--- title: World War II in Color: The Italian Campaign and the Road to Rome, 1944 description: Rare and classic color photos made during World War II's pivotal Italian Campaign. canonical: https://time.com/3881461/world-war-ii-in-color-photos-italian-campaign/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-17T04:57:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:34.361Z og:title: World War II in Color: The Italian Campaign and the Road to Rome, 1944 og:description: Rare and classic color photos made during World War II's pivotal Italian Campaign. og:url: https://time.com/3881461/world-war-ii-in-color-photos-italian-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6cbc011022c0ab9/69884a6be53aba77e54dd150/17_112237295.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: World War II, Italy, in color og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World War II in Color: The Italian Campaign and the Road to Rome, 1944 twitter:description: Rare and classic color photos made during World War II's pivotal Italian Campaign. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6cbc011022c0ab9/69884a6be53aba77e54dd150/17_112237295.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # World War II in Color: The Italian Campaign and the Road to Rome > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 17, 2014 4:57 AM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Liri Valley, on the road to Rome, 1944. Not published in LIFE. Liri Valley, on the road to Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 17, 2014 4:57 AM UTC Ask a dozen military historians to name the single most pivotal battle or campaign of World War II—the one operation that saw the war’s momentum irrevocably swing from the Axis to the Allied powers — and you’ll get a dozen answers. Did the pendulum shift as early as the [Battle of Britain](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/world/europe/16iht-britain.html)? At Midway? During the liberation of Paris? Kursk? The Battle of the Bulge? Stalingrad? The varieties of ways one might conceivably measure momentum, from the numbers of casualties sustained (or inflicted) to the more esoteric notion of “troop morale,” makes a definitive answer impossible. But one campaign that everyone agrees was a significant turning point in the Allied effort was launched more than 70 years ago, in July 1943\. Before dawn on July 10 of that year, 150,000 American and British troops—along with Canadian, Free French and other Allies, and 3,000 ships, 600 tanks and 4,000 aircraft—made for the southern shores of the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea: the storied, 10,000-square-mile land of Sicily. Within six weeks, the Allies had pushed Axis troops (primarily Germans) out of Sicily and were poised for the invasion of mainland Italy and one of the most arduous 20 months of the entire war: the long, often brutal Italian Campaign. Tens of thousands of troops, on both sides, were killed or listed as missing, while hundreds of thousands more were wounded. And, of course—as in most every major campaign of the war—hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, while countless more were wounded, raped, left homeless and otherwise traumatized. [\[MORE: “A Brutal Pageantry: The Third Reich’s Myth-Making Machinery, in Color”\]](life.time.com/world-war-ii/nazi-propaganda-and-the-myth-of-aryan-invincibility/#1) Here, LIFE.com presents a series of both rare and classic color pictures made throughout the Italian Campaign by the great Carl Mydans. Finally, it’s worth noting that, within weeks of the start of the invasion of Sicily, the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who had ruled Italy for more than two decades, was booted from power and arrested. “Il Duce” subsequently escaped, with German help, and was then on the run or in hiding without cease for almost two years. He was captured by Italian partisans in late April 1945, summarily executed, and—along with his mistress and several other Fascists—literally hanged by his heels, in public, for all to see. In early May 1945, the war in Europe ended. [\[MORE: “Before and After D-Day: Color Photos From England and France, 1944”\]](http://life.time.com/history/wwii-before-and-after-d-day-color-photos-from-england-and-france-1944/#1) ---  Not published in LIFE. American jeeps travel through a bombed-out town during the drive towards Rome, World War II. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American armor moves up the Appian Way during the drive towards Rome, WWII. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American soldiers march up the Appian Way during the drive towards Rome, WWII. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Italians watch American armor pass during the drive towards Rome along the Appian Way, World War II. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A column of American medical vehicles during the drive towards Rome, World War II. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American troops rest in a courtyard during the drive towards Rome, World War II. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American troops stand in front of a bombed-out building during the drive towards Rome, WWII. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Ruins of the town of Monte Cassino, a result of massive Allied bombing during an attempt to dislodge German troops occupying the city, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ruins in the Rapido Valley, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A German graveyard along the Esperia Road, photographed during the Allied drive towards Rome, World War II. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Troops in the Liri Valley, on the road to Rome, Italian Campaign, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American soldier trying to spot German positions during the Allied drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Liri Valley, on the road to Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American troops camped by the roadside during the drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. An American soldier sleeps on a pile of rocks during the drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Liri Valley, on the road to Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. In the Rapido Valley during WWII, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American troops rest in a field during the drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  An American soldier on a meal break during the drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American troops look over German armor destroyed during the drive towards Rome, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The Italian Campaign, World War II, 1944. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. British and South African soldiers hold up a Nazi trophy flag while combat engineers on bulldozers clear a path through the debris of a bombed-out city, Italian Campaign, World War II. 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