Mediterranean Theater of Operations

The operational command of the MTO USA was a combined U.S.–British operational command called Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ), which planned and directed ground, air, and naval operations and military government activities in the North African and Mediterranean theatres of operations.[2] It was created on September 12, 1942 to launch a combined U.S.–British operation against the northern and northwestern coast of North Africa. In February 1943 the authority of AFHQ was extended to include the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Bernard L. Montgomery, which, having advanced westwards after the Second Battle of El Alamein, was approaching the border of Tunisia where the American, British and French forces serving in the British First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Kenneth A. N. Anderson, had been fighting the campaign in Tunisia.

Initially AFHQ was located in London, England from September until November 1942. It relocated to Algiers in Algeria in November 1942 and remained there until July 1944. From Algiers it moved to Caserta in Italy until April 1945. Its last relocation was to Leghorn (Livorno), Italy between April 1945 until April 1947.[3]

The initial Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied (Expeditionary) Force, was General Dwight D. Eisenhower.[4] General Eisenhower, as Supreme Allied Commander, had the ultimate responsibility. The British General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander was Deputy C-in-C, and was responsible for the detailed planning and preparation, and the actual conduct, of combat operations. In effect, Alexander was the ground commander.[5]

Shortly after the establishment of the headquarters, expeditionary was deleted from its title for reasons of operational security. Having overseen the campaign in Tunisia, the invasion of Sicily and the invasion of Italy and the early stages of the Italian Campaign, Eisenhower left AFHQ and returned to England in late 1943 to assume command of the forces assembling for Operation Overlord, codename for the Allied landings in Northern France. He was succeeded at AFHQ by Field Marshal Sir Henry M. Wilson. Wilson's title became Supreme Commander, Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, and the American Forces then came under Lt. Gen Jacob L. Devers, who had been Commanding General, ETO since May 1943. As such Wilson exercised strategic control over the campaign in Italy. He strongly advocated the invasion of Germany via the Danube plain (instead of Operation Dragoon, codename for the Allied invasion of Southern France), but this did not take place as the Allied Armies in Italy (AAI) were constantly weakened to support other theaters of war.[6] Wilson was in command for just under a year, until he was sent to Washington in December 1944 as head of the British Joint Staff Mission. Wilson was succeeded by Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander who was Supreme Commander and commander of AFHQ until the end of the war.

For administrative purposes, U.S. components were responsible to Headquarters North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), from February 14, 1943 (NATOUSA redesignated Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army, MTOUSA, October 26, 1944). The British components were responsible to General Headquarters Central Mediterranean Forces (CMF), from October 1, 1945.

See also U.S. campaigns in WWII

• Operation Torch (Allied invasion of French North Africa)
• Egypt-Libya Campaign
• Tunisia Campaign
• Italian Campaign
  • Operation Husky (Allied invasion of Sicily)
  • Naples-Foggia Campaign (Allied invasion of Italy)
  • Bernhardt Line
  • Operation Shingle (amphibious landing in the area of Anzio)
  • Winter Line (The western part of the line centered on Monte Cassino, was called the Gustav Line)
  • Central Italy: Rome to the Arno
  • Gothic Line
  • Spring 1945 offensive in Italy
• Operation Dragoon (invasion of southern France – one month after the invasion operational command was passed to SHAEF)

Chart 12.- Typical organization of a theater of operations as envisaged by War Department Doctrine, 1940

The term "theater of operations" was defined in the [American] field manuals as the land and sea areas to be invaded or defended, including areas necessary for administrative activities incident to the military operations (chart 12). In accordance with the experience of World War I, it was usually conceived of as a large land mass over which continuous operations would take place and was divided into two chief areas-the combat zone, or the area of active fighting, and the communications zone, or area required for administration of the theater. As the armies advanced, both these zones and the areas into which they were divided would shift forward to new geographic areas of control.[8]

• North African Campaign
• Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II
• Italian Campaign
• Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II
• Afrika Korps

• Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943 vol 1 (2002)
• Barnett, Correlli The Desert Generals (1961)
• Collier, Paul The Second World War: The Mediterranean, 1940-1945 (2002)
• Lee, Loyd E. ed. World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1997)
• Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. (2000). A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00163-X.
• Smith, J. Douglas and Richard Jensen. (2002) World War II on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44317-2.
• United States Army in World War II (United States Army Center of Military History series):
  • Howe, George F. Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West (1991)
  • The Mediterranean Theater of Operations - all 4 volumes available online

• Buchanan, Andrew. American Grand Strategy in the Mediterranean during World War II (Cambridge UP, 2014). xvi, 311 pp.
• Ehlers Jr., Robert S. The Mediterranean Air War: Airpower and Allied Victory in World War II (University Press of Kansas, 2015) xvi, 520 pp.
• O’Hara, Vincent P. Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940–1945. (Annapolis: Naval Institute, 2009. xviii, 324 pp) ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3

• GENERAL RECORDS OF ALLIED FORCE HEADQUARTERS (AFHQ)