Much attention has been focused on the 70th anniversary of the June 6th D-day invasion and the bloody struggle on the beaches of Normandy France.
However, today marks a rather less remembered event, with an important connection to that momentous occasion in 1944
On this date June 10, back in 1940, Canada’s government issued a declaration of war on Italy through an order-in-council, after that nation declared war on France and the UK earlier that day.
While today’s anniversary of that declaration is not likely to be widely noted, it was the subsequent invasion of Italy that led to the successful Normandy invasion.
In 1943, Operation Husky became the largest amphibious invasion in history to date. It required timing and co-ordination of the Canadian, British, and American military forces leaving from three different locations, North Africa, England, and the US, coordinated to arrive on the south-east of Sicily simultaneously.
It was the lessons learned from this massive combined operations amphibious landing, that enabled the Normandy landings a year later.
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