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00:00July 10th, 1943, on the beaches of Sicily, 160,000 Allied troops rush ashore as the daring assault on Hitler's fortress Europe begins.
00:15A 39-day battle of attrition will be fought that marks the turning of the tide in World War II.
00:24It's a fear thing. You're scared. I was scared. Your guts are tied in knots.
00:31Spearheading this attack, the first major Allied airborne operation of the war descends into chaos.
00:39But these elite troops fight back with a vengeance.
00:43German and Italian troops will turn this strategically vital Mediterranean island into a bloody battlefield.
00:51When you go into battle and you hear those bullets, you hear that artillery, you learn fast.
01:00High above the turmoil fly air reconnaissance missions, their cameras capturing the battle below.
01:08After the war's end, many of these photographs were lost or forgotten, until now.
01:15These images give an unprecedented view of the first European D-Day, the invasion of Sicily.
01:24Two and a half months before the invasion of Sicily, a British submarine surfaces off the coast of Spain.
01:46Operation Mincemeat, a plan designed to dupe Hitler and the Axis High Command, has begun.
01:54On board, the crew is mystified by a sealed steel canister they have been ordered to transport.
02:01It was a round tin. It was the size of a man.
02:08And as blokes came off watch, they used to come past it and they used to tap on the canister and say,
02:14Wake up, Charlie, or come on, Charlie, it's your watch.
02:20Under the cover of darkness, the canister is manhandled up on deck, opened, and its top secret contents dumped into the sea.
02:32There was a stiff end there. But there was.
02:39The secret cargo is a decaying corpse dressed in the uniform of a British officer that will be forever known as the man that never was.
02:49Attached to the body is a briefcase. It contains faked documents intended to dupe the Germans into thinking that the Allies are not going to invade Sicily.
03:01The false Allied plans are delivered to Hitler and his commanders.
03:06The Fuhrer takes the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
03:13Winston Churchill receives news that the operation has been a success.
03:18The message reads, Mincemeat swallowed.
03:24Cracked German divisions that could have wreaked havoc on the beaches of Sicily are ordered to distance Sardinia and Greece.
03:33In just under two months' time, thousands of Allied lives will be saved by this ingenious trick.
03:41After the man who never was was pulled out of the sea off the coast of Spain, Sicily was relegated very much as a subsidiary theater.
03:50And so the man who never was played his part in a tremendous success.
03:57The scene is set for the Battle of Sicily.
04:02The island, including more than 300 miles of coastline, is photographed and analyzed by aerial reconnaissance experts.
04:11For the first time, these high-resolution images have been layered over a three-dimensional contour map, creating a unique perspective on the battle unfolding below.
04:23Stage by stage, one of the most dramatic campaigns of World War II can be tracked from the air.
04:31Sicily is the home of key strategic targets, including airfields and ports.
04:41Situated in southern Europe, two miles off the toe of the Italian mainland, Axis forces based on the island can attack and destroy the crucial Allied shipping routes in the Mediterranean Sea.
04:55Sicily must be captured.
04:58With the ship named Operation Husky, the invasion could deal a fatal blow to the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and possibly take the battle-weary Italians out of the war.
05:13July the 9th, 1943. It is 12 hours before the seaborne invasion of Sicily.
05:20Over 2,500 ships edge their way toward Nazi-held Europe.
05:27As far as you could see, both sides, you could see ships.
05:33It gives you a lot of confidence, you know, that we've got a lot of power behind us.
05:39On board, 160,000 American, British and Canadian troops prepare for battle.
05:47We weren't told where we were going at all.
05:50Well, the rumors were that we're going home to Britain, you know, but they proved to be false, unfortunately.
05:58We thought we were going to England for the invasion of France.
06:03When we got way into the sea, they start passing out pamphlets or books, guide to Sicily.
06:15When they hand you that little handbook that says how to talk Sicilian, then you know where you're going.
