As the Chinese warned the Germans: the Allies landed in Sicily.

Britain and the United States decided to hold a summit meeting 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 Britain and the United States first held a discussion, and the British side advocated landing on Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the Apennine Peninsula in Italy, opening up a battlefield for fighting against Germany in southern Europe, containing and weakening the German army, and forcing Italy to withdraw from the war, and also drawing Turkey into the anti-fascist camp.

The United States expressed strong opposition to this proposition, believing that it should concentrate its forces and directly open up a second battlefield in northern France, and that the operation in southern Europe would inevitably affect the landing plan in northern France, and the United States was more worried that the main forces of the Allied forces would enter areas that had nothing to do with US interests but were closely related to British interests, and that Britain would be dragged into complicated disputes between European countries, that is, the so-called "naïve Americans being used by the cunning British."

In this regard, the Chief of the British General Staff, Allen Brown. Field Marshal Brooke pointed out that Germany could assemble at least 44 divisions in northern France, and the Allies had not yet been able to have the strength and landing ships to oppose these 44 divisions, and from the lessons of the two landings of Gallipoli in World War I and Diep in August 1942, the arduousness of the landing operations was fully illustrated, and the Allies were not at all prepared to carry out a landing in northern France in all respects, but they should not do nothing in 1943. Pin down and weaken the German army while preparing for a landing in northern France.

The Mediterranean region is the most ideal area for the implementation of this program, because the Allies have gathered a strong force in the Mediterranean theater of operations, have mastered the air and sea supremacy in the region, and can choose the landing site at will in the northern coastal area of the Mediterranean, from Greece to the Mediterranean coast in the south of France, it is an extremely sensitive but vulnerable area for the Axis powers, plus Italy due to the natural obstruction of the Alps, inconvenient transportation, can only transport 1 division to Italy in two weeks, while Central Europe and Western Europe have convenient transportation, 7 divisions can be transported at the same time! Therefore, the possibility of a successful landing in the Mediterranean is much greater than in northern France, and if the landing is successful, there is also the possibility of forcing Italy out of the war and inducing Turkey to join the Allied side.

Allan. This statement by Field Marshal Brooke was so wonderful that even the two heavyweights, Admiral King, Chief of Naval Operations of the United States, and Admiral Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, turned to agree to the British plan, and Admiral Marshall, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had to agree to attack Sicily first in 1943, but he was worried that if he continued to attack the Italian Apennine Peninsula, it would affect the landing in northern France, so he demanded that the attack be limited to Sicily, and Britain also made concessions and agreed to land only in Sicily.

On January 23, 1943, the Anglo-American Joint Chiefs of Staff submitted the 1943 War Guidelines to US President Pitt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which clearly stipulated that the campaign for the capture of Sicily should be launched no later than July 1943.

In February, the Allies established a special staff in Algiers and began to develop an operational plan for the landing in Sicily. Since the combat radius of Allied fighters taking off from Tunis and Malta could 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 fighters, the Allied forces could only land in the area of Cape Barsaro and Castelvetla, and after seizing the airfields in the area of Gera and Castelvetla, the Allied fighters would be stationed at these airfields, and then attack Messina and encircle and annihilate the German and Italian forces on the island. However, the biggest difficulty was that Sicily was too close to the Italian mainland, and the Allies did not have a large port to use in the early days of the landing, so the German and Italian reinforcements must have been faster than the Allied reinforcements, and this problem almost made Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Theater, abandon the landing plan. …,

On 13 March, Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Commander of the Mediterranean, Commander of the Army, Commander Alexander, Commander of the Navy, Commander Cunningham, and Commander of the Air Force Ted unanimously approved the initial plan for an attack on Sicily.

The Allied staff officers working overtime to develop the battle plan made changes to the original plan. The final landing time was set for 10 July, because it was a full moon, and the airborne troops could land by moonlight, and it was a high tide, which was conducive to the landing craft rushing ashore. The battle plan was codenamed "Eskimos".

The commander-in-chief of the campaign was Admiral Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Mediterranean theater, the deputy commander-in-chief and commander of the army was Admiral Alexander of the British Army, the commander of the navy was Admiral Cunningham, the commander of the air force was Marshal Ted British Air Force, and the campaign headquarters was located on the island of Malta!

The ground forces are the 15th Army Group under the command of Alexander and the 7th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Patton, with a total of 10 infantry divisions, 1 armored division, 2 airborne divisions and 3 independent brigades, with a total strength of about 478,000 ground troops, 600 tanks and 1,800 artillery pieces.

The British, with the strength of 3 divisions and 1 brigade, landed as the first echelon in a section about 70 kilometers wide on the southeast front of Sicily; The 1st Airborne Division was airborne in the area south of Syracus, seizing nearby bridges and roads to support the advance of the main forces; The British 78th Infantry Division was in reserve. The U.S. 7th Army landed with 3 divisions as the first echelon in a section about 64 kilometers wide in southern Sicily; The 82nd Airborne Division was airborne in the area northeast of Gela and controlled the road to Gela in order to hold back German reinforcements; The 2nd Armored Division and the 18th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division were the reserve of the ships, ready to go ashore for reinforcements; The 9th Infantry Division was in reserve for the army group.

