IRAN
RUSSIAN PILOTS arriving at Abadan Airport, Iran. This airport, on an island in the Shatt al Arab near the head of the Persian Gulf, was the main assembly field for U. S. planes going to the Soviet Union through the Persian Corridor.
SICILY, CORSICA, AND SARDINIA
SICILY
SECTION II
Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia
The decision to assault Sicily was made by the Chiefs of Staff at Casablanca in January 1943. After the conclusion of the Tunisia Campaign, plans were completed and preparations for the attack were accelerated (Operation Husky). The island of Pantelleria, located between North Africa and Sicily, occupied mainly by Italian troops, was bombarded by Air Forces and Navy units and fell on 11 June. Troops for the invasion were embarked from the United States, United Kingdom, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Middle East.
On the night before D Day, a high wind of near gale proportions was encountered as the convoys approached their rendezvous. Shortly after H Hour, 10 July, airborne landings, although scattered by the high wind, were to some extent successful in their effect on our beach assault. Three hours after the landing, beachheads were established from Licata to Scoglitti by the Americans and from Capo Passero to Syracuse by the British.
Despite the problem of supply during the first two days, by 12 July the Allied armies had seized the port of Syracuse and ten other Sicilian towns in addition to several airfields. By the 23d, American tanks and infantry, driving across the western end of the island, took the key port of Palermo. The enemy, in the east, lodged in rugged mountain terrain, offered stiff resistance.