The MTO

bigpigeon.us webpage  WW II - Germany > The MTO > MTO Overview, updated by RAC 13 Aug 2022.

Click here for additional Mediterranean Theater background information.

I outline WW II military activity on the ground in the Mediterranean area thusly:

Before the involvement of U.S. ground forces: ​Click here

• The loss of the Balkans, 1939 - 1941.
• Combat in Libya and Egypt between British Empire and Axis troops,  late 1940 - early 1943.

By the Western Allies within the Mediterranean Theater:

• Invasion of Morocco and Algeria, Nov 1943.
• Combat in Tunisia, Nov 1942 - May 1943.
• Invasion and conquest of the Italian island of Sicily, Jul - Aug 1943.
• Invasion and campaigns northward on the Italian peninsula, Sep 1943 - May 1945.

By Great Britain and the Soviet Union acting independently:

• The liberation of the Balkans, 1944 - 1945.

The War in Morocco and Algeria - November 1942

United States involvement in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) began with Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of the Vichy French controlled Morocco and Algeria on 8 November 1942. French troops resisted for three days before surrendering. ​

The War in Tunisia - 1942 - 1943

• In November 1942, Allied forces moved east from Algeria into Tunisia while German rushed troops to Tunisia by ship and by air.
• Germany won this race, and the Tunisian Campaign lasted until May 1943.
• In February 1943, Axis forces in Tunisia were joined by Rommel's Afrika Korps, pursued west across Libya by Montgomery's Eighth Army.
• Axis forces were gradually confined into extreme northern Tunisia around Bizerte and Tunis.
• Axis forces surrendered in mid-May. An estimated 250,000 Italian and German military were taken prisoner.

Northwest Africa in WWII

The War in Sicily -1943

• Sicily, 1943 - Operation Husky landings on the south coast 9 July, campaign ended 17 August with the Axis withdrawal from Messina.

The War on the Italian Peninsula, 1943 - 1945

Midway through the Allied campaign on Sicily, Italy's leader Benito Mussolini was overthrown. Subsequently Italy surrendered and British and American troops landed in three locations in southern Italy.

The Allies then began their long slog north up the Italian peninsula. Their advance was halted by German fortifications for extended periods during both the winter of 1943-44 and the winter of 1944-45. 

The August 1944 Anvil-Dragoon landing in Southern France used troops drawn from the Italian campaign. These troops moved northward and became part of ETO.

​Combat in northern Italy continued until German surrender on 2 May 1945.

Allied Progess in Italy - July 1943 to May 1945

The Balkans Liberated, 1944 - 1945
(United States ground forces were not involved in these operations.)

1. In August 1944, advancing Soviet troops entered Romania from the east.
2. After a coup in Romania, the Romanian Army switched sides, from the Third Reich to the Soviet Union.
3. The combined Soviet and Romanian forces moved west into Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
4. To avoid being trapped, the German Army in Greece withdrew to the north. 
5. British troops entered Greece from the south and followed the retreating Germans.
6. The Germany Army, under pressure from Yugoslav partisans and the approaching armies, withdrew from Yugoslavia.

Civil War in Greece and atrocities in Yugoslavia followed their liberation.

The Balkans Today

Long after WW II ended, involving civil wars from 1991-2001, Yugoslavia split into today's seven nations reaching from Slovenia in the north to the Republic of Macedonia as shown on the above map. (Kosovo is not fully independent from Serbia. Macedonia is now known as North Macedonia.)

US Army Divisions in the Mediterranean Theater Campaigns

Operation Torch planners lacked confidence that Spain would remain neutral. Thus, a corps of US troops commanded by General George Patton was kept in Morocco for several months after the November 1942 invasion. After the Soviet victory over Germany at Stalingrad in early 1943, Spain no longer had much interest in joining the Axis.

In mid-1944, a number of American and French divisions were removed from combat in Italy to prepare for the August 1944 invasion of southern France.

US Army Divisions in the Mediterranean Theater Campaigns

Sources for the The MTO > MTO Overview webpage:

• The NW Africa in WW II map, https://infograph.venngage.com/p/110521/the-african-campaign - co Mariana Abate.
• The map summarizing Allied operations in Italy is courtesy of pinterest.com.
• The source of the The Mediterranean Sea and Nearby Countries map is currently unknown.
• I do not have a reliable source for the map The Balkans in 1939.
• The Eastern Mediterranean in WW II map is found at https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-C-Egypt/maps/USA-C-Egypt-2.jpg.
• The Tunisia Today map is courtesy of worldatlas.com.
• The Balkans Today map, https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Balkans#/media/File:Balkans_regions_map.png.
• US Army Divisions in the Mediterranean Theater Campaigns map - c/o www.armydivs.com. This map shows the participation of United States Army divisions in the campaigns that took place in the MTO.
• For an informal history of the Iowa/Minnesota 34th Infantry Division in the MTO, see https://www.iowanationalguard.com/History/History/Pages/World-War-II.aspx.

Not used:

• The Operation Torch Invasions map - courtesy of mammothmemory.net -  https://mammothmemory.net/history/world-war-ii/important-facts-of-world-war-ii/operation-torch.html.