The Navy has 3,237 warships and landing ships, which are organized into three fleets: the Eastern Task Force, the Western Task Force, and the Sea Cover Fleet. The commander of the Eastern Fleet, British Vice Admiral Ramsay, was responsible for transporting British troops, which were divided into four task forces, Formation A to transport the British 5th Infantry Division, 50th Division and 3rd Landing Assault Team, N Formation to transport the British 231st Separate Infantry Brigade, Formation B to transport the British 51st Infantry Division, Formation V to transport the Canadian 1st Infantry Division and the British 40th and 41st Landing Assault Teams. Vice Admiral Hewitt, commander of the Western Task Force, is responsible for transporting the US 7th Army, which is divided into four task forces, the 80th Task Force transports the headquarters of the 7th Army and the 18th Regiment of the US Infantry Division and two assault groups of the 2nd Armored Division as reserves, which also includes 1 cover group aircraft carrier, 4 battleships, 3 cruisers and 19 destroyers and 2 reserve cover group battleships, 2 cruisers and 6 destroyers, and the 81st Task Force transports the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army. Task Force 85 transports the 45th Infantry Division, and Task Force 86 transports an assault group of the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Armored Division. Vice Admiral Willis, commander of the Maritime Cover Fleet, consisted of 2 aircraft carriers, 6 battleships, 6 light cruisers, and 24 destroyers, and was responsible for covering the security of the eastern and western landing fleets.

There are three parts of the aviation units participating in the war: First, the US Northwest African Strategic Air Force, commanded by Major General Doolittle, is responsible for attacking important airports, ports, and transportation hubs in the enemy's strategic depth; the second is the British Northwest African Tactical Air Force, commanded by Major General Kang Hanning of the British Air Force, which is responsible for direct air support and cover for landing operations; The third is the shore-based air force in Northwest Africa, commanded by Rear Admiral Lloyd's British Air Force, which is mainly based on the US military, which is responsible for covering the assembly of the landing force and the safety of the crossing, and monitoring the activities of the Italian Navy.

The Allied forces engaged in the campaign about 478,000 ground troops, 3,680 combat aircraft, 1,500 transport aircraft, more than 500 combat ships, and about 2,700 landing ships and transport ships. …,

The participating units completed all pre-war preparations in early July.

Sicily, located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, faces the Strait of Messina in the north and the Italian mainland, the Strait of Messina is very narrow, only 3219 meters at its narrowest point, and the Tunisian Strait is about 170 kilometers wide in the south, which is an important barrier in southern Italy.

The island is about 300 kilometers wide from east to west and about 200 kilometers long from north to south, with an irregular triangle and an area of about 25,000 square kilometers. The island is mountainous, with a plateau in the northeast, and the terrain gradually descends from northeast to southwest, with an average altitude of 450 meters. The island is easily accessible by two railways to the northwest and southeast of the island and a criss-crossing road. The ports are Syracuse, Augusta, Catania on the east coast and Jera, the capital Palermo and Messina on the west coast. There are 10 airports and 4 seaplane airports on the island.

In the spring of 1943, the total strength of the Italian army was 82 divisions and 8 brigades, 263 naval combat ships, and 825 combat aircraft. Of these, 44 divisions and 6 brigades, 163 ships and 600 aircraft were responsible for the defense of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the mainland. The Germans deployed 7 divisions and 2 brigades, more than 60 ships and 500 aircraft in Italy, under the unified command of Field Marshal Kesselring, commander-in-chief of the Southern Front.

While the Allies were actively preparing for the landing operation, the German and Italian forces were also hurrying to prepare for the anti-landing, and the Italian navy had always kept the best ships to deal with the Allied landing. However, the Axis powers were unable to ascertain the exact time and place of the upcoming Allied landing, so they were unable to make targeted deployments.

The Italian Navy, on the other hand, due to the lack of effective air cover, forbade the fleet to operate in the waters near Sicily within the radius of Allied combat aircraft, so that the defense of Sicily relied mainly on ground forces and aviation.

In July 1943, the defenders in Sicily were the 6th Army of the Italian Army, the commander was Lieutenant General Guzzoni, under the jurisdiction of 2 armies, 4 field divisions, 6 coastal defense divisions and 2 coastal defense brigades, a total of about 250,000 people, of which only the Livorno division was a motorized division, with a certain combat effectiveness, and the soldiers of the other troops were forcibly recruited from the local people in Sicily, and there was a strong war-weariness and anti-war sentiment, they believed that if the Allies landed, the more fierce the resistance, the greater the damage to their homeland, so they were unwilling to resist. There were also 2 German divisions, the 15th Motorized Division and the SS Hermann. The Goering Panzer Division, with a total of about 40,000 people, both of which were elite units of the German army, was originally planned to go to Tunisia for reinforcements, but was stranded in Sicily because the Allied naval and air blockade was too strict and Tunisia quickly failed.

