In the words of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, there will always be times when “things fall apart.” Unfortunately, he never discussed the follow-up question, “What then?” Do you fall apart with them? Or do you dust yourself off, keep on going, and find a way to put things back together again?
World War II was full of tough moments like that. Take the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943. About everything that could go wrong, did. A military operation that aimed high suddenly collapsed, and optimistic prospects for success gave way to desperate attempts to stave off catastrophe. The code-name of the Allied operation was “Avalanche,” and for a time, it seemed all too accurate—only the rocks were hurtling down in the wrong direction.
All the omens seemed favorable. The Allies had just successfully overrun Sicily and were dominant on land, sea, and in the air. German armies were bleeding to death in the Soviet Union. An internal revolt in Italy had overthrown Mussolini, and the new Italian government of Marshal Pietro Badoglio was putting out peace feelers. The Allies wanted to take advantage. If they could coordinate their invasion with Italy’s surrender, they might be able to waltz up the peninsula and take Rome, maybe even reach the Po River valley or the Alps.
