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(2) Catania Region

Although greatly overshadowed by the beach landings of D-Day of 1944, the Sicilian landings of 1943 were at the time, the largest in history. With the African campaign behind them and the open deserts of Tunisia a smouldering ruin of German and Italian armour, British, Commonwealth and American forces moved North into Italian territory to put further pressure on their stranglehold over Southern Europe. The aim, above all, was to direct attention away from France - where raids and plans for D-Day were unfolding – and Russia - who had now broken from Stalingrad and were beginning their purge across Eastern Europe. The sweltering Summer of 1943 saw the British Army advance through the rugged plains of Catania, where abandoned farms and homesteads reflected what it meant to invade a homeland, rather than defend it.