Italy bypassed Southern France invaded

WI the allies had first landed in Sardinia and then hit Southern France in 1943.

Could this have shortened the war?

Again could it change facts on the ground and therefore deals done over spheres of influence in 1944-5 witth the SU?

Derek Jackson said:

Again could it change facts on the ground and therefore deals done over spheres of influence in 1944-5 witth the SU?

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This could easly lead to an USSR aligned Italy since the army actually figting for Italy will be the yougoslavian/russian one and the partisan liberation war had already a strong (but by any mean not exclusive) communist leadership.

Losing Italy will mean losing nearly all mediterranean control, that's why the Anglo-american didn't try that precise move.

It is quite guaranteed that the war would not be shortned since the german army will had no need to occupy Italy as it did after 9/8/1943 meaning more troops to fight for France..

IMO it was not a question of Sardinia after North Africa, but what after Sicily. Reality is that Sicily, should come first - because of the terrain makes airfields possible; with Sardinia its too mountainous to house Allied air power.
But then politics came into play - trying to help the Italians defect, though some may argue not very well.
From Sardinia, comes Corsica, and having that - threatens the Germans with a landing on the South of France, or the coast of Italy - higher up than Salerno.

Churchill thought that Italy was the 'soft underbelly of the Axis', in a way he was right - unfortunately this was only militarily. Italy, geographically was anything but soft - especially the west. It only IMO had one target worth going for - and that was the Foggia airfield complex. Once that was attained (with a defensible northerly perimeter), the threat could be a landing on the north Yugoslav coast!

Hence with this combination, German forces will have greater dispersion.

I can't really see the Allies invading southern France in 1943. They needed to secure the Mediterranean for supplies coming up through the Suez. They didn't have the number of troops available or trained for a large-scale amphibious assault, let alone the type of equipment, such as landing craft.

Besides, where are they going to invade from, North Africa? Sailing from England through the Straits of Gibraltar and to southern France with reinforcements and supplies is much more difficult than simply sailing across the English Channel.

Mote said:

The main problem I see is that this leaves your SLOC exposed to air attack from Italy.

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Well it depends how well the soviets do in the balkan area, if they set foot on italian soil befor an allied landing in Provence, it's likley the germans will have to chose what line to defend.

Italy was unlikley to swich to to soviet's side so the fight will be even more bitter, something like (and in the same places) of WWI