Invasion of Italy.
Following the defeat of the Axis Powers in North Africa, there was disagreement between the Allies as to what the next step should be.Winston Churchill in particular wanted to invade Italy, which in November 1942 he called "the soft underbelly of the axis" (and General Mark Clark later called "one tough gut").Popular support in Italy for the war was declining, and he believed an invasion would remove Italy, and thus the influence of axis forces in the Mediterranean Sea, opening it to Allied traffic. This would very materially reduce the amount of scarce shipping capacity needed to supply Allied forces in the Middle East and Far East at a time when the disposal of Allied shipping capacity was in crisis and increase British and American supplies to the Soviet Union. In addition, it would tie down Germanforces, keeping them away from the Russian front. Stalin had been pressing to open a "second front" in Europe, which would weaken the Wehrmacht's invasion of Russia.
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