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As the Sicilian Campaign ended in August 1943, the Allies had to decide where to go next. Landings in France would not take place until 1944. No one wanted to sit around for a year. Italy was on the point of surrender. For lack of a better objective, Allied Supreme Command decided to move into Italy and see what would happen.
Mediterranean Sweep: The USAAF in the Italian Campaign, by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, shows what followed. It examines the air campaign in Italy from 1943 through 1945.
The ground campaign in Italy was a disappointment, largely due to the failings of commanders like Generals Mark Clark and John Lucas. Cleaver shows the air campaign was a successful application of tactical air power. In many ways it was a clinic on how to do tactical air right.
Cleaver takes his story through the campaign, showing how it developed, and the stumbles along the way, including mismanaging the Italian surrender. He provides this strategic overview to permit understanding of the air campaign supporting troops on the ground.
Action in the air is the centerpiece of this book. Cleaver brings readers into the squadrons flying the aircraft that fought in the skies over Italy and the central Mediterranean from Southern France to Greece. He uses accounts of the participants to tell the story, relating the war from the cockpit view. He keeps a firm grip on the big picture throughout.
He also shows how the Army Air Force kept the campaign moving. They worked on a tactical level, providing direct air support to front-line troops. Cleaver shows how the AAF used A-36, P-40 and P-47 as dive bombers. He also shows how the AAF used air power to cut German supply lines. This includes an examination of Operation Bingo. It targeted Northern Italian railroads, and cut the supplies German troops on the Gothic Line received by 80 percent between November 1944 and February 1945.
Cleaver manages to cover a complex topic both comprehensively and briefly. He touches on the relevant points in sufficient detail without getting bogged down. This includes discussions of foreign air forces participating, including those of Brazil and Italy. He spends a chapter examining both the Axis and Allied Italian air forces.
Mediterranean Sweep is a good introduction to the Italian campaign. Cleaver show what air power can and cannot do. He delivers this in a book that keeps the reader engaged.
Mediterranean Sweep: The USAAF in the Italian Campaign,” by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Osprey Books, March 2025, 320 pages, $32.00 (Hardcover), $22.40 (E-book)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Discussion (7)
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Sounds like another good read. Thanks for the recommendation.
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That sounds interesting. I knew a woman (no longer with us) whose newlywed husband died flying a plane (P-39 maybe?) in that operation, and in 1999 got to meet a man who had also been a combat pilot in that operation. We spent a memorable day together while he helped clear up some mysteries about an ancestor's role in the black hawk war and in settlement-era history near Hillsdale. The ancestor later went to Texas and was hanged during the Civil War. He's buried in a roadside family cemetery north of Houston that you probably wouldn't find unless you knew it was there.
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You don't see much on the air campaign in Italy, just like you don't see much about the ground war there either. The ground war was full of bad moves and bad press. On the ground, Anzio and Monte Cassino come immediately to mind. Mercifully, after the Normandy invasion one hears pretty much nothing about the Italian campaign. It disappears entirely from the histories.
But the air war was different. Air interdiction is not glamorous. Day after day of pounding ground targets is a war of attrition, not like shooting down fighters in mano-a-mano, knights-of-the-air Hollywood stuff going on in northern Europe.
The Italian air campaign was hugely successful and laid the foundation for air operations in Korea, Viet Nam, and the various Mid-East wars since. As the ground armies advanced north, the air planners designated a succession of "kill zone" boxes across the width of Italy and declared anything that moved in those boxes was a target. They let loose the hounds to shoot up any trains, trucks, or vehicles they found. As Seawriter said, they reduced the logistics getting to the German front lines to a trickle.
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Does it focus on the Twelfth Air Force, or does it handle the Fifteenth Air Force going after Wiener Neustadt and other targets in eastern Europe. I've read more about the Fifteenth.
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