Video: 'Invasion Of Sicily - First Pictures (1943)'

(Saturday, July 10, 1943, just after midnight Central European Summer Time; during the Allied invasion of Sicily, part of the Italian Campaign of World War II) — Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily and took it from the Axis powers (Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany), began early this morning as two American and two British attacks by airborne troops were carried out.

Video: 'The Invasion Of Sicily (1943)'

U.S., British and Canadian forces landed on the large Italian island at 4:45 a.m. CEST, with the U.S. Third Infantry Division, codenamed the “Dime Force,” coming ashore at the beaches of the port city of Licata.

Video: '203 - Who Let the Dogs Out?! - The Invasion of Sicily - WW2 - July 16, 1943' (July 10, 1943, at 1:47)

The Seventh United States Army and the British Eighth Army arrived with 180,000 men on 2,590 ships in “the largest sea-borne assault” of World War II.

Video: 'Patton Leads the WWII Invasion of Sicily | Patton 360 (S1, E3) | Full Episode'

Defending Sicily were 230,000 Italian and 40,000 German troops.

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Earlier, the Allies released 147 military gliders from towing aircraft, to glide in silently. Of those, 69 were released too early and landed in the ocean, drowning 252 men.

Video: 'Blitzkrieg to the Bomb' (Allies invade Sicily at 44:59)

Only 12 of the 147 gliders landed in the target area.