9 Julho 1943

The Allied invasion of Sicily began on the night of the July 9-10, 1943, and ended August 17 in an Allied victory. The invasion of the island was codenamed Operation Husky and launched the Italian Campaign. It was the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of men landed on the beaches and of frontage. Strategically, the Sicilian operation achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. Axis air and naval forces were driven from the island; the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened and Mussolini had been toppled from power. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy, which had not necessarily been seen as a follow-up to Husky.

The invasion of Sicily was a major Allied amphibious and airborne operation involving American, British, and Canadian forces, tasked with taking the island from the Axis forces (Italy and Nazi Germany).

Two Allied landing forces came under control of the Allied Fifteenth Army Group, with the U.S. Seventh Army tasked to land at Gela and the British 8th Army making separate landings at Pachino. Each Army had two Corps under command. Defending the island was the Italian 6th Army made up of two Italian Corps (XII and XVI) of coastal defence units plus four front line divisions and miscellaneous units under army command together with one German Panzerkorps (XIV).

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