How is the Eskimo Plan implemented?

From July 3, 65438 to July 3, 0943, the Allied Air Force began to launch fierce air strikes on airports, ports, submarine bases and industrial centers in Sicily, Sardinia and southern Apennine Peninsula, destroying many important targets and forcing the long-range aviation of German and Italian troops to evacuate their bases to northern Italy. Four of the five train ferries in the Messina Strait were also sunk, making the connection between Sicily and Italy more difficult.

On July 9th, the Allied escort fleet arrived at the assembly areas in the east and west of malta island respectively. At this time, the climate deteriorated sharply, and a strong northwest wind blew on the sea. Soon, the landing craft stumbled in the rough waves, and even the bow of the large transport ship was hidden in the rough waves from time to time. Bad weather is extremely unfavorable for allied airborne operations and amphibious landings. The weather forecast shows that the wind speed will decrease at sunset. General Eisenhower decided to land as planned. Although the voyage was extremely difficult, the assault fleet maintained its basic formation and approached the designated beach as scheduled.

10 at 2: 30am on July, the allied forces parachuted 1 division in the Anglo-American landing zone, which opened the curtain of the Sicilian campaign. Due to the excessive wind speed and poor navigation system, 47 gliders crashed into the sea, and most of the airborne troops failed to land at the designated place. Several airborne troops who arrived at the target area as planned delayed the advance of the Italian reserve team to land on the beach, but failed to stop its action.

At the same time, the allied amphibious assault ship team successfully reached the scheduled landing point. After the airborne troops landed 15 minutes, under the cover of night and storm, the allied forces landed at Sicily coastline 160 kilometers with the huge strength of the eighth division: Montgomery commanded the British Eighth Army to land south of Syracuse, and Barton's American Seventh Army landed in Gera Bay. In the face of the allied raid, the German and Italian troops were caught off guard and the beach defense line was quickly destroyed. The Italian division defending the coast retreated in a hurry with little resistance. In this way, almost all the defense burdens fell on the shoulders of German divisions.

The "Hermann G?ring" Division, which was stationed around Kartagil East, 32 kilometers away from the coast, arrived at the landing point of the US 1 Infantry Division the next morning in an attempt to drive it back to the sea. Because the beach is crowded and the wind and waves are too big, American tanks and artillery have not landed yet. As a result, German tanks rushed down from the plain, destroyed the American outpost and rushed to the sand dunes connecting the beach. At this critical juncture, allied naval guns repelled the German attack with fierce and accurate artillery fire. The threatening impact of another German column and a "Tiger" tank company on the left wing of the 45th Division of the US Army was also repelled.

The British landing assault went smoothly without any counterattack. By the evening of 1 1, the allies had captured two landing sites with a depth of 5 to 15 kilometers and began to March inland. At this moment, preventing the 270,000 Axis troops on the island from fleeing to Italy has become the key to the overall victory of this campaign. Messina, in the northeast corner of Sicily, is only 5 kilometers away from Italy's "toe", which is the only way for German and Italian troops to retreat.

The British Eighth Army went north and occupied the important ports of Siracusa and Augusta on 12. Montgomery then "decided to make great efforts to break through the Catania Plain from lentini" and ordered "to launch the main attack on the evening of July 13". The first important target to be captured is the Puli Massole Bridge on the Simeto River several kilometers south of Catania. To this end, the British army used the 1 paratroopers brigade, but it encountered the 1 paratroopers unit airdropped by the Germans to the rear of the front line. 14, the Germans occupied the bridge. The main force of the British army then arrived, fought fiercely with the Germans for three days, and finally regained the bridge and reopened the road to the Catania Plain. By July 18, the allied forces occupied all areas in the south of the island.

On July 12, the third day after the Allied forces captured Sicily, Marshal Catherine, commander-in-chief of the German Southern Line, arrived in the island by plane to learn about the situation. He judged that Italian resistance had collapsed, and in this case, it was impossible to hold the island. When Hitler learned about it, he personally took over the command of Sicily the next day and issued an order. The order said: "After a large number of Italian troops were wiped out, it was not enough to drive the enemy out of the sea by our own troops. Therefore, our purpose will be to stop the enemy from advancing and prevent the enemy from advancing on the west side of Mount Etna. " In order to carry out the blocking operation, the German high command reinforced Sicily with a large number of troops, tanks, heavy artillery and planes, and transferred most of the troops on the island to Catania in the middle of the east coast of the island to resist the British attack. Its reserve troops are spread all over the route along the east coast of Messina, 96 kilometers away, to cover the road from the island to the east coast of Messina Strait.

On July 17, the German army issued the next action instruction: "We no longer expect to hold Sicily. But it is important to fight a protracted war and gain more time to stabilize the situation on the mainland. However, the most important thing is that under no circumstances should our three German divisions suffer losses. At the very least, we must also keep our valuable personnel. " According to the instructions, the German army was reinforced by the 29th Armored Grenade Division under the command of General huber and the 14 Armored Army Command. Its task is not to ensure the Sicilian defense line, but only to stop the war and cover the safe retreat of the Axis forces. Because the British Eighth Army was close to the American Seventh Army in Messina, the Axis sent elite German troops to contain Montgomery in Etna, while other Axis troops retreated to the north and east, to the Messina Strait.

Axis forces strengthened their defense in the southern plains of Catania, and the March of the Eighth Army was blocked. Montgomery was forced to move the main force to the west, and the soldiers were divided into two ways to carry out a surprise attack: 13 army directly attacked Catania, and 30 army turned left, bypassing Mount Etna from the west and attacking circuitously. According to the original plan, the attack on Messina should be the main attack of the eighth army under Montgomery's command, and the seventh army under Barton's command should cover its flank and serve as support. The westernization of the main force of the British army occupied the two wings of the US military. Barton then appealed to Alexander, commander-in-chief of allied ground operations, to attack Palermo at the western end. After being approved, Barton immediately led his troops into the central part of Sicily, and at the same time put several mobile columns on the far left to attack along the western edge of the island. On July 22nd, American troops occupied Palermo, and about 45,000 Italian troops in western Sicily surrendered. This victory has greatly dampened the morale of the Italian army: they have only one port left in Messina. At the same time, the British attack on the east and west sides weakened, and the troops began to catch malaria, and their combat effectiveness declined. After the American troops captured Palermo, they arrived in San Stifano on July 3 1, and their main task was changed to Barton's Seventh Army.

In order to stop the retreat of the Axis forces, the Allies decided to launch a new offensive on August 1 day, and transferred the 9th Division of the US Army and the 78th Division of the British Army from North Africa to increase the total strength to 12 Division. /kloc-in August, 2000, the allied forces launched an attack on the Axis defense line in the northeast of Sicily, and the US military occupied three important towns on the north shore of the island. On August 5th, British troops conquered Catania. 16 From August 7 to August 6, the Allied Forces launched four small-scale amphibious leaps, trying to speed up the advance and intercept the retreating Axis forces, but all failed because of slow action. /kloc-in August of 0/7, the retreat of the Axis countries was all over. Without being seriously intercepted by the allied naval and air forces, there were 39,600 officers and men of the three German divisions who fled to Italy across the Messina Strait, and 62,000 Italian officers and men. Carrying equipment: 9,800 cars, 47 tanks, 135 cannons, more than 2,000 tons of explosives, fuel and15,000 tons of other materials.

On the morning of August 17, the 3rd Division of the US Army entered Messina. Part of the Eighth Army also arrived in this city soon. On that day, the remnants of all the Axis countries on the island were wiped out. Allied forces captured Sicily on July 1943.