“Invasion Craft—Sicily,” by U.S. Navy war artist Mitchell Jamieson.
Painting, Oil on Canvas; 1943; Framed Dimensions 44H X 35W. NHHC Accession #: 88-193-GA
“Grim, stark reality and the enemy lie ahead for these steel-helmeted men as they are huddled closely together inside an invasion craft bound for the beach at Sicily.”
Today is the 80th anniversary of the Allied amphibious landings in Sicily, 10 July 1943. Some 160,000 men from the U.S. Seventh Army (with attached Free French units) along with the Commonwealth forces of the British Eighth Army, hit the beaches in Operation Husky, the first time the Allies landed in Europe for other than raids since the withdrawal from France in June 1940.
By the time the Sicily campaign ended in August, the Allies would suffer over 23,000 casualties, including 5,600 dead.