![]() The ruse proved successful, and German resources were shifted to the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. In an elaborate espionage operation know as Mincemeat, designed to divert German defenses, British intelligence dressed a suicide victim as a Royal Marine, planted false papers on the corpse, and deposited the package off the coast of Spain for the Germans to find and interpret. The Allies could count on air cover from Malta for a Sicilian invasion. Sicily was a natural route to mainland Italy and the European continent going back in history to the Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome. ![]() Instead, the next major initiative against the enemy would come in a Mediterranean crossing that would seek the first defeat of one of the three Axis powers-fascist Italy. Through intense debates in the previous months, it had become apparent to the Allied leadership that the next step taken by the Allies would not be a cross-channel attack into northern France, as preparations for such an expedition would be inadequate and premature. ![]() By May 1943, the US Army had acquired hard-won experience and tasted success in North Africa as Axis forces composed of more than 250,000 German and Italian troops surrendered at Tunisia.
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