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Volume 1 Chapter 1040 Landing in Sicily

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    Just as the Chinese warned the Germans: Allied forces landed in Sicily.

    Britain and the United States decided to hold a summit in Casablanca in January 1943 to discuss the next strategic plan for the Mediterranean theater.  Before the summit meeting between the two countries, the military leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States first held discussions. The British side advocated landing in Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the Italian Apennines, and opening up a battlefield against Germany in southern Europe to contain and weaken the German army.  , and force Italy to withdraw from the war, and can also draw Turkey into the anti-fascist camp. Of course, Britain also has another purpose, which is to use the power of the United States to restore its traditional sphere of influence in Southeast Europe.

    The United States expressed strong opposition to this proposition. The United States believed that it should concentrate its forces and open a second battlefield directly in northern France. The operations in southern Europe would inevitably affect the landing plan in northern France. The United States was even more worried that the entry of the main Allied forces had nothing to do with American interests.  However, areas closely related to British interests have been dragged into complex disputes among European countries by the British. This is the so-called "naive Americans being taken advantage of by the cunning British."

    In this regard, Marshal Alan Brooke, the British Chief of General Staff, pointed out that Germany can gather at least 44 divisions in northern France, but the Allies do not yet have the troops and landing ships to fight against 44 divisions, and from Gallibeau in World War I  The lessons of the two landing battles in Li and Dieppe in August 1942 fully demonstrated the arduousness of the landing operation. The Allies were not prepared for the landing in northern France in all aspects, but they should not do nothing in 1943. In the end,  The best plan is to use the existing forces to carry out limited operations to disperse, contain and weaken the German army, and at the same time prepare for the landing in northern France.

    The Mediterranean region is the most ideal area to implement this plan, because the Allied forces have assembled a strong force in the Mediterranean theater and have mastered air and sea control in the area. They can choose any landing location along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, from Greece to  The Mediterranean coast of southern France is an extremely sensitive but fragile area for the Axis powers. In addition, Italy has inconvenient transportation due to the natural obstacles of the Alps. It can only transport one division to Italy in two weeks, while Central and Western Europe have convenient transportation.  Can transport 7 divisions at the same time!  Therefore, the possibility of successful landing in the Mediterranean is much greater than that in northern France. Once the landing is successful, it is possible to force Italy to withdraw from the war and prompt Turkey to join the Allies. It can be said that it kills multiple birds with one stone.

    Marshal Allen Brooke's speech was so wonderful that even two heavyweight figures, Admiral King, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, and Admiral Arnold, Commander of the Army Air Forces, turned to agree with the British plan. Marshall, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,  The general had no choice but to agree to attack Sicily first in 1943. However, he was worried that continuing to attack the Italian Apennine Peninsula would affect the landing in northern France, so he requested that the attack be limited to Sicily. Britain also made concessions and agreed to only land in Sicily.

    On January 23, 1943, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the United Kingdom and the United States submitted the "1943 Operational Guidelines" to U.S. President Pitt and British Prime Minister Churchill, which clearly stipulated that the attack on Sicily should be launched no later than July 1943.

    In February, the Allied forces established a special staff in Algiers and began to formulate a battle plan for the landing in Sicily.  Since the combat radius of Allied fighter jets taking off from Tunisia and Malta can only reach the area south of Syracuse and Trapani, according to the principle that the landing site must be within the combat radius of the fighter jet, the Allied forces can only reach the area south of Barsalo Point.  After landing in the Gela and Castelvetra areas, the airports in the Gela and Castelvetra areas were captured. After Allied fighter jets stationed at the above airports, they then attacked Messina to encircle and annihilate the German and Italian troops on the island.  But the biggest difficulty is that Sicily is too close to the Italian mainland, and the Allies do not have a large port to use in the early stage of landing. Therefore, the German and Italian reinforcements must be faster than the Allied reinforcements. This problem even almost made Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Theater  Abandon the landing plan.

    On March 13, Supreme Commander Eisenhower, Army Commander Alexander, Navy Commander Cunningham, and Air Force Commander Tedder, the leaders of the Allied Forces in the Mediterranean, unanimously approved the initial plan to attack Sicily.

    The Allied staff who formulated the combat plan worked overtime to revise the initial plan.  The final landing time was determined to be July 10, because it was a full moon and the airborne troops could land by moonlight. It was also a high tide, which was conducive to the landing craft landing on the beach.  The combat plan was codenamed "Eskimo".

    The commander-in-chief of the campaign was US Army General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Theater. The deputy commander-in-chief and commander of the Army was British Army General Alexander. The Navy Commander was British Admiral Cunningham. The Air Force Commander was Air Marshal Ted.  On the island of Malta!

    The ground force is the 15th Army Group, which Alexander serves as commander concurrently. It has jurisdiction over the U.S. 7th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Patton and others. It has a total of 10 infantry divisions, 1 armored division, 2 airborne divisions and 3 ** brigades. The total ground force  About 478,000 troops and 600 tanksDue to erosion, the coastline is so steep that the island's harbor can only accommodate small boats.  There are about 12,000 defenders on the island, under the unified command of Italian Navy Rear Admiral Pavesi. They are equipped with 7 coastal guns and 15 anti-aircraft guns. These guns are old-fashioned equipment and have backward performance.  It was not until November 1942, when the war situation in North Africa began to deteriorate, that the island's defenses began to be strengthened, but only slightly.

    For such a weakly defended island, the Allies could have ignored it and landed directly on Sicily.

    But the Allies overestimated the island's role, so they decided to capture Panterella before landing in Sicily.

    The Allied attack began with a heavy air strike.

    There are neither aviation troops stationed on the island nor air support on Panterella Island. Facing the Allied air strikes, it can only be at the mercy of others!

    <a href="www.piaotia.com</a>" target="_blank">www.piaotia.com</a>" target="_blank">http://www.piaotia.com">www.piaotia.com</a>
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