Allied Invasion of Sicily and Fall of Mussolini
The Allies landed 160,000 men in Sicily on 10 July 1943 in the largest amphibious operation attempted to that date, and Mussolini fell within a fortnight. The decision to go there at all was a compromise. The Americans wanted a cross-Channel invasion in 1943; the British argued that the Mediterranean would knock Italy out and stretch the Germans; and Sicily was agreed at Casablanca as what could actually be done with the shipping available. The deception was Operation Mincemeat — a corpse dressed as a Royal Marine officer, carrying letters implying that Greece and Sardinia were the targets, floated ashore in Spain — and the Germans moved a panzer division to Greece on the strength of it. The landings on the southern and eastern coasts went in behind an airborne assault that scattered badly, with gliders released too early and many drowned. Patton's Seventh Army then swung west and north to take Palermo while Montgomery's Eighth ground up the east coast against the German positions around Etna, and the race to Messina became a public quarrel between the two. The Germans conducted a skilful withdrawal and evacuated some 100,000 men and most of their equipment across the strait. The political effect was larger than the military one. The Fascist Grand Council voted Mussolini out on 24 July, the king had him arrested, and Italy signed an armistice in September — at which point the Germans occupied the country and the hardest campaign of the western war began. The campaign took thirty-eight days and cost the Allies about 25,000 casualties. It also brought the Sicilian mafia back into local government, since the occupying authorities appointed men the Fascists had imprisoned and asked few questions about why.
- Year: 1943 CE
- Category: Military
