Overview

Operation Husky, the Allied World War II invasion of Sicily, featured the clash of an Allied Army Group against an Axis Army. The Allied 15th Army Group was composed of fourteen divisions - an impressive total when one considers that combined, the United States and British Armies only have twelve active duty divisions today. Further, the Axis were a formidable opponent who skillfully employed combined arms maneuver, aggressively attacked the 15th Army Group, and contested Allied air superiority. In light of the United States Army's decade long focus on wide area security, this monograph examines Operation Husky through the lens of the elements of operational art to draw out lessons for modern planners who are changing their focus to large formation combined arms maneuver. The Allies skillfully incorporated lines of operation, decisive points, operational reach, basing, culmination, and risk. However, they poorly employed the elements of center of gravity, tempo, and phasing, which arguably allowed much of the Axis Army to retrograde to Italy in good order. The reason for this poor employment was poor planning. Therefore this monograph recommends that large scale combined arms maneuver operations be completely planned prior to execution, that there is a deliberate plan to plan, that the planning is fully resourced, and finally, that planners integrate all domains, land, sea, air, space, and cyber, in their application of operational art. Operation Husky is a rich depository of vicarious experience in large scale combined arms maneuver for today's field grad officers.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.Introduction * Organization of the Monograph * Operational Art and its Elements * 1. Sicily in July 1943 * The Desired Endstate * The Operational Environment * 2. The Plan for Operation Husky * The Allied Concept * Critique Using the Elements of Operational Art * 3. The Execution of Operation Husky * Lessons for Today's Officers * 4. ConclusionThe purpose of this monograph is to prepare today's United States Army officers for large scale combined arms maneuver. To understand large scale combined arms maneuver it evaluates Operation Husky, the World War II invasion of Sicily, using today's United States Army definition of operational art and the elements of operational art. This is not an effort to judge the World War II commanders and staff with the benefit of hindsight, but rather to draw lessons from historical experience that an Army officer today could apply in a future war characterized by large formation combined arms maneuver. With this perspective, the lessons from Operation Husky are that the Allies did not focus on the Axis center of gravity, maintain an aggressive tempo, or use phasing. However, the reason for these failures on the part of the Allies was their flawed planning. Therefore the recommendation for today's army officers is that large scale combined arms maneuver must be planned in detail, that the detailed planning must be planned and resourced, and that planners should integrate all domains, land, sea, air, space, and cyber, in their application of operational art.

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