So, the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. It’s a big deal here in Canada. The D-Day Landings and the subsequent fighting in Normandy was Canada’s highest profile operation during the Second World War. So, it’s understandable that the anniversary has attracted more interest in matters military than we usually see in Canada. But I can’t help feeling that those few survivors of the Canadian 1st Division and 5th Armoured Division who fought in Italy with the 8th Army between 1943 and early 1945 must be a bit peeved that their 75th anniversary last year was pretty much ignored. The same must go for the rest of the 8th Army men who fought in Italy and those of British troops who at many times formed around a third of the US 5th Army in Italy during the war. The two US commanded 5th Army beach landings in Italy, at Salerno and Anzio, came close to disaster. It is shame that the fighting in Italy, and the how-not-to lessons it taught when it came to coalition warfare, is so generally ignored. In June 1944 the odious American general Mark Clark decided a photo opportunity on the outskirts of Rome took priority over destroying the retreating German 10th Army. Thanks to Clark there are far fewer veterans of the Italian Campaign alive today to complain about all this attention being given to Normandy when their war is forgotten.