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A Fleet Air Arm Martlet fighter from HMS Formidable patrols over the veteran battleship HMS Warspite off Sicily. The Royal Navy battleships and carriers of Force H screened the initial landings against the danger of an attack by the Italian fleet, with smaller ships providing gunfire support at the beaches. HMS Warspite was later called in to bombard a military base at Catania on 17 July
A Sicilian airfield suffers a heavy Allied bombing attack aimed at suppressing German and Italian air defences
British airborne troops in North Africa beside one of the US-built Waco gliders that carried 1st Airlanding Brigade into action on 9/10 July
RAF night fighters, such as these Beaufighters, provided nocturnal air cover from bases in North Africa and Malta
Troops of 51st Highland Division drive ashore on "Bark South" invasion beach on the Pachino peninsula
As airfields were captured, they were immediately taken over by specialist advance teams of ground crew and engineers to allow them to be quickly made operational for RAF and USAAF aircraft. Here, an RAF Spitfire is serviced on a Sicilian airfield alongside a Messerschmitt 109 left behind by the previous owners

The night of 9/10 July 2003 marked the sixtieth anniversary of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.

Following the defeat of the Axis forces in Tunisia, the Allied forces began preparations to take the war onto Axis home territory for the first time.  The largest amphibious force yet seen had to be assembled: 2,590 ships and landing craft.  The Royal Navy provided 1,614, including six battleships and two aircraft carriers, while the US provided 945.  

The remaining 31 ships were from the Free Forces of the Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Belgium and Norway.  Meticulous planning was required to bring together the troop convoys, sailing from as far apart as the Clyde and Alexandria, to deliver a coordinated assault. 

Allied aircraft had mounted heavy preparatory air attacks against the German and Italian air forces on Sicily, and had successfully bombed the Italian garrison of the small island of Pantelleria into submission during June.  Over 3,500 Allied aircraft had been mustered - Malta, which in June 1940 had been defended by just six Gladiator biplanes, now had 20 squadrons of Spitfires sitting on its airfields to provide fighter cover for the invasion.

The invasion plan covered landings by Patton's US 7th Army in the west of Sicily, and Montgomery's 8th Army in the south-east.  The Germans, realising Sicily was the obvious next target, had reinforced the Italian troops stationed there - the Italian commander-in-chief General Guzzoni had some 230,000 Italian and 40,000 German troops, plus thousands more Luftwaffe personnel. 

The coastal defences, although including some strongpoints, were generally weak and held by five Italian coastal divisions, manned largely by personnel unfit for field service and poorly equipped.  However, Guzzoni had four Italian infantry divisions and two German armoured divisions in reserve - the Hermann Goring Panzer and 15th Panzer Grenadier Divisions.

The 8th Army was allocated landing beaches on the south-east coast of Sicily, running down from the key port of Syracuse around to the western shore of the Pachino peninsula, the most southerly tip of the island.  Its key objectives for the first day were to secure the port of Syracuse, to allow its use by supply ships, and to seize the airfields in the Pachino area. 

On the evening of 9 July, the men of the 1st Airlanding Brigade, 2,075 strong, boarded 137 Waco and 10 Horsa gliders at Tunisian airfields to spearhead the attack.  Their mission was to seize an important bridge at Porte Grande near Syracuse.  However, the majority of their tug aircraft were provided by inexperienced USAAF crews of 51st Troop Carrier Wing.  The weather was turning for the worse, with strong winds. 

The glider pilots struggled to control their heavily laden aircraft, and accurate navigation proved challenging.  Many of the tug aircraft released their gliders too far from the Sicilian coast, and tragically 69 came down in the sea - 252 men drowned.  Only one glider landed close to the bridge, shortly before midnight, but undaunted, Lieutenant Withers led his platoon of the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, in an immediate attack on the bridge, some of his men swimming the river. 

They captured it intact, and slowly were reinforced by other glider-troops who had come down further afield, reaching a strength of 87 men by 0630.  They resisted heavy counter-attacks until finally forced back from the bridge in the afternoon, but their action had prevented the bridge from being demolished and it was later retaken when troops from the beaches reached the scene.

