[Antoninus]

Churchill had some boneheaded ideas such as viewing Italy as the “soft underbelly” of Europe.

Italy surrendered in September of 1943 after a succession of catastrophic defeats. The soft underbelly only became hard when the Nazi tanks rolled in.

[Fiji Hill]

I recall a cartoon by Bill Mauldin featuring two soldiers, Willie & Joe, from around 1943 in which they are in Italy looking northward to the Apennine Mountains in the foreground and the Alps behind them. One says to the other, “whoever called Italy a soft underbelly should have his head examined.”