On June 20, 1943, under the protection of three aircraft carriers and more than a dozen other large warships, more than 40 large troop carriers departed from Wusongkou Naval Base and the destination was Port Moresby in Nanyang Territory, carrying 55,000 men from two divisions of the Chinese Army.

On 20 June, under the command of General MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the US and Philippine Forces, and Wang Hansheng, Supreme Commander of the Nanyang Theater, the United Nations Army, consisting of four US and Philippine divisions, six Australian divisions, three US military divisions, and four Chinese divisions, launched an attack on the Philippine island of Mindanao with the cooperation of 120 warplanes and more than 70 large and small warships. At the same time, the Navy launched a fierce attack on the Japanese troops stationed in Singapore in order to contain the Japanese troops in Singapore.

At the same time that nearly 300,000 troops from China and the United States were carrying out a counteroffensive against Japanese troops on the islands of the South Pacific, the Allies made a breakthrough in the European theater.

From March to May 1943, in the North African battlefield, the British, American and French armies jointly attacked, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity of the lack of supplies of the German and Italian troops, launched a comprehensive attack on Tunisia, trying to smash the German and Italian "Africa" army group and capture Tunisian territory, so as to drive all the German troops out of North Africa.

Army Group "Africa" defending Tunisia had 17 divisions under the jurisdiction of the German 5th Tank Army and the Italian 1st Army, including 7 German divisions, 10 Italian divisions, and two infantry brigades.

Before the American, British, and French launched the Battle of Tunisia, the German and Italian armies were actually at the end of their power, and since Rommel was recalled to Berlin by Hitler, the situation of the North African Corps has deteriorated. In the battle before the outbreak of the Battle of Tianning Temple, its various corps suffered heavy losses in soldiers and technical equipment.

With the Anglo-American air forces in complete air supremacy and the Anglo-American navies in full control of the Mediterranean, the German and Italian armies had difficulties in replenishing and replenishing their personnel. Therefore, the North African Legion, which once fought in the North African battlefield and made it impossible for the American and British troops to find teeth, has declined, and the entire legion has only a small number of aircraft and tanks.

The Allies, on the other hand, were strong. The attack group commanded by British Admiral Alexander was under the command of the British 1st and 8th Armies and the US 2nd Army, with a total of 18 divisions and 2 brigades, 3,241 combat aircraft of the Allied Air Force, and the Allied Mediterranean Navy, with a total of 3 battleships, 8 cruisers, 40 destroyers, 23 minesweepers, and 14 small combat ship regional fleets.

Admiral Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force, was the commander-in-chief of the campaign, and compared with the German army, the Allies not only had 1 times more infantry, 2 times more artillery, and 3 times more tanks, but only German submarines posed a slight threat to the Allies.

After two months of hard fighting. The Allies finally won a decisive victory. In mid-May, Arnim led the remnants of the German-Italian army to surrender. After the Battle of Tunisia, the German-Italian Army Group "Africa" was annihilated. The army group lost more than 300,000 men in Tunisia, of which about 240,000 were captured. This included 125,000 German troops. The allies captured the entire North African coast of the Mediterranean. This ensures the safety of the Mediterranean lines of communication. and created favorable conditions for the attack on Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula. British and American troops gained experience in Tunisia in carrying out large-scale offensive campaigns to break through the enemy's prepared defenses.

According to previous decisions at the Casablanca Conference, the Allies were to launch a counterattack on the Italian mainland shortly after the Battle of Tunisia. With China making a major breakthrough in the Asian theater, this is a great strategic stimulus for countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. According to the previous strategic assumption of Europe and Asia, the Asian theater, especially the Chinese theater, will be the last place to end a speedy war, but now the Chinese have gone ahead of them.

Therefore, the Allied countries believed that the time had come for a counteroffensive, and after deliberation, the leaders of the United States and Britain decided to carry out a landing in Sicily immediately after the end of the Tunisian campaign.

In mid-June 1943, at the same time that the Chinese and American forces launched attacks on the Philippines and Singapore, the Allies concentrated a large number of troops in the coastal ports of North Africa in preparation for the Sicily landing operation, codenamed "Husky".

The 15th Army Group under the command of General Alexander was responsible for the implementation of the plan, with a total of 13 divisions of the British 8th Army and the US 7th Army, including 10 infantry divisions, 1 armored division, two airborne divisions, and 3 independent brigades, with a total strength of 478,000 troops, more than 4,000 combat aircraft, and about 3,200 combat ships and auxiliary vessels.

Before the landing, the Allies carried out a deception plan codenamed "minced meat". A corpse that looked like an Allied staff officer was floating on the shores of Spain with documents related to the attacks on Sardinia and Greece.

After receiving information from German intelligence, Hitler misjudged where the Allies might land and transferred the main German forces to Sardinia and Greece. However, Field Marshal Kesselring, commander-in-chief of the Southern Front, still realized that the Allies were very likely to attack Sicily, so he sent the German Goering Panzer Division and the 15th Panzer Infantry Division to Sicily, strengthening the island's defenses. By June 1943, the Italian 6th Army, defending Sicily, had 9 Italian divisions and 2 German panzer divisions, with a total strength of about 255,000 men, under the command of Italian general Guzzoni.

On June 11, 1943, in order to obtain an advance base for attacking Sicily, the Allies landed on the island of Banterella, between Sicily and North Africa, and captured more than 11,000 Italian troops. The prelude to the Battle of Sicily was unveiled.

