The Museum of the 1943 Allied Landings

Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the Allied Invasion of Sicily during World War II codenamed Operation Husky.

The battle for Sicily is an extraordinary story ...

The Allied Invasion of Sicily was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island in July 1943 and took control of Sicily from the Axis powers (Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It began with a large amphibious (by sea) and airborne operation, followed by a six week land campaign. The 38 day battle for Sicily was one of the most dramatic of the entire Second World War and the island acted as a strategic stepping stone to Hitler's fortress Europe.

To divert some of the Axis forces to other areas, the Allies engaged in several deception operations, the most famous and successful of which was Operation Mincemeat.

Operation Husky began on the night of 9th/10th July 1943 and ended on the 17th August the following month.

Strategically Operation Husky achieved the goals set out for it by the Allied planners meaning that the Allies drove Axis air land and naval forces from Sicily and thus the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened to the Allied merchant ships for the first time since 1941. These events led to the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, being toppled from power in Italy on 25th July and thereafter to the Allied Invasion of mainland Italy on the 3rd September.

The plan for Operation Husky called for the amphibious assault of Sicily by two Allied armies, one landing in the south eastern corner of the island and one on the central southern coastline. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by naval gunfire, as well as tactical bombing and air support by combined Allied air forces. The overall commander was American General Dwight Eisenhower as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa.

The Allied land forces were from the American, British and Canadian armies and were divided into two task forces. The Eastern Task Force was led by General Sir Bernard Montgomery and consisted of the British Eighth Army which included the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. The Western Task Force was commanded by Lieutenant General George S Patton and consisted of the American Seventh Army.

In addition to the amphibious landings airborne troops were flown in to support both the Eastern and Western Task Forces. Allied naval forces were also grouped into two task forces to transport and support the invading armies.

At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, with the end of the North African war campaign in sight, the political leaders and the military Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Britain met to discuss future strategy. The British chiefs of Staff were in favour of an invasion of Sicily or Sardinia. At first the Americans opposed the plan but were persuaded to agree to a Sicilian invasion on the grounds of the great savings to Allied shipping that would result from the opening of the sea lanes. The plan would see the rapid capture of all the main ports on the island with the exception of Messina which was the ultimate goal for the final assault. These included Catania, Palermo, Syracuse, Licata and Augusta. In the end the Allies concentrated on landings close to the south and south eastern ports. Armies were intended to be established from Catania to Licata.

The American Seventh Army was assigned to land in Gela and Licata and the British Eighth Army was assigned to land in south eastern Sicily at Syracuse, Pachino and the coastal area inbetween.

The Sicilians were opposed to fascism and Mussolini so the Allies really needed to convince the residents of the island that they were all on the same side. Propaganda leaflets were dropped by air over Sicily both before and during the invasion with the title "Perchè morire per Hitler?" (Why die for Hitler?)

The Allies had turned to an infamous Italian gangster imprisoned in America "Lucky Luciano", the most powerful boss of American organised crime in the early 1930's and a major influence even from prison. He provided valuable intelligence from his jail cell. The Americans turned to him to call upon his Mafia associates to provide drawings and pictures of the Sicilian coastline and harbours. The information was used to plan the amphibious landings and according to some accounts Luciano was integral in helping facilitate Operation Husky. For his help during wartime the Americans struck a deal and in 1946 Luciano was released from prison and sent to Ellis Island in New York for deportation back to his homeland. Today the value of Luciano's contribution is highly debated.

Once the Axis forces had been defeated in North Africa, the Allied strategic bomber force commenced attacks on the principal airfields of Sicily, Sardinia and Southern Italy which were spread to maintain uncertainty as to the next Allied move and to pin down Axis aircraft and keep them away from Sicily. From the 3rd July bombing concentrated on Sicilian airfields and by the 10th July only two Axis airfields in Sicily remained fully operational and over half the Axis aircraft had been forced to leave the island.

All troops were issued with a copy of the "Soldiers Guide to Sicily" which contained a foreword written by General Eisenhower. The booklet was produced to help the Allies prepare for Sicily, its terrain and the Sicilian way of life.

