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92-418: The origins of Ragusa can be traced back to the 2nd millennium BC , when there were several Sicel settlements in the area. The current district of Ragusa Ibla has been identified as Hybla Heraea . The ancient city, located on a 300 metres (980 ft) hill, came into contact with nearby Greek colonies, and grew thanks to the nearby port of Camerina . After a short period of Carthaginian rule, it fell into

184-505: A century before the middle of the millennium, bands of Indo-European invaders came from the Central Asian plains and swept through Western Asia and Northeast Africa . They were riding fast two-wheeled chariots powered by horses , a system of weaponry developed earlier in the context of plains warfare. This tool of war was unknown among the classical civilizations. Egypt and Babylonia's foot soldiers were unable to defend against

276-471: A considerable threat to the Allied invasion fleet. Eisenhower called a meeting for 2 May with Montgomery, Cunningham and Tedder, in which Montgomery made new proposals to concentrate the Allied effort on the southeast corner of Sicily, discarding the intended landings close to Palermo and using the south-eastern ports. After Alexander joined the meeting on 3 May, Montgomery's proposals were finally accepted on

368-794: A façade in typical southern Sicilian Baroque style, with three portals and sculptures representing the Madonna, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. The upper columns have two clocks showing the time in Italian and French fashions respectively. The high bell tower , on the left side, is also in Baroque style. The ornate Baroque interior has a Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles separated by three colonnades embellished with gold. Charts showing Bible verses referring to St. John

460-586: A naval bombardment and seaborne landing by the British 1st Infantry Division ( Operation Corkscrew ) the island garrison surrendered. The Pelagie Islands of Lampedusa and Linosa , some 140 km (90 mi) west of Malta, followed in short order on 12 June. The Allies used a network of tunnels and chambers located below the Lascaris Battery in Valletta , Malta (the "Lascaris War Rooms"), for

552-473: A powerful military elite , knowledge of writing and education reserved to a tiny minority of scribes , and pronounced aristocratic life. Near the end of the 2nd millennium BC, new waves of barbarians , this time riding on horseback, wholly destroyed the Bronze Age world, and were to be followed by waves of social changes that marked the beginning of different times. Also contributing to the changes were

644-511: A wide array of Baroque architecture , including several stunning palaces and churches: Ragusa has two railway stations, Ragusa and Ragusa Ibla, on the Canicattì - Gela - Syracuse line. Two other stations serve the localities of Donnafugata and Genisi. The town will be served by the planned extension, from Rosolini to Gela , of the A18 motorway . The new exit of Ragusa will be located between

736-702: The 1st Canadian Infantry Division ). The Western Task Force (Task Force 343) was commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton and consisted of the American Seventh Army . The two task force commanders reported to Alexander as commander of the 15th Army Group. The U.S. Seventh Army consisted initially of three infantry divisions, organized under II Corps , commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley . The 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions , commanded by Major Generals Terry Allen and Lucian Truscott respectively, sailed from ports in Tunisia , while

828-820: The 231st Independent Infantry Brigade Group from Suez. The 1st Canadian Infantry Division was included in Operation Husky at the insistence of the Canadian Prime Minister , William Mackenzie King , and the Canadian Military Headquarters in the United Kingdom. This request was granted by the British, displacing the veteran British 3rd Infantry Division . The change was not finalized until 27 April 1943, when Lieutenant-General Andrew McNaughton , then commanding

920-862: The 45th Infantry Division , under Major General Troy H. Middleton , sailed from the United States via Oran in Algeria . The 2nd Armored Division , under Major General Hugh Joseph Gaffey , also sailing from Oran, was to be a floating reserve and be fed into combat as required. On 15 July, Patton reorganized his command into two corps by creating a new Provisional Corps headquarters, commanded by his deputy army commander, Major General Geoffrey Keyes . The British Eighth Army had four infantry divisions and an independent infantry brigade organized under XIII Corps , commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey , and XXX Corps , commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese . The two divisions of XIII Corps,

1012-554: The 5th and 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Divisions , commanded by Major-Generals Horatio Berney-Ficklin and Sidney Kirkman , sailed from Suez in Egypt . The formations of XXX Corps sailed from more diverse ports: the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, under Major-General Guy Simonds , sailed from the United Kingdom , the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division , under Major-General Douglas Wimberley , from Tunisia and Malta , and

