71 years ago this month, in the summer of 1943, the Wehrmacht carried out one of the most impressive maritime retreats of World War II, comparable to the British evacuation of Dunkirk or the Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanal. Between 11 and 17 August some 60,000 Wehrmacht personnel, along with 75,000 Italians, were evacuated from the island of Sicily, saving them from encirclement and capture by the advancing Allied invasion force. The German units that were saved included the élite Hermann Göring Panzer Division and the 15th Panzegrenadier Division as well as detachments from the 1st Parachute Division and the 29th Panzergrenadier Division. If the operation had failed then the German Army in Italy would have been crippled as a fighting force, leaving the Axis position in southern Europe dangerously exposed.
