The Invasion of Sicily 1943

by Jon Diamond

Overview

With victory in North Africa complete, the Allies had a choice. The Americans wanted an early cross channel attack from Britain on North West Europe. Churchill favored invading the soft underbelly of Italy to weaken the Axis forces and gain Italian surrender. With Eisenhowers army and battle-hardened Eighth Army in North Africa, Churchill prevailed.

The ambitious Operation HUSKY required meticulous planning. Montgomery's Eighth Army and Patton's Seventh landed successfully although the air landing proved costly. While the outcome was not in doubt the mountainous terrain acted in the defenders favor. The German presence was higher than expected and the vast bulk of the enemy were Italian. In little over a month, the first Americans reached Messina.

The strategic plan was successful: the Italian capitulated, Hitler had to reinforce his Southern flank relieving pressure on the Soviets and valuable lessons were learned by Allied for D-Day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473896093
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Series:	Images of War Series
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jon Diamond MD is a kidney specialist in the USA with a deep interest in the Second World War. He is a keen collector of photographs. His Stilwell and the Chindits, War in the South Pacific, Invasion of Sicily, Invasion of the Italian Mainland: Salerno to Gustav Line, 1943-1944, Onto Rome 1944; Anzio and Victory at Cassino and Beyond Rome to the Alps; Across the Arno and Gothic Line, 1944-1945 and Op Plunder The Rhine River Crossing are all published by Pen and Sword in the Images of War series.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Chapter 1 Strategic Prelude to the Invasion of Sicily 5

Chapter 2 Terrain, Fortifications and Installations 44

Chapter 3 Commanders and Combatants 118

Chapter 4 The Landings and Axis Counter-attacks 160

Chapter 5 Allied Advances and Sicilian Objectives Captured 218

Epilogue 237

Bibliography 348

Editorial Reviews

The text with each chapter makes for an interesting account of the operation, as well as the photos which illustrate the story of events and which in turn have more useful captions that tell more of the story. The terrain, the villages all give a good illustration of both the atmosphere and the character of the war that came to Sicily. For the modellers, there is some helpful detail on uniforms and equipment of the place and time which could be helpful as ideas and inspiration for a variety of dioramas.

Military Model Scene