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1104-611: The Austronesian expansion reaches Micronesia . In Sub-Saharan Africa , the Bantu expansion begins. World population rose steadily, possibly surpassing the 100 million mark for the first time. See the article on chronology of the ancient Near East for a discussion regarding the accuracy and resolution of dates for events of the 2nd millennium BC in the Near East. Spending much of their energies in trying to recuperate from

1196-643: The Bantu migration . In the history of the Egyptian language , the early 2nd millennium saw a transition from Old Egyptian to Middle Egyptian . As the most used written form of the Ancient Egyptian language, it is frequently (incorrectly) referred to simply as " Hieroglyphics ". The earliest attested Indo-European language , the Hittite language , first appears in cuneiform in the 16th century BC ( Anitta text ), before disappearing from records in

1288-731: The Battle of Sicily and Operation Husky , was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany ). It began with a large amphibious and airborne operation , followed by a six-week land campaign, and initiated the Italian campaign . To divert some of the Axis forces to other areas,

1380-553: The Canadian First Army in the United Kingdom, deemed Operation Husky to be a viable military undertaking and agreed to the detachment of both the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Tank Brigade . The "Red Patch Division" was added to Leese's XXX Corps to become part of the British Eighth Army. In addition to the amphibious landings, airborne troops were to be flown in to support both

1472-466: The Indus Valley civilization was in a period of decline, possibly as a result of intense, ruinous flooding. Egypt and Babylonia's military tactics were still based on foot soldiers transporting their equipment on donkeys . Combined with a weak economy and difficulty in maintaining order, this was a fragile situation that crumbled under the pressure of external forces they could not oppose. About

1564-504: The Kingdom of Sicily , created in the first half of the twelfth century. A Chiaramonte family fief, it remained the county capital after it has been unified with Modica in 1296, a status that it lost in the 15th century after a popular revolt. In 1693, Ragusa was devastated by a huge earthquake , which killed some 5,000 inhabitants. After the catastrophe, the city was largely rebuilt, and many Baroque buildings from that time remain in

1656-489: The Panzer Division Hermann Göring and the 15th Panzergrenadier Division . The Panzer division had 99 tanks in two battalions but was short of infantry (with only three battalions), while the 15th Panzergrenadier Division had three grenadier regiments and a tank battalion with 60 tanks. About half of the Italian troops were formed into four front-line infantry divisions and headquarters troops;

1748-672: The Sea Peoples , ship-faring raiders of the Mediterranean. Europe is still entirely within the prehistoric era; much of Europe enters the Bronze Age early in the 2nd millennium. The desiccation of the Sahara is complete. Neolithisation of Sub-Saharan Africa is initiated via expansion from the dried Sahara, reaching West and East Africa. Later in the 2nd millennium, pastoralism and iron metallurgy spread to Central Africa via

1840-510: The "Niscemi" Armoured Combat Group and Livorno Division infantry nearly reached the Allied position at Gela, but gunfire from the destroyer USS  Shubrick and the light cruiser USS  Boise destroyed several tanks and dispersed the attacking infantry battalion. The 3rd Battalion, 34th Regiment, "Livorno" Infantry Division, composed mainly of conscripts, made a daylight attack on the Gela beachhead two days later, with infantry and armor of

1932-466: The 13th century BC. Hittite is the best known and the most studied language of the extinct Anatolian branch of Indo-European languages. The first Northwest Semitic language , Ugaritic , is attested in the 14th century BC. The first fully phonemic script Proto-Canaanite developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs, becoming the Phoenician alphabet by 1200 BC. The Phoenician alphabet was spread throughout

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2024-413: The 429th Coastal Battalion (under Major Marco Rubellino ), tasked with defending Gela and its beachhead, had lost 45 percent of its men, while the attacking U.S. Army Ranger Battalion lost several men to mines and machine-gun and cannon fire. Gruppo Tattico Carmito (under Lieutenant-Colonel Francesco Tropea), tasked with defending Malati Bridge, defeated a Royal Marines Commando Battalion on 13 July with

2116-468: The 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team with the addition of the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment , along with the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion , Company 'B' of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion and other supporting units) of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, making their first combat drop. The British landings were preceded by pathfinders of the 21st Independent Parachute Company, who were to mark landing zones for

