campaign, notable, interwar and Second World War
Operation Avalanche
Operation Avalanche was a campaign fought in 1943 at Salerno, in what is now Italy. It was part of World War II, which ran from 1939 to 1945. The recorded result: Allied victory. Recorded strength: 170,000 servicemen against 35,000 Germans.
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Where it sits in World War II
Record
| Date | 1943 (year precision) | |
|---|---|---|
| Place | Salerno, Italy 40.681N, 14.759E | |
| Kind | Campaign, interwar and Second World War | |
| Strength | 170,000 servicemen | 35,000 Germans |
| Casualties and losses | United Kingdom; 982 killed; 4,060 wounded; 2,230 missing; Royal Navy: 83 killed; 42 wounded; United States; 5th Army: 788 killed; 2,841 wounded; 1,318 missing; US Navy: 296 killed; 422 wounded; 551 missing; Total: 2,149 killed; 7,365 wounded; 4,099 missing | Germany; 840 killed; 2,002 wounded; 603 missing |
| Commanders |
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Nearest engagements
- Allied invasion of Italy 1943, 0.3 km SW
- Battle of Nocera 1132, 13 km NW
- Siege of Nuceria Alfaterna 216 BC, 13 km NW
- Siege of Amalfi 1096, 14 km W
- Battle of Capo d'Orso 1528, 16 km SW
In the same war
- Before: Operation Slapstick 1943
- After: Battle of Rhodes 1943
- All 1155 engagements of World War II
Elsewhere in 1943
Combat data (CDB90)
| Attacker: GER HERMANN GOERING PZ DIV(+) | Defender: BR 46TH INF DIV(+) | |
| Strength | 13,300 | 18,912 |
| Casualties | 400 (3.0%) | 255 (1.3%) |
| Mission accomplishment, 1 to 10 | 4 | 7 |
| Outcome | defender won | |
| Duration | 2 days | |
| Front width | 14.5 km | 14.5 km |
| Attacker advanced | 0 km | |
From the US Army Concepts Analysis Agency Database of Battles (CDB90, battle 402), public domain, in the CC0 tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold. Figures are the database's estimates, compiled in 1990 from published histories, and may differ from the Wikipedia infobox above.
Operation Avalanche is one of 4,429 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 1,038 in present-day Italy.
Sources
Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q1447505, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Operation Avalanche, revision 1370630777, read 2026-11-15, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.