![]() ![]() In broad terms, Alexander’s intention was to establish these armies along a line from Catania in the east to Licata in the south-west as the first stage of a campaign which would then reduce the island. 1 for the Allied 15 th Army Group, laying out his overall plan and defining the tasks of the two armies. On 17 May, Alexander issued his Operation Instruction No. ![]() In the event, the task of maintaining the armies by landing supplies across the beaches proved to be easier than expected, in part because of the successful introduction of large numbers of the new amphibious DUKW truck. Not for the last time, Montgomery had argued a sound course of action, but had nonetheless managed to so so in a manner so high-handed that it suggested to others, and especially his US allies, that he was preoccupied with his own interests. After Alexander had joined the meeting on 3 May, Montgomery’s proposals were finally accepted on the basis that it was better to take the logistical risk of having to support troops by landing supplies across beaches than to take the operational risk of a dispersed effort. Eisenhower called a high-level conference on 2 May with Montgomery, Cunningham and Tedder, and at this meeting Montgomery made new proposals to concentrate the Allied effort on the south-eastern corner of Sicily, thereby discarding the proposed landings close to Palermo and aiming initially only at the south-eastern ports. However, both Tedder and Cunningham opposed Montgomery’s plan because it would leave 13 airfields in Axis hands, posing a considerable threat to the Allied invasion fleet. Montgomery was finally able to put forward his objections and offer alternative proposals on 24 April. Effort was wasted in presenting plans that Montgomery, in particular, disliked on the grounds that the assault forces would be, in his estimation, dispersed too widely. ![]() High-level planning for 'Husky' (i) at the theatre level was then bedevilled by a lack of direction as the three main land commanders, Alexander, Montgomery and Patton, were fully occupied in operations in Tunisia. The capture of these ports would facilitate a rapid Allied build-up, as well as denying their use to the Axis. It would also led to the rapid capture of all the island’s main ports, except Messina, but therefore including, clockwise from Messina, Catania and Augusta on the east coast, Licata on the south-west coast, and Palermo on the north coast. The logic behind this plan was that it would result in the rapid capture of the island’s airfields, which in Axis hands posed a threat to the beach-heads and the invasion fleet lying off them. The outline plan given to Eisenhower by the Combined Chiefs-of-Staff was based on a number of dispersed landings by elements of divisional and brigade sizes in the south-eastern, southern and north-western areas of the island. Patton’s US 7 th Army and General Sir Bernard Montgomery’s British 8 th Army, which together constituted Alexander’s Allied 15 th Army Group. The two major formations committed to 'Husky' (i) were Lieutenant General George S. Sir Harold Alexander as his deputy with responsibility for detailed planning and execution of the operation, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham as the naval commander, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as the air commander. With the decision in favour of an invasion and reduction of Sicily taken, the Combined Chiefs-of-Staffs appointed Lieutenant General (from 11 February General) Eisenhower as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force, with General the Hon. The Americans initially opposed this concept as both opportunistic and irrelevant, but were then persuaded to agree to an invasion of Sicily, largely in response to the argument that there would be a great saving to Allied shipping tonnages and speeds that would result from the opening of the Mediterranean through the removal of the threat posed by Axis air and naval forces on Sicily. The British Chiefs-of-Staff desired an invasion of Sicily or Sardinia, arguing that it would force Germany to disperse its forces and might knock Italy out of the war and move Turkey to join the Allies. It was at the 'Symbol' inter-Allied conference at Casablanca in January 1943 that the British and US political and military leadership teams had convened to discuss future strategy. 'Husky' (i) was the Allied invasion and seizure of the Italian island of Sicily (9 July/17 August 1943). ![]()
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