2208-540: The Allied Expeditionary Force, General Alexander as Deputy C-in-C with responsibility for detailed planning and execution of the operation, Admiral Cunningham as Naval Commander, and Air Chief Marshal Tedder as Air Commander. The outline plan given to Eisenhower by the Chiefs of Staff involved dispersed landings by brigade and division-sized formations in the south-east, south and north-west areas of

2300-519: The Allies engaged in several deception operations, the most famous and successful of which was Operation Mincemeat . Husky began on the night of 9–10 July 1943 and ended on 17 August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners: the Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island, and the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened for Allied merchant ships for

2392-578: The Axis. High-level planning for the operation lacked direction because the three mainland commanders, Alexander, Montgomery, and Patton, were fully occupied in operations in Tunisia. Effort was wasted in presenting plans that Montgomery, in particular, disliked because of the dispersion of forces involved. He was finally able to articulate his objections and put forward alternative proposals on 24 April. Tedder and Cunningham opposed Montgomery's plan because it would leave 13 landing grounds in Axis hands, posing

2484-535: The Baptist ( San Giovanni Battista ), is the biggest attraction in Ragusa Superiore. The church was originally located in the western part of ancient Ragusa, under the walls of the Mediaeval castle, where the small church of St. Agnese is today. A smaller building was quickly built on the site after the 1693 earthquake, which soon proved inadequate. The current edifice was built between 1718 and 1778, with

2576-609: The Baptist are over every column. The dome was built in 1783, and covered with copper sheets during the 20th century. The side chapels, characterized by altars decorated with polychrome marbles, date from the 19th century. Also noteworthy is the Hyblean Archaeological Museum, with different sections devoted to archaeological finds from the Prehistoric to the Late Roman era. Ragusa Ibla is home to

2668-574: The British Royal Air Force (RAF) that provided the primary air support for the operation. Other groups from the 9th Air Force under Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton operating from Tunisia and Egypt, and Air H.Q. Malta under Air Vice-Marshal Sir Keith Park operating from the island of Malta, also provided important air support. The U.S. Army Air Force 9th Air Force's medium bombers and P-40 fighters that were detached to NAAF's Northwest African Tactical Air Force under

2760-526: The British 1st Airlanding Brigade, landed on target, captured Ponte Grande and repulsed counterattacks. Additional paratroops rallied to the sound of shooting and by 08:30 89 men were holding the bridge. By 11:30, a battalion of the Italian 75th Infantry Regiment (Colonel Francesco Ronco) from the 54th Infantry Division "Napoli" arrived with some artillery. The British force held out until about 15:30 hours, when, low on ammunition and by now reduced to 18 men, they were forced to surrender, 45 minutes before

2852-434: The British and American forces approached. The local population welcomed the British and American soldiers with "unbridled enthusiasm". On 6 May 1950, with a regular papal bull , Ragusa was raised to the dignity of diocese because of the wise and constant commitment of Msgr. Carmelo Canzonieri, the parish priest of Saint John the Baptist who later became auxiliary bishop of Messina before and then of Caltagirone . That took

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2944-690: The German liaison officer attached to the 6th Army HQ, Generalleutnant Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin who was subordinate to Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring , the German C-in-C Army Command South ( OB Süd ). Von Senger had arrived in Sicily in late June as part of a German plan to gain greater operational control of its units. Guzzoni agreed from 16 July to delegate to Hube control of all sectors where there were German units involved, and from 2 August, he commanded

3036-618: The Greek coast. They also moved three panzer divisions to Greece, one from France and two from the Eastern Front which reduced German combat strength in the Kursk salient . Two American and two British attacks by airborne troops were carried out just after midnight on the night of 9–10 July, as part of the invasion. The American paratroopers consisted largely of Colonel James M. Gavin 's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (expanded into

3128-736: The Hermann Göring Panzer Division, but was repulsed. By the morning of 10 July, the Joint Task Force Operations Support System Force captured the port of Licata, at the cost of nearly 100 killed and wounded in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, and the division beat back a counter-attack from the 538th Coastal Defence Battalion. By 11:30, Licata was firmly in American hands and the U.S. 3rd Division had lost fewer than one hundred men. Salvage parties had already partially cleared

