Allies Capture Palermo - 1943 | Movietone Moment | 22 July 16

Patton had had enough. Alexander clearly had no intention of assigning Seventh Army anything other than mop-up duty in Western Sicily, while Montgomery’s Eighth marched to Messina and glory in the east. Patton felt his superior lacked ‘any conception of the power or mobility of the Seventh Army.’ On July 17 he climbed aboard a B-25 and flew to 15th Army headquarters in Tunisia to confront Alexander. Patton told the army group commander in no uncertain terms that he wanted his army unleashed. He explained ‘it would be inexpedient politically for the Seventh Army not to have equal glory in the final stage of the campaign.’ Patton asked for authorization to drive north to split the Axis forces and to clear out remaining resistance in the west. Alexander agreed, providing Seventh Army hold a crucial road network near Caltanissetta in the center of the island. ‘If I do what I am going to do,’ Patton confided to his diary, ‘there is no need of holding anything, but ‘it’s a mean man who won’t promise,’ so I did.’

Patton wasted no time putting his new plan into action. He created a Provisional Corps under the command of Major General Geoffrey Keyes, his deputy commander, and sent it northwest towards Palermo while Bradley’s II Corps set out for the north coast, knifing across the island’s center through tough German defenders. Facing light resistance from largely dispirited Italian troops, Keyes’ troops ‘moved so fast that often the German and Italian 88s [88mm anti-tank guns], which they captured en route, had not been pointed around or set up to shoot against them.’ On July 22 Truscott’s Division entered Palermo after covering an astonishing 100 miles in just 72 hours. Wild celebrations and ebullient Sicilians greeted the Americans. Support for Italy’s Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini was nowhere to be seen. The next day the 45th Division of Bradley’s II Corps reached the coast at Termini, 25 miles to the east. Until he took matters into his own hands, Patton wrote in his diary, ‘Monty was trying to command both armies and getting away with it.’ Now Seventh Army was making its mark.
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-general-george-s-pattons-race-to-capture-messina.htm

http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/72-16/72-16.htm

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