Milan falls, allies reach France

Following the dramatic victory in Italy in the previous month, May saw the allies keep up the pressure on the Italian front. Churchill had finally seen his Mediterranean strategy bear fruit and forced Roosevelt to admit he had been wrong. Now the British army was the senior partner on the second front, with British units in the forefront of the fighting in Northern Italy.

May 14th saw two vitally important actions north of the Po river, when most of the 7th Armoured division came into contact with a well equipped Panzer division which had been sent to stop the advace towards the Yugoslav border. Overnight however a confused action left parts of the Panther equipped army surrounded in tight "cauldrons". This allowed the faster, lighter British tanks to encircle the Panthers and destroy them one by one. Amazingly the British Crusader tank had been deployed successfully for the first time since 1942, where mechanical problems had dogged the cruiser tanks. Upgunned and back in favour thanks to the pressure of General Stubbings, the Crusader was now having a major impact in the Italian theatre.

Later on in the month the 7th Armoured division faced another German Panzer division attempting to stop their move east. The result was similar and the border was reached on 28th May.

Meanwhile in the west of Northern Italy, Milan fell on the 7th, and the British infantry, supported by Churchill tanks and artillery in abundance, soon overwhelmed the numerically inferior German force defending the border with France. outgunned, the German grenadiers were harrassed all the way to the French border, and by the 17th May the British had reached Monaco and the French Alps. Here they paused, waiting orders for their next move.