In the Tuscan countryside of western Italy, just 12 miles southwest of Michelangelo’s “David,” in Florence’s Accademia Gallery, is another display of marble and stone, far less well-known than “David” but, in its own way, far more meaningful. The Florence American Cemetery is where more than 5,800 U.S. soldiers who died in combat during the Italian Campaign of World War II are memorialized. 

Most were killed in the 11 months between the liberation of Rome by Allied forces on June 5, 1944, and the end of the war in Europe on May 2, 1945. Given what occurred on the beaches of France the day after June 5, the post-liberation portion of the Italian Campaign — which officially began 75 years ago, on July 10, 1943, with the invasion of Sicily — is sometimes called “the forgotten campaign” of World War II.