The invasion of Sicily began before dawn on the 10th July with combined air and sea landings involving 160,000 troops, including my maternal grandfather, along with 14,000 land vehicles, 2,590 sea vessels and ships and 3,500 aircraft. The massive assault was nearly cancelled when a summer storm arose which caused serious difficulties for paratroopers dropping behind enemy lines. However the storm worked to the Allied advantage leading the Axis defenders along the coast to think that no commander would attempt a seaborn landing in such wind and rain. By the afternoon of 10th July supported by naval and aerial bombardments of enemy positions Allied troops reached Sicilian shores with their tanks. Allied troops encountered light resistance with many Axis troops surrendering immediately. Due to the success of Operation Mincemeat, Adolf Hitler had only left two German divisions in Sicily therefore the majority of troops to meet the Allies were Italian.

For the next five weeks General Patton's army moved towards the north western coast of Sicily and General Montgomery guided his army up the eastern side of the island with both task forces heading ultimately to Messina.

On the 25th July, Mussolini was deposed and arrested and a new Italian government was set up led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio who had opposed Italy's alliance with Nazi Germany and immediately began secret discussions with the Allies. After Mussolini's arrest the first Italian troops started withdrawing from Sicily. Hitler instructed his forces to make contingency plans for withdrawal but to continue to fight fiercely against the Allied advance. As July turned to August, General's Patton and Montgomery battled against determined German troops dug into mountainous areas of the island. The US and British forces pushed back the Axis forces farther and farther until most were trapped in the north east corner.

In just 38 days the Allies had taken the first major step on the European war campaign with the liberation of Sicily. The effort cost approximately 24,850 American, British and Canadian casualties, among the killed, wounded and missing were some 9,700 US troops, 2,400 Canadians and around 11,000 British with just over 2062 British troops killed or missing. It was a brutal campaign with troops having to face the fierce Sicilian summer heat, mosquito infested land and rivers along with diseases such as malaria and dysentery whilst having to cross harsh volcanic terrain. It is difficult to imagine how hard it would have been for both the troops and Sicilians living on the island in wartime.

The campaign in Sicily ended on the 17th August when the two Allied forces met in Messina. General Patton and his seventh army arrived in Messina several hours before Montgomery and his eighth army winning the unofficial so called "Race to Messina" which completed the Allied conquest of Sicily and made way for the next assault across the Straits of Messina into Hitler's fortress Europe.

The Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 (The Museum of the 1943 Allied Landings in Sicily) is a fascinating museum which is located just to the right of Catania Centrale train station in La Ciminiere, a modern museum complex housed in the converted old sulphur refinery of Catania. Some of you might recognise the location from the UK TV series Anton and Giovanni’s Adventure in Sicily when Giovanni meets up with his old dance friend, Angelo, at Catania's Annual Tango Festival where the Anton and Giovanni take to the stage to tango with a guest from the crowd.

This excellent but not very well known museum is a gem in Catania and is well worth a visit to learn about wartime in Sicily. The museum narrates the events that took place from 10th July to the 8th September 1943. It is arranged on three floors covering an area of 3000 square meters so you need a few hours to explore and experience it fully. By means of reconstructed settings the museum has recreated the conditions of life before, during and after the Allied invasion using simulations, projections, photographs and original articles.

We had the pleasure of visiting the museum in November last year. I had wanted to visit here in particular because my maternal grandfather had served in Sicily during World War Two.

On arrival at the museum, after paying our entrance fee, in a small cinema we watched an introductory short film in Italian with English subtitles regarding the events leading up to World War Two. Thereafter, with our curator Marzia, we walked through an archway into the main museum.

