Nick(Operation)

Operation Husky was the allied invasion on the island of Sicily.It was in July of 1943 til August of 1943.It was important because it opened trade routes into the Mediterranean and it caused the downfall of Mussolini. It was a major allied victory that influenced the outcome of the fight. =**Forces**=

The allied land forces were divided into two major groups, one was British led by Bernard Montgomery and the other was American, led by George S. Patton. There were also two main naval forces, the American western task force and the British eastern task force. They provided support by shelling the coastal defenses and acted as escorts for the landing craft invading the island. Most of the air forces were the ones from the fighting in north Africa which were made up of both American and British fighters and bombers. The defending forces were made up of two large groups of Italian. There were also about 32,000 Germans and a panzer division stationed in Sicily. =**Planning and Preparatory operations**=

Once the end of the North African campaign was basically won, the allied forces began planning an operation on Europe. The British suggested the invade Sicily or Sardinia because they thought that it would knock Italy out of the war and make Turkey go to the allies. The Americans thought it was to opportunistic and that it wouldn't work so perfectly, but in the end they agreed upon Sicily. They then used bombers from the North African Campaign to bomb Sicily before the invasions. They progressively increased the bombing strengths as it got closer to the invasion. They mostly targeted airfields so the axis couldn't shoot down the transport aircraft. Another part of the pre operation was the deception of the axis forces. They sent a small scout group disguised as an officer into Greece with a briefcase containing false allied plans. The Germans captured the briefcase and moved some of there forces to Sardinia but they still kept a large force =Battle and Outcome=

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The coastal forces arrived with ease and the axis coastal forces surrendered. Farther inland it wasn't so easy and it proved to be a much larger problem. Overall it was a success and it lead to the downfall of the Italians. A lot of the strategies used in Sicily were used on D-Day as well.===== =Sources=

= = [|youtube operation Husky] Sicily Wiki WWII Campaigns Sicily Mussolini Wiki Google images Sicily