As a British general, a Montgomery who was called a "military genius" by the British, how could he let Patton, an American general who had just stepped into the battlefield, steal the limelight, which is not only about personal honor, but also about the self-esteem of both countries.

"Gentlemen!" Montgomery said: "I have seen too many mistakes and too many tragedies in this great war, and if we were to be struck by a similar tragedy on the side of Sicily, the consequences would be unimaginable." Therefore, we must be clear: the war is not as simple as you think, the enemy's resistance is very stubborn, this will be a difficult fight, we must prepare for a real fight, not unrealistic delusions can be easily won...... Such a victory exists only in the artist's! ”

After a pause, Montgomery added, "If we don't realize this, then we will suffer a crushing defeat." Therefore, I would never agree to land in Messina, which would be tantamount to risking the lives of our best warriors, with the happiness of their families. I have led this army group to fight more than 3,000 kilometers in Africa and won a brilliant victory. I promised them that there would be no further setbacks and defeats, and that I would visit all the divisions under my command before I went to Sicily, and I would tell them personally that I had 100 percent confidence in this expedition and that they would be victorious! ”

"But!" In the end, Montgomery concluded: "I don't see that in this plan, I only see a gamble!" ”

These words were met with applause, and Barton turned pale with anger but did not know how to respond...... Montgomery successfully packaged his selfishness in the humanitarianism of caring for soldiers and love for life, and spoke from the moral high ground from the very beginning, which not only negated Patton's plan, but also degraded Patton as a gambler who did not care about the lives of soldiers, regarded war too simply, had no combat experience, and would only take risks with soldiers.

Patton's plan proved to be entirely feasible, for neither the German nor the Italian troops in the port of Messina, nor the Italian troops in Sicily as a whole, were "stubborn in resistance" and "extremely hard" as Montgomery had described.

Instead, most of these Italian troops were militias forcibly recruited from Sicily, which Italy called the "coastal defenses", meaning the army that defended the Italian coastline.

These "coastal defenses" had no combat effectiveness at all, and at the same time they had no fighting morale, and a considerable number of them even regarded the Allies as liberators rather than enemies.

That is, General Patton's guess was correct.

If the attack was carried out according to General Patton's plan, the port of Messina was taken and the connection with Italy was severed, the defenders of Sicily would soon surrender and end the campaign.

However, the Allies eventually adopted Montgomery's plan, so that the Germans could increase their forces through the Strait of Messina to Sicily and build a defensive line around Mount Etna to stop the Allies, and after more than a month, 100,000 German and Italian troops and 100,000 vehicles successfully withdrew from Sicily to Italy...... This is nothing short of a miracle when the Allies have absolute superiority in the sea and air.

It was a miracle for the German and Italian armies, and naturally a failure for the Allies...... The successful implementation of the "minced meat plan" deceived the enemy, and had absolute superiority in troops and equipment, but in the end it ended up in a bad battle.

This bad battle is because of Montgomery's battle plan......

Since Patton's battle plan was rejected, he had to come up with his own battle plan.

Montgomery told the conference: "Based on my combat experience, I think we should follow three principles in this campaign:

First, the strategy of Sicily depends on effective combat and occupation on the ground.

Second, these ground forces must rely on the Navy's transport fire support.

Thirdly, we need to quickly seize the airfields on the island so that the navy and the landing force can receive more air support. ”

Based on these three principles, Montgomery proposed a landing plan that was exactly the same as Qin Chuan's guess: using the port of Syracuse as a supply base, the British Eighth Army would land from the east and attack the port of Messina, and the US Seventh Army would land from the south and attack the center and the port of Palermo.

To be exact, this is not Qin Chuan's guess, but the result of Qin Chuan's "knowing".

There is nothing wrong with this plan itself, it is decent, and the sea, land and air are coordinated.

But if we divide it into two armies, the British and American armies, then the problem is clear:

The British Eighth Army captured the large port of Siracusa, with a throughput of 1,000 tons, which means that the British army will undoubtedly receive a large number of supplies and heavy equipment, and then fight on relatively open and flat terrain, capturing Catania, Messina and other famous cities.

The landing of the US troops on the beachhead is very exposed, and there are sandbar obstacles, only a small port with a throughput of less than 300 tons to rely on, and then they have to fight in the mountains, and they can only capture unnamed towns such as Jera and Likata.

As written in the post-war report of Sicily: "The risks are not fairly shared, and almost all the dangers fall on the head of the US Xuantu Army." It can also be seen from other aspects that the US military has a large contribution and is named small. Luckily, we managed to win! ”

Of course, it is unknown whether this time will be so lucky.

Of course, Qin Chuan knew all kinds of reasons for this, which was also one of the reasons why he arranged the main force of the German army behind the Enna Heights of the American Army in the center.

First of all, the U.S. military has only one port with a throughput of less than 300 tons to use, which will inevitably cause problems for the U.S. military to replenish.

Historically, the U.S. military has relied on amphibious transport ships and tank landing ships to make up for this shortcoming...... Amphibious transport ships can transport large quantities of supplies from transport ships to shore and even front-line soldiers, while tank landing ships can transport tanks to shore.

But because the Allies attacked Sicily ahead of schedule, amphibious transport ships and tank landing ships had not yet been invented at this time. (Note: The first "Duck" amphibious transport ship left the factory in April 1942, and the first tank landing ship was launched in June 1942)

The U.S. military itself is extremely dependent on equipment and supplies, and if there is no advantage in equipment and supplies, coupled with the lack of combat experience of the U.S. military, the U.S. military is definitely a persimmon to pinch.

More importantly, under Montgomery's "selfishness" and "partiality", all American soldiers were on fire, and they even called Eisenhower a traitor.

In this case, if the battle is won, it is fine, but if the battle is lost and the losses are heavy, the fire in the belly of the American army will burn bigger and bigger......