After passing through the archway we found ourselves transported back in time into a reconstruction of a typical Sicilian square during wartime Sicily. We could enter the houses and view and imagine the village life of that era. All the items in the houses and buildings are genuine articles from that time. As Marzia moved us on the next courtyard was dark and the houses barred and a single light bulb invited us to enter a dark air raid shelter. The drama and frightening experience during an air raid is simulated with sounds of aircraft approaching then flying overhead with the voices of scared villagers shouting as they run to the shelter. Inside the shelter there was benches along either side and we were told to sit with our backs against the wall for the full effect to experience the tremors and ground movement and accompanying commentary to imagine how frightening it would have been as bombs were being dropped above. It was a surreal experience just sitting there with the sounds and sensations with just one bulb to light the shelter.

Leaving the shelter we then saw a reconstruction of the after effects of an aerial bombardment. Through a ruined window of a building we watched images reproducing the bombings of Palermo, Catania and Messina. A cobbled road led uphill passing facades of empty buildings where dim lights illuminated wall posters reporting events that had happened in North Africa prior to the Allied landings and you could imagine the stunned Sicilians waiting for the events that could potentially take over their beloved island at any moment. Above us, held up by display netting, propaganda leaflets depicted that they had been dropped by air by the Allieds. From here Marzia left us to carry on alone to explore the rest of the museum at our own pace.

The tour begins with a simulation of a landing seacraft coming to the Sicilian shoreline which gave us the feeling that we were one of a group of young Anglo/American troops about to land on the south east cost of Sicily just like my grandad did. Screens broadcasted footage of events captured by wartime cameramen who followed every step of the conflict. In display cabinets we saw objects that once belonged to the Italian, German, American, Canadian and British forces.

As we went upstairs to the next floor we stumbled upon a life sized model of a bunker where I jumped out of my skin in fright to find two Italian soldiers (wax work models not real ones) intent on machine gunning me or rather enemies that would have been advancing towards them which at that point in time was ME!!!!!

Next we came across a display of light weapons used by the armed forces engaged in the battle for Sicily. The collection ranged from small arms for personal protection such as rifles, automatics and revolvers to weapons for collective use such as machine guns of different calibre and weight.

There was also other pieces of equipment like rucksacks, ammunition carriers and helmets, the soldiers guide to Sicily and uniforms.

The uniforms worn by the armies fighting in Sicily in the summer of 1943 were generally similar to those they had worn during the North African campaign. Given the hot weather, the British and German armies wore shorts and cotton shirts. The unfortunate American soldiers wore woollen shirts and trousers, cotton clothing were only distributed to a lucky few. Imagine wearing woollen garments whilst crossing the rugged Sicilian hinterland in intense summer heat? Italian soldiers wore a miscellaneous variety of clothing often a colonial style. The museum collection includes almost all the main uniforms used by the different armies during the Sicilian campaign.

The American troops reaching the coastline were supplied with enough rations for six days. Each ration contained enough tinned food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A mess tin and a smaller mess tin with a flask were used to heat up food and soluble coffee over petrol stoves or tins of alcohol gel. The British troops used 24 hour individual rations. The cardboard box contained a tin of meat, a packet of concentrated soup, three bars of chocolate, tea, sugar, salt, porridge and biscuits. Squad rations were also supplied in wooden crates, with enough meals for 14 men. Both German and Italian troops had individual rations but more often used field kitchens and ate whatever the support division could transport to the combat zone.

We climbed a spiral staircase built inside one of the old chimneys to the second floor. Here the area was dedicated to the battles fought between the Allied and Axis troops, beginning with the battle near Casteluccio on the plain of Gela on the southern coastline. The main battles of the campaign at Gela, Primosole Bridge and Troina have been recreated by means of three dimensional models supplemented by a series of photographic panels.

Also on the second floor there was a display of machine guns but instantly our eyes were drawn to a display cabinet where an impressive, life like, wax statue of the German leader Adolf Hitler stared back at us. The statue gave me the heebie jeebies and I could not stare at it for long and so we moved on. In the next showcase we saw a wax statue of Winston Churchill meeting President Roosevelt. The area that follows is dedicated to the political events in Italy that followed on from the occupation of Sicily.

A real field operating theatre actually used in 1943 contains a full array of surgical instruments and an operating table. Emergency operations were performed anywhere under cover, so even a stable might have been used as an operating theatre.

