Bitter Fight at Gela: Beginning of the End of Mussolini s Italy
This small Italian village on the Sicily coast hosted a stiff battle to repel Allied landings in July 1943.
Here s What You Need to Know: Gela was a harbinger of how amphibious assaults would occur in the future at places such as Salerno, Anzio, and Normandy.
The smoke had barely cleared from the battlefields of North Africa when the victorious Allies turned their attention northward to Europe. American planners were eager for the decisive battle against Nazi Germany in Western Europe, which could only happen after a successful invasion across the English Channel.