06:23Many of the troops are fresh recruits. They will be baptized in blood before daybreak.
06:31We had never been in battle before, and we were all scared. We didn't know what to expect.
06:40Ahead of the Allied task force, over 300,000 Italian troops and 40,000 Germans wait.
06:47They will make the Allies pay for this daring invasion.
06:53Our determination to stand fast was strong.
06:58We had been in Russia before Sicily, but we never thought we were getting into a situation where we would have to withdraw.
07:06We thought we were strong enough to drive the Allies out of Sicily.
07:14As the invasion armada nears the island, American and British airborne troops ready themselves for battle.
07:21They will spearhead the attack on Sicily.
07:24We were based in Karawan, North Africa.
07:27We were briefed to take the high ground and disrupt the enemy in any way we could.
07:34Montgomery came and he said, we are going to invade Sicily.
07:41Every man will have his buttons highly polished to show the Sicilians what an English soldier really looks like.
07:53The airborne troops are to be dropped in the dead of night deep behind enemy lines.
07:59It is a huge gamble as it's the first time that the British and Americans have utilized this elite band of brothers in a major airborne operation.
08:12Glider troops have to capture the Ponte Grande bridge ahead of the British force that will advance up the east coast.
08:19At the same time, the American 82nd Airborne Division will drop near high ground close to Jaila.
08:26Here they will form a buffer against any enemy attempts to counterattack the landing force that will hit the beach in just a few hours time.
08:36It is just before midnight. D-Day approaches.
08:40Forty mile per hour gales, nicknamed the Mussolini wind, hit the airborne assault force as it nears the island.
08:49As our flight approached the beach, we hit anti-aircraft fire and the formation split.
08:55Our plane went to the right instead of the left where it was supposed to go.
09:02By the time I gave the order to stand up and hook up, we had the green light and go.
09:08But we were not really ready to go at that time, so we were really scattered instead of being dropped in a close group.
09:18I think that's probably the worst jump I ever was in. We never had a jump like that where that scattered.
09:28I was dropped 55 miles from the drop zone, completely out of the American zone of operation.
09:37The airborne phase of the invasion seems to be heading for disaster.
09:41But despite their heavy losses, the paratroopers do what they had been trained to do, hit the enemy hard.
09:49I got together with two other men that night.
09:54And as we sat trying to figure out where we were, we heard this talking in a foreign language and looked up the road.
10:02We saw this company of enemy marching down completely unaware that we were there.
10:09And I looked at the other two and I said, we got two choices.
10:15We can stay here and fight or we can lie low or slip out through the vineyard.
10:21I said, we came to fight. Get your grenades out.
10:25So when the company got right even with us, we dropped a half a dozen grenades.
10:32Caused a great deal of confusion, a lot of casualties.
10:37The ones that got away took off one direction and we the other direction.
10:43All over Sicily, the widely scattered paratroopers struggle to reach their objectives.
10:50Their difficulties cannot delay the timetable of the vast war machine that lies off the island's coast.
10:57In a few hours' time, the largest invasion armada amassed in Europe to date will unleash its full fury against Hitler's fortress Europe.
11:09D-Day, the invasion of Sicily, 12.30 a.m.
11:14American troops and British glider troops spearheading the Allied invasion have been scattered miles from their objectives by 40 miles north of Sicily.
11:24Operation Husky seems to be heading for disaster.
11:29Crashed aircraft litter the battlefield. Many don't even make it onto dry land.
11:37All of a sudden, the pilots said, sorry lads, they've let us go.
11:43We've got to land in the sea.
11:47There was people crying.
11:49And I was one of them, because we thought we were gone.
12:01The lightweight Waco glider crashes into the sea, but miraculously stays afloat with the men still trapped on board.
12:09We had a little wooden hammer knock the hole in the top of the glider, and it came off.
12:15We had a little wooden hammer knock the hole in the top of the glider, crawled through the top of the glider onto the wing.
