In 1943, the Allies had counterattacked on all fronts, both Germany and Japan were exhausted, and Italy was even more weak and demoralized. At this time, if it can launch a thunderous attack on Italy, it will naturally make Italy, the weakest country in the Axis, more vulnerable, or even withdraw from the war directly. As a result, the Allies launched "Husky Operation" in the Mediterranean, intending to make their troops like running huskies and conquer Sicily in Italy in one fell swoop, which would also be a prelude to the Allied counteroffensive against the Axis powers.
There was much controversy within the Allies about the direction of action in 1943. The U.S. military felt that it would be a good choice to end the war in North Africa quickly and then gather a large army to cross the English Channel in one fell swoop. However, the British had a different view, believing that if they crossed the English Channel, they would inevitably crash into the German defense line and suffer serious losses. If so, it is better to pick italy's soft persimmon pinch first, after all, Italy is the weakest and it is easy to be defeated. If Italy could be defeated quickly, the Allies could have invaded Germany from Italy, which would be much better than attacking the German Atlantic defenses from the front.
Finally, after the Casablanca conference, Britain and the United States reached a consensus: first pick up the weakest Italians, and then consider crossing the English Channel and landing in France. Originally, the battle plan was to be held accountable to the British, but because of the traditional British spirit of grinding foreign workers, the progress of the plan was very slow.
There was no way, the plan was left to Eisenhower, who moved the planning team from London to Algiers. The final plan of the planning team was the "Husky Operation" to seize Sicily. Although the name of the plan is a bit unorthodox, the plan is theoretically possible.
The reason for the attack on Sicily was to gain a forward base for invading Italy and gain further advantage in the Mediterranean. Of course, it would have been better if Mussolini could have been forced out of power by this victory and had Italy withdrawn from the war. Considering the complex terrain of Sicily and the ease of landing from the northeast of the island, but not easy to attack the hinterland of Sicily, the Allies planned to seize the port of Palermo in the northwest of Sicily and the port of Syracuse in the southeast, and then establish a forward base before seizing the whole island.
To attack Sicily, the Allies prepared the 15th Army Group, consisting of Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army and George Patton's Seventh Army, with a total strength of about 478,000. There are about 4,700 combat aircraft, about 3,200 warships and auxiliary ships, and about 14,000 combat vehicles and tanks. It can be said that if such a powerful combat force cannot take Sicily, then the Allied command can find a piece of tofu to shoot themselves. It can be said that the entire Allied forces have sharpened their knives and planned to go straight to Sicily... Like a running husky. (Don't doubt it, because the British and American troops in this battle are really like the huskies of Sahuan.)
The attack on Sicily began with the capture of the island of Terelia between Sicily and Tunisia, which was a link between Sicily and the Italian mainland, and where the Italian Navy and Air Force were based. So after the Allies began six days and nights of saturated bombardment of the island on June 5, the Allied landing forces launched an attack on June 11, and with no one left to die, the Allies easily took the place and took more than 10,000 Italians with them. Of course, it is not so much about arresting as it is about the Italians themselves surrendering. The island's airfield was also repaired by the Allies as an airfield for Allied aircraft to take off, solving the problem of insufficient range for Allied aircraft.
After securing the arrival of airfields and aircraft transfers, the Allies began bombing Axis targets on Sicily from 2 to 9 July. At this time, the German Second Air Force in Italy and the Italian Air Force were not strong enough to fight against the Allies, and in order to preserve their strength, they had to withdraw their aircraft to Italy. Although this strength was preserved, air supremacy was completely lost to the Allies.
On 9 July, the day before the Allies were about to launch their landings, the Allies launched their largest bombing campaign, with 441 bombers and 160 fighters, 21 bombings in a row during the day. Eight more bombings were carried out in the evening, ensuring that most of Sicily's airfields were destroyed.
Today Sicily is almost a Jedi, with only the German and Italian ground forces still guarding the island. The Allied landing was also coming, and this Allied landing could be said to be very crazy, and it was launched in the early morning of July 10 with strong winds. Two armies under the command of Patton and Montgomery landed in the southwest and southeast of the island, respectively, and were stopped by the invincible Italian army.
At this time, the Italians only had 5 deaths, so they could not resist for long. The British and American troops landed on the island smoothly. Basically by this time, the Allied victory had entered the countdown, because the German-Italian coalition really had no possibility of overturning.
However, the German-Italian army still planned to make a dying struggle, so the Sicilian defenders, under the command of Lieutenant General Guzzoni of the Italian army, launched a Jedi counterattack. The German 15th Panzer Division held off Montgomery's Eighth Army on the east bank. The German Goering Panzer Division and two Motorized Infantry Divisions in Italy went to block Patton's Seventh Army.
