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Option A) skip Sicily to invade Sardinia & Corsica which would have bypassed the defensive positions at Cassino and spread the Axis forces along hundreds of miles of coastline in northern and central Italy, inevitably trapping all German forces south of the invasion site. BTW, this would allow for an invasion of Anzio in the summer of 1943 rathernthan in January of 1944.
Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica could be done, and might in fact be useful, it would after all give experience that could be later used in the pacific, plus it's easy to spoof the Axis, as Italy is a much more obvious choice after Sicily than Sardinia. Sardinia and Corsica also force the Germans to spread their forces thin, as the allies can legitimately threaten a landing anywhere from Marseilles to Rome
Trapping the Germans I central or south Italy was not certain. Within the German high command there was a debate over abandoning the south/central portion & defending there. Most advised Hitler the south could not be defended, Kesselring argued it was possible to defend in the south, at least temporarily. Into August the Germans were preparing for a retreat north & plans were made for any reinforcements to establish a defense in the mountains just south of the Po River valley.
Exactly why Kesellrings argument won out I am unsure of. In part no doubt Hitlers reluctance to abandon a single centimeter of ground was important. Another factor I've heard but not been able to confirm is that German intelligence services found evidence the Allies were not going north of Naples with their fleet. Perhaps that came from signals intel, perhaps it was supported by the knowledge the Allies could not provide effective air cover north of Naples. Whatever the case Kesselring was allowed to deploy half the forces in Italy south of Florence. When the Allies crossed over in September Rommel held a considerable ground force north of Rome while Kesselrings ground forces extended south from Rome.
The is a fair possibility that had the Allies decided to invade somewhere from Rome northwards Kesselring would have been ordered to retreat northwards before the enemy came. If that had not been the case Rommel had sufficient strength to hold a invasion near the beaches until most of the corps in the south could retreat.
Southern Italy was resource & industry poor. Other than ground for a delaying action it was useless to Germany.
WGF Jacksons 'The Battle for Italy' has a fair description of the German thinking for the defense of Italy, and some useful maps showing the deployment of the Germans ground forces down to division level for several dates.
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Option B) invade Sicily but instead of invading at Salerno invade at Civitaveccia, which again bypasses the defensive positions at Cassino and puts Rome within easy striking range.
Anything north of Salerno is out of the effective air cover of the Allies in September 1943. Maybe the reasons for that were poor, but as things stood they were depending on Spitfires & the longer ranged fighters were not available. Attacking from Naples northward requires a entirely different provision for air cover.
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