The landing in Sicily of the Allied troops in 1943, code-named Operation Husky, is one of the most important pages in Sicilian history from the II World War, from which began the liberation of Europe from the German occupation.
The English Prime Minister Churchill, the American President Roosevelt and General George Marshall decided to liberate Europe from the Nazis starting from the southern coast of Sicily.
At dawn on the 10th July, at 04.45, the USA armed forces landed on the beaches at Gela and the English troops on beaches at Pachino and Siracusa. The strength of the Allied invasion, coordinated by General Eisenhower, was made up of 180 thousand men, spread out over 170 kilometres of coast, with 600 tanks and 1800 canons, with General Montgomery in command of the British troops and Patton in command of the Americans.
Augusta, Agrigento, Caltanisetta, Palermo and Catania were soon occupied by the Allies and, after just over a month, Patton entered Messina where, on the 13th September, the Armistice was signed at Cassibile, in which the Kingdom of Italy ceased hostilities against the Allied Forces who, during this military operation, had lost 6,000 men, many of whom are still buried in green and ordered cemeteries scattered across the Sicilian countryside, an everlasting memory of this painful page of history.
Documenting this event are numerous photos taken by the famous photographer Robert Capa, a leading war photo-reporter, creator of some very famous images, many of which can be seen in the museum dedicated to the landing at Troina, in the province of Enna.
