“It was the day that American, British, and Canadian fighting men began to pry the claws of Adolf Hitler off of Europe, one finger at a time.”
One could argue that the campaign in Italy and the bomber offensive pre-dated the “beginning of claw prying”.
I’ve been trying to watch the “Patton 360” programs on the history channel. And you are entirely right: the Italian campaign was intended to begin to force German troops to where Eisenhower (et al) wanted them to prepare for the invasion of Europe.
Some of it was also done at the insistence of Stalin, who wanted to relieve some of the pressure on his army by setting up a second front in Europe.
But I think you’d agree that the REAL beginning of the liberation of Europe as a serious, determined, sustained effort was initiated at D-Day. And the Italian campaign was done to help set up D-Day.