history · 11 July 1943 · 81 years ago
British 8th Army captured Syracuse, Sicily, Italy and its useful harbour. Also on Sicily, General Paul Conrath's Hermann Göring Panzer Division overran the American outposts at Ponte Dirillo and were only prevented from breaking through the Allied lines by an attack by James Gavin's paratroopers from the rear. Elsewhere, Conrath personally led a column which assaulted the weakly held Piano Lupo, to get within 2,000 yards of the beach before being stopped by the defenders.
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