3220-546: The Indian hospital ship Talamba with heavy loss of life, and in the following days Axis aircraft damaged or sank several more warships, transport vessels and landing craft starting with the Allied troopship USS  Barnett hit and damaged by an Italian bomber formation on the morning of 11 July. Italian Stukas (named Picchiatello in Italian service) and Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 torpedo-bombers coordinated their attacks with German Stuka and Ju 88 bomber units. As part of

3312-689: The Italians in Italy and to a lesser extent the Balkans , resulting in one-fifth of the entire German army being diverted from the east to southern Europe, a proportion that would remain until near the end of the war. The plan for Operation Husky called for the amphibious assault of Sicily by two Allied armies , one landing on the south-eastern and one on the central southern coast. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by naval gunfire, as well as tactical bombing, interdiction and close air support by

3404-611: The Mediterranean by Phoenician maritime traders and became one of the most widely used writing systems in the world, and the parent of virtually all alphabetic writing systems. The Phoenician language is also the first Canaanite language , the Northwest Semitic languages spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region: the Israelites , Phoenicians , Amorites , Ammonites , Moabites and Edomites . Mycenaean Greek ,

3496-548: The Middle East) was increased. From 3 July, bombing concentrated on Sicilian airfields and Axis communications with Italy, although beach defences were left alone, to preserve surprise as to where the landings would occur. By 10 July, only two airfields in Sicily remained fully operational and over half the Axis aircraft had been forced to leave the island. Between mid-May and the invasion, Allied airmen flew 42,227 sorties and destroyed 323 German and 105 Italian aircraft, for

3588-650: The Ragusa area compared to rest of the region, according to many fascist historians. Ragusa was described as a "fief of the reds", like that of Bologna. A strong political dialectic caused fascism to impose itself on Ragusa, which provoked a violent response similar to that in the Po Valley . On 29 January 1921, a group of fascists destroyed the socialist circle of Vittoria, killed a man and injured four others. Two months later in Ragusa, four people were killed and sixty were injured. The main promoter of fascist ideology in Ragusa

3680-738: The Sicilian front. At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, with the end of the North African Campaign in sight, the political leaders and the military Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Britain met to discuss future strategy. The British Chiefs of Staff were in favour of an invasion of Sicily or Sardinia , arguing that it would force Germany to disperse its forces and might knock Italy out of

3772-534: The Sicilian population. When the combined British and American military operation to invade Sicily began ( Operation Husky ), the population of Ragusa deeply resented Mussolini and his regime. British forces landed to south and east of Ragusa along the coast, and American forces landed southwest of Ragusa in the Gulf of Gela. Both groups linked up in several towns in both locations, including Ragusa. The small detachment of fascist troops in Ragusa fled without fighting while

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3864-521: The Western and Eastern Task Forces. To the east, the British 1st Airborne Division , commanded by Major-General George F. Hopkinson , was to seize vital bridges and high ground in support of the British Eighth Army. The initial plan dictated that the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division , commanded by Major General Matthew Ridgway , was to be held as a tactical reserve in Tunisia. Allied naval forces were also grouped into two task forces to transport and support

3956-438: The advance headquarters of the invasion of Sicily. In July 1943, General Eisenhower, Admiral Cunningham, General Montgomery, and Air Marshal Tedder occupied the war rooms. Earlier, the war rooms had served as the British headquarters for the defence of Malta. To distract the Axis, and if possible divert some of their forces to other areas, the Allies engaged in several deception operations. The most famous and successful of these

4048-454: The armies by landing supplies across the beaches proved easier than expected, partly because of the successful introduction of large numbers of the new amphibious DUKW vehicle. Alexander was later to write "It is not too much to say that the DUKW revolutionised the problem of beach maintenance." On 17 May, Alexander issued his Operation Instruction No. 1 setting out his broad plan and defining

4140-413: The basis that it was better to take an administrative risk (having to support troops by landing supplies across beaches) than an operational one (dispersion of effort). Not for the last time, Montgomery had argued a sound course of action, yet done so in a conceited manner, which suggested to others, particularly his American allies, that he was preoccupied with his own interests. In the event, maintaining

4232-496: The chaotic situation that existed at the turn of the millennium, the most powerful civilizations of the time, Egypt and Mesopotamia , turned their attention to more modest goals. The Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and their contemporary Kings of Babylon , of Amorite origin, brought governance that was largely popular and approved of among their subjects, and favoured elegant art and architecture. Farther east,

