🌋 1943 | Americans in Sicily | Part II What you’re seeing: After the landings at Gela, Patton’s Seventh Army pushed across Sicily. Palermo fell on July 22. The hardest fighting came in the mountains, especially at Troina, where US troops fought ridge by ridge. By August 17, after 38 days, Sicily had fallen and over 100,000 German and Italian troops had withdrawn across the Strait of Messina into mainland Italy. Who is displayed? The Americans are mostly US Seventh Army troops, including the 1st Infantry Division at Troina. Fighting alongside them were Montgomery’s British Eighth Army and Canadian forces in the east. Defending Sicily were German units, including the Hermann Göring Division and Panzergrenadiers, alongside Italian forces including the Livorno Division and other infantry units. Why did this happen? Sicily was the first major Allied step onto Axis home soil. The invasion brought American, British, and Canadian forces onto Italian territory and helped break Mussolini’s g...