Allied Invasion of Sicily - Essay Example

The most vehement war that had a huge effect on most countries was the World War II. Many people have obtained collective information half a century later from that time of the conflict. Most Americans are not aware of the World War II implications on the social, political, and military, which has played a role in uniting them with a mutual purpose, while many researchers interests on the events of the war grow. The Allied conquest of Sicily was actually the biggest military operation that designated an Operation Husky (Harold, 1948). The invasion took place in the Second World War with other several attack dissections landing throughout Italy. There were individuals who desired to dominate the Sicily as well as the Mediterranean basin and the World War. Without a doubt, in Europe, Sicily was the first region to be retrieved by the Allied militaries.

Additionally, the British leader, Bernard Montgomery led the 8th British army in the Allied attack of Italy. On the day of the invasion of Italy, the Italian regime covertly agreed to the Allies conditions for capitulation, but no open proclamation was made till some months later. Simultaneously, for any future invasion of Italy, Sicily would be a substantial considered base and its invasion would also act as a kind of preparation exercise for the forthcoming big day attack in Normandy. According to Rick (2007), the allied invasion of Sicily is important to some military leaders, to conduct upcoming many-sided acts, whereby they will aim at making decisions at an operating level of war in performance with the allied who dont automatically share their culture, experience, and soldierly background. This essay focuses on reasons why the invasion took place, the events that took place at the Casablanca conference, the allied formation and conducts of Husky from the operating level of the warfare and the failures of the operation Husky.

1940 1943

The invasion of Sicily by the allied had huge political implications for Italy (Lee, 1991) triggering changes that were a long time coming. For two decades, Benito Mussolini led the country under a dictatorial leadership but later on, he was overshadowed by Hitler. In June 1940, Italy avowed to ambush the countries that had joined together in the war, although the United States was not included. However, the British had already started sending their armies to attack the Italians. As a result, it led to the defeat of the Italian were already engaged in military raids against the Italians in 1941, which led to the defeat of Italian armies located in Ethiopia, before the United States participation in the World War II. A close ally of Italy, Spain, did not engage in the war while Italy, could not resist the chance to acquire additional territory (Jeremy, 2004). The fact that Italy was not well prepared for the full impacts of the warfare against a motivated and skilled power country such as the Great Britain or the United States, their military troops that had outnumbered those of the United States in 1941, was lost on the republic's obsessive leadership. Their dictator leader, Benito Mussolini and his followers did not expect the war to last for a few years since they could observe the implications of Germany's early military successes.

With the triumph in the North Africa complete, the Allies had a choice. The Americans desired prompt cross-channel warfare from Britain on North West Europe. In January 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt decided upon the invasion of Sicily, in the Casablanca Conference, after the Alliance conquest in North Africa predicted. Churchill favored invading the soft underbelly of Italy to weaken the Alliance forces and gain Italian surrender. The Italian Campaign plan was never well-defined since it was partly regarded to draw German militaries from France and Russia, and the Sicily conquest was always unimportant to the conquest intended to occur at Normandy after a few months. Now outshined by the invasion of the Normandy, the operations in Sicily were the largest military actions that had occurred in history until 1944. This operation was designated as "Operation Husky." However, the Italian surrender to the allies had no effect on the war because all the defensive positions in Italy were held by the Germans and they were the main hindrance for the Allies way before the Italy submitted. The invasion took place because it was a preparation for the D-Day touchdowns that was considered to be more vital. The invasion improved morale in the armies since they were taking some actions to fight off the rival (Pack, 1977).

In 1943, Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister persuaded Roosevelt that Italy should be their next target. But George Marshall, American General, claimed that there is a need for the Russians to be pleased and hence, the United States ought to unveil a larger raid of Germans who dominated France. Nevertheless, Churchill was interested in strengthening the British attraction on the Mediterranean to make sure that they had control over their territory at the end of the war, instead of the Russians. Surprisingly, Roosevelt ultimately agreed. With Eisenhowers military that joined forces with the 8th Defense force in North Africa, Churchill was able to succeed. However, Benito Mussolini strongly disagreed and argued that the Sicily should be the Allies target (Adrian, 2003). But, being the Italian founder of the empire, Benito Mussolini was clearly another person in the Alliance pyramid, and hence Hitlers demands succeeded. Regardless of the change and disagreements amongst the Alliance troops, the treaty militaries encountered great problems in the launched attacks. But on the positive side, in spite of the landing misperception, similar forces later succeeded in blocking communications among the Alliance and in acquiring some parts of Italy for the landing of militaries.

