On 18 May, the Allies carried out two air strikes on the island in about 100 sorties, and the air strikes of this magnitude continued until 28 May, severely damaging the island's fortifications, communications facilities and roads, and the island had to rely on submarines and small ships to supply the island with much-needed supplies. //

From 29 May, Allied air raids became more frequent, reaching six to seven times a day, with 200 sorties.

In June, the frequency and intensity of air raids were greatly increased, and on June 9, it continued for 24 hours, after nightfall, Allied planes threw flares, and the air raids continued all night, and the defenders could hardly rest under the fierce air raids, and their physical strength and spirit were almost exhausted, and the transportation was interrupted, and the support points fell into an isolated and helpless situation, and the food and drinking water supplies were all cut off, and the defenders' defenses were about to collapse.

The Allies carried out large-scale air raids accompanied by a tight naval blockade and naval artillery bombardment. On May 12 and 13, the cruiser "Orion" twice shelled the island. On May 31, two Allied destroyers shelled the island. On 1 June, a formation of 1 Allied cruiser and 2 destroyers again carried out heavy shelling of the island, but the cruiser "Penelope" was damaged by Italian shore artillery during the shelling. On the same day, two destroyers of the Allied naval blockade spotted two Italian transports in the nearby waters and sank them immediately.

On 2 June, the Allies heavily shelled the island with one cruiser and four destroyers. In the days that followed, warships shelled almost every day, and by 10 June, the Allied naval and air forces had dumped 6,200 tons of ammunition on the island of Bantellella!

On 7 June, the Allies demanded the surrender of the defenders of the island, but was rejected by Major General Pavesi.

On the evening of 10 June, Pavesi reported to the Italian High Command that the garrison had been depleted and requested permission to surrender, which authorized him to approach the Allies about surrender. In fact, the casualties of the Italian army in the air raids were only 56 dead and 196 wounded.

At about 9 a.m. on June 11, Pavesi ordered a halt to the fighting and raised a white flag on the flagpole of the island's radio station.

Almost at the same time, the Allied landing also began, and the British 1st Infantry Division, with 2 landing ships and 2 destroyers, under the cover of 5 cruisers, 8 destroyers and 8 torpedo boats, attacked the island of Bantarella. This was the first successful battle in the history of warfare in which the defenders were forced to surrender by heavy naval and air forces!

On 13 June, the defenders of the two small islands near Banterella also surrendered to the Allies, thus removing all obstacles to the attack on Sicily. Of all the Allied pre-war preparations, the most impressive was the strategic deception codenamed "Trojan Horse" and later renamed "Project Minced Meat".

Because anyone with a little military knowledge knows very well that when the Allies have cleared the Axis powers in North Africa and in the Mediterranean theater, the next target of the Allies will undoubtedly be Sicily, especially when the Allies capture the island of Bantellella, the attack on Sicily is obvious, as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said:

"Fools know that the next step is Sicily!"

At that time, the German and Italian forces had deployed about 300,000 troops in Sicily, and the landing force that the Allies could put into it only had a slight advantage, far less than the force advantage of at least 3:1 in the landing operation in the Pacific theater. In order to avoid such a passive situation, the Allies decided to organize the implementation of strategic deception and camouflage to convince the Axis powers that precisely because Sicily was the most obvious target, the Allies would use it as a feint to cover their landings in other parts of the Mediterranean, and the Allied High Command determined that Greece and Sardinia would be the main places to be attacked in the strategic deception, because after attacking Greece, they could take advantage of the victory to advance to the Balkans; The capture of Sardinia was an ideal springboard for an attack on southern France, both of which were extremely sensitive and vital points for the Axis powers. …,

The agency carrying out this task was the British Office of Overseers in London, with its office at 2 Great George Street, the seat of Churchill's wartime cabinet, and was responsible for formulating and carrying out strategic deception and reconnaissance operations, and coordinating the British and Allied intelligence services to organize major operations. It is the organization of the strategic deception of the Allies. The motto is witty, cunning and sophisticated, and the coat of arms is a statue of the half-human, half-sheep god of agriculture and animal husbandry, Saturn, an elf in ancient Roman mythology who specializes in making waves. The current Chief of the Division is Lieutenant Colonel John of the British Army.

