The Allies, following the campaign in Tunisia (November 17, 1942-May 13, 1943), drove the Axis forces out of North Africa; the capitulation was signed in Tunis on May 13, 1943. That same day Operation Husky was decided. Churchill, privileging the peripheral attacks in unexpected zones located in the surroundings, obtains, vis-a-vis Eisenhower, a landing in Sicily. The Allies use trickery so as not to reproduce the fiasco of the Dieppe landing (1942) which, guessed by the Germans, had led to a massacre of the Allies. So they run aground in front of the Spanish coasts of Huelva where the Germans of the intelligence are positioned, on April 30, 1943, a corpse dressed as an officer of the Royal Marines. The latter has, hanging on his wrist, a briefcase of "top secret" documents signed by the hand of British Vice-Admiral Lord Mountbatten, indicating an upcoming landing in Sardinia. Operation "Mincemeat" is a success because the Germans take the bait.
July 9 - August 17, 1943
Characters
Winston Churchill
Harold Alexander
Conrad Eisenhower
Alfredo Guzzoni
Adolf Hitler
Hans Hube
Bernard Montgomery
Louis Mountbatten
Benito Mussolini
George Patton
Guy Simonds
Procedure
On July 9, 1943, the Allies rained an intensive bombardment on Sicily in order to allow an amphibian landing in the strategic points of the island on the night of the 9th to the 10th. Thus, in spite of a strong swell and an uneven relief making the difficult docking, General Patton and his VII e army landed on the south-west coast and in particular at Gela, while his British counterpart General Montgomery, leading the VIII th armed, simultaneously joins the Pachino peninsula and part of the southeast coast. Canadian troops are led by General Crerar and Major-General Simonds. That makes nearly 160,000 soldiers for the Allies! The DUKW trucks, nicknamed "duck", coming out of the water, allow the equipment and the soldiers to be deposited on the beach, then to sink into the land. But if the strong gusts have not compromised, despite the swell generated, the amphibian landing, the airborne operation is more hazardous and many paratroopers are lost...
The Americans face unexpected resistance from the formidable German Panzer-Division Goering and the Italian Livorno Division. The English meanwhile, facing the Italians of the Napoli division (led by General Alfredo Guzzoni), quickly reach Syracuse (night of 10 to 11). Fearing being surrounded, the Germans, led by General Hans Hube, regroup towards the town of Enna to organize their withdrawal. Montgomery asks Canadians to block their way (Leonforte).
Freed from numerous German forces, Patton and his teams headed for Palermo, which they captured on the 22nd, while the British were blocked in the plain of Catania by German soldiers from the Schmalz group. The Americans reach the rallying point, the city of Messina, by inland while the British pass by the coast. The city fell on August 17, but many Germans had already escaped to the Italian peninsula.
Consequences
On July 24, 1943, without waiting for Sicily to be taken, the Fascist Grand Council dismissed its president, Benito Mussolini, nicknamed the "Duce", who had previously ruled the Kingdom of Italy. Six weeks later, Italy capitulates! Although Hitler freed Mussolini (September 12), the landing in Sicily, an undeniable victory for the Allies in continental Europe but often forgotten, nevertheless marked the turning point of the Second World War.