12:26There was no panic, because if we'd have panicked, we'd have all been dead, I expect.
12:32And then we all sat on the wing and started pedaling towards Sicily.
12:38Somehow, Eddie and his unit scramble to shore.
12:42Others are not so lucky.
12:45Out of the 137 gliders launched, only 12 make it to the target zone.
12:51Many of the tactical objectives assigned to the airborne remain in enemy hands,
12:57and the success of the invasion hangs in the balance.
13:03At 2.30 a.m., the Allied task force prepares to storm the beaches.
13:08The pre-invasion bombardment rips the island apart.
13:16They started shelling the shore.
13:19And you could see the cliff disappearing and hazes and things like that where the shells landed.
13:24Oh yes, it was tremendous.
13:29As they fire their shells, they can be quite a distance away from you,
13:33and the air's going like this, and you'll be reverberating in your ears.
13:39And about all you can remember is, we hope they're hitting them.
13:46The island of Sicily will be attacked from the south.
13:49General Sir Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army will come ashore on the southeastern coast
13:55and is tasked with the drive toward the ports of Syracuse, Catania and Messina.
14:02At the same time along the Gulf of Gila,
14:04General George Patton's Seventh Army will advance, protecting Montgomery's flank and rear.
14:13At 2.40 a.m., thousands of troops on board their landing craft
14:17ready themselves to hit the beaches of Sicily.
14:22As you're getting closer to the beach, you can hear the stuff hitting the LCVP.
14:28They gave the orders, and then he started counting.
14:32Five, four, three, two, one.
14:37At that moment, everything opened up.
14:43At 2.45 a.m., the first Allied troops rush ashore.
14:50As soon as that landing craft hit the beach and they dropped out,
14:54as soon as that landing craft hit the beach and they dropped that door,
14:59we just went out.
15:01I mean, we ran underwater.
15:03Some of them jumped into the water and scrambled up onto the beach.
15:09I feared for my life.
15:12We were in about six foot of water,
15:14and you had to wade ashore with your rifle above your head.
15:18The chap next to us was the armourer,
15:20and I'm afraid he sunk and he had so much weight on him,
15:23so he drowned.
15:28At some beaches, enemy resistance is non-existent.
15:33At others, German and Italian troops unleash a hail of lead,
15:37turning the sands of Sicily blood red.
15:41You see little flashes coming,
15:44and you hear the... sometimes you hear stuff hit in the water,
15:47and you know that those are bullets.
15:50Sometimes you don't even hear the fire,
15:52but you see somebody go down.
15:54They didn't trip, they'd been shot.
15:59There were all kinds of injuries.
16:03You know, we've seen them with the legs shot off,
16:06we've seen them bleeding, there's nothing you could do for them.
16:10You didn't have any medics on the beach.
16:13They just got to lay there until they bleed out.
16:15But you were told you mustn't assist them in any way.
16:20You had to make... go for your objective, you see.
16:23Even if it was your best friend, if he was hit, you leave him.
16:29Progress is slow and deadly,
16:32but within three hours, the landing force takes out
16:35most of the defences guarding the beaches
16:37and begin to head inland.
16:41Men of the American 1st Infantry Division
16:44had advanced into Jaila,
16:46where the enemy lies in wait behind every street corner.
16:51Going into the building, it's hard, day and night,
16:53you don't know what's going on, it's dark downstairs, you don't know.
16:56But the man come out of the cellar.
16:59He saw the shadow, our shadow there,
17:02and his object was to come up and get you in the throat.
17:07The German soldier lunges at the young trooper.
17:11As I saw it, I put my arm up there
17:13and he caught me in the crook of the arm.
17:16When I went down, my buddy got him.
17:24Sicily's Axis defenders bomb and strafe the beachheads.
17:28They must destroy the Allied armies
17:30before they cement their position on shore.
17:34The invasion of Sicily is the largest amphibious operation of World War II
17:38in terms of size of the landing zone.