Bivan, whose nickname is the Head of Scams. Although his position and rank were not high, he had a lot of authority, and even Churchill and Pitt sometimes had to arrange events or make statements at his request. The "minced meat plan" was the first strategic deception operation organized by the London Office of Oversight since its establishment, and soon the department developed a false plan to attack Greece and Sardinia, but how to make the plan fall into the hands of the Germans without suspicion was crucial, and since the London Office was about to devote itself to the more important strategic deception of the Normandy landings, this task was undertaken by the 17f section of the Naval Intelligence Bureau. Lieutenant Colonel Montague and was fully assisted by the Fifth Division of the Directorate General of Military Intelligence, the famous M15.

Lieutenant Colonel Montague racked his brains to devise how to get the false information into the hands of the Germans, but the initial plans were rejected one by one, and finally his right-hand man, Lieutenant George, had the whimsical idea to use a corpse to fill the briefcase he carried with him, and then use a submarine to throw the body into the sea, and use the tide to wash up on the beaches of German or pro-German countries, so that the Germans would think that he had drowned, and naturally would not doubt the authenticity of the information. **//Montague immediately conducted a feasibility study on this plan, and immediately drew up a concrete implementation plan, which was approved by the Prime Minister.

Then we started to make a careful arrangement of all the relevant details. First of all, Montague consulted pathologists from the Ministry of the Interior about the pathological characteristics of the body that had drowned, that is, there must have been fluid in the lungs, and the body that died of pulmonary edema also had the same symptoms, so he secretly requisitioned the body of a young male who died of pulmonary edema from the funeral home through the Ministry of the Interior.

Then he carefully created a false identity for the corpse and named it William. Martin, a major in the Marine Corps on staff at the Joint Operations Command, because during the war, a mid-ranking officer in the Marine Corps often served as a field messenger. Among the briefcases he carried, the most important thing was the forged documents that did not reveal the landing site too obviously, but also allowed the Germans to draw conclusions from them that were in line with the wishes of the Allies, Montague took great pains to prepare two letters, one from General Ney, Deputy Chief of the British General Staff, to Alexander, Commander of the Allied Forces in the Mediterranean, and the other from Admiral Mountbatten, Commander of the Joint Operations Command of the British Forces in charge of Special Operations, to Cunningham, Commander of the Allied Forces in the Mediterranean. Neither letter, although it is clear where the landings will be, do reveal that the Allies will land in Greece and Sardinia.

In particular, Mountbatten's letter also pointed out that Major Martin was an expert in landing craft, and asked that he be returned immediately after the battle, and by the way bring back a little sardine rationed in England, knowing that sardines are a specialty of Sardinia! To add to the authenticity, in the briefcase, there is also a book of George, the famous military theorist who was going to ask Eisenhower to inscribe the foreword. In Sundes's new book, "Joint Operations", personal belongings include a loving love letter, two photographs of his girlfriend, a demand letter from the bank, a passbook with an overdraft of £7, 19 shillings and 2 pence, an invoice for the purchase of an engagement ring, two ticket stubs for the Royal Theatre, officers' papers, passes for the Joint Operations Command, and miscellaneous items such as keys, notebooks, cigarettes, and banknotes. …,

On 17 April, under Montagu's personal supervision, the body was loaded into a metal cylinder labeled "Optical Instrument" and transported to the Scottish military port of Grenock under strict guard, where it was immediately transported to the British Navy's submarine Seraphim, where Montague instructed the captain of the ship, Major Jewell, to drop the body into the waters near Huelva, Spain, on 29 or 30 April, and that it must be kept strictly confidential and that those who knew it must be kept to a minimum.

On April 19, the submarine "Seraphim", which was tasked with a special mission, set sail from the military port of Glenoch, Scotland.

At dawn on 30 April, the submarine Seraphim surfaced in the waters off Huelva, Spain, and Major Martin was lifted to the deck, where a crew member blew on his life jacket, tied his briefcase to his wrist in chains, and lowered it into the sea and drifted down the tide towards the beach. The submarine "Seraphim" immediately dived and returned home.

After dawn, the body was pushed onto the beach by the tide and was quickly found by fishermen on the beach, where the Spanish military police arrived and examined the body before transporting it. In the distance, James, the head of British intelligence in Spain, was covertly monitoring all this and sent back a detailed report to British intelligence.

Spain, despite its neutrality in the war, actually had extraordinary relations with Germany, because it was with the strong support of Germany that the Franco government defeated the Spanish Republic and seized power in the thirties. - So Spain quickly handed over all of Martin's belongings to Helm, the head of the German intelligence service in Spain, who immediately organized people to take pictures of the documents!

