Allied invasion of Sicily

Overview

The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as the Battle of Sicily and Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which Allied forces invaded the Italian island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis forces. The island was defended by the Italian 6th Army and the German XIV Panzer Corps. The invasion paved the way for the Allied invasion of mainland Italy and initiated the Italian campaign that removed Italy from the war.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, opened in July 1943 and resulted in Axis forces being driven from the island. The operation was executed against the Italian 6th Army and the German XIV Panzer Corps by a combined Allied force of roughly 160,000 troops under the overall direction of AFHQ and 15th Army Group. Securing Sicily provided the Allies with a stepping stone to the Italian mainland, directly enabling the subsequent Allied invasion of Italy. That broader Italian campaign ultimately removed Italy from the war as an Axis belligerent, representing a significant strategic rupture in the European theater. The operation also demonstrated Allied capacity to coordinate large-scale amphibious landings involving multiple army-level formations—Patton's Seventh Army and Montgomery's Eighth Army—under unified command structures including naval and air components led by Cunningham and Tedder respectively.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (19)