A year before D-Day, Allied forces made their first thrust into the 'soft underbelly of Europe' ' here's how Operation Husky played out

On April 30, 1943, a fisherman off the coast of Huelva, Spain, recovered the body of Maj. William Martin, a dead British soldier. Spanish authorities quickly buried the body, but his personal affectsincluding the briefcase handcuffed to the dead man's wristwere turned over to the Germans.For the Germans, it was an intelligence coup. Documents in the briefcase revealed that the Allies, who were on the verge of defeating Axis forces in North Africa, would next invade Sardinia and Greece. Hitler moved entire divisions of troops away from Sicily and southern Italy to prepare for the attacks.But the Germans had been fooled.Maj. Martin was a homeless man from Wales who had killed himself in London the previous winter. British intelligence agents concocted his identity and created false invasion plans as part of Operation Mincemeat, which was meant to disguise what was coming on July 10, 1943: The Allied invasion of Sicily and a thrust into what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called "the soft underbelly of Europe."Below, you can see how the invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, played out in July and August 1943.SEE ALSO:75 years ago, US Marines waded into 'the toughest battle in Marine Corps history' ' here are 25 photos of the brutal fight for TarawaOn May 13, 1943, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in Tunisia, freeing up Allied forces in the southern Mediterranean. As that campaign came to a close, Allied planners were divided. Some, including the US, wanted to focus on invading France and thrusting into Germany. Others, led by the British, wanted to push into Italy, opening Mediterranean sea lanes and providing a base for future operations.The decision to target Sicily after the North African campaign was made at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt, both in attendance, wanted to take some pressure off the Soviet Union, which was fighting the Germans in the east.The British also had political and strategic interests in the Mediterranean that led to them to promote Italy as the next target.Focusing on Sicily was an uneasy compromise between the British and the Americans. In exchange for the Americans signing on to Operation Husky, the British reaffirmed their commitment to a cross-Channel attack in the future.Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was chosen as supreme Allied commander for the Sicilian operation, which would be carried out by the 15th Army Group. That group was led by Eisenhower's main deputy, British Gen. Sir Harold Alexander, and consisted of two armies. One was the British eighth army, commanded by Gen. Bernard Montgomery.Source: US ArmyThe other was the US Seventh Army, led by Gen. George S. Patton. Planners decided to land the invasion force along a 100-mile stretch of southeastern Sicily, where major ports and airfields were concentrated. That portion of the island was also in range of Allied aircraft based in North Africa.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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