The British ambassador to Spain, Sir Samuel Hall, was unaware of the "minced meat plan", and he made representations to Spain in accordance with normal procedures, demanding the return of the body and important letters as soon as possible. After careful examination and photographing, the body and documents were returned to Sir Hall.

On 2 May, Sir Hall gave a solemn funeral for Major Martin in Huelva, and Martin's girlfriend, who had been carefully prepared by Montagu, sent wreaths and postcards from London. Everything at the funeral was closely monitored by the personnel of the German intelligence services.

On 14 June, Major Martin's name was prominently displayed on the list of fallen officers published by the British newspaper The Times, provided by the Casualty Division of the Naval Notary Division.

Montague scooped up the briefcase sent back from Spain and immediately sent it to the Technical Reconnaissance Office for inspection, and as expected, the document had been dismantled by technical methods, and the Germans had already bitten the hook, but would they believe all this?

As Montague had predicted, the German intelligence agencies did not easily believe that, although the German Affair confirmed that all the documents carried by Major Martin were genuine, Hitler ordered that they must be investigated because of the stakes.

In mid-May, the top ace agent of German intelligence infiltrated Britain and conducted a meticulous investigation of the shop where Martin's underwear was sold, the bank where the letter of arrears was issued, and the residence of his girlfriend. The German ace agent was not reassured, and still played a killer trick - deliberately leaving an address to test whether British intelligence had come to capture him, so as to prove Martin's truth.

Montague saw through this trick and ordered his subordinates not to startle the snake, so that he could leave the country safely. In this way, the German intelligence services were finally convinced that Martin was real!

A few days later, Montague did the same, dropping a corpse in camouflage uniform, disguised as a commando on a reconnaissance mission, in the waters of Sardinia to continue his strategic deception. Based on all this, Colonel Roenner, head of the German intelligence department on the Western Front, reported to the German high command that the Allies were about to launch a landing on Sicily, but this was only a cover for the attack on Greece and Sardinia, and it was only a feint. …,

Based on this conclusion, Hitler issued an order at the operational conference of the Supreme High Command held on May 12 that the most dangerous areas to be attacked after the end of the fighting in North Africa were the Greek Peloponnese in the Eastern Mediterranean and Sardinia in the Western Mediterranean. The Germans transferred the 1st Panzer Division in southern France and two Panzer Divisions drawn from the Soviet battlefield to Greece, plus the original Greek troops to form a new Army Group from Rommel, and also transferred an SS Panzer Brigade to Sardinia. And the defense of Sicily was not strengthened in the slightest, and was even weakened, and some units were transferred to Corsica!

The "minced meat plan" is finally complete! It was a complete success, laying a solid foundation for the landing in Sicily.

On 4 and 8 July, the participating troops boarded ships from ports in North Africa and the Middle East, and the British 8th Army departed from Tripoli, Alexandria, Port Said, Haifa and Beirut; The U.S. 7th Army set sail from Oran, Algiers, and Bizerte; All the convoys carrying the landing force were disguised as escort convoys and sailed first to Malta and then to Sicily.

In order to cover the sea crossing of the landing formation, the Allies deployed 2 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, 4 cruisers and 18 destroyers in the Mexiscopic Strait, and 2 battleships, 2 cruisers and 6 destroyers in the Tunis Strait.

On 9 July, the convoy transporting the first echelon of the US 7th Army rendezvoused in the waters west of Malta, while the convoy transporting the first echelon of the British 8th Army met in the waters east of Malta and then sailed to the designated landing site.

In the process of the landing force, the German and Italian forces have lost air and sea supremacy, and their air and surface ship units are unable to intercept them, so the only thing that can be used is submarines, and in fact, the German and Italian forces also plan to deploy a number of submarines in the Mediterranean Sea to intercept the Allied landing and transport fleet, but because the main force of the submarine force invested by the German army has been operating in the waters near Algeria since June 22, there are only 6 German submarines and 9 Italian submarines left in the waters south of Sicily. These submarines sank six transport ships, one oil tanker and two tank landing ships. However, the Allies counterattacked the German and Italian submarines with their powerful anti-submarine forces, sinking 3 German submarines and 6 Italian submarines, and capturing the Italian submarine "Bronzer"!

Just after noon on 9 July, a storm broke out over the Mediterranean, winds reaching force 7, and the Allied convoy was tossed in the squallious waves, and the formation of the convoy was disorganized, and the soldiers on the transport ship vomited from seasickness.

