“Husky” Landing Operation. Sicily. 1943

In July 1943, the Allies launched their first serious attack on German-occupied European territory. The chosen location for the attack was the so-called “soft belly of Europe” – the lightly defended island of Sicily, which was to become a bridgehead for the landing in Italy. 13 divisions and about 600 tanks from the US 7th and British 8th armies were assigned to capture the island. An armada of more, than 3,200 ships was to transport these forces by sea and provide fire support, while about 5,200 aircraft were to cooperate with the ground forces in the air. The landing forces were divided into 8 groups - four each in the western (USA) and eastern (Great Britain) landing zones. The landing of the sea landing (paratroopers were also dropped from the air earlier) in the southern part of the island took place without any enemy resistance. The main problems were the weather (no one covered the American landing site from the fierce western winds) and the lack of coordination with the air force: as a result, the ships' anti-aircraft artillery shot down 34 Allied transport aircraft. On the first day of the landing, the ports of Syracuse, Scoglianti, Gela and Licata and the airports near these cities were occupied. By August 17, all of Sicily had been occupied. The Axis forces had lost 167,000 soldiers, of whom 132,000 had surrendered. The Allies had lost 7,800 killed and 14,000 wounded. Among the ships, directly involved in Operation “Husky”, were the Polish “Piorun”, “Krakowiak” and “Slązak”, the submarines “Orzel” and “Dzik”, and the Polish Merchant Navy ships “Batory” and “Sobieski”, the dry cargo ship “Tobruk” and the troop transport “Kosciuszko”.

From the publication You can assemble a diorama of an amphibious operation with the Army transport ship LSP(L) "Batory", landing barges LCT(4) and LCT(5), which can accommodate models of tanks "Sherman", "Stuart II", armored cars "Greyhound", amphibious "DUKW", small landing barges "L.C.P(S)" and "L.C.P(R)". Soldiers can be placed in the barges, and in the air somehow (this is left to the modeler's imagination) "hang" two fighters Hawker "Hurricane" Mr. II  and Airspeed A.S.51 "Horsa" landing glider. The model is well designed and quite richly detailed, and also on a small scale. Therefore, it will definitely not be suitable for beginners or modelers with little experience. The textual instructions in Polish and English are large, detailed and will really help You assemble this not-so-large model and will perfectly complement the perhaps somewhat poor graphic instructions. There is a small supply of colors, the "Batory" sides have a reserve length in the middle, which is very good, when something does not fit - it is always easier to cut, than to "grow". There is an almost A3-format sheet with a printed sea surface.