Description

A detailed examination of Operation Husky, the US and British invasion and conquest of the Italian island of Sicily.

Not only did the Sicily operation represent a watershed in tactical development of combined arms tactics, it was also an important test for future Allied joint operations. Senior British commanders left the North African theater with a jaundiced and dismissive view of the combat capabilities of the inexperienced US Army after the debacle at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in February 1943. Sicily was a demonstration that the US Army had rapidly learned its lessons and was now capable of fighting as a co-equal of the British Army.

The Sicily campaign contained a measure of high drama as Patton took the reins of the Seventh US Army and bent the rules of the theater commander in a bold race to take Palermo on the northern Sicilian coast. When stiff German resistance halted Montgomery's main assault to Messina through the mountains, Patton was posed to be the first to reach the key Sicilian port and end the campaign.

This richly-illustrated volume details the highs and lows of the Sicily campaign, including the disastrous problems with early airborne assaults and the Allied failure to seal the straits of Messina, allowing the Germans to withdraw many of their best forces.

Table of Contents

Origins of the campaign
Chronology

Opposing commanders
Opposing armies
Orders of battle
Opposing plans
The campaign
Aftermath
The battlefields today

Further reading
Index

Product details

Published Jan 20 2013
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 96
ISBN 9781780961279
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 30 b/w; 42 col
Series Campaign
Short code CAM 251
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Steven J. Zaloga

Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from U…

Illustrator

Howard Gerrard

Howard Gerrard studied at the Wallasey School of A…

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