Nominally it belonged to the Italian 6th Army, but in reality it was directly under the orders of Field Marshal Kesselring, commander-in-chief of the German Southern Front. Among them Herman. The Goering Panzer Division was armed with the most advanced German "Tiger" heavy tanks, which had extremely strong assault power.

In terms of defensive deployment, on the 200-kilometer coastline of the south coast, only two coastal defense divisions are deployed, each division has a defensive front of more than 100 kilometers, and only a small number of fortifications have been built. The main force of the defenders was located in the northwest of the island, preparing to carry out a counterattack when the Allies landed, driving the Allies into the sea, and if the counterattack failed, relying on the deep mountains to fight a protracted battle. The Axis forces had deployed more than 1,400 combat aircraft in Sicily, but under the heavy attack of the Allies, most of them withdrew to the Italian mainland, leaving only more than 500 aircraft to provide air cover for the defenders.

The biggest difficulty in the preparation for the anti-landing was the contradiction between Germany and Italy, and the commander of the Italian 6th Army, Lieutenant General Guzzoni, judged that the Allies were very likely to land on the line from Syracuse to Geira, so he planned to deploy the Italian Livorno Division and two German divisions in the southwest of the island, but Kesselring was worried that the landing of the Allied troops in Palermo would cut off the retreat to the Italian mainland, so he transferred the 15th Motorized Division to Palermo despite Guzzoni's opposition, and privately instructed the division commanders of the two German divisions to immediately carry out a counterattack once the Allies landed. And without waiting for orders from the Italian army. …,

This behavior not only distracted the counterattack forces of the Axis powers, but also undermined the command system, which was already very weak in defense

is even worse.

On May 13, the day the Axis forces surrendered in Tunisia, the Allied air forces in North Africa began to carry out extensive and fierce air raids on airfields, port hubs, troop concentrations, and radar stations in mainland Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Greece, with all their might to eliminate and suppress the German and Italian air forces and prevent the movement of their troops. The German and Italian forces had more than 1,400 combat aircraft in the region, including more than 800 German aircraft, scattered in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Italian mainland. Lieutenant General Richthofen decided on 22 June to withdraw most of his aircraft to the European continent, leaving only a small number of fighters and bombers in Sicily and Sardinia, totaling no more than 500 aircraft.

In order to extend the range of fighter operations, the Allied forces captured the island of Bantarella, 110 kilometres southwest of Sicily, on 11 June and built an airfield on Gozo, near Malta, where Allied fighter units were stationed.

On 26 June, an Allied convoy was attacked by more than 100 German planes in the waters near Cape Bon, but the fighters of the Allied shore-based air forces kept covering in the air, effectively suppressing the attack of the German attack aircraft group, so that the fleet did not suffer losses. In addition, Allied air forces were able to cover ground forces conducting combat training throughout North Africa.

Beginning on 2 July, Allied air forces carried out intensive bombing of airfields in Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy, with a particular focus on all airfields in Sicily, with 1,500 tons of bombs dropped on the airfields of Djerbini and Catania alone.

On July 3, four of the five train ferries in the Strait of Messina were sunk by the Allies, making it even more difficult for Sicily to connect with the Italian mainland.

On 9 July, the day before the landings, the Allied attacks on the airfields in Sicily reached a climax, with as many as 21 rounds of bombing carried out in one day, with 411 bombers and 168 fighters used to attack the Taomina airfield; Up to 800 aircraft sorties were made at the island's main airports, Syracuse, Catania and Palazzolo!

Under heavy Allied bombardment, only one airstrip in Sicily was barely functional, two were available for emergency landings, and the others were rendered useless. The Allies also attacked enemy radar stations with 78 fighter jets. The German-Italian air forces in Sicily made every effort to counterattack, and the Italian fighters made 690 sorties and the German fighters made 500 sorties, although the Allies suffered certain losses, but they were really disparity in strength and could not protect the airfields in Sicily. In addition, Allied aviation blew up the headquarters of the German-Italian aviation in Taomina, Sicily.

Through these air assaults, the Allies had greatly weakened the Axis air forces in the region, essentially seizing air supremacy in the theater. In order to clear the way for the landing operation, the Allies launched an attack on the island of Bantellella in June 1943, codenamed "Cork Drill".

The island of Bantarella, a port left over from the Carthaginian era, has been eroded by the sea for thousands of years, and the coastline is unusually steep, and the harbor on the island can only accommodate small boats. The island was defended with about 12,000 men, commanded by Rear Admiral Pavesi of the Italian Navy, and armed with 7 coastal guns and 15 anti-aircraft guns, all of which were old-fashioned and outdated. It was not until November 1942, when the war situation in North Africa began to deteriorate, that the island's defenses were strengthened, but only slightly.

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

However, the Allies overestimated the island's role and decided to seize Bantarella before landing in Sicily.

The Allied attack began first of all with heavy air strikes.

Banterella has neither air forces nor air support on the island, and can only be slaughtered in the face of Allied air attacks! (To be continued.) [