A third showcase contains wax statues of Benito Mussolini talking to King Vittorio Emanuele III. On a table in front of them a map of Sicily shows the Allied landing points and advance. The wax statues in the museum were created by experts from Madame Tussaud’s Waxwork Museum in London so you can only imagine how life like they truly are.

Next we saw a tent set against the background of the Iblei mountains of Syracuse. A group of statues around a table inside the tent are witnessing the signing of the Armistice in Cassibile near Syracuse on 3rd September 1943 which brought the end to hostilities between Italy and the Anglo/American forces. The exact location where this historical event took place is now part of the grounds and gardens of the Donna Coraly Country Boutique Hotel.

After this in a corridor there was a display of documents, proclamations, maps, posters and news papers. Here it was fascinating to see maps of the British advance north to Messina via Siracusa, Catania, our town Giardini Naxos and Taormina. One map amazingly showed the planned landing sites on beaches in the south east corner of the island with hand written notes in pencil detailing the terrain ie, sandy, rocky or pebbly beach, cliff faces, the sea conditions for example shallow depth or deep depth or hidden sandbanks, the scale size of the beaches and what type of sea craft or armoured vehicle would be best suited for landing there or not.

The last hall was dedicated to the fallen. An electronic memorial plaque slowly rolls through more than one thousand names, randomly selected from the thousands of young men that lost their lives in Sicily and who are now buried in Sicily. More than 4,500 Germans who died during battle lie in Motta Anastasia in the province of Catania. The commonwealth cemetery in Catania is the resting place for 2,142 British soldiers and another 1,063 are buried in Syracuse. The remains of 490 Canadian soldiers are buried in Agira in the province of Enna. The American dead, after being buried in provisional cemeteries, were returned to their homeland or moved to the American War Cemetery near Rome. The Italians were buried in their hometowns or in the Cristo Re monumental cemetery in Messina. God bless them and their souls. The museum unites them as a voice reads their names which then marked the end of our tour.

Before we left the museum we visited the temporary exhibition of photographs by the American photographer Philip Stern who is famous for his iconic portraits of Hollywoods stars as well as his war photography whilst serving as a US Army Ranger during the North African and Italian campaigns in World War Two. The exhibition dedicated to him consists of unpublished photographs during the summer of 1943. Known as Philip “Snapdragon” Stern, he had landed near Gela as a 24 year old photojournalist following the American troops documenting the liberation of the island and the advance of the Allied troops. He passed away at 95 years old in 2014 one year after his exhibition was inaugurated in Catania.

I highly recommend a visit to this museum to experience another part of Sicily’s history and vestiges of invading powers on the island. Reviews on Tripadvisor report that the museum is one of the best World War II museums in the world. Please be aware that a lot of the display descriptions and information boards are in Italian however we did not find this a hindrance to our visit. My tip as always is to take as many photographs as possible so that you can translate them at a later time in your own pace. Additionally a pre booked English speaking private guide can escort you around the museum and translate accordingly. The museum is an excellent way to learn and discover how Operation Husky and Sicily played such a major part of world history.

All across the island you can find landmarks of the battles that took place including the beaches of the Allies landings, battlefields, commonwealth war cemeteries, monuments, bunkers and pillboxes, along with buildings that were used as headquarters by both the Allies and Axis powers and buildings that suffered damage from airborne raids. Across the countryside in springtime you will see bright red poppies intermingled with Sicilian wild flowers bursting through dry stone walls cracks and stony ground as if in a nod to those souls who lost their lives in battle on the island 🥀

In the Ciminiere museum complex in Catania you can also visit the Museum of Cinema and the Museum of Ancient Writing Instruments

I would like to take this opportunity to thank World War Two expert and guide Roberto Piccione for his recommendation to visit The Museum of the 1943 Allied Landings

An English speaking World War II Tour with Roberto is a great addition to any trip to Sicily, visit him at www.tourguideinsicily.it

Photo Gallery

Ground Floor