17:42Men and supplies must be brought ashore quickly.
17:46For the first time, this new piece of technology was an offer.
17:49The amphibious truck, the amphibious lorry,
17:52the D-U-K-W, or as it was known to everybody, the Duck.
17:57It could offload from a ship, motor, straight off the sea,
18:01onto the beach, inland, to distribution point,
18:04quick, easy, and gave the Allies a quick way of doing things.
18:12High above the invasion armada,
18:14reconnaissance aircraft capture images
18:16that reveal the American landings close to Licata.
18:21For the first time,
18:22these aerial photographs dramatically come back to life.
18:28By early morning on day one,
18:30Gela is captured on the south coast
18:32and the British forces make inroads along the east coast.
18:36But many vital objectives remain in enemy hands.
18:42The Ponta Grande bridge spans the river Amapo
18:45to the south of the port of Syracuse.
18:47It has to be taken.
18:51A few British glider troops that have landed near the bridge
18:55wrestle it from Italian control,
18:57but heavily outnumbered, they cannot hold out.
19:01And the order came down to surrender.
19:06And the first chap stood up with a white flag and was probably shot.
19:11And we were marched away by quite a number of Italians.
19:17And for some extraordinary reason,
19:19we ran into a very advanced British patrol.
19:24Hand-to-hand combat erupts.
19:26After a vicious struggle,
19:28the tables are turned on the Italian captors.
19:32We disarmed them,
19:33and my chaps all stretched out for a cigarette and a rest.
19:38And I said to them,
19:39no, we're going back to recapture the bridge.
19:42These elite British troops have orders to follow.
19:46They will recapture the Ponta Grande bridge,
19:48whatever the cost.
19:51Day one of the invasion of Sicily.
19:54The battle for this Mediterranean island rages.
19:59A small group of British troops have evaded their captors
20:02and now have plans to recapture the tactically vital
20:05Ponta Grande bridge from its Italian defenders.
20:09Our ragged body of men got as close as we could
20:13and put a surprise attack in.
20:15Our main objective was to stop them
20:17rearming the mines and blowing the bridge.
20:20Outnumbered and armed with captured weapons,
20:23the troops of the South Stratfordshire Regiment
20:25attack under heavy enemy fire.
20:29Whenever danger threatened,
20:31I always uttered mentally
20:34the prayer of the unknown soldier.
20:37Oh God, if there be a God,
20:40save my soul, if I have a soul.
20:46Jack and his men hold nothing back in this frontal attack.
20:50Many of the Italians are killed.
20:52Others simply bolt and run.
20:55Against all the odds,
20:56Ponta Grande bridge is in British hands once again.
21:02I seem to remember handing the bridge over
21:05as nonchalantly as I could.
21:08The assumption being we'd been there all the time, attitude.
21:12And then we marched off to Syracuse.
21:18On the first day of the invasion, confusion reigns.
21:22Airborne troops find themselves
21:24fighting alongside whatever Allied units are nearby
21:27against the common enemy.
21:30When the British got even with us,
21:32we stood up and said, hey, we are Americans.
21:34Well, they almost shot us.
21:36They thought it was a trick.
21:39We finally confessed to them
21:41that we were American paratroopers.
21:44So with that, we joined them
21:47and went on fighting with them.
21:50About mid-morning, a whistle blows,
21:52and everybody stops,
21:53and I turn to the British lieutenant and say,
21:55why are we stopping?
21:56He says, it's tea time.
21:59What?
22:01He says, it's tea time.
22:03I said, you got to be kidding.
22:05You don't stop in the middle of a firefight and brew up tea?
22:09I said, paratroopers don't stop for tea.
22:16By nightfall, Licata, Gela, and Scoliti
22:20are in American hands.
22:22The British have captured Pacino and Avola.
22:27The leader of the Axis forces on Sicily,
22:30General Alfredo Guzzone,
22:32has to act quickly to throw the Allies off the island
22:35before their toehold becomes a foothold.
