Posts Tagged ‘Sicily 1943’
Conference hears Irish Brigade Italy campaign stories
Enniskillen Castle Stories of members of the Irish Brigade in the Italian campaign were told at the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (The Skins) in the Italian campaign conference in Enniskillen on Saturday 11 November. The event was opened by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Mark Scott chairman of the Inniskillings Museum which hosted the conference. His father Robert…
Read MoreMessage from King Charles launches commemorations of the 80th anniversary of Sicily landings
King Charles, the son of a Sicily campaign veteran, sent a message of support to The Sicily Peace, Security & Prosperity Conference held earlier this month in Catania to launch commemoration events for the 80th anniversary of the landings on the island in 1943. “His Majesty has asked me to thank you for coming together to…
Read MoreMinneapolis family heads to Sicily for WWII commemoration
Marian Johnson (right) with daughter Hayley and grandson Owen Three generations of an Edina family are heading to Sicily next month to join the commemoration of Allied landings on the island, which took place at a turning point in the Second World War, 80 years ago. Mother of five, Marian Johnson, will be joined on…
Read MoreJoe Mantegna, drawing on his Italian roots, lends his support for the Sicily Peace, Security & Prosperity Conference
Italian-American actor, movie star, director and philanthropist Joe Mantegna says his Sicilian roots and the experiences of his parents’ generation in the Second World War are behind his support for The Sicily Peace, Security & Prosperity Conference at Catania’s Le Ciminiere Festival Centre on 7-8 July. “In my career I’ve portrayed many characters who dramatize…
Read MoreTop speakers to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Sicily landings at Catania conference
More than 30 speakers from Italy, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US will address the Sicily Peace, Security & Prosperity conference in Catania on 7-8 July organised in partnership with Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the landings in Sicily. The event will be followed by…
Read MoreSwift success in Sicily was built on the lessons of the Tunisian campaign
At 1445 local time on 13 May 1943, 18 Army Group Commander General Harold Alexander sent the following signal to UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London: “Sir, it is my duty to report that the Tunisian campaign is over. All enemy resistance has ceased. We are masters of the North African shores.” One week later, American,…
Read MoreCountdown to Husky: Operation Mincemeat
Charles Cholmondeley (left) and Ewen Montagu with the van taking the body of Glyndwr Michael to Scotland on 17 April 1943 At 0415 on Friday 30 April 1943, the body of Glyndwr Michael was taken out of a sealed container on the deck of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph which had surfaced off Huelva on…
Read MoreCountdown to Husky: Canada joins the campaign
The sun was shining brightly on the afternoon of 23 April 1943 when Commander of the First Canadian Army Lieutenant General Andrew McNaughton (see left, below) strode into the War Office in Whitehall. It was St George’s Day and it had been more than two years since the last German bombing attack on Britain’s capital. The…
Read MoreCountdown to Husky: the false start and the final plan
Original plans called for widely dispersed landings and the early capture of both Catania and Palermo. The final plan concentrated Allied forces in the south-east of Sicily (Source: www.canadiansoldiers.com) Fully-engaged with the effort to defeat Axis forces in Tunisia in the spring of 1943, Allied commanders in North Africa were nevertheless presented with plans for…
Read MoreStars in the Sicilian campaign: Audie Murphy
Seething with frustration, 18-year-old Corporal Audie Murphy landed on the Seventh Army’s western-most landing beach at Licata on 10 July 1943 three hours after his battalion’s first wave. “…the timing got snarled in the predawn confusion; and we came in late, chugging ashore like a bunch of clucks in a ferryboat.” Murphy wrote in his…
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