British and American troops land in Sicily to begin the Italian campaign

The king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, has Mussolini arrested and appoints in his place a field marshal, Pietro Badoglio

Italians signs a secret armistice with the Allies, as Allied troops land in Sicily

British general Harold Alexander is appointed commander-in-chief of all Allied forces in the Italian campaign

On Hitler's orders, the SS rescue Mussolini from house arrest in the mountains of central Italy

All German and Italian troops are by now driven out of Sicily or captured by the Allies

A strong Allied force lands at Salerno, south of Naples

Italy, abandoning her Axis partners, surrenders unconditionally to the Allies

A premature uprising against the Germans in Naples results in a massacre of the inhabitants

The Allies move north from Salerno and capture Naples

Italy changes sides and declares war on her recent ally, Germany

The Germans halt the Allied advance along the Gustav Line, which includes Monte Cassino

Mussolini becomes Hitler's puppet ruler of a new Fascist republic in north Italy

The monastery and town of Monte Cassino are left in ruins after the Allies finally break through the German defences

Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, is sentenced to death at the Verona trials and is executed

In Operation Shingle an Allied force lands at Anzio, on the west coast of Italy behind the German lines

After a campaign of four months the monastery at Monte Cassino is captured, by Polish troops

A multinational Allied force moves fast from Monte Cassino to capture Rome

The Allied advance in Italy comes to a halt at the Gothic Line of German defences, north of Florence

Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by partisans and their bodies are hung from a gibbet in Milan

Against Hitler's specific orders, the commander of the German army in Italy surrenders to the Allies

Victor Emmanuel III abdicates in favour of his son a month before a referendum on the Italian monarchy

Italian author Primo Levi publishes If This Is a Man, based on his experiences in Auschwitz

Ezra Pound publishes Pisan Cantos, about his postwar imprisonment in an American detention centre near Pisa

Vittorio de Sica directs the film Bicycle Thieves, a classic of Italian neorealism