4324-421: The city. Most of the population moved to a new settlement in the former district of Patro. The new municipality was called "Ragusa Superiore" (Upper Ragusa) and the ancient city "Ragusa Inferiore" (Lower Ragusa). Both cities remained separated until 1926, when they were merged to become a provincial capital in 1927 at the expense of Modica, which had been the former capital and the most populous and important city in

4416-496: The combined air forces. As such, the operation required a complex command structure, incorporating land, naval and air forces. The overall commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower , as Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of all the Allied forces in North Africa. British General Sir Harold Alexander acted as his second-in-command and as the 15th Army Group commander. The American Major General Walter Bedell Smith

4508-543: The command of Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham moved to southern airfields on Sicily as soon they were secured. At the time, the 9th Air Force was a sub-command of RAF Middle East Command under Air Chief Marshal Sir Sholto Douglas . Middle East Command, like NAAF and Air H.Q. Malta were sub-commands of MAC under Tedder who reported to Eisenhower for NAAF operations and to the British Chiefs of Staff for Air H.Q. Malta and Middle East Command operations. The island

4600-459: The defenders had assumed that no one would attempt a landing in such poor conditions. Landings were made in the early hours of 10 July from 2:45am on 26 main beaches spread along 170 kilometres (105 mi) of the southern and eastern coasts of the island between the town of Licata where the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Lucian Truscott, landed at Torre di Gaffe, red beach, and Mollarella and Poliscia, green beaches in

4692-501: The first time since 1941. These events led to the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini , being toppled from power in Italy on 25 July, and to the Allied invasion of Italy on 3 September. The German leader, Adolf Hitler , "canceled a major offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy," resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front . The collapse of Italy necessitated German troops replacing

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4784-548: The guidance of Senator Corrado Arezzo de Spuches di Donnafugata. In 1889, the Banca Popolare Cooperativa di Ragusa was founded, the first embryo of the current Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa . The bank thrived thanks to the huge wealth and prosperous agriculture that belonged to the now ex-county, and it immediately became an important point of reference for the whole Ibla economy. In the early 20th century, socialist ideas spread particularly strongly in

4876-493: The hamlets ( frazioni ) of Marina di Ragusa , located by the sea, and San Giacomo Bellocozzo. The city has two distinct areas, the lower and older town of Ragusa Ibla , and the higher Ragusa Superiore (Upper Town). The two halves are separated by the Valle dei Ponti, a deep ravine crossed by four bridges, the most noteworthy of which is the eighteenth-century Ponte dei Cappuccini . Ragusa Cathedral , dedicated to Saint John

4968-566: The hands of the ancient Romans and the Byzantines , who fortified the city and built a large castle. Ragusa was occupied by the Arabs in 848  AD and remained under their rule until the 11th century, when the Normans conquered it. Ragusa was selected as a county seat, and its first count was Geoffrey, son of Count Ruggero of Sicily . Thereafter, Ragusa's history followed the events of

5060-508: The harbor, and shortly after noon Truscott and his staff came ashore and set up headquarters at Palazzo La Lumia. About that time, the 538th Coastal Defense Battalion, which had been deployed as a tactical reserve, launched a counter-attack. By the evening of 10 July, the seven Allied assault divisions—three American, three British and one Canadian—were well established ashore, the port of Syracuse had been captured, and fears of an Axis air onslaught had proved unfounded. The preparatory bombing of

5152-633: The help of the local middle-age reservists. The Italian 4th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion attacked the Commandos with the help of the 372nd Coastal Defence Battalion, 553rd (under Captain Giovanni Sartor) and 554th (under Captain Fausto Clementi) Motorcycle Companies, and three Panzer IV medium tanks. The 246th Coastal Battalion (under Major Rollo Franco ) defeated British attempts to capture Augusta on

5244-588: The historical era: The first half of the millennium is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia . The alphabet develops. At the center of the millennium, a new order emerges with Mycenaean Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire . The end of the millennium sees the Bronze Age collapse and the transition to the Iron Age . Other regions of the world are still in

5336-407: The invaders: in 1630 BC , the Hyksos swept into the Nile Delta , and in 1595 BC , the Hittites swept into Mesopotamia . The people in place were quick to adapt to the new tactics, and a new international situation resulted from the change. Though during most of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC several regional powers competed relentlessly for hegemony, many developments occurred: there

