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On May 10, 1943, 275,000 German and Italian troops surrendered to the allied troops in Tunisia meaning that more soldiers were taken into captivity in Tunisia than in Stalingrad.
The next step of the Allies has already been determined by Churchill and Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January, 1943: The invasion of Sicily.
The Allies still felt too weak to land in France and attack the heart of the German Reich in Europe, but conquering Sicily seemed a possible mission objective and would assure a clear degradation in the smaller axis partners’ strength.
The landing on Sicily began on July 10 under the codename “Operation Husky”.
The aim of this military operation was the occupation of Messina in the north of the island. Messina, was, however, too strongly fortified, so the only passable way for the Allies seemed to be a landing in the south of Sicily and then fighting their way up to Messina.
The British 8th Army received command to land in southern Sicily and advance along the eastern coastline towards Messina. Patton was given command of the newly formed 7th US Army and it was his task to simply cover Montgomery’s left flank from possible attacks by the axis troops. The tank general and former cavalry officer was not exactly taken by this defensive command. The Sicilian campaign was however to take an unexpected turn...
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July 10, 1943, 2:45 AM. While a few allied steamships were feigning the attack of an entire armada off the coast of western Sicily by creating a massive amount of smoke, 160,000 Americans and Britons were landing somewhere completely different. Italian recon had been able to locate the position of the allied landing ships in the last minute, but it was just too late to set up the necessary defenses in southern Sicily.
General Patton divided up the troops of his newly formed 7th Army into three groups. You are commanding Patton’s central group in the following mission comprising of soldiers from the experienced 1st Infantry Division under Major General Terry de la Mesa. You mission objective is to secure the beach of Gela and ensure that the tanks of the 2nd Armored Division can land.
The heavy navy assault guns have already started firing on enemy positions. You have to act quickly so that the enemy doesn’t have time to reorganize its defenses. The allied air force is dominating the skies above Sicily. In addition to dropping paratroopers, you are able to use fighters, bombers, and ground attack and recon planes. After deploying bombers and ground attack planes you will have to do without them for a few minutes due to the long approach way across the Mediterranean. Fighter planes and recon planes are available at all times.
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29 сен 2024
