As many as 3,000 people are killed in the raid. July 19 More than 500 Allied bombers strike Rome for the first time, hitting the San Lorenzo freight yard and steel factory, as well as the Littorio and Ciampino airports in the city.

A third subsidiary landing, Operation Slapstick, will see elements of the British 1 st Airborne Division transported by sea to seize the port at Taranto. It will be a two-part operation, the first part in Calabria (Operation Baytown), the second at Salerno (Operation Avalanche), the northernmost beach in the Italian peninsula within range of Allied fighters based in Sicily. Eisenhower wins support from the Combined Chiefs of Staff for Winston Churchill’s idea of a landing in mainland Italy. July 18 With the fighting in Sicily still raging, General Dwight D. Air cover provided by more than 4,000 planes (from the Royal Air Force and the US Twelfth Air Force under the overall command of British Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder). Husky will be one of the largest amphibious operations of the entire war, with more than 3,000 ships (under the command of British Admiral Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet) transporting more than 150,000 Allied troops (eight divisions by sea plus two airborne divisions) over the next three days. Their two armies comprise the Fifteenth Army Group, led by British General Harold Alexander. Patton’s Seventh Army lands on the southern coast of Sicily and British General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army on the southeastern coast. July 9-10 Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, begins under the overall command of General Dwight D.

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