5428-481: The invading armies. The Eastern Naval Task Force was formed from the British Mediterranean Fleet and was commanded by Admiral Bertram Ramsay . The Western Naval Task Force was formed around the U.S. Eighth Fleet , commanded by Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt . The two naval task force commanders reported to Admiral Cunningham as overall Naval Forces Commander. Two sloops of the Royal Indian Navy – HMIS  Sutlej and HMIS  Jumna – also participated. At

5520-575: The island and from 6 June, Allied attacks increased. From 8 May to 11 June 5,285 bombing sorties were flown by fighter-bombers, medium and heavy bombers, dropping a total of 6,202 tons of bombs on the island. The Italian gun positions were reduced to 47% effectiveness by the intense ten-day air bombardment. Out of 112 guns bombed, 2 had suffered from direct hits, 17 were near misses and 34 were damaged by debris and splinters (10 beyond repair). All control communications were destroyed, along with many gun emplacements and ammunition stores. On 11 June, after

5612-517: The island in two and cut his enemy's east–west communications. The Seventh Army was assigned to land in the Gulf of Gela , in south-central Sicily, with the 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armored Division to the west at Licata Mollarella beach, 1st Division in the center at Gela, and 45th Division to the east at Scoglitti . The 82nd Airborne Division was assigned to drop behind the defences at Gela and Scoglitti. The Seventh Army's beach-front stretched over 50 kilometers (30 mi). The British Eighth Army

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5704-424: The island. The logic behind the plan was that it would result in the rapid capture of key Axis airfields that posed a threat to the beachheads and the invasion fleet lying off them. It would also see the rapid capture of all the main ports on the island, except for Messina , including Catania , Palermo , Syracuse , Licata and Augusta . This would facilitate a rapid Allied build-up, as well as denying their use to

5796-399: The leading elements of the British 5th Division arrived from the south. Despite these mishaps, the widespread landing of airborne troops, both American and British, had a positive effect as small isolated units, acting on their initiative, attacked vital points and created confusion. The strong wind also made matters difficult for the amphibious landings but also ensured surprise as many of

5888-404: The loss of 250 aircraft, mostly to anti-aircraft fire over Sicily. Operations began in May against the small island of Pantelleria , some 110 km (70 mi) southwest of Sicily and 240 km (150 mi) northwest of Malta, to prevent the airfield there being used in support of Axis troops attempting to withdraw from North Africa. On 13 and 31 May the cruiser HMS  Orion bombarded

5980-599: The most ancient attested form of the Greek language , was used on the Greek mainland, Crete and Cyprus in the Mycenaean period . ICS stages / ages (official) Blytt–Sernander stages/ages *Relative to year 2000 ( b2k ). Operation Husky Allied victory Peak strength : Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Invasion of Italy Winter Line Gothic Line 1945 Spring Offensive Invasion Inland The Allied invasion of Sicily , also known as

6072-437: The night of 11–12 July. In Major General Terry Allen's U.S. 1st Infantry Division sector at Gela, there was an Italian division-sized counterattack where the dispersed 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team was supposed to have been. Tiger tanks of the Hermann Göring Panzer Division, which had been due to advance with the 4th Infantry Division "Livorno" , were late. On highways 115 and 117 during 10 July, Italian tanks of

6164-507: The number of German troops to around 70,000. Until the arrival of the corps headquarters, the two German divisions were nominally under Italian tactical control. The panzer division, with a reinforced infantry regiment from the panzergrenadier division to compensate for its lack of infantry, was under Italian XVI Corps and the rest of the panzergrenadier division under the Italian XII Corps . The German commanders in Sicily were contemptuous of their allies and German units took their orders from

6256-416: The prehistoric period. In Europe, the Beaker culture introduces the Bronze Age , presumably associated with Indo-European expansion . The Indo-Iranian expansion reaches the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent ( Vedic India ), propagating the use of the chariot . Mesoamerica enters the Pre-Classic ( Olmec ) period. North America is in the late Archaic stage . In Maritime Southeast Asia,

6348-431: The previous weeks had greatly weakened the Axis air capability and the heavy Allied presence of aircraft operating from Malta, Gozo, and Pantelleria kept most of the Axis attempts at air attack at bay. Some attacks on the first day of the invasion got through, and German aircraft sank the landing ship LST-313 and minesweeper USS  Sentinel . Italian Stukas sank the destroyer USS  Maddox and Re.2002s sunk

