World war 2 operation husky in sicily us army
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The British and Canadian forces landed in the east and the Americans to their west on the south coast of Sicily. This constituted the largest amphibious operation of the war in terms of size of the landing zone and the number of divisions put ashore on the first day. We head to Fontane Bianche where we discuss the Allied amphibious landings which were made in the early hours of 10 July on 26 main beaches spread along 105 miles (169 km) of the southern and eastern coasts of the island. A little later we take a short walk to see this wonderful city, perhaps a pre-dinner drink and then we dine locally. Late afternoon we check in to our hotel in Syracuse where we spend our first night. Every headstone tells the story of an individual person and we will discuss several of the men in detail. On the ground we tell the story and get to explore the remains of the Italian defences, which are numerous.ĬWGC Syracuse. We conclude our first day by paying our respects at the graves of some of the men we have been discussing during the day. The Special Raiding Squadron under the formidable Major Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne neutralised coastal batteries in the initial assault. Elsewhere during Operation Ladbroke about 150 men landed at Cape Murro di Porco and captured a radio station. The objective was to establish a large invasion force on the ground near the town of Syracuse, secure the Ponte Grande Bridge and ultimately take control of the city itself with its strategically vital docks, as a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Sicily.
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We explore and discuss the actions of Operation Ladbroke on the night of 9/10 July carried out from Tunisia by glider infantry of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade.
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The museum has the island’s most prestigious collection of weapons and uniforms and here we give our introductory talk on the invasion and subsequent battles.Īfter lunch we depart in our private air-conditioned tour coach for the beautiful and ancient city of Syracuse where we will have lunch by the harbour. We make our way to the excellent Allied Landings in Sicily 1943 museum nearby. Importantly, the Allies learned many lessons from Operation Husky which they put to good use in the Normandy landings a year later. Benito Mussolini was toppled from power in Italy and the way was opened for the invasion of Italy. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners the Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island and the Mediterranean Sea lanes were opened for Allied merchant ships for the first time since 1941. Husky began on the night of 9/10 July 1943 and ended on 17 August. It was a large amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign. The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers (Italy and Nazi Germany). The operation ended only five weeks later, with the occupation of Messina on the northeast coast on 17 August.Operation Husky: Allied Invasion of SicilyĬlick HEREfor a list of tour dates and prices However, the support services meant that the total number of Allied soldiers. Lieutenant General George S Patton commanded 66,000 troops and the Seventh US Army landed in the Gulf of Gela. General Sir Bernard ‘Monty’ Montgomery led the 115,00 men of the British and Commonwealth forces, who landed in the southeast corner of the island between Pachino and Siracusa. Starting at dawn, more than 180,000 men landed along with thousands of ships and landing craft on the 105-mile-long stretch of coast between the Gulf of Gela and the Gulf of Noto. The invasion was also the largest amphibious operation of World War II. The invasion started on the night of 9 July 1943 when 1,600 British and 3,400 American paratroopers descended on to the island in what was the first mass parachute drop at night. Operation Husky’s landing force consisted of seven divisions – it was bigger than that employed on D-Day in 1944, which had five divisions