Forgotten Battles of World War 2 - Operation Husky

Forgotten Battles of World War 2


Section 1: The Italian Campaign


Part 1: Operation Husky

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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Seventy or so years on after the war, we are still reminded of it and the destruction inflicted across the world as a consequence, and yet despite this, it's been completely glamourised by Hollywood and gaming companies. War has been made out to be a complete walk in the park like in the Call of Duty series of games which pretty much involve just shooting your way through maps of enemies and of course with your character always surviving bullet hits, shrapnel and all other kinds of carnage on the battlefield which in reality would have completely decapitated you, let alone the fact that they don't even fully represent war such as conveniently ignoring the use of minefields.

"Perhaps the decisive one on the way to defeat, a road along which other milestones had been Stalingrad and Tunis" - Johannes Steinhoff (Luftwaffe fighter group commander)

To start this series off, I introduce Operation Husky, the amphibious landing of Sicily which would be a stepping stone to the indomitable D-Day landings. On July 10, 1943 a combined Allied force of five infantry divisions along with elements of 82nd and 1st Airborne Division initiated the invasion by landing at the south between Syracuse and Gela. There had been bombing and naval bombardment too which softened up the positions at the coast and the men landed on the beaches without a hitch, with Italian troops, mostly demoralised and unwilling to fight surrendered to the Allies and some even helped them unload their ships. Unlike in Operation Overlord however, Axis troops on the island reacted quickly and counterattacks were launched in the American sector, though by July 12 the Allies had a firm bridgehead. The race to Messina between Patton and Montgomery soon began in earnest, with Patton frustrated at his secondary role craving the publicity the conquest would bring. On 23 July, Palermo would fall to the American troops who would be greeted as liberators by the war weary Italians, though Montgomery was held just north of Syracuse by a skillful defence by a mixture of German Parachute, Panzer, and Panzer Grenadier formations who would only gradually be pushed back as their flanks became untenable from the American advance in their more lightly held sector which had been taken up by the Italian troops.


To break the deadlock, Montgomery decided to push his forces along the road at Enna (which was located right in the middle of the island with many roads connecting to it) to outflank the defenders at Catania, though thanks to the infamiliarity of the Allies with the concept of invasion meant that throughout the campaign they would advance up the island methodically and predictably rather than trying to cause an encirclement of the German troops on the island. Vastly outnumbered (~55,000 German troops against ~450,000 of the Allies) over 7-1, OKW acknowleding there was no way for them to win the battle initiated a fighting withdrawal from the island, retreating gradually towards Messina and then finally escaping fully intact. In a campaign that had taken the Allied thirty-eight days, although they had succeeded in taking the island, the Germans were able to end up withdrawing 53,545 men, 9,185 vehicles and 11,855 tons of stores which they would then make full use of in making the Allied advance up Italy agonisingly slow, painful and paved in destruction.


Despite this however, there were a number of positives. The Allies had gained valuable experience in conducting invasions and that maybe a more imaginative plan was required to produce more results, and it had tested the mettle of the Anglo-American commanders as well as forcing them to work together to bring the campaign to an end as quick as possible. Along with this, German troops from other fronts had to be moved rapidly to Italy after their surrender to hold off the Allied onslaught, and with the Kursk offensive coinciding with the Allied invasion of Sicily it meant they had to defend another theatre of war with troops that could have been put to much better use on the Eastern Front, and although the Italian campaign wasn't particularly the "wildcat" Churchill was intending to hurl ashore, it definititely required the full attention of the Germans and would stretch their logistics across the mountain ranges which had eluded invaders for centuries (Hannibal as we know wanted to bypass them so badly he crossed the Alps to invade from the north instead!).

That concludes part one and after covering two more operations of the Italian campaign i'll be moving on to a new battle entirely!

Very Good write up.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about 'Husky' is that Allied troops gained valuable experience at conducting amphibious operations in the ETO. On the strategical level, it could be considered a success as it eventually drove the Germans and Italians off of Sicily and the airbases there, thereby making the central Med a safer place for Allied ships.

On an operational level it was a dismal failure as the bulk of the German troops were allowed to escape...something the Allies would rue in the following campaign in Italy.

Thanks for this, I was in Sicily less than a year ago and stayed for a while in Enna. While there I had my eyes fixed on much older historyt hough so it's good to read up on the more recent stuff too!