Evening star., 1943-08-18
Cleanup in Sicily

The Sicilian campaign is at an end.
Just 38 days after Allied troops
sWarmed up the beaches on the is
lands southeastern corner at dawn
of July 10. the American advance
guard stormed into Messina, the last
enemy toehold. opposite the Italian
mainland, only two miles away.
Thus, in five and one-half weeks the
largest island in the Mediterranean,
we'll fortified and strongly garri-
soned, has fallen to the greatest
overseas expedition in history.
This gratifying success, accom-
plished so quickly and with surpris-
lngly small losses, Is attributable to
remarkable co = ordinated efficiency
OF all the Allied armed services. In
deed, in the larger sense, the invasion
of Sicily may be said to have begun
long before the actual landings with
the unremitting air attacks which
Knocked out every enemy airfeld on
Sicily, damaged port installations,
and crippled rail and road communi-
cations. Sicily was thus fairly we'll
"softened up" and its defenders
were deprived of virtually all
air coverage from start to finish.
Those grave handicaps did much
to prevent prompt concentration
against the invaders and also under
mined the morale of the italian
troops who formed the bulk of the
defense forces. Allied mastery like
wise made possible the brilliant use
OF parachute and glider detachments
which conceded with the beach land
ings and took enemy coast defenses
in rear. Allied control of the sea was
another prime factor, because Ameri-
can and British naval units could
lay down covering barrages we'll in
land Of the beachheads in process of
establishment. In the campaigns
later stages, American rangers and
British commandos landed at points
behind the enemy's defense lines,
taking them between two fires and
cutting off many hostile detachments
from normal avenues of retreat
These are merely the high lights of
campaign which will probably rank
as classic in amphibious opera
tions.
That the conquest of Sicily did not
end even sooner is due entirely to
the skillful and stubborn defense put
up by the German contingent on the
island. At the start it apparently
did not number more than 10000
less than one-fifth of the total gar
rison. But it soon showed its mettle.
While the local Italian territorial
formations proved to be militarily
worthless and the Italian regulars
fought half -heartedly. the Germans
concentrated in time to stop what
might have been a decisive thrust by
the veteran British Eighth Army up
the east coast of the island toward
Messina. If successful, that thrust
would have cut Axis communications
with the mainland and doomed all
enemy forces on the island at a
stroke
The Germans, however, entrenched
themselves solidly on a natural de-
fense line extending from the key
city of Catania on the east coast to
the adjacent mountainous massif
which eliminates in the volcanic
cone Of Etna. There they stuck, and
the German high command pro-
longed their resistance by pouring
reinforcementS across the Messina
Strait. The upshot was that, while
the Americans were romping across
Central and Western Sicily, the Brit
ish and Canadians could advance
only at a snail's pace against the
Catania -Etna line. 1t thus came to
pass that, while the rest of the is
land was conquered in a fortnight,
the struggle for the northeastern tip
was prolonged for weeks The
resourcefulness of the German de-
tenders was revealed by their estab-
liShment Of dense antiaircraft ar
tillery concentration at the Messina
Straits. Under this "fack umbrella"
they were able to evacuate most of
their troops and some of their equip
ment, thus duplicating Dunkirk
rather than another Cape Bon, which
most military observers had antici-
pated from Allied air mastery. The
Germans have thus salvaged some
thing from their Sicilian gamble.
But they have lost the game itself.