Table Of ContentUNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR 1I
The Mediterranean Theater of Operations
SICILY AND THE SURRENDER
OF ITALY
by
Liel/tellGllt Colollel Albert N. Garland
alld
H award !If cGaw Smyth
Assisted by
Af artin Bll/mensoll
NllIlMYl~
Q;;NIER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNIT~1J STAlES ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1993
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-60002
First Printed 1965- CMH Pub 6-2-1
For sate by the Superintendent of Documents. U.S. Governmeut I)rillling Office
Washington. D.C. 20402
UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
Stetson Conn, General Editor
Advisory Committee
(A'\of 15June 1963)
Fred C. Cole Maj. Gen. Hugh M. Exton
Washington and Lee University U.S. Continental Army Command
William R. Emerson Maj. Gen. Tom R. Stoughton
Yale U niversi ty Industrial College of the Armed Forces
Earl Pomeroy Brig. Gen. Ward S. Ryan
University of Oregon U.S. Army War COllege
Theodore Ropp Col. Elias C. Townsend
Duke University U.S. Army Command and General Staff College
Bell I. Wiley Col. Vincent]. Esposito
Emory University United States Military Academy
C. Vann Woodward
Yale University
Office of the Chief of Military History
Brig. Gen. Hal C. Pattison, Chief of Military History
Chief Historian Stetson Conn
Acting Chief, Histories Division Lt. Col. Paul W. Phillips
Chief, Editorial and Graphics Division Lt. Col. James R. Hillard
Editor in Chief Joseph R. Friedman
III
· . . to Those Who Served
Foreword
This volume, the second to be published in the Mediterranean Theater of
Operations subseries, takes up where George F. Howe's Northwest Africa: Seiz
ing the Initiative in the West left off. It integrates the Sicilian Campaign with
the complicated negotiations involved in the surrender of Italy.
The Sicilian Campaign was as complex as the negotiations, and is equally
instructive. On the Allied side it included American, British, and Canadian
soldiers as well as some Tabors of Goums; major segments of the U.S. Army
Air Forces and of the Royal Air Force; and substantial contingents of the U.S.
Navy and the Royal Navy. Opposing the Allies were ground troops and air
forces of Italy and Germany, and the Italian Navy. The fighting included a
wide variety of operations: the largest amphihious assault of World War II;
parachute jumps and air landings; extended overland marches; tank battles;
precise and remarkably succes!'lf ul naval gunfire support of troops on shore;
agonizing struggles for ridge tops; and extensive and skillful artillery support.
Sicily was a testing ground for the U.S. soldier, fighting beside the more ex
perienced troops of the British Eighth Army, and there the American soldier
showed what he could do.
The negotiations involved in Italy's surrender were rivaled in complexity and
delicacy only by those leading up to the Korean armistice. The relationship of
tactical to diplomatic activity is one of the most instructive and interesting
features of this volume. Military men were required to double as diplomats and
to play both roles with skilL
The authors were uniquely qualified to undertake this difficult volume. Rare
indeed is the collaboration of an authority on Italian, German, and diplomatic
history with an experienced infantry officer who is a Master of Arts in history.
Washington, D. C. HAL C. PATTISON
15 June 1963 Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History
vii
The Authors
Lt. Col. Albert Nutter Garland received a B.S. degree in education and
an M.A. degree in history from Louisiana State University and has taught in
New Orleans private schools and at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute. A Regu
lar Army officer with more than 20 years of active service, he served during
W orid War II as a rifle company commander with the 84th Infantry Division
and participated in the Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe
Campaigns. Since 1945 he has served in Alaska and Taiwan and in numer
ous assignments in the States. Colonel Garland was a member of OCMH
from 1958 to 1962 and is now Assistant Editor of Military Review, the U.S.
Army's professional magazine, which is published at the Command and General
Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Howard McGaw Smyth, a graduate of Reed College, received the M.A.
degree in history from Stanford and the Ph.D. degree from Harvard University.
He has taught, chiefly in the field of modern European history, at Reed,
Princeton, Union College, American University, and the University of Califor
nia, where he devoted himself to work in the history of modern Italy. He
served a term as a member of the Board of Editors of the .I ournal of Modern
History.
During World War II he served for a time in the Office of Strategic Services
and then in the Department of State, working on problems relating to Italy
in the Division of Territorial Studies and the Division of Southern European
Affairs. Dr. Smyth was a member of the staff of OCMH from 1946 to 1952
when he joined the staff of the Historical Office, Department of State, where
he is now Editor in Chief, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945.
Vlll
Preface
\'Vith the expulsion of German and Italian armed forces from North Africa
in May 1943, Allied forces in the Mediterranean prepared to jump ninety miles
across the sea to strike Sicily and thus launch the first blow against Europe's
"soft underbelly." This is the story of that jump, a story which includes the
high-level decisions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston
S. Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Casablanca Conference,
the planning in \Vashington, London, and in the theater, and the subsequent
fighting on the island.
Before landing in Sicily, the A.llies had hoped that a successful island cam
paign, coming hard on the heels of Allied victories in North Africa, would
cause Italy to abrogate its Pact of Steel with Germany and pull out of the
war. How this Allied hope was fulfilled--the politico-military diplomatic nego
tiations, the ambiguities, the frustrations, the culmination in Italian surrender- -
is also part of the story.
A wealth of Allied documentary material, of captured German and Italian
records, and of primary and secondary published material dealing with the pe
riod has been available to the authors in their attempt to reconstruct the crucial
events of the spring and summer of 1943. Although their narrative focuses on
American participation in these events, it does not neglect the important role
played by Great Britain. The enemy side of the campaign and the Axis strat
egies and policies are also presented in full measure.
This volume itself has an interesting history. It was begun some years ago
J.
by Dr. Smyth when Maj. Gen. Harry Malony was Chiet of Military History
and it is a pleasure to testify to the stimulation and guidance which he offered;
to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement given by Dr. George F. Howe
and Dr. Sidney T. Mathews, colleagues in the then Mediterranean Section; to
recall the helpful critical comment proferred from time to time by Dr. Hugh
M. Cole, then Chief of the European Section. Mr. Detmar Finke and Mr.
Israel Wice were unflagging in their aid in the search for materials.
At a later stage Colonel Garland joined the staff of OCMH and took over
the responsibility for the work. The volume thus is a product of joint author
ship. Colonel Garland tells the story of the Sicilian Campaign. Dr. Smyth nar
rates the story of the Italian surrender. The combined work submitted by the
authors ran to excessive length and Mr. Blumenson was called in to assist in
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