22:40He sends his best force,
22:42the Hermann Göring Division, to Gela
22:44to drive the Americans back into the sea.
22:50Two panzer battalions close in on the vulnerable beachheads.
22:57The first thing we saw was the dust.
22:59As they got closer, then you could start hearing them.
23:02Then you kind of listened for them, too.
23:06The combat-hardened veterans of the Hermann Göring Division
23:10know that if they can drive through the thin lines
23:12guarding the beachheads,
23:14then nothing stands between them
23:16and the annihilation of the American landing force.
23:20Well, once they got rolling, you know,
23:22they made their own skirmish line
23:24and they headed our way.
23:27It's a scary feeling because we had nowhere to go.
23:31The 56-ton tigers close to within 2,000 yards of the beaches.
23:37They will not stop here.
23:39They aim to grind the American troops back into the sea.
23:43With those 88s coming at you,
23:45they'll blow the whole place up to get you.
23:47You're scared.
23:49And you just learn how to pray, you know,
23:52and hope that things are going to turn.
23:54And fortunately, it did.
23:58American troops call in fire
24:00from the big guns of the warships offshore.
24:04They started pouring that big stuff in there.
24:07Well, they were opening those tanks up like a can of sardines.
24:13The Navy fire is really what turned them around.
24:17The Allies can continue to pour their men and machines ashore
24:21even now.
24:25Allied leaders decide to summon extra units into the fight.
24:29Back in North Africa,
24:31more paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division prepare for battle.
24:35They are given orders to land on the island
24:38and reinforce their comrades caught up in the bitter fight around Jaila.
24:42These men are totally unaware that they are about to fall victim
24:46to one of the most tragic errors in the battle for Sicily.
24:52Over 140 C-47 transport aircraft approach the coast at 600 feet,
24:58carrying the men of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
25:05When the invasion fleet spots them,
25:07it mistakes them for German bombers.
25:11Allied guns open up on them, ripping them out of the sky.
25:16It was hard to watch that thing.
25:18There's nothing you could do about it, just stop it.
25:20When one guy started shooting, everybody just opened up.
25:29Some of our paratroopers were just running around,
25:32screaming, stop firing, stop firing.
25:35But they were not even heard.
25:4023 low-flying aircraft are shot down.
25:43318 Americans are killed or wounded by friendly fire.
25:50That was one of the great tragedies of the war.
25:57On the evening of the 13th of July,
25:59British paratroopers launch their own airborne assault.
26:03Their target, Prima Sole Bridge,
26:06the gateway to the port of Catania on the east coast.
26:09But they are hit by heavy shell fire as they near the coast.
26:15The fuselage was penetrated by either bullets or shrapnel.
26:20And one of the chucks was wounded.
26:24Fearing their plane will soon crash and burn,
26:27the paratroopers make a tough decision.
26:31We thought the best thing to do was to reattach them
26:35We thought the best thing to do was to reattach him to the sling
26:41and give him a shot of morphine and eject him from the plane.
26:47He was more or less resigned and he was a bit quiet.
26:52We just wished him luck and pushed him out.
26:57I've never found out what happened to him.
27:01Dawn breaks on D-Day plus four.
27:05Out of the 1,900 paratroopers launched,
27:07just under 300 make it to the Prima Sole Bridge.
27:12They are unaware that their counterparts,
27:14the German 1st Parachute Division,
27:16had landed on Sicily just hours ago.
27:21Now the British Red Devils face a showdown with this elite force
27:25in a fight to the death.
27:28They will have to hold their positions at the bridge
27:31before the advancing ground troops can break through.
27:36The Germans have other plans
27:38and force them to retreat to high ground overlooking the bridge.
27:46In the nick of time,
27:48British troops from the Durham Light Infantry
27:50fight through to reinforce the exhausted paratroopers.
27:55But the battle has taken its toll.
