10 July 1943 : Allies invade Sicily

After months of preparation, the British Eighth Army under General Bernard Law Montgomery lands on the southeast corner of Sicily. British and American forces had raced across the Mediterranean from Malta and Tunisia to attack Sicily’s shores while the U.S. Seventh Army under General George Patton came ashore on the south western coast. On 17 August, Patton arrived in Messina before Montgomery, completing the Allied conquest of Sicily and winning the so-called Race to Messina.