Operation Husky
Above: Canadian soldiers marching through Sicily, 1943
Operation Husky was an attack on the Italian island of Sicily, placed on July 10, 1943. This was an action that seemed logical to the Allies, given that they had just created bases for themselves in North Africa. Sicily would be a stop on the way to the Italian mainland, which would create a bridge to the heart of the Axis Alliance. Also, if the Allies ever needed backup for this attack, there were air force bases on the British-owned Mediterranean island of Malta, less than 60 miles away. This would not be a likely scenario, however, since the Germans were likely to be elsewhere. Why?
Weeks earlier, British officers came up with an elaborate way to deceive the Axis Powers. Codenamed "Operation Mincemeat", the plan was to trick them into believing that the Allies were going to attack the Italian islands of Sardinia and Corsica. They would do this by putting the body of a dead Welsh man on a beach in Spain, disguising him as a British Marine. On him were the false Allied plans. When Adolf Hitler himself heard of it, he directed all of his forces that were previously waiting at Sicily into Sardinia and Corsica, where he believed that the Allies would attack.
The plan was amazingly successful. However, the day before the scheduled date of the attack, there was an extreme amount of wind and rain near Sicily`s southern shore, where the attack was going to be. There was also an upside: Axis troops that remained there deduced that no strike squad would dare attack in such bad weather. That, along with "Operation Mincemeat," helped ensure that the Allied assault on Sicily would be a complete surprise.
Over 150,000 Allied soldiers, including myself, were sent to Sicily on July 10,1943. Led by American General George S. Patton, and British General Bernard Montgomery, we were able to completely overwhelm the only two German units that remained in Sicily. For quite a while, Hitler himself still believed that our assault on Sicily was merely a diversion.
Our attack on Sicily caused much social unrest in the Italian government. So far, everything was going according to plan. Two weeks later, on July 24, the Italian dictator himself, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown by an underground Italian resistance group. He was then exiled to Ponzo Island. I felt quite proud that we, the Allies, were able to indirectly remove the Fascist immorality from a country of innocent people.
Mussolini`s replacement, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, attempted to solve many of the problems that Mussolini had inflicted. He always strongly opposed the fact that Italy had teamed up with Germany, and began to make a peace treaty with the Allies. Unfortunately, Germany had begun to make plans for such a scenario...
Operation Husky was an attack on the Italian island of Sicily, placed on July 10, 1943. This was an action that seemed logical to the Allies, given that they had just created bases for themselves in North Africa. Sicily would be a stop on the way to the Italian mainland, which would create a bridge to the heart of the Axis Alliance. Also, if the Allies ever needed backup for this attack, there were air force bases on the British-owned Mediterranean island of Malta, less than 60 miles away. This would not be a likely scenario, however, since the Germans were likely to be elsewhere. Why?
Weeks earlier, British officers came up with an elaborate way to deceive the Axis Powers. Codenamed "Operation Mincemeat", the plan was to trick them into believing that the Allies were going to attack the Italian islands of Sardinia and Corsica. They would do this by putting the body of a dead Welsh man on a beach in Spain, disguising him as a British Marine. On him were the false Allied plans. When Adolf Hitler himself heard of it, he directed all of his forces that were previously waiting at Sicily into Sardinia and Corsica, where he believed that the Allies would attack.
The plan was amazingly successful. However, the day before the scheduled date of the attack, there was an extreme amount of wind and rain near Sicily`s southern shore, where the attack was going to be. There was also an upside: Axis troops that remained there deduced that no strike squad would dare attack in such bad weather. That, along with "Operation Mincemeat," helped ensure that the Allied assault on Sicily would be a complete surprise.
Over 150,000 Allied soldiers, including myself, were sent to Sicily on July 10,1943. Led by American General George S. Patton, and British General Bernard Montgomery, we were able to completely overwhelm the only two German units that remained in Sicily. For quite a while, Hitler himself still believed that our assault on Sicily was merely a diversion.
Our attack on Sicily caused much social unrest in the Italian government. So far, everything was going according to plan. Two weeks later, on July 24, the Italian dictator himself, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown by an underground Italian resistance group. He was then exiled to Ponzo Island. I felt quite proud that we, the Allies, were able to indirectly remove the Fascist immorality from a country of innocent people.
Mussolini`s replacement, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, attempted to solve many of the problems that Mussolini had inflicted. He always strongly opposed the fact that Italy had teamed up with Germany, and began to make a peace treaty with the Allies. Unfortunately, Germany had begun to make plans for such a scenario...