

From the pre-invasion build-up through the beach landings 

USS Savannah (CL-42) at Salerno: Strike of a German "Fritz X" Guided Bomb and Its Aftermath 

Other Operation Avalanche Resources

NHHC Director's H-Gram 021, Attachment 1: "Fritz X—The Dawn of Precision-Guided Warfare"

NHHC Director's H-Gram 021, Attachment 2: "Operation Husky, the Invasion of Sicily, and Operation Avalanche, the Invasion of Italy" 

U.S. Army in World War II: From Salerno to Cassino (U.S. Army “Green Book,” 1969PDF from U.S. Army Center of Military History) 

U.S. Army in World War II Pictorial Record: The War Against Germany and Italy— Mediterranean and Adjacent Areas (U.S. Army “Green Book,” 1951PDF from U.S. Army Center of Military History)

Selected Print Sources 

Robert J. Cressman, The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD/Washington, DC: U.S. Naval Institute Press/Naval Historical Center, 1999.

Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. IX—Sicily–Salerno–Anzio, January 1943–June 1944. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954.

Published: Fri May 31 09:54:35 EDT 2019