In January 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill met in Morocco to come up with a military plan. The United States had just entered the war with the Army beginning ground operations two months before as part of a joint invasion of North Africa. When the North African campaign looked to be a success they decided it was time to look at what to do next. Since Sicily was both a natural bridge between Africa and Europe and a blockade to the Mediterranean Sea they decided to make it the next target. It would open up sea lanes to the eastern Mediterranean and give the Allies a base in the region. Roosevelt and Churchill hoped occupying Italian national territory would make t

The invasion of Sicily allowed the Allies to work together to plan joint operations. They got to see where they needed to improve. Ground commanders saw improvement needed in air support and the accuracy of airborne drops, while the air commanders saw improvement was needed with friendly aircraft's being fired upon by ground and naval forces, and naval officers saw improvements were needed in communication so the land commanders could outflank the enemy once the campaign had begun. As I said in the beginning, the lack of planning would come back to haunt them. That is because the Axis was able to evacuate more than 100,000 men and 10,000 vehicles from Sicily. In their defense, operations this large had never been attempted before but the experience Allied commanders gained in planning airborne and ground attacks simultaneously would prove vital in the success in invading Italy and then of course at Normandy.

The Invasion of Sicily reached its goals. The Axis was forced out of the area and the Mediterranean Sea lanes were from there on out used by Allied forces. Mussolini was out of power, leading to Italy's surrender. The Allies used all this momentum to begin invading Italy within the month.

There were only four narrow roads through the Etna Line, and only two of them went all the way to Messina. Possessing these roads was the main point of the Allied campaign. General Alexander gave two roads to each army for the advance on Messina. A portion of the Eighth Army was to advance along the Adrano-Randazzo, while the remainder went north. Alexander assigned the two northern roads to the American Seventh Army.

General Hube withdrew slowly to the Etna Line while executing evacuation measures. Evacuation occurred in phases with each withdrawal followed by a retreat to shorter defensive lines until all Axis troops had been set up across the Strait of Messina to Italy. Four German divisions; the 1st Parachute, the Hermann Goering Panzer, the 15th Panzer Grenadier, and the newly arrived 29th Panzer Grenadier Division, made up this line of Axis fighters.

During the first three days the U.S. Army and Navy moved 66,280 people, 17,764 tons of cargo, and 7,389 vehicles onto Sicily's southern shores. New landing crafts and ships aided the Allies’ effort. By the end of the first day, the Seventh Army had set up a four miles deep and fifty miles wide. Axis attacks were where the Parachute Regiment should have been if its drop had been accurate. The Axis did capture over 4,000 prisoners, 58 Allies were killed, 199 wounded, and over 700 missing.

Patton's first move was to have Alexander send them as a reconnaissance toward the town of Agrigento, which is west of the 3rd Division's current front line. With that authorization, General Truscott seized the city on July 15th. With Agrigento, Patton was able to move into northwestern Sicily, all he had to do was get it approved by Alexander. Patton wanted to leave the Eighth Army and launch his own push on Palermo with Bradley's II Corps simultaneously going north cutting the island in two. Alexander agreed at first, but later he had reneged and sent Patton a new set of orders to protect Montgomery's flank instead. The Seventh Army headquarters ignored Alexander's message, saying there had been errors in the transmission, and Patton was already at Palermo.

General Truscott's 3rd Division was faced with equally stiff opposition at San Fratello, on the Etna Line. Here the Axis had entrenched itself on a ridge overlooking the coastal highway. Truscott attempted to fight for position beginning on August 3rd, but they failed to gain ground. They went back to the drawing board and the new attack involved complete surprise and they quickly blocked the coastal highway. Unfortunately, the Germans were withdrawing from San Fratello, so most troops were past this position by the time the Americans arrived. The 3rd Infantry Division's combined land and sea of

Some topics in this essay:
Seventh Army, Mediterranean Sea, Eighth Army, Operation HUSKY, Army Navy, Combat Command, Etna Line, War II, Messina Axis, Palermo Sicily's, seventh army, eighth army, invasion sicily, american seventh, infantry division, etna line, axis forces, panzer grenadier, american seventh army, british eighth, world war ii, grenadier division, british eighth army, panzer grenadier division, 1st infantry division,