The Steel Wave - Jeff Shaara [5]
Within weeks, Montgomery’s forces are united with Eisenhower’s, and the Germans in Tunisia are utterly defeated. Their presence in North Africa is eliminated entirely.
But Eisenhower does not rest on his laurels. Immediately, the Allies plan for their next assault, to strike directly into Europe. Still thwarted by the stubbornness of Winston Churchill, the Americans agree to a plan for the invasion of Sicily, to confront the powerful German armor and Italian infantry that have made the island a fascist stronghold. If successful, the conquest of Sicily will open the door for the Allies to invade the Italian mainland.
In July 1943, the invasion is launched: the British under Montgomery, the Americans now led by Patton. Within weeks, Sicily falls, though Patton and Montgomery clash repeatedly over tactics and matters of ego—a feud that will plague Eisenhower for the rest of the war.
With Sicily secure, the Americans continue to accept Winston Churchill’s philosophy that the best way to defeat Hitler is to strike hard at his “soft underbelly.” In September 1943, the British, again led by Montgomery, and the Americans, led by General Mark W. Clark, invade the Italian mainland. Though the invasion succeeds in driving Mussolini from power, there is no clear military victory. The Italian campaign will drag on for nearly two more years.
Having satisfied Winston Churchill’s inflexible insistence on attacking Hitler from below, the Americans begin again to promote their concept of a cross-channel invasion of France. Despite Churchill’s stubbornness and the power of his personality, the British realize that if there is to be a victory in Europe, it is American productivity and American manpower that will enable the Allies to continue the fight. Across the Atlantic, American factories are pouring out aircraft, tanks, and military vehicles at an astonishing rate, equipment that is flowing mostly into England. The German U-boat war has been blunted significantly by the use of Allied convoys, enormous numbers of merchant ships traveling in clusters, protected by numerous submarine-destroying ships and planes. There are technological advances as well, such as radar and sonar. As the number of German U-boats declines, the amount of aid and matériel flowing into England dramatically increases. The British have become enormously dependent on American industrial and agricultural production. Finally, despite his misgivings, Churchill accepts the American strategy. There will be an invasion of France.
Throughout the summer and fall of 1943, staff officers in England labor in obscurity, executing the logistical and tactical preparations required for what will be a massive operation. Command of the planning is given to the British general Frederick Morgan. Morgan’s title, Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, provides the name now given this stage of the operation: COSSAC. In the winter of 1943, Morgan’s plan is presented and is amended considerably by those who will carry it out, notably, Bernard Montgomery, who will command the Allied ground forces. But the basics of the plan remain. It is Morgan who suggests that any invasion of France should avoid the Pas de Calais, which is the logical and most predictable place for the invasion to occur. Calais is the closest point to Britain on the French coast, and the Germans have fortified that region to the extreme. Morgan assumes that if the Allies see Calais as the likeliest invasion point, the Germans will do so as well. Morgan chooses instead the less-well-fortified beaches on the northern coast of Normandy.
In early 1944, Morgan’s job is complete and COSSAC ceases to exist, replaced by a far larger and more complex command system. The operation is controlled and organized from a vast infrastructure of offices, named Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, or SHAEF. The invasion plan is given