This group consisted of the British Eighth Army, under General Montgomery, and the American Seventh Army, under Lt. Eisenhower, as supreme commander, assigned the operation to General Honorable, Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied 15th Army Group. After conquering Sicily, the Allied forces could then move into Italy and work its way north, taking out Italy, run by the Axis dictator and fascist prime minister, Benito Mussolini, known as “Il Duce”. The main argument, presented effectively by Britain, was if Sicily could be taken, this would open wide the Mediterranean Sea shipping lanes to further Allied use. Roosevelt, his Army Chief of Staff George C. The main characters conducting this strategic meeting at Casablanca, Morocco, were British Prime Minister Winston S. USAMHI Bibliography: AMPHIBIOUS WARFARE WWII.After the success of the African campaign against the German and Italian forces, the British and American command began plotting a new campaign, Operation Husky, that would move Allied forces from Africa into Europe from the southern region, starting with Sicily. Despite their vulnerability, only twenty six were lost due to enemy action, and thirteen were the victims of weather or accident during World War II. Thirty-nine LSTs were modified into Landing Craft Repair Ships, and another thirty-eight were transformed into hospital ships. Remarkably versatile vessels, some were fitted with railroad tracks to carry and land loaded freight cars. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, LSTs brought 41,035 wounded soldiers back across the English Channel to hospital facilities. The ships provided critically needed support to the Army during the invasions of Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and Southern France, as well as in the Pacific. The official report on Operation Husky pronounced the LSTs as outstanding in performance and usefulness. Tanks from LST 2 helped repulse a German counter attack on the beachhead on July 11, immediately after disembarking.
Despite the obstacles, the crews and their ships persevered. LST 313 was destroyed on the first day by an aerial attack and LST 312 badly damaged. There were also underwater mines and enemy air attacks. There was congestion on the beaches due to too few personnel being assigned to unload supplies, broached landing craft and a lack of transportation to move supplies inland. The conditions for unloading were less than ideal requiring the use of pontoons due to the beach conditions. The ships embarked from North Africa and crossed the Mediterranean in spite of heavy weather. Seventy four LSTs were a part of the assault force. The Americans at Sicily landed along a forty mile shore line in the Gulf of Gela. Once it arrived at a beach, the massive bow doors opened and the vehicles drove off ready for combat. Its heart was the Tank Deck-a space 230 feet long by thirty feet wide by twelve feet tall. The cargo capacity was 2,100 tons and approximately 200 soldiers. It was 328 feet long, and could carry armored vehicles in the tank deck and non armored vehicles on the main deck. The LST was specifically designed to land vehicles. LSTs enabled assault troops to avoid heavily defended ports and to land wherever there was a suitable beach. The first keel was laid down on Jand by the end of World War II, 1,051 of the vessels had been built. America built all of the vessels for both countries. It was designed at a British-American conference in November 1941. Its design and construction had been a joint operation. The invasion of Sicily was the first large scale use of LSTs in a joint operations amphibious landing in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations. Soldiers, equipment and supplies were transported to the island by a force of 3,200 ships and craft, including a new type of amphibious ship, the Landing Ship Tank, commonly referred to as an "LST." Its maximum speed of 11.5 knots also produced the nicknames "Large Slow Target" or "Large Stationary Target" by the soldiers. Army Divisions, four British divisions and a Canadian division. On July 10, 1943, the invasion of Sicily began with an assault by four U.
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