The generals in the Maltese command were keeping a close eye on the weather, and if the storm did not stop, the landing force would not be able to transfer, the entire battle plan would be disrupted, and all the efforts of the months would be in vain, Eisenhower was faced with the choice of whether to move forward or return, Admiral Cunningham, the commander of the navy, had lived and fought in the Mediterranean for many years and was well aware of the capricious weather in the Mediterranean, and he believed that the storm would subside after sunset, and suggested moving forward, and Eisenhower listened to his advice and ordered the fleet to move on.

At about 20 o'clock, the storm subsided, and the fleet successfully reached the scheduled transfer area.

At the same time, the Allied airborne operation was launched. The Allied landing plan in Sicily stipulated that both armies would use airborne troops at the time of the landing to seize fortifications in depth and ensure the smooth implementation of the landing. The airborne troops used by the Allies are the 1st Airborne Division of the British Army and the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States, which is the largest airborne force that the Allies can assemble in the Mediterranean theater, transported by 1,500 C-47 transport planes of the 52nd Transport Wing of the United States, and the departure airports are Kairouan Airport and Susa Airport in Tunisia, and go to Sicily via the Pelager Islands and Malta Take advantage of the full moon's moonlight and parachute before the moon sets. This was the first large-scale night airborne landing by British and American forces in World War II. …,

From early April 1943, the airborne troops participating in the war conducted combat training in Oujda, Morocco, and conducted a number of actual combat exercises in areas similar to the terrain of the theater.

On the night of 10 June, the commanders of the Airborne Forces and Transport Aircraft units flew by plane to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the area of operations.

On 20 June, the Airborne Forces were transferred from the training area to the departure airfield in Tunis, where they entered final pre-war preparations.

The British 1st Airborne Division engaged two brigades, and the 1st Airborne Brigade parachuted south of Syracuse to capture and hold the Penderang Bridge and ensure the passage of the landing force. The 1st Airborne Brigade is the second echelon, which is responsible for the operation of reinforcing the first echelon.

The 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army put in two airborne regiments, the 505th Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Regiment as an echelon, parachuted in the area east of Jera, cut off the road, and prevented the enemy from reinforcing the army. p>

The 1st and 2nd battalions of the 04th Regiment are the second echelon, which are responsible for reinforcing the first echelon.

At 18:40 a.m. on July 9, the first echelon of the British Airborne Corps set off, a total of 2,578 people, commanded by Brigadier General Hicks, the commander of the 1st Airborne Brigade, took 137 gliders, and the group took off in a sparse double formation, and when it was 2,700 meters away from Sicily, due to the lack of time to rise to the scheduled decoupling altitude in time, the gliders had to be unhooked at a low altitude, because the altitude was too low, 69 planes fell into the sea before entering the island, More than 600 paratroopers on board were drowned and the glider in which Brigadier General Hicks, the commander of the brigade, was also in the sea, but he escaped in time before the plane sank, and was later rescued by Allied landing craft, and it took a full 24 hours to reach the Pendgerand Bridge.

Of the gliders that entered the island, only 2 landed near the Penderang Bridge, 22 landed one kilometre from the bridge and 49 were ten kilometres away.

In the early morning of the 10th, more than 80 paratroopers under the command of Lieutenant Withers rushed to the bridge, and in one fell swoop wiped out the Italian troops defending the bridge and captured the bridge. At noon, the Italian army counterattacked under the cover of tanks, and the British airborne troops were weak, the ammunition was exhausted, and it was difficult to resist, and at about 16 o'clock, the bridge was recaptured by the Italian army. But only half an hour later, the vanguard of the landing force arrived and recaptured the bridge.

On the 12th, the British landing force had occupied the southern part of Sicily, and in order to ensure the continued advance of the troops, the British decided to change the task of the second echelon of the airborne troops to seize Brimassol

The second echelon consisted of 2,077 people, 10 cannons, 18 vehicles, and was transported by 116 transport aircraft and 19 gliders. At 19:20 a.m. on the 13th, the group took off, but due to a temporary change of plan and hasty organization, it was not even reported to the navy, so that when the group flew over its own fleet, it was actually shot down by its own warships, 14 transport planes were shot down, 35 were damaged, and 25 planes were separated from the formation in order to avoid the attack, and finally got lost; Four gliders were also shot down, and one fell into the sea with serious injuries. The rest of the planes arrived at the Brimassol Bridge at about 22 o'clock, but because the formation of the aircraft group was scattered and the paratroopers landed very scattered, only 200 people were gathered at 1 o'clock on the 14th, and about 50 people were gathered on the way, and they launched an attack on the bridge at 4 o'clock.