6440-403: The principal airfields of Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy, industrial targets in southern Italy and the ports of Naples , Messina, Palermo and Cagliari (in Sardinia). The attacks were spread to maintain uncertainty as to the next Allied move, and to pin down Axis aircraft and keep them away from Sicily. Bombing of northern Italy (by aircraft based in the UK) and Greece (by aircraft based in

6532-401: The region since 1296. In 1838, an asphalt deposit was discovered, which is still being worked. In 1848, together with the cities of Modica and Scicli , it rebelled against the Bourbon government to obtain the island's freedom and independence. In 1860, armed volunteers were immediately sent to help Garibaldi , who had just landed in Marsala. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy under

6624-609: The remainder were support troops or inferior coastal divisions and coastal brigades. Guzzoni's defence plan was for the coastal formations to form a screen to receive the invasion and allow time for the field divisions further back to intervene. By late July, the German units had been reinforced, principally by elements of the 1st Parachute Division , 29th Panzergrenadier Division and the XIV Panzer Corps headquarters ( General der Panzertruppe Hans-Valentin Hube ), bringing

6716-477: The sea, with over 200 men drowning. Among those who landed in the sea were Major General George F. Hopkinson, commander of the British 1st Airborne Division, who, after several hours spent clutching a piece of wreckage, was eventually rescued by the landing ship HMS Keren . The scattered airborne troops attacked patrols and created confusion wherever possible. A platoon of the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment , under Lieutenant Louis Withers , part of

6808-555: The situation in Italy. The scarce presence of infrastructure has limited the great potential of this territory, but it remains the most important export area of Sicily. Ragusa is a hilltown that lies below the Hyblaean Mountains , and is historically divided into Ragusa Ibla and Ragusa Superiore . The municipality borders with Chiaramonte Gulfi , Comiso , Giarratana , Modica , Monterosso Almo , Rosolini ( SR ), Santa Croce Camerina , Scicli and Vittoria . It counts

6900-415: The tasks of the two armies. Broadly speaking, he intended to establish his armies along a line from Catania to Licata preparatory to a final operation to reduce the island. He later wrote that at that stage it was not practicable to plan further ahead but that his intentions were clear in his own mind what the next step would be: he would drive north ultimately to Santo Stefano on the northern coast to split

6992-462: The territory from the archdiocese of Syracuse and the diocese of Noto . Ragusa is now a dynamic and wealthy city and home to numerous companies. It is also the most important financial pole of the south because of the BAPR , which is the fourth Italian popular bank. Since the 1990s, the economy of Ragusa has been developing towards the industrial sector, which is still growing rapidly, in contrast to

7084-609: The time of Operation Husky, the Allied air forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean were organized into the Mediterranean Air Command (MAC) under Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder . The major sub-command of MAC was the Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) under the command of Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz with headquarters in Tunisia. NAAF consisted primarily of groups from the United States 12th Air Force , 9th Air Force , and

7176-692: The town and Marina di Ragusa . Ragusa is twinned with: Much of the filming of the Inspector Montalbano series is done in Ragusa, which has contributed to the rise of tourism in recent years. 2nd millennium BC The 2nd millennium BC spanned the years 2000 BC to 1001 BC. In the Ancient Near East , it marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age . The Ancient Near Eastern cultures are well within

7268-401: The troop-carrying aircraft off course and the American force was scattered widely over south-east Sicily between Gela and Syracuse. By 14 July, about two-thirds of the 505th had managed to concentrate, and half the U.S. paratroopers failed to reach their rallying points. The British air-landing troops fared little better, with only 12 of the 147 gliders landing on target and 69 crashing into

7360-594: The troops who were intending to seize the Ponte Grande, the bridge over the River Anape just south of Syracuse, and hold it until the British 5th Infantry Division arrived from the beaches at Cassibile, some eleven kilometres (7 mi) to the south. Glider infantry from the British 1st Airborne Division's 1st Airlanding Brigade , commanded by Brigadier Philip Hicks , were to seize landing zones inland. Strong winds of up to 70 km/h (45 mph) blew

