Afiero, Massimiliano La campagna di Sicilia. Luglio-agosto 1943

On 10 July 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily, marking the beginning of the invasion of the European continent. The Allies had two objectives: to open a second front in Europe and, above all, to force Mussolini to abandon his alliance with Hitler, thereby bringing about the fall of the fascist regime. In defence of the island, the Italian and German forces, grouped together in General Guzzoni's 6th Army, despite their numerical inferiority and inadequate and outdated weaponry, managed to counter the Allied landings by fighting the enemy for every inch of ground and facing a thousand difficulties as well as incessant bombardments by the Allied air force and naval artillery. Official historiography has always portrayed the behaviour of Italian units in Sicily in a negative light, repeatedly accusing them of abandoning their positions without a fight. However, not all Italian units surrendered without a fight. Apart from a few negative incidents, such as in Pantelleria or in the Augusta-Syracuse fortress, the conquest of Sicily was generally not an easy and, above all, not a quick campaign for the Allies, which shows that the resistance of the Axis powers was anything but non-existent or weak. This book is intended above all to commemorate the sacrifice of the Italian soldiers in Sicily, who were called upon to defend their homeland and then completely forgotten by their own commanders, their own rulers and, finally, by official historiography.