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1943 INVASION OF SICILY BY ALLIED FORCES, BOMBING OF ROME WWII 72332C

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This WWII newsreel "Bombs Over Italy" shows American bombers attacking Genoa and Foggia, Italy in the run-up to the invasion of continental Europe. General Jimmy Doolittle is seen with American air forces planning operations over Rome. Military objectives in the Italian capitol are smashed including the San Lorenzo rail yards.

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Who were the groups and the leaders involved in the fighting

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Who were the groups and the leaders involved in the fighting

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Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States were fighting in World War II and the Invasion of Sicily was a battle fought from July 9th until August 17th, 1943. The senior officer for the 8th British Army was General Bernard Montgomery. The German leader was Albert Kesselring he was a German Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall. The US president was Dwight D Eisenhower and the senior officer of the 7th army was George S. Patton. British Leader was Harold Alexander.

~Natalie~

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How did this battle influence the outcome of the war? What was the battle's significance?

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How did this battle influence the outcome of the war? What was the battle's significance?

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Sicily was an important victory for the Allies. The ports of Sicily could now be used to fight the war from this point onward during the war. The Allied commanders gained experience working together with the airborne amphibians and ground combat operations. This helped them fight in Italy and Normandy. After defeating Italy and Germany in the North African Campaign (November 8, 1942-May 13, 1943) of World War II (1939-45), the United States and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future. The Allies’ Italian Campaign began with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After 38 days of fighting, the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland. Upon victory in North Africa, Allied forces used ports in North Africa as staging points northwards toward the underbelly of Europe.

~Kristian & Courtney

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What strategies did each of the groups involved in the fighting used to try winning the battle?

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What strategies did each of the groups involved in the fighting used to try winning the battle?

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Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland’s Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas Stonewall Jackson to capture the Union garrison at Harper’s Ferry.

~Kristian

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Where was the battle and how did the geography play a factor?

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Where was the battle and how did the geography play a factor?

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The Invasion of Sicily took place in Sicily in the Italian region in 1943. It is located on the tip of Italy's boot. To the Allies, Sicily was a stepping stone to Italy's mainland, and it was chosen because the Allies could depend on fighter cover from our bases in British Malta. It was just 60 miles south of Sicily and no longer controlled by Axis powers.

~Courtney

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Why was the battle fought and what were their strategic goals for conflict?

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Why was the battle fought and what were their strategic goals for conflict?

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The British, supported the Invasion had political and strategic interests in the Mediterranean for a long time. They thought that Sicily's conquest would reopen allied sea lanes to the eastern Mediterranean, but would also give the Allies a base from which to launch further offensives in the region. The occupation of Italian national territory would shock the Italians into perhaps dropping out of the war altogether.
The Americans wanted Sicily to be the last of the Allies' Mediterranean adventures, while the British would keep regarding it as only the first step in what they hoped to be a full-blood attack on Hitler's Europe. The decision to invade Sicily was an uneasy compromise between coalition partners, a compromise that left the commanders in the field with an flawed understanding of the goal of the operation. The lack of clarity would ultimately have an different impact upon the resolution of the campaign.
~Natalie