27:59There were a lot of bodies lying around.
28:02There were Germans, paratroopers, air lads as well, everybody there.
28:08We had to pile them on top of the other
28:10instead of sandbags to stop the German attack.
28:15The struggle for the bridge will rage day and night.
28:20The fighting descends into hand-to-hand combat.
28:25You couldn't see where you were going, it was so dark at night.
28:29We were moving through the grapevines with stealth.
28:36Well, it was quite frightening really
28:38because you never knew if someone was going to go and get you first.
28:48You know it's either he's going to get you or you're going to get him.
28:52Neither side is willing to give ground
28:55in the fight for control of the bridge.
28:58The carnage will continue.
29:03July 17th, 1943.
29:06The Battle for Sicily. D-Day plus seven.
29:10Aerial photographs taken at the time
29:12give a unique insight into the fight for this Mediterranean island.
29:17At Prima Sole Bridge,
29:19the battle has raged for four bloody days.
29:24The dead and dying litter the battlefield.
29:28In the end, I think the casualties were so bad
29:31that we had to pile one body on the other.
29:33They called it stink alley, I think it was.
29:38Surrounded by the bodies of their comrades,
29:40decomposing in the heat,
29:42these battle-hardened foes call a truce.
29:46There were such heavy losses on both sides
29:51that the two enemies decided to help each other.
29:56The Germans and British arranged a ceasefire.
30:01The dead and wounded were lying in a scorching hot sun.
30:05In this intense summer heat and in those conditions,
30:09the better side of human nature took over.
30:15But this ceasefire soon comes to an end.
30:19The British bring Sherman tanks into the attack.
30:22They dodge heavy artillery
30:24and somehow manage to cross the 400-foot-long bridge.
30:29On the northern bank, they break into the vineyards,
30:32machine-gunning everything around them.
30:39The elite German paratroopers are forced to stage a fighting withdrawal.
30:44The advance to Catania is finally possible.
30:48But the cost of Prima Sole bridge has been high.
30:52It sort of gave me nightmares.
30:55It took me many years to recover from it, I think.
31:00The battle for Sicily is far from over.
31:04The German General Hans Huber
31:06takes control of the Axis forces on the island.
31:09If Huber needs to withdraw from Sicily,
31:12he will evacuate his troops through the port of Messina.
31:16The Germans now reinforce their positions
31:18along the southern and western foothills
31:20of the island's imposing volcano, Mount Etna.
31:26Against fierce resistance, the British advance slows down.
31:32However, the Allied ground force commander, General Alexander,
31:36gives General Patton the secondary role
31:38of protecting the advance of General Montgomery's Eighth Army,
31:41while it captures the ultimate prize of Messina.
31:46Patton is furious.
31:48It marks the beginning of a falling out
31:50that will cost the Allies dearly.
31:54Montgomery, as is well known, was a pretty dour character.
31:59Patton, on the other hand, was a much more flamboyant character
32:03and, in short, if you had two characters up against each other
32:07that you could guarantee that weren't going to get on well with each other,
32:11that's Patton and Montgomery.
32:14Patton decides that if he can't have Messina,
32:17he will instead be the first into the Sicilian capital of Palermo.
32:22But Alexander ordered Patton to stop.
32:26But Patton claimed that the orders were garbled
32:30and that by the time the issue was sorted out,
32:34his troop had marched all the way to Palermo
32:38and taken, while they're at it, 52,000 mainly Italian prisoners of war.
32:46The scene in the capital resembles a victory parade.
32:49The Italian garrison and civilian population have had enough of the war.
32:54Most of them appeared to be happy to see us,
32:57particularly the younger people.
33:00Sure, we took Palermo, great.
33:03Now what's left?
33:05Well, all the Germans that are lined up and all the Italians that are still
33:08to get cleaned up, so the city didn't make any difference.
33:14Day 14 of the campaign.
