Part I
The Introduction
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The most gigantic fleet in the world's history was assembled
to launch the Allied invasion of Sicily. Over 3,200 ships, craft, and boats
made up the Allied naval forces, of which more than 1,700 comprised the Western
Naval Task Force.
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This enormous
armada was assembled in the Mediterranean from remote regions, and was here
organized and brought to readiness for battle. Ships and craft were altered or
mod‚ernized with special equipment and devices, and training was conducted to
ensure that each group of the vast forces would execute its assignment as
required by the detailed naval plans. In this manner the Sicilian campaign was
originated, planned, organized and forces trained in the five months since the
Anfa Conference at Casablanca.
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The Western Naval Task Force, under my
command, had the task of training, embarking, transporting, protecting and
landing the American invasion troops in Sicily; of sup‚porting the military operations
by naval combatant forces; and of ensuring the rapid, orderly flow of logistic
maintenance to the military forces throughout the campaign.
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The Allied naval
forces in the Mediterranean were so deployed as to gain the ascendancy over
enemy submarines, and to bring to action and destroy any enemy forces which
threatened the vast convoy movements engaged in the invasion.
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The amphibious
assaults were uniformly successful. The only serious threat was an enemy
counter-attack on D plus one day against the 1st Infantry Division when a
German tank force drove across the Gela plain to within one thousand yards of
the DIME beaches. The destruc‚tion of this armored force by naval gunfire
delivered by U.S. cruisers and destroyers, and the recovery of the situation
through naval support, was one of the most noteworthy events of the operations.
The continued employment of naval gunfire against enemy positions on the north
coast during the reduction of the island phase of the campaign, the unique employment
of landing craft in providing a service of supply of food, fuel and munitions
to our front line troops on the north coast, and the skillful execution of
flanking amphibious landings on the north coast contri‚buted to a marked degree
in the rapid defeat of the enemy.
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The brilliant
achievements of the Allied forces in this conquest, launched on a mag‚nitude
which heretofore had never been attempted, were due principally to the
singleness of pur‚pose which all forces demonstrated. The appreciation of each
others' problems produced an inter-service spirit of co-operation and common
endeavor which welded the naval and military forces into a single team
possessed with the resolute will to win.
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The huge task of
assembling, training, and supporting large and complex forces, including green
personnel and hundreds of craft of types yet untried in combat, entailed tremen‚dous
labor. The large scale planning involved in the assembly of forces and
material, and in the proper employment thereof in detailed plans merits the
highest admiration.
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Such shortcomings and deficiencies as were noted are attributed principally to
hurried preparations, the non-arrival of material in the theater, and to
insufficient training. The ability of gun crews to quickly adjust themselves to
battle conditions was notable. The courage and bravery displayed in action by
the Allied forces left nothing to be desired. In combat our soldiers, seamen
and aviators demonstrated tenacity, endurance and efficiency equal to or superior
to that possessed by the enemy.
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