==Strategic Setting==
In January 1943, American President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and British Prime Minister [[Winston S. Churchill]] met with their senior military advisers at [[Casablanca, Morocco]], to devise a military strategy for the coming year. The [[United States Army]] had begun ground operations against the European [[Axis Powers]] only two months before as part of a joint Anglo-American invasion of North Africa. With the North African campaign moving toward a successful conclusion, the leaders of the two nations debated where to launch their next blow. After several days of negotiations, they agreed to make Sicily their next target.
Situated ninety miles off the north coast of [[Africa]] and a mere two and one-half miles from the "toe" of the Italian peninsula, Sicily was both a natural bridge between Africa and [[Europe]] and a barrier dividing the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. Its rugged topography made it a tough, unsinkable bastion from which Axis air and naval forces could interdict Allied sea lanes through the Mediterranean. Yet despite its strategic location, the Allies were deeply divided over the merits of invading the island, and in the end the decision to invade Sicily represented an uneasy compromise between British and American strategists.