Before the British troops landed, the Germans realized that the Allies were very likely to seize the Brimassol Bridge, and on the evening of the 13th, the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Regiment of the 1st Airborne Division of the German Army was sent to parachute down on the bridge to urgently strengthen the bridge defenses, so when the British paratroopers landed, they were attacked by the German paratroopers, and the paratroopers on both sides launched a fierce battle.

At noon, the German paratroopers from the south of the bridge, the Italian army to defend the bridge and the German reinforcements from the north of the bridge, began to carry out a two-sided attack, the British army was forced to abandon the bridge at 18 o'clock due to heavy casualties, but in the next two days, the British paratroopers still continued to organize attacks, and the German and Italian troops repeatedly fought until the evening of the 16th, the main force of the British landing force arrived, which completely controlled the bridge. …,

The first echelon of the US airborne troops took off at 20:45 a.m. on 9 July, with a total of 3,405 troops, commanded by Colonel Gavin, commander of the 505th Regiment, and 226 C-47 transport planes. After taking off, the group took a formation of nine planes, and because the pilots lacked experience in night flights, and they were not allowed to use radio for covert reasons, the group deviated from the course and flew to the east coast of Sicily, where it could not find a landing site, so it had to fly back to the sea and re-enter, but was hit by heavy fire from German anti-aircraft guns, and 8 were shot down, 10 were damaged, and 3 were lost and returned.

Because the formation was disrupted by German anti-aircraft artillery fire, the airborne landing process lasted more than an hour, and the paratroopers landed very scattered, only one company landed at the predetermined location, the rest of the paratroopers landed at a very long distance, the farthest distance was 100 kilometers, Gavin landed at a distance of 48 kilometers from the predetermined location, plus the wind speed reached 15 meters per second at the time of landing, many paratroopers were blown to stones, trees, and houses by strong winds, and suffered heavy casualties, and the paratroopers who landed at the predetermined landing site only occupied one road junction. The paratroopers who landed in other places took the initiative to put themselves into the battle on the spot, especially Colonel Gavin gathered more than 200 people to block the German reinforcements on the landing beachhead at Biazzo Mountain, the battle was extremely fierce, Gavin took the lead and personally used bazookas to shoot at the German tanks, the American paratroopers fought tenaciously, the German tanks were destroyed and forced to withdraw from the battle, and the American troops stopped the German counterattack at a heavy cost of more than 50 killed and more than 100 wounded, and strongly supported the troops landing on the beachhead.

In view of the fact that the first echelon failed to complete the scheduled mission, the commander of the US 7th Army, Patton, decided to use the second echelon to seize the Gela airfield and determined to parachute and land at the Farello airfield, which the Germans had abandoned.

On the evening of the 11th, more than 2,000 people of the second echelon took off on 144 C-47 transport planes, and the vanguard landed smoothly; when the follow-up formation flew over its own fleet, like the second echelon of the British army, it was subjected to "friendly fire" from its own fleet, and 23 planes were shot down, 37 planes were damaged, and 6 planes were lost and returned, and the remaining 70 planes were scattered in formation and scattered in the airborne, and when the paratroopers landed, they were shot at by the landing force, and in the end, only more than 400 people landed at the Fallro airport, unable to effectively support the landing force. On the 12th, the landing force developed in depth, and the remnants of the two airborne echelons of the US army joined the ranks of the landing force and participated in the battle, until the 82nd Airborne Division participated in the battle on the 15th, only 3,024 people remained of 5,307 people, and their vitality was seriously damaged, so they withdrew from the front line to rest.

During the Sicily landing campaign, the Allies carried out four airborne landings, with a total of 642 transport sorties and 153 glider sorties, with a total of 9,816 airborne personnel, including 7,816 parachutes. However, the four airborne operations failed to achieve their tasks, and the airborne troops suffered more than 1,500 casualties, accounting for 15% of the total number, and 45 transport planes were shot down. 86 were damaged, 25 were missing; 69 gliders were shot down, 15 crashed on landing, 10 were missing. Seventy per cent of these losses were caused by their own troops. The first large-scale airborne operation of the Allies ended in a serious defeat.