After a day of bloody fighting between the two sides, the Germans who attacked the British army were easily repelled, but the German-Italian coalition forces that attacked the American army were once less than two kilometers away from the beachhead position of the American Seventh Army. The U.S. army fought back, and even the naval guns joined the shelling. In the end, the Germans suffered heavy losses and had to retreat. The British and American forces, which had gained a firm foothold, now eased up and began to advance into the hinterland of Sicily.
While Patton and Montgomery were struggling, the Allied paratroopers were fighting Sicily. The First Airborne Brigade of the British First Airborne Division and the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division were thrown into the battlefield before the landings began, and as the vanguard of the air invasion, they would be the first to engage the German-Italian forces. However, this airborne landing seems to have been influenced by the name "Operation Husky", and the whole plan is how to spread the joy of the husky. First, the British threw dozens of gliders into the sea because of the strong winds, so that more than six hundred British paratroopers drowned in the sea. Then the American paratroopers also flew repeatedly because they could not find the airborne location, and as a result, they were hit by ground anti-aircraft fire.
But when they parachuted or landed on a glider, disaster broke out again. The British paratroopers who landed on the plane and the paratroopers of the German Seventh Parachute Division, who had parachuted to Sicily to support, were assembled together. When it was discovered that the other side was the enemy, the two sides immediately fought a chaotic battle, and did not retreat until dawn. The American paratroopers were even more miserable, because the paratroopers were very badly dispersed because of the indiscriminate parachuting and strong winds. The American Colonel Gavin in charge of the command tossed until noon the next day, and only then did he find more than two hundred paratroopers.
In desperation, the US military could only release the second echelon of paratroopers on July 11. However, the transport aircraft group was mistaken for a German bomber because it had strayed into its own fleet air defense circle, and countless American paratroopers lost their lives in a vacuum, and even Brigadier General Charles Kierans, deputy commander of the 82nd Parachute Division, was killed here.
By this time, the Germans already knew that the tide was gone, and the failure of the counterattack had caused them heavy losses. However, the Germans still took advantage of the gap when the British and American forces were tired of dealing with the German-Italian counterattack and built a tight defensive line from Onna to Catania. And in order to block the Allied attack, they also transferred the 29th Panzer Division and more German paratroopers from the rear to Sicily, hoping to block the Allied attack.
But the Allies did not give up, and Montgomery attacked first, killing Catania on 13 July, intending to take Palermo, the capital of Sicily, in order to prove that he was more powerful than Patton. However, because the offensive was blocked, he asked the command to let Patton lead the troops to support him, so that he could pick the fruits of victory.
Patton didn't want to give him this chance at all, and he wanted to take Palermo himself, proving that the American army was better than the British army. So the blatant army was divided into two routes, one with Bradley leading the support of Montgomery, and himself leading the other to take Palermo. In the end, after several days of fighting and forced marching, Patton successfully captured Palermo on July 22, 1943. As for Montgomery, he was still hovering in front of the German positions, blocked by the German troops.
By this time the Germans had begun to prepare for retreat, leaving mines and blocking forces along the way, and blowing up bridges. If Montgomery wanted to win back a set, he would have to take Messina first, but Barton also wanted to take it down to prove his strength. The two sides are now like huskies fighting for flesh and bones, and will start a race in Sicily to decide the final honor.
In this race, the British did not perform well, failing to break through Catania in time, and Montgomery's caution prevented him from launching a Button-like high-speed advance. Patton, on the other hand, led the U.S. Seventh Army into a desperate battle with the Germans, nibbled down the heavily fortified German Troyna, and then advanced at high speed, finally entering Messina at 6:30 a.m. on August 17.
About half an hour after the Americans had entered the city, the British had also entered Messina, but at this point they could only admit that they had lost the race, and the honor went to Patton and his U.S. Seventh Army. It can be said that the US military has swept away their defeat and humiliation at the Battle of Kasselin Pass through this battle.
As for the victory in Sicily, it also allowed the Allies to travel unimpeded on the Mediterranean from then on, and shook Mussolini's rights to step down in the near future. Of course, this victory is still a bit of a fly in the ointment. Because the Allies failed to blockade the Strait of Mosina boldly and quickly, a considerable number of German-Italian troops fled back to the Italian mainland from here, and if they could be annihilated, the course of the war would be greatly accelerated. However, this is not a big deal, after all, when the Allies put a noose around the Neck of the Axis, no one will care whether you immediately kick off the stool at the feet of the Axis. The fate of the Axis powers was also determined by the victory in the Battle of Sicily.
Reference: "Heavenly Divine Soldier"
Sweeping Sicily
History of the Second World War