Atlantic Warfare Today : 437 



officers sank their vessels in preference to having them fall into the 

 hands of the advancing Germans. 



Besides their total occupation of France the Germans made a last 

 desperate eflfort in their submarine war against the supplies that now 

 were continuously needed in Russia, Britain and North Africa. To 

 maintain the forces in North Africa and to permit their successful 

 advance, each soldier required one and one-half tons of supplies each 

 month. In the first three months after the North African invasion 800 

 ships were engaged in transporting 6,500,000 tons of supplies and 

 equipment. 



The number of vessels involved in the North African operations 

 seem modest when compared with those that were required to stage 

 the next landing and invasion operation. This took place in stages — 

 the first stage being the landing and occupation in Sicily on July 10, 

 1942, which involved the use of over 2,500 vessels. There were no 

 ports in Sicily and no landing facilities for handling even a sizable 

 fraction of this enormous flow of men and materials. The whole 

 movement depended on new and revised techniques of a landing 

 operation. More and more landing craft had been built and put into 

 use. Floating piers had been prefabricated and were assembled on the 

 spot. The rest of the month of July and all of August was devoted to 

 the thorough occupation of Sicily and to preparation for the next 

 phase which came on September 3 with the brief step from Sicily to 

 the Italian mainland. 



The conquest in Italy proceeded but progress on the whole was 

 slower than anticipated. The advance up the peninsula in bad weather 

 and over rugged territory stalled at Cassino. A second landing of 

 troops was successfully carried out at Anzio but the invading forces 

 were hemmed in largely by reason of the dogged resistance of the 

 Germans. Even after the Italian forces surrendered and the Italian fleet 

 fled to the Allied side, the German forces in Italy maintained a strong 

 resistance. 



These difficulties in Italy increased the need for a plan that had 

 already been under discussion, namely a more direct drive on Ger- 

 many to be made by invasion of the French coast. This was not an 

 easy move to contemplate for the Germans had been busy creating 

 along the Atlantic coast structures for both offensive and defensive 

 operations. The offensive structures included gun emplacements, 

 launching platforms for "buzz bombs" and rockets, landing fields for 

 aircraft, etc. Among the defensive structures were fortifications, pill- 



