"Sicily, a triangular rock the size of Vermont, lay 90 miles north of Tunisia and only two miles off the toe of the Italian boot....It had been overun by...Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Saracens,Normans, Spaniards, Bourbons. And soon , the Anglo-Americans. An amphibious landing on a hostile shore, Eisenhower knew, was the hardest operation in warfare: wading ashore under fire, building a secure lodgement beyond the beach, then breaking free to the interior. In the history of combat, the amphibious art had been mastered by no one. For every successful landing -- such as the American assault at Vera Cruz in 1847 -- there was an equivalent catastrophe like the British debacle at Gallipoli in 1915. For every failure -- as of the Spanish Armada or the Mongols in Japan -- there was a military leader too daunted even to try, including Napoleon and Hitler, both of whom declined to cross the English Channel." From The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 04:58:46 +0000
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