7452-472: The war and move Turkey to join the Allies. At first, the Americans opposed the plan as opportunistic and irrelevant, but were persuaded to agree to a Sicilian invasion on the grounds of the great savings to Allied shipping that would result from the opening of the Mediterranean by the removal of Axis air and naval forces from the island. The Combined Chiefs of Staff appointed General Eisenhower as C-in-C of

7544-429: The west, and Cassibile in the east, with British and Canadian forces in the east and Americans toward the west. This constituted the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of size of the landing zone and the number of divisions put ashore on the first day. The Italian defensive plan did not contemplate a pitched battle on the beaches and so the landings themselves were somewhat anticlimactic. More trouble

7636-456: Was Operation Mincemeat , conceived by Naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu and RAF Squadron Leader Charles Cholmondeley. The British allowed a corpse , disguised as a British Royal Marines officer, to drift ashore in Spain carrying a briefcase containing fake secret documents. The documents purported to reveal that the Allies were planning "Operation Brimstone" and that an "Operation Husky"

7728-494: Was Totò Giurato, the grandfather of the television presenter Luca Giurato . During the Second World War, Ragusa was one of many Sicilian towns in which the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini was deeply unpopular. The reasons were straightforward anti-Sicilian racism on the part of the fascist regime, which was central to the regime's ideology, and the anti- mafia campaign led by the fascist agent Cesare Mori , which

7820-615: Was an invasion of Greece. German intelligence accepted the authenticity of the documents and the Germans diverted much of their defensive effort from Sicily to Greece until the occupation of Pantelleria on 11 June, which concentrated German and Italian attention on the western Mediterranean. Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel was sent to Greece to assume command. The Germans transferred a group of " R boats " (German minesweepers and minelayers) from Sicily and laid three additional minefields off

7912-573: Was appointed as Eisenhower's Chief of Staff . The overall Naval Force Commander was the British Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham . The Allied land forces were from the American, British and Canadian armies, and were structured as two task forces. The Eastern Task Force (also known as Task Force 545) was led by General Sir Bernard Montgomery and consisted of the British Eighth Army (which included

8004-445: Was assigned to land in south-eastern Sicily. XXX Corps would land on either side of Cape Passero , while XIII Corps would land in the Gulf of Noto , around Avola , off to the north. The Eighth Army's beach front also stretched 40 kilometers (25 mi), and there was a gap of some 40 kilometers (25 mi) between the two armies. Once the Axis forces had been defeated in Tunisia, the Allied strategic bomber force commenced attacks on

8096-456: Was defended by the two corps of the Italian 6th Army under General Alfredo Guzzoni , although specially designated Fortress Areas around the main ports ( Piazze Militari Marittime ), were commanded by admirals subordinate to Naval Headquarters and independent of the 6th Army. In early July, the total Axis force in Sicily was about 200,000 Italian troops, 32,000 German troops and 30,000 Luftwaffe ground staff. The main German formations were

8188-412: Was experienced from the difficult weather conditions (especially on the southern beaches) and unexpected hidden offshore sandbars than from the coastal divisions. Some troops landed in the wrong place, in the wrong order and as much as six hours behind schedule, but the weakness of the defensive response allowed the Allied force to make up lost time. Nevertheless, several Italian coastal units fought well;

8280-723: Was new emphasis on grandiose architecture, new clothing fashions, vivid diplomatic correspondence on clay tablets , renewed economic exchanges, and the New Kingdom of Egypt played the role of the main superpower . Among the great states of the time, only Babylon refrained from taking part in battles, mainly due to its new position as the world's religious and intellectual capital. The Bronze Age civilization at its final period of time, displayed all its characteristic social traits: low level of urbanization, small cities centered on temples or royal palaces, strict separation of classes between an illiterate mass of peasants and craftsmen, and

8372-434: Was so heavy-handed, brutal and draconian that it managed to alienate huge swaths of the Sicilian population. Also, the fascist administration in Sicily was largely incompetent and indifferent to the local population. When food became scarce and the regime had to start rationing food, Sicily was designated as being the last to receive food aid. That often included food that was grown in Sicily (particularly wheat and fruit), which

8464-440: Was then exported to Northern Italy although scarcity had become a major problem in Sicily. Police officers from Sicily were replaced with those from Northern Italy since the former were perceived by the regime to be more loyal to their local communities than to Mussolini. Those from Northern Italy were underpaid, which led to them quickly becoming corrupt and indifferent. Also, they often held attitudes that were contemptuous towards

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