This volume, compiled by Lt. Col. John C. Hatlem, USAF, and Capt. Kenneth E. Hunter, with the assistance of Miss Margaret E. Tackley, and edited by W. Brooks Phillips and Miss Mary Ann Bacon, deals with the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and the Middle East. It is divided into five sections: (1) North Africa and the Middle East; (2) Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia; (3) Italy: 9 September 1943–4 June 1944; (4) Southern France; and (5) Italy: 5 June 1944-2 May 1945. Each section is arranged in chronological order. The written text has been kept to a minimum. Each section is preceded by a brief introduction recounting the major events set down in detail in the individual narrative volumes of UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II. The appendices give information as to the abbreviations used and the sources of the photographs.
| Washington, D. C. | ORLANDO WARD |
| 1 November 1951 | Maj. Gen., USA |
| Chief of Military History |
Contents
| Section | Page | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST | [1] |
| II. | SICILY, CORSICA, AND SARDINIA | [105] |
| III. | ITALY: 9 SEPTEMBER 1943–4 JUNE 1944 | [171] |
| IV. | SOUTHERN FRANCE | [303] |
| V. | ITALY: 5 JUNE 1944-2 MAY 1945 | [349] |
| APPENDIX A: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS | [455] | |
| APPENDIX B: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | [457] | |
| INDEX | [459] | |
NORTH AFRICA
AND
THE MIDDLE EAST
TUNISIA
SECTION I
North Africa and the Middle East[1]
North Africa
The occupation of French North Africa by Allied troops was determined in July 1942 when the American and British Governments agreed to launch a Mediterranean operation in the fall of 1942. The invasion, designated as Torch, was to coincide with a British advance westward from Egypt. Before American soldiers did any actual fighting in North Africa, however, and before the United States was at war, civilian and military observers had been informally attached in May 1941 to the U. S. military attaché in Cairo. This group was the beginning of a force whose primary function was to service and maintain lend-lease equipment from the United States, instruct the British in its use, and report on how it stood up under battle conditions. The U. S. Air Force also was performing missions in Egypt several months before the Allied landings in North Africa. All these activities contributed to the British victory at El Alamein in October 1942.