Remembering the Allied Landing in the Gulf of Salerno in the 75th Anniversary

Consul General Countryman with the Mayor of Capaccio-Paestum, Franco Lombardi

September 9, 2018

Seventy-five years ago today, Allied forces led in part by the United States began the liberation of mainland southern Italy from the Nazis, landing on these beaches”.

On September 9 – the date of the Operation Avalanche D-Day – Consul General Mary Ellen Countryman attended the ceremony for the anniversary of the Allied Landing in Capaccio-Paestum, where she also delivered remarks.

“After years of tremendous wartime suffering in the South, the landings initiated more than seven decades of friendship between the people of southern Italy and the United States. The past 75 years of cooperation between Southern Italy and the United States have developed deep roots of friendship and mutual benefits for our peoples.”

During the ceremony, she also laid a wreath to honor the fallen together with Mayor of Capaccio Franco Lombardi and a group of descendants of US soldiers who lost their lives in that area during WWII.

The United States will remain Italy’s – and Southern Italy’s – strongest international partner in the years ahead,” she concluded.