The city's artistic and cultural heritage also suffered damage, including the partial destruction of the Chiesa di Santa Chiara on 4 December 1942.

The situation in Naples soon devolved into chaos, with many higher officials, either unable to take the initiative or even directly collaborating with the Nazis, deserting the city, followed by the Italian troops.

Those escaping included Riccardo Pentimalli and Ettore Del Tetto, the generals entrusted with military responsibility for Naples, who fled in civilian clothing.

In the days following the armistice, episodes of intolerance and armed resistance against Naples' German occupiers intensified and were more organized, including on 1 September when a student demonstration in Piazza del Plebiscito, and the first meeting of the Liceo Sannazaro in Vomero occurred.

On 10 September, between Piazza del Plebiscito and the gardens below, the first bloody clash occurred, with the Neapolitans successfully blocking several German motor vehicles.

The orders were followed by the shooting of eight prisoners of war in via Cesario Console, and a tank opened fire upon students who were beginning to gather in the nearby university and several Italian sailors in front of the stock market.

Together, the war's indiscriminate executions, looting, control of the civilian population, increasing poverty and destruction, spurred a completely spontaneous rebellion in the city, without external organization.

In the meantime, Colonel Schöll on 23 September ordered additional measures to suppress the population, including the evacuation (within 20 hours that same day) of the entire coastal area up 300 meters (328 yd) from the waterfront.

Almost simultaneously, a manifesto from the city's prefect called for compulsory work for all males between the ages of 18 and 30, in effect a forced deportation to labour camps in Germany.

An Italian lieutenant, Enzo Stimolo, led a group of 200 insurgents against a weapons depot at Castel Sant'Elmo, which was captured that evening although German reinforcements arrived from the Villa Floridiana and the Campo Sportivo del Littorio areas.

An insurgent plan to prevent German engineers from destroying the Ponte della Sanità (the Maddalena Cerasuolo bridge) and thereby isolating the city center was devised and carried out the following day.

While the German troops had already begun the evacuation of the city before the arrival of Anglo-American forces from Nocera Inferiore, Antonio Tarsia in Curia, a high school teacher, proclaimed himself as head of the rebels and assumed full civil and military powers.

The fleeing Germans left behind them fires and massacres, including the burning of the State Archives of Naples, which caused a great loss of historical information and documents.

At 09:30 on 1 October, armored patrols of the King's Dragoon Guards were the first allied units to reach Naples, followed by the Royal Scots Greys reinforced by troops of the 82nd Airborne Division.