33:16The capture of Palermo and the siege of Palermo
33:20Day 14 of the campaign.
33:22The capture of Palermo means little to the men fighting against a hidden enemy
33:27dug into the hard volcanic rock around Sicily.
33:30German artillery rains down on the American advance.
33:35That's when hell started.
33:38They started bombarding.
33:40I think they set a barrage that must have lasted about 15, 20 minutes.
33:46Then I saw one of our men, he got hit,
33:49and I saw him trying to put his guts back in.
33:52Terrible.
33:55If it happens, you just have to lay there and take it,
33:58because there's nothing you can do.
34:01And I just blessed myself and said,
34:03please, Lord, please help me.
34:05Get me out of here alive.
34:10With the Allies firmly established in Sicily,
34:13in Rome, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini
34:16is ousted from power by Marshal Badoglio.
34:21Badoglio declares Italy's willingness to continue fighting the war
34:25alongside Nazi Germany,
34:27but is secretly working to negotiate surrender.
34:31The will of the Italians to fight is all but over.
34:37If they knew the Americans were coming,
34:39the little white flags would come out.
34:41I don't think they wanted to fight anymore.
34:44They thought there were more important things in life,
34:47such as being at home with their family and drinking wine and enjoying life.
34:51They thought that was preferable.
34:55Very commonsensical approach, really.
35:01It was unbelievable.
35:03We thought that the Italians had run away
35:05and left us to fight all by ourselves.
35:08We couldn't hold Sicily with just German units.
35:13The German high command orders the withdrawal of their forces from the island.
35:18They will fight a skillful rearguard action
35:21to guarantee the evacuation of their vital troops and equipment.
35:25The Allies find their way to Messina completely blocked.
35:30Their enemy is tough, ruthless and cunning.
35:34As we were going through from one town to another,
35:38you would see the German bodies.
35:41And they would be laying on the gun.
35:46And as soon as the troops went by,
35:48they'd roll over and take out the rear man.
35:54Then we got the order to start sticking them.
35:58You know, if you saw a body
36:00and they suspect, just stick him with a bayonet and see if he set out.
36:07The British advance will be slowed to a crawl on the east coast.
36:11The Americans drive along the north coast toward Messina.
36:15West of the Etna line,
36:17the 1st Infantry Division are about to face their own hell
36:20as they drive toward the small village of Troina,
36:23where hardcore German and Italian troops lie in wait.
36:27They were really set up. They were dug in.
36:30They had every piece of equipment that you could think of there.
36:34And he always said they weren't afraid of something wrong somewhere.
36:38The Axis defenders plan a bloodbath for the Americans at Troina.
36:43They will hold this mountain village at all costs
36:46and buy their comrades time to evacuate.
36:50The advancing G.I.s have other plans.
36:54August 1st, 1943.
36:57The battle for the island of Sicily has raged for 23 long, bloody days.
37:03Aerial photographs layered over a three-dimensional map
37:06give an unprecedented insight into this brutal conflict.
37:11The Anglo-American assault force
37:13has captured most of the island's 10,000 men and women.
37:17But near the mountain village of Troina,
37:20American troops face a determined defense.
37:26The attack was brutal
37:28because they had just about everything that infantry couldn't fight.
37:33They had mortars. They had 88s.
37:36They had machine gun fire.
37:39They had everything.
37:41They had everything.
37:43They had 88s. They had machine gun fire.
37:47They didn't have machine guns that were like ours.
37:49I mean, those things were rapid fire.
37:51You know, they saw your buttons on with them.
37:55Over the following week,
37:57the advancing American troops make slow progress
37:59against an enemy who have orders to buy time.
38:04You see the red stuff coming out the end of their pipes there.
38:07You know, they're wearing a uniform.
38:10You took them out.
38:13The blood and guts that were spilled on that thing was tremendous.
38:18A lot of people lost their lives there.
38:22The Axis defenders must stall the Allies for as long as possible.
38:26The rules of war change.
