How to implement the "Eskimo" plan?

Everything was ready, and the Allies officially began to implement the "Eskimo" that is, the Sicilian landing plan. First, the Allies carried out a series of attacks on the air force facilities in Sicily and its nearby islands to clear the periphery. Ban Treglia Island is the base of Italian planes and torpedo boats, located between Tunisia and Sicily. In order to seize this forward base, after 10 days of bombing, the allied forces successfully landed on the island in June 1,1,and captured 1. 1 Wanyi Army, but the allied forces only lost 40 pilots and less than 20 planes. Two days later, the Allies occupied the nearby islands of Linoza and Rampioni. At this point, the Allies controlled all the islands in the Sicilian Strait and wiped out the outposts of the Axis countries.

On July 3rd, the Allied Air Force began to launch fierce air raids 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 and move 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. When they landed, the allies had absolute superiority in air and sea.

On July 9th, 1943, the allied escort formations from Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt arrived at the assembly areas on the east and west sides of malta island respectively. But 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 panic 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 allies must reach Messina before the Axis forces.

On July 12, the third day of the Allied invasion of Sicily, Marshal Catherine, commander-in-chief of the German Southern Line, arrived on 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 leading to the east coast of 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 allied naval and air forces, 39,600 German officers and men (4,444 injured) and 62,000 Italian officers and men crossed the Messina Strait and fled to Italy. Carrying equipment: 9,800 cars, 47 tanks, 135 cannons, more than 2,000 tons of explosives, fuel and15,000 tons of other materials.

The Allies achieved most of the goals of the Eskimo campaign at a cost of less than 5%, which completely guaranteed the safety of the Allied communication lines in the Mediterranean.

Allied forces captured Sicily on July 1943, and on July 19, more than 500 bombers from the US 19 Air Force from North Africa and the Middle East bombed Rome for the first time, dropping 1000 tons, killing about 2,000 people and causing great damage to the ancient building of San Lorenzo Palace in the city. In view of Italy's defeat, other Italian fascist leaders put forward a bill authorizing the king to dismiss Mussolini and appointing Marshal Badoglio to take over as Prime Minister. The new Italian government dissolved the fascist party, declared martial law throughout the country and banned all political gatherings. Italian fascist rule, which lasted for 2 1 year, finally ended.

The allied forces moved forward after landing in Italy, and the Italian people went out to welcome the allied forces.