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There was general consensus amongst the Allied commanders that the invasion of France would not be possible until at least spring 1944. There was considerable debate as to what was the best possible course of action to weaken the German hold on Europe.
The Casablanca Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from 14 to 24 January, 1943. It planned the western Allied strategy for the next phase of the Second World War. Although President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill attended, Joseph Stalin did not. The key points committed to were “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers and attacking Sicily (Operation HUSKY) before invading mainland Europe.
Apart from the disasters at Hong Kong and Dieppe, the Canadian Army has yet to fight in a war that is now into its fifth year. The Canadian government requests a role in the invasion of Sicily. The British agree replacing two British formations with 1st Canadian Division and 1st Canadian Tank Brigade. The commander of the Canadian Army, General McNaughton, does not agree with the plan. Seven months later he will be replaced.
Within days of the request, 1st Canadian Tank Brigade had moved from Sussex to Scotland for training. Upon arrival, they were issued with M4A4 Sherman tanks - the first Shermans issued to Canadian tankers.
To support Operation HUSKY, 26,000 soldiers with all of their supplies and vehicles had to be transported to Sicily from the UK. This was done with two convoys: a “fast” convoy of troop ships and a “slow” convoy of supply ships. These initial convoys were followed up with two more supply convoys. The two assault convoys met off of the coast of Algiers on 5 May 1943 and proceeded to Sicily together.
The “fast” assault convoy was never attacked but the “slow” convoy was attacked by submarines and had three ships sunk with a loss of over 500 vehicles and artillery pieces - worse was the loss of life - 55 Canadians were killed.
On 9 July 1943, both assault convoys rendezvous southwest of Malta and proceeded to Sicily. The enemy seemed to be unaware.
(image - HMS Hilary HQ ship of the attack) During the day the weather was hot and cloudless. But later in the day a gale appeared. This storm led the naval adviser of the Italian Coastal Defence forces to assure his chief that landings were impossible that night.
That evening the wind fell and it appeared that landings would be practicable.
The German operations log showed that at 1630 hours on 9 July 1943 German reconnaissance aircraft spotted convoys steering towards Sicily. By 1840 hours “All troops in Sicily had been alerted.”
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