world war 2 operation husky in sicily us army

With the British fighting their way slowly forward in the east of the island, Patton seized the opportunity to turn his forces in a hook around the back of Mount Etna – the race for Messina was now on. Momentum was increasingly with the Allies. He was immediately replaced by the Head of the Army, Marshal Pietro Badoglio. With the end in sight in Sicily, on 25th July King Victor Emmanuel of Italy took the steps to officially remove Benito Mussolini as Il Duce. He eventually evacuated 135,000 troops and 124,00 vehicles to live to fight another day in Italy. Sicily effectively became one large rear-guard action to delay the Allies and allow Axis troops to withdraw to Italy. On 16thJuly General Hube arrived on Sicily with orders to carry out Operation LEHRGANG, the evacuation of German forces from the island. However, the German defensives between Primosole and Messina had solidified, meaning that the Allies would have to fight a slow-moving slogging-match northwards, a scene to be repeated in the later Italian campaign.

Late-arriving Allied ground forces eventually crossed the bridge with tank and artillery support. It was a pivotal battle of the entire campaign and helped shape later operations at Arnhem for the Airborne Forces. These two sets of elite ‘Devils’ now engaged each other in a Hellish battle for control of the bridge.

Simultaneously the British 1st Parachute Brigade, known as the ‘Red Devils’, were preparing to parachute in and seize the bridge also. The Germans rushed their paratroopers, the elite ‘Fallschirmjaeger’ known as the ‘Green Devils’, in to Sicily to hold the Primosole bridge which was identified by both sides as being key to the Sicilian Campaign. Kesselring swiftly created a plan to effectively concede the western half of the island to the Americans whilst preparing a strong defensive line, the ‘Hauptkampflinie‘, on the slopes of Mount Etna. In the meantime, Field Marshal Kesselring arrived in Sicily to take over its defence from the Italian General Guzzoni. With the ultimate goal of capturing Messina, he chose Montgomery’s advance over Patton’s and sowed the seed of their simmering rivalry for the remainder of the War. The pace of advance now slowed and Alexander only had resources for one major thrust. The British and Canadians immediately pushed inland capturing key towns as they went.įurther to the west, the American 1st, 3rd and 45th Divisions began moving inland until they met resistance from the Hermann Goering Division. The 5th Division was the most travelled division of the British Army during the Second World War. The first troops ashore were Special Forces and Commandos followed by the Canadian 1st Division and the British 50th, 51st and 5th Divisions. Operation HUSKY constituted the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of the size of the landing zone and the number of divisions put ashore on the first day. With this order, the amphibious force set off from various ports in North Africa and headed for the 26 landing beaches in Sicily. The seaborne element of the Sicily Invasion was launched by Admiral Cunningham with the straight-forward order to the invasion fleet – ‘Carry out Operation HUSKY’. Therefore further American reinforcements were flown in on the second night which then suffered heavy friendly-fire casualties from their own naval artillery. The British mass glider-borne assault ended in near disaster with half of the gliders ditching in the sea.

He rubbed his seven lucky coins together that he kept in his pocket as the armada passed overhead on its way to combat. The Invasion of Sicily began on the night of 9/10th July with a two-pronged airborne attack, by both British and American airborne troops, followed by seaborne landings the following morning.Īs the Allied air armada passed over Malta on its way to Sicily, watching below on the ground was Eisenhower. The Allies would land in the south east corner of the island with Montgomery leading the British 8th Army towards the ultimate prize of Messina whilst Patton would lead his US 7th Army on a wide flanking move towards the west of the island. With General Eisenhower in overall command, along with his deputy General Sir Harold Alexander, the invasion force was designated the Allied 15th Army Group. Therefore the invasion of Sicily, Operation HUSKY, would be the ‘stepping-stone’ between Africa and Europe. They next decided to attack Hitler’s Fortress Europe though the ‘soft underbelly’ of Italy and race northwards towards the German Reich itself.

Operation HUSKY an Overview by Mark SaligerĪs the dawn set on the North African campaign Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.

World war 2 operation husky in sicily us army