Two days later, the Italian troops on the two nearby islands also laid down their arms. The Allies carried out strategic bombing of Sicily and Calabria prior to the landing, with a total of 4,000 Allied aircraft bombing airfields and facilities in Sicily day and night in the three weeks leading up to the landing.

On July 1, 1943, the Allies gained air supremacy over Sicily and southern Italy, and 1,400 German and Italian air force planes were withdrawn to southern central Italy and Sardinia.

Subsequently, the Allied attack fleet set out from six ports in North Africa, including Oran and Algiers, and transported troops to the island of Malta to rendezvous. At the same time, the British Navy dispatched the aircraft carriers "Invincible" and "Dreadnought", 6 battleships and other large warships to cover the attacking fleet. The aircraft carrier also made a feint in the direction of Greece to confuse the enemy.

On 9 July 1943, the Allied fleet assembled on the east and west sides of the island of Malta. As they prepared for the landing, the weather changed suddenly, the winds howled, and the waves were fierce, so the German and Italian troops relaxed their vigilance. In the early morning of the 10th, the airborne troops launched the first attack, and 5,400 officers and men of the US 82nd Airborne Division and the British 1st Airborne Division took 366 transport planes and gliders from Tunisia and flew to Sicily.

At the same time, the 160,000 U.S. and British landing forces under the command of Patton and Montgomery landed in the southwest and southeast of Sicily under the cover of 3,200 warships and transports, covered by 1,000 aircraft. The morale of the Italian army on the coast was low. Only weak resistance was made. Until noon. Patton and Montgomery's forces successfully landed on their respective target beachheads and maintained an offensive posture.

The Sicilian defenders, under the command of Lieutenant General Guzzoni of the Italian army, began a counterattack, and the German 15th Panzer Division was transferred from the west of the island to the east coast to stop Montgomery's British 8th Army moving north to Augusta; The German Göring Panzer Infantry Division and two Italian motorized rifle divisions launched a counterattack against Patton's US 7th Army.

Meantime. The Luftwaffe dispatched 481 aircraft to bomb the Allied beachheads. Allied planes came to intercept it. The result was a scuffle, with Allied anti-aircraft weapons on the ground shelling indiscriminately. Heavy fighting lasted a day, and German tanks advanced almost to less than 2 kilometers from the beachhead of the US 7th Army.

At the same time as the Allied offensive on Sicily. Chinese and American forces also captured Coe Island under the cover of a large number of warships, and carried out landing operations in Bataan.

The Japanese army sent 2 divisions of troops to guard the beachhead in Medan and prevent the landing of the Sino-American coalition forces. However, in the face of the powerful offensive of the Chinese and American forces, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, and by June 27, the beachhead in southeastern Medan had been lost.

On the 28th, two Chinese airborne brigades conducted an airborne operation in Davao City, Mindanao, and because the main Japanese forces were all transferred to the coastal area, the defenders in Davao City, which had only less than one infantry wing, were quickly killed by Chen Feng's two elite airborne brigades.

The two brigades then turned south and flanked the Japanese with the large army on the coast. After more than half a month of hard fighting, the two master regiments of the Japanese army were completely annihilated in Mindanao.

On the Sicilian side, on July 20, the U.S. forces captured Palermo without a fight, capturing 53,000 Italian soldiers. Montgomery, meanwhile, was bogged down in two important directions, with his 13th Army being held back at Catania and the 30th Army detouring westward. 6 divisions could not cope with 3 German divisions and some Italian units.

Seeing that Montgomery was blocked, Barton and Bradley decided to turn the assist into the main attack, taking Messina before Montgomery, and washing away the ridicule and swearing of the British propaganda machine. Bradley's U.S. 2nd Army, having captured Petraria in the north, quickly turned east and headed straight for Messina along the North Coast Road.

On August 1, the "Big Red 1st Division" of the American army under Allen's command launched an attack on Trojana. At the beginning of the attack, Allen underestimated the strength and combat effectiveness of the German army, and as a result, suffered heavy casualties and was defeated. The Germans held Troina and fought to the death with the American troops for seven days before they withdrew from the city.

On 5 August, the British 8th Army finally conquered Catania and began advancing along the East Coast Highway towards Messina. The Germans planned to fight and retreat, crossing rivers and blowing bridges along the way, and laying tens of thousands of mines. On the 10th, the German and Italian troops retreated to the vicinity of Messina, and because the Allies did not plan and act to cut off the Strait of Messina, 40,000 German troops and 70,000 Italian troops completed the Dunkirk-style retreat to the Italian mainland in 6 days and 7 nights.

On 15 August, the Allies finally captured all of Sicily and took down the forward base for the attack on Italy. During the Sicily landings, the Allies suffered 22,811 casualties, of which 5,532 were killed, 14,410 wounded, and 2,869 were missing. The Germans and Italians suffered 33,000 casualties and 132,000 prisoners, in addition to 260 tanks, 500 artillery pieces and 1,700 aircraft.

Although the campaign failed to destroy a large number of German forces, it achieved the political goal of forcing Italy to withdraw from the war. During the war, a coup d'état took place in Italy, and on July 25, Mussolini was arrested and ousted, and his successor, Badoglio, came to power and made secret contacts with the allies to explore the possibility of surrender. (To be continued......)