![]() Hitler orders that Italy be treated as an occupied country. German forces carry out Operation Axis ( Fall Achse), occupying Italy using troops already in the country in conjunction with forces newly arriving via the Brenner Pass. September 8 Eisenhower announces that the Italian government under Badoglio agrees to an armistice with the Allies (through General Giuseppe Castellano in Cassibile, Sicily)-and that Italy will have the status as a “co-belligerent” against Nazi Germany. The bulk of the German force on Sicily escapes. The August 9 issue of Time magazine features Allen.Īugust 11 Germans begin evacuating their forces at night from Sicily across the Straits of Messina. With the Germans on the high ground and US forces under enemy observation for the duration of the battle, US losses are heavy, but the Americans grind forward.Īugust 5 First secret negotiations between Eisenhower and the Badoglio government take place to arrange an Italian surrender to the Allies.Īugust 6 The US 1 st Infantry Division takes Troina as the Germans evacuate and continue their retreat to the northeast of Sicily.Īugust 7 Major General Allen relinquishes command of the US 1 st Infantry Division to Major General Clarence R. (“Terrible Terry” Allen, as he is known to his men) battling the Germans for the town of Troina, centrally located in Sicily. Mussolini is arrested and held in multiple locations, before being confined in the Hotel Campo Imperatore on the Gran Sasso d’Italia in the Abruzzo Mountains, one of Italy’s tallest peaks.Īugust 1 The hardest fighting of the entire campaign sees the US 1 st Infantry Division (“the Big Red One”) under the command of Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen Sr. “The war goes on and Italy remains faithful to its word,” Badoglio announces. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, former chief of the Italian general staff and member of the Fascist Party, replaces Mussolini as prime minister and declares on the radio that Italy will remain loyal to Germany. July 25 King Victor Emmanuel III meets with Mussolini, removes him from office, and has him arrested. July 24-25 A majority of the Fascist Grand Council approves (19 for, 7 against, 1 abstention) a motion of no confidence in Benito Mussolini. Montgomery’s mission to seize Messina, on the northeastern tip of Sicily, is slowed by stiff resistance from the German Hermann Göring Parachute Panzer Division. Many inhabitants of Palermo wave white flags and welcome the Americans. ![]() Palermo is the first city liberated by US forces in World War II. Truscott’s 3 rd Infantry Division at the head of armored columns covering 100 miles in 72 hours. July 22 Troops of Patton’s Seventh Army take Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily, with Major General Lucien K. As many as 3,000 people are killed in the raid. July 19 More than 500 Allied bombers strike Rome for the first time, hitting the San Lorenzo freight yard and steel factory, as well as the Littorio and Ciampino airports in the city. A third subsidiary landing, Operation Slapstick, will see elements of the British 1 st Airborne Division transported by sea to seize the port at Taranto. It will be a two-part operation, the first part in Calabria (Operation Baytown), the second at Salerno (Operation Avalanche), the northernmost beach in the Italian peninsula within range of Allied fighters based in Sicily. Eisenhower wins support from the Combined Chiefs of Staff for Winston Churchill’s idea of a landing in mainland Italy. July 18 With the fighting in Sicily still raging, General Dwight D. Air cover provided by more than 4,000 planes (from the Royal Air Force and the US Twelfth Air Force under the overall command of British Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder). Husky will be one of the largest amphibious operations of the entire war, with more than 3,000 ships (under the command of British Admiral Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet) transporting more than 150,000 Allied troops (eight divisions by sea plus two airborne divisions) over the next three days. Their two armies comprise the Fifteenth Army Group, led by British General Harold Alexander. Patton’s Seventh Army lands on the southern coast of Sicily and British General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army on the southeastern coast. July 9-10 Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, begins under the overall command of General Dwight D.
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