On July 9-10, 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily began. Code-named “Operation Husky,” the invasion was the first major amphibious landing on the European continent during World War II.
The United States joined the fight against Nazi Germany in earnest when it invaded northwest Africa in November 1942. The operation had been launched to stop Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, the German military contingent in North Africa that had nearly captured British-dominated Egypt and the Suez Canal. With the British Eighth Army under Gen. Bernard Montgomery now attacking the Germans from Egypt, the Americans put pressure on the enemy from Algeria and Tunisia.
After a rocky series of battles, including the disastrous American defeat at Kasserine Pass in February 1943, the Allies succeeded in bottling up Rommel's forces in Tunisia. The German force surrendered to the Allies in May. Though approximately 230,000 prisoners were taken, Adolf Hitler ordered Rommel back to Germany before the surrender.
In January, when victory over the Axis forces in North Africa appeared on the horizon, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Casablanca and discussed strategy beyond the present campaign. The British advocated an attack upon either Sicily or Sardinia, two islands belonging to Italy, Germany's Axis partner. Their hope was to clear the Mediterranean Sea of Italian warships and make the transit for Allied vessels safer. This plan was initially met with strong opposition from American generals, who wanted to concentrate their strength in England for the coming invasion of France. Eventually, the British persuaded them to accept the plan.
In the book, “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944,” historian Rick Atkinson wrote: “The American high command at Casablanca agreed to support (Operation) Husky because the capture of Sicily would further safeguard Mediterranean shipping and perhaps divert Axis strength from the Soviet front; it would also provide air bases for bombing Italy and other targets in occupied Europe, and might cause weak-kneed Rome to abandon the war by abrogating its 'Pact of Steel' with Berlin, formalized in May 1939.”
Operation Husky called for significant British and American forces to land in southern Sicily. Units from the British Eighth Army, commanded by Montgomery, would land south of Syracuse on the island's eastern shore. American units would land on the south-western coast with the ancient town of Gela as the center of the effort. Almost certainly on the mind of the generals and planners was what had happened to another army that invaded Sicily almost 2,400 years earlier.
In 415 B.C., at the height of the Peloponnesian War, an Athenian army landed in Sicily to subdue the city-state of Syracuse, ally to its Spartan enemy. The Athenian effort was massive for the day, and after two years of hard fighting, the Syracusians and Spartans emerged victorious. Athens never recovered. Though the war lasted for another 11 years, the Sicilian expedition proved to be the turning point and led directly to the eventual defeat of Athens. Would the 1943 Allied effort in Sicily prove to be a similar disaster?
The Axis powers were expecting an attack somewhere in the Mediterranean, and the Allies decided to use disinformation to fool their enemies. Toward the end of 1943, the British found a corpse — a soldier who had died from illness — and constructed a fake identity around it. The body of “Major Martin” was delivered to the beach on Spain's Mediterranean coast by submarine and made to look as though it washed ashore.
The body contained the plan for an invasion of Sardinia and Greece, which the Spanish authorities passed along to the Germans. Though nominally neutral, Spain had strong ties Germany and was happy to pass along intelligence to the senior Axis partner. When the Spanish formally returned the body of “Martin” to the British, British agents were satisfied the Germans had taken the bait and soon had that suspicion confirmed. Messages were intercepted to German units in Sardinia and Greece, warning them of an impending attack. The operation, code-named “Mincemeat” was a complete success.
The plan called for paratrooper landings throughout southern Sicily to disrupt German and Italian defenders, and allow Allied units to create a beachhead with little resistance. Once ashore, Montgomery was to drive north with his British forces, capture Syracuse and make his way to the Straits of Messina at the island's northeastern most tip, just across from Italy. Gen. George Patton, commanding the American forces, was left with the job of covering Montgomery's left flank — a duty he thought beneath his abilities. The operation was under the overall command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who ran the invasion from his headquarters on the island of Malta, approximately 50 miles to the south.
The invasion was preceded by weeks of Allied bombing and bombardment from battleships, (as was the phony invasion sites of Sardinia and Greece to throw the Germans off.) The result of the bombings and bombardment was a significant weakening of the island's Axis defenders.
In the book, “Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace,” historian Mark Perry wrote: “On July 10, 180,000 American, British and Canadian troops came ashore on the southern coast of Sicily. The landings had been preceded by an airborne invasion intended to knock out coastal defenses and seize important transport areas near Syracuse. The airborne assault was a disaster, with gliders and transports blown badly off course, scattering thousands of Americans and British soldiers over a wide area of southern Sicily.”
Organized into four battalions, more than 3,000 paratroopers landed during the invasion. Commanded by Col. James Gavin, who would soon be the youngest American general of the war, only around 600 paratroopers managed to find their positions protecting the U.S. 1st Division as it came ashore. Gen. Matthew Ridgeway, who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division, believed the airborne component of the plan had been too ambitious.
Allied forces met with some German and Italian resistance on the beaches, but most was swept aside with little difficulty. By nightfall, Syracuse was in Allied hands. Only near Gela did the American forces meet a significant defense. The town was defended by elements of the Hermann Goering Panzer Division, a crack formation named for Hitler's right-hand man and made up of forces from Goering's Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. After a fierce two-day battle, the panzer division withdrew. The Allies had their beachheads and began their advance into Sicily.
The Germans began concentrating on bombing Allied shipping, hoping to cut off their supplies and logistical support from the sea. In his memoirs, Patton wrote:
“On the way back to Gela, I happened to be looking out to sea. From a Liberty freight ship, which the Germans had bombed about a half hour earlier, smoke was issuing. Before our eyes a tremendous explosion threw white and black clouds several thousand feet into the air. The ship was literally blown into two, but at the present writing, some six hours later, the rear half is still afloat. Most, if not all, of the army personnel on board, who numbered only one hundred and fifteen, were saved.”
Despite German bombings and several more battles on land, the Allies took the island. By Aug. 17, the Germans had completely abandoned Sicily and retreated across the Straits of Messina. The next month, Allied forces invaded Italy proper, opening up an important theater on Germany's southern flank. Just as important, the invasion of Sicily gave the Allies valuable experience in large-scale, opposed amphibious landings. The lessons of Sicily, particularly those dealing with airborne operations, would be put to good use nearly a year later when Allied forces hit the beaches at Normandy.
Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com