In the early hours of 10 July, the amphibious landings began, guided in by submarines and specialist beach reconnaissance personnel in tiny collapsible boats - during the preceding months, this small group of men, only about 30 in number, had suffered very heavy losses to enemy defences and the elements while scouting out the beaches. 8th Army's target sector was defended by the Italian 206th Coastal Division. 

Immediately to the south of Syracuse, an SAS squadron and 3 Army Commando silenced coastal batteries covering the beaches on which 5th Division came ashore.  By the end of the day, the Division's 17 Brigade had taken Syracuse, the most important immediate objective, and Royal Navy minesweepers began clearing a safe route into the port; supply convoys were able to make deliveries three days later. 

Further south along the coast, 50th Division, recruited from Tyne and Tees, experienced more difficult landings, but even so their 151 Brigade had advanced satisfactorily inland by the end of the day.  231 Independent Brigade, which had spent much of the war on near-starvation rations as the garrison of Malta, landed on the east coast of the Pachino peninsula, while 51st Highland Division landed on the southern tip. 

1st Canadian Division, having sailed direct from training in the UK via the Clyde, landed on the western coast of the peninsula, with the Royal Marines of 40 and 41 Commando taking care of the far left flank.  The airfields around Pachino were taken, and RAF and Royal Engineer personnel immediately began work to put them into commission for Allied aircraft - the first three squadrons of RAF Spitfires flew in from Malta on 13 July to provide immediate air cover.

Patton's US 7th Army had experienced much greater difficulties to the west, where the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions landed around the town of Gela.  The airborne spearhead provided by the 505th Parachute Regiment of 82nd Airborne Division suffered as badly from the weather as the British gliders, and were scattered over many miles of countryside.  The landing craft out at sea were more exposed to the bad weather, and when the troops did get ashore, soon found themselves facing counter-attacks from the Livorno and Hermann Goring divisions.  However, the US troops successfully held their ground against the German tanks.

The massive air cover provided from Malta, Gozo, Pantelleria and Tunisia generally proved effective at keeping Italian and German air attacks at bay, but a few bombers broke through, sinking three US ships and a British hospital ship.  During the operations across the beaches, the new US DUKW amphibious truck proved of immense value. 

Capable of 6 mph afloat and about 50 mph on land, its boat-shaped hull could carry 25 troops or 3.5 tons of supplies, and while it was awkward to load and unload, a single vehicle could swim ashore 23 tons during a typical 18-hours of operations per day.  In the first 48 hours, over 8,500 vehicles, from jeeps to tanks, were successfully put ashore in 8th Army's sector, with comparable achievements in the US area of operations.

As the Allies consolidated their beach heads, follow-up airborne operations by the rest of 1st British and 82nd US Airborne Divisions were conducted to reinforce the advance.  These proved disastrous.  On the night 11/12 July, the US 504th Parachute Regiment was flown into the Gela region.  Unfortunately, Allied naval anti-aircraft gunners opened up on them.  Half the aircraft were damaged, and over twenty shot down.  97 paratroopers and 60 aircrew were killed, with another 132 wounded. 

An operation by the British 1st Parachute Brigade to seize the bridge at Primosole on the night of 13/14 July proved little more successful.  Anti-aircraft fire from Allied forces again hit the transport aircraft, and, coupled with the efforts of the Axis gunners, brought fourteen down, and the rest again dropped troops over a wide area.  Of a brigade strength of 1,856 men, only 295 made it into action at the bridge.  They initially seized it, but were later driven back from the northern end, and a more conventional assault had to be conducted later to secure the crossing.

As the Allies pushed relentlessly outwards despite the deployment of German reinforcements, US troops took the city of Palermo on 22 July.  The Axis forces fought a skilful withdrawal to the north-east corner of Sicily during the latter part of the month, where they conducted a resolute defence around Mount Etna.  Under very heavy anti-aircraft and artillery cover, they then conducted a meticulous withdrawal over successive nights to the Italian mainland, some 60,000 German and 75,000 Italians being shipped to safety. 

The Allied conquest of Sicily was finally completed on 17 August when Messina was secured; preparations immediately began for the invasion of the Italian mainland.  8th Army had suffered some 9,000 casualties in action.  Malaria had proved even more dangerous, with 11,500 British troops falling sick.

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