The island of Sicily, lying in the Mediterranean Sea between Tunisia and the toe of the Italian peninsula, is no stranger to war and conquest. Over the centuries, because of its strategic location, Sicily has been invaded, fought over, occupied, and ruled by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Saracens, Normans, Germans, French, Spanish, Austrians, and the Bourbon Kingdom of the two Sicilies.
The most recent conflict took place in the summer of 1943. The island was home to some 365,000 heavily armed Italian and German soldiers who were anticipating that the Americans and British, who had just been victorious in North Africa, were about to invade. They were right.
Both the Italian and German forces on Sicily were commanded by General Alfredo Guzzoni and consisted of the Italian Sixth Army and the German Hermann Göring Panzer Division and 15th Panzergrenadier Division.
The Allied high command had determined that keeping a sizable number of enemy troops tied up in the Mediterranean was important because preparations were being made to invade northern France in an operation called Overlord, and the farther these enemy troops were from France, the better.
Therefore, it was decided to mount a major airborne and amphibious invasion of the 9,926-square-mile island with both American and British troops. For this operation, code named Husky, the Allies would employ 181,000 men, 3,200 ships, and 4,000 aircraft. Named to command the entire operation was Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had also been in charge of the successful Operation Torch landings in North Africa the previous November. Ike’s deputy commander was British General Sir Harold Alexander.