For that reason, after the Allied militaries had settled, it was possible for them to improve with relative haste through the Mediterranean. The well trained British militaries were allocated tougher assignments alongside the eastern side of the Mediterranean and the American dissection directed them to the west (Hinsley, 1990). By the end of two weeks, they were uniting on the northern side of the mainland and sweeping all Alliance militaries before them. After facing an impended downfall, Italy and Germany made an attempt to vacate their defense force to the island, however, the Germans were the only individuals that succeeded. The Italians suffered more losses as compared to other armies in the Allied conquest of Sicily (Harold, 1948). As the campaign progressed, Mussolini was deserted by the Italian Grand Council and designed a new regime under the govern ship of Pietro Badoglio who instantly reached out to the Allies and settled to the terms of surrender.

Casablanca Conference

In January 1943, many meetings were held in Casablanca, Morocco, during the World War II, by Roosevelt and Churchill in the company of Combined Chiefs of Staffs (CCSs) to debate on the plans and the next stage of the war on the mainland of Italy and Sicily. The primary work of the conference was to decide on the conquest of Sicily rather than an instant conquest of the Western Europe (Hinsley, 1990). The Casablanca conference arranged the first allied action to go back to the mainland of Europe through the Mediterranean Island. It showed an extension of the indirect tactic towards the middle of the alliance that might have been started by the arrival of the Anglo-Americans in the North Africa in 1942. During this time, the decisions made at Casablanca aimed at expelling the alliance of the Italians and the German forces from North Africa. It also aimed at invading Sicily to get into Italy. Finally, the decision aimed at attacking and eliminating Italy from the war. However, the allied plans in Mediterranean to attack Italy after the verdict of 1942 developed as a series of unplanned decisions, whose background produced purposes that were restricted by the accessible resources and time (Lee, 1991).

For the first time at Casablanca, the planning initiative was delivered to the allies because they had the ability to do more than reacting to the movements initiated by the Alliances. The Allies had the ability to embrace Egypt and protect the Suez Canal, to fight back the submarines conflict in contradiction of their sea means of communication, to back the Soviet Union, to declare war on the Germans from the air due to lack of other returns needed to defeat their enemys mainland, and to surround the Japanese in the Pacific. However, between mid-1942 and early 1943, the plans had begun to change since there the British had won the war at El Alamein and the Anglo-Americans had already occupied the Northwestern part of Africa. Although these incidents were basically self-protective activities, the power balance had already changed before the Allied met at Casablanca and for once, they could freely choose their next form of action (Adrian, 2003; Lee, 1991).

The mechanism of decision making and discussions at Casablanca through the Combined Chiefs of Staffs (CCS) symbolized a newly formed organization in the progression of the war. A body of the CCS composed of the service chiefs of staff from both the Great Britain and the United States, which was formed after the Pearl Harbor (Pack, 1977). Even though this joint executive played a role in making it possible for an amazing incorporation of the Anglo-American power, there was an emergence of severe differences on the tactics between the Chiefs of Staff in Britain and Joint Chiefs in the United States.

Operation Husky

The launch of the Operation Husky by the Allies in 1943 was considered as a military operation on the southern part of Sicily. In the beginning, the operation took place from early July to mid-August and comprised of in-flight and ground militaries. The very first major Allied attack on the Germans who had occupied Europe was Operation Husky (the Invasion of Sicily). Its mission was to overcome Sicily and attain tactical objectives of liberating Mediterranean conveyance from the alliance persecution, increasing pressure on Italy to abandon Hitler, and distracting Germans power from the Russian mainland (Mark, 2009; Pack, 1997). With the successful clearance of the Alliance forces from Tunisia, resources became available for the fresh military actions in the Mediterranean. But, the Allied were still not strong enough (Adrian, 2003) to continue with their invasion of the Normandy and so; they had no option but to come up with operations that would tie down the alliance militaries.

The initial plan lay down by the Allied visualized two separate landings in the North West and South East regions of Sicily. However, General Montgomery protested this plan because it lost the benefits of a carefully synchronized military. Instead, he ordered his armed forces to start a war on Messina to the north. In the last strategy, by the orders of General George Patton, who disagreed with General Montgomerys decision, the 7th Army of United States would land in the South West and the 8th Army of the British in the South East. The command structure of the Husky was designed with the perception of a practical region model, with equal positions for all leaders and giving back feedbacks to their common superior, the Commander in Chief. There were a number of operations that were put forth. They include control of the sea, quick seizure of port facilities, and control of the air. Throughout the planning of the Operation Husky, General Eisenhower was in a difficult situation while dealing with the British commanders. As the Allied Commander in chief, it was his duty to encourage teamwork and create peace and harmony within the organization (Rick, 2007).

By early August...