38:30There was a lot of dead bodies there.
38:32They were all over the street.
38:34The fact is, in some of the areas,
38:36they would line up the bodies so that our tanks couldn't get through
38:39because we wouldn't run over a dead body.
38:44August 5th, 1943.
38:47Realizing their line of retreat may be cut off,
38:50the defenders of Troina withdraw in the dead of night
38:53and live to fight again.
38:56Everything got quiet.
38:57The next morning when we woke up, they were gone.
39:00I guess they had everything waiting and got out.
39:04Aerial photographs taken at the port of Messina
39:07show ships evacuating the Axis forces to mainland Italy.
39:13German General Hans Huber orders his rear guards to delay the Allied advance
39:18while the rest of his forces make their escape off the island.
39:24General George Patton's army is still 75 miles from the port of Messina.
39:31General Sir Bernard Montgomery is 52 miles away.
39:36A race to reach Messina begins.
39:39Patton writes...
39:40This is a horse race in which the prestige of the U.S. Army is at stake.
39:45We must take Messina before the British.
39:49We're fighting from town to town,
39:51and he's going through this town like a bat out of hell.
39:58Patton wanted to be in the lead, he wanted to be there first.
40:02He just pushed, pushed, pushed.
40:06He wanted to beat the Yanks if he can.
40:08It was quite rivalry, really.
40:10And they had an easy ride, we think.
40:16Both the British and American armies are slowed to a near halt
40:20against an enemy not willing to break and run.
40:23But on D-Day plus 38, General Patton's troops finally make it into Messina.
40:32There is no sign of Montgomery.
40:34The American general has won his race.
40:39British troops arrive just as the surrender ceremony comes to a close.
40:44Well, we're rather cross.
40:46We thought we should have got there first
40:48with all the hard fighting that we'd done
40:50and all the casualties we had as well.
40:56The battle is over.
40:59There is no sign of the enemy.
41:02Over 100,000 Germans and Italians
41:05and 10,000 vehicles have been evacuated in the last weeks of the campaign.
41:11The German withdrawal across the Straits of Messina to mainland Italy
41:15is a classic withdrawal,
41:18both in terms of tactical accomplishment and planning.
41:23They maintained cohesion right up to the last.
41:28Now this vast Axis army will make the Allies pay in blood
41:33for allowing them to escape to fight another day.
41:37We thought, well, we have lost the Battle of Sicily,
41:40but now the battle for mainland Italy will begin,
41:44and that will be completely different.
41:48The race for Messina had distracted the Allies.
41:52No joint plan was ever drawn up to prevent the withdrawal
41:56of Axis troops.
41:59Bolder Allied tactics may have cut off the enemy
42:02and guaranteed their destruction.
42:06Patton and Montgomery must also bear some responsibility
42:10for the German escape across the Straits of Messina.
42:13They were more interested in getting to Messina first
42:18than actually defeating and crushing the enemy.
42:2229,000 enemy troops have been killed or wounded,
42:26and over 140,000 are captured in the struggle for the island.
42:34British forces suffered nearly 13,000 casualties.
42:38American losses totaled nearly 9,000 killed or wounded.
42:45The heroes that we have are the ones we left back.
42:49Those are the heroes. They died.
42:52They died. We survived.
42:54But they gave their lives for their country.
43:00That's something that I will never forget,
43:03and it's something that we must never forget.
43:09The thank you that we got from the Sicilian people
43:13made us feel that it was a job well done.
43:17They were glad to have us there, and it gives you a sense of pride.
43:22It gives you a sense of doing something that was well worth it.
43:28In Allied hands, the island served as a base
43:31from which the door of Southern Europe could be kicked down.
43:35Operation Husky was also a dress rehearsal for the big show,
43:40the invasion of France in 10 months' time.
43:44Many of the men who landed in Sicily
43:47would soon be hitting another set of beaches
43:501,000 miles away in Normandy.