Operation Ladbroke

Operation Ladbroke
Part of the Allied invasion of Sicily
Sicily (pictured in red).
Date 9–10 July 1943 Location Syracuse, Sicily 37°03′15.68″N 15°15′53.96″E / 37.0543556°N 15.2649889°E / 37.0543556; 15.2649889 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Philip Hicks	Priamo Leonardi
Units involved
1st Airlanding Brigade	385th Coastal Battalion 1st Battalion, 75th (Napoli) Infantry Regiment
Strength
2,075	unknown
Casualties and losses
313 killed and 174 missing or wounded	unknown

Operation Ladbroke was a glider landing by British airborne troops during the Second World War near Syracuse, Sicily, that began on 9 July 1943 as part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. The first Allied mission using large numbers of the aircraft, the operation was carried out from Tunisia by glider infantry of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Philip Hicks, with a force of 136 Waco Hadrians and eight Airspeed Horsas. The objective was to establish a large invasion force on the ground near the town of Syracuse, secure the Ponte Grande Bridge and ultimately take control of the city itself with its strategically vital docks, as a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Sicily.

En route to Sicily, sixty-five gliders released too early by the American and British towing aircraft crashed into the sea, drowning approximately 252 men. Of the remainder, only eighty-seven men arrived at the Pont Grande Bridge, although they successfully captured the bridge and held it beyond the time they were to be relieved. Finally, with their ammunition expended and only fifteen soldiers remaining unwounded, the Allied troops surrendered to Italian forces. The Italians, having gained control of the bridge, sought to destroy the structure, but were frustrated by troopers of the 1st Airlanding Brigade who had removed the previously attached explosive charges. Other troops from the brigade, who had landed elsewhere in Sicily, aided further by destroying communications links and capturing gun batteries.

By December 1942, with Allied forces advancing through Tunisia after landing there the month before in Operation Torch, the North African Campaign was coming to a close; with victory there imminent, discussions began among the Allies regarding the nature of their next objective. Many Americans argued for an immediate invasion of Northern France, while the British, as well as then-Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, argued that the island of Sardinia was the best subsequent target of the Allied forces. In January 1943 the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt settled at the Casablanca Conference on the island of Sicily, whose invasion and occupation could potentially provide the Allies with Mediterranean shipping routes and airfields nearer to mainland Italy and Germany. The codename Operation Husky was decided upon for the Allied invasion of Sicily, and planning for Husky began in February. Initially the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, were to land on the south-eastern corner of the island and advance north to the port of Syracuse. Two days later the U.S. Seventh Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, would land on the western corner of the island and move towards the port of Palermo.

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