Battle for Sicily: Stepping Stone to Victory

On the night of 9-10 July 1943, an Allied armada launched the invasion of Sicily, a larger operation than the Normandy landings the following year. Over the next thirty-eight days, half a million Allied servicemen fought the Germans and Italians for control of this rocky island, which was to become the first part of Axis homeland to fall during World War II.

Despite their success in capturing the island, inter-Allied and inter-service divisions and rivalries robbed them of the opportunity…