The idea for the invasion of Sicily was born at the January 1943, Casablanca conference between President Franklin Roosevelt and English Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The overwhelming success of the North African Campaign allowed the Allies to consider pushing their plans forward to take the war onto the European continent. Therefore, the Allies commenced planning for an amphibious invasion to liberate Sicily, which was, code-named Operation Husky . To better understand this military operation it is necessary to research primary and secondary sources and assess their value. Primary source documents provide unique opportunities for the past to be explored. They provide a richer and more descriptive explanation of the past that cannot be reproduced in textbooks. However, the creator's point of view must be considered when skeptically and critically analyzing these documents. While examining the Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff it was necessary to determine the documents value and analyze and evaluate the documents for bias or contradiction. The primary documents concerning Operation Husky were u

The Planning and organizing against a defended coast included intelligence efforts to deceive the Axis about Allied invasion plans, learn how many enemy troops were on the island as well as their disposition, and beach reconnaissance. The primary documents do not focus on the how the allies fooled the axis about the invasion. However, they do illustrate the thorough beach reconnaissance that was done for the invasion of Sicily. The primary documents describe the gradient for numerous beaches on Sicily but they do not give insight into how they learned of these gradients or which gradient was the most suitable to land on. Pack describes in "Operation Husky" the air reconnaissance that was needed to for this invasion. Pack portrays how photographs taken from an airplane of women sunbathing on a beach reassured the Allies that mines were not on that beach. Sir Davis Hunt writes in "A Don At War" that Sicily was the first operation to "put into practice the spectacular art of calculating beach gradients." The reason for such extensive research into the beach gradient was because the Allies were going to use the newly acquired landing craft. The United States had worked to develop an amphibious vessel that would make landings more efficient. They developed one ship that could ground directly on the beach and lower a large bow ramp allowing vehicles, tanks, guns and personnel to disembark directly onto the beach. The primary documents discuss the landing craft but it took a secondary source to inform that it was a recent addition to the Allies. The primary documents describe not only the beach gradients for the landing craft but also the general topography of the Sicily. The primary document illustrates where the rivers, mountains or rugged hills, bridges, railways and what gauge they used, as well as what shape the roads were in and where they were located. This is an extensive topography that is essential for an operation to achieve success. The primary document allows the researcher to understand what planning is necessary for the success of a military operation. The limitation to this document is that it describes the topography but does not explain how this information was discovered.

The invasion of Sicily included the 1st Canadian Division, which was commanded by Major-General Guy Granville Simonds. In the beginning of the planning for Operation HUSKY, the British and American Joint Chiefs of Staff could not come to agreement on which division would accompany the British task force . After the plan was modified the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to use the 1st Canadian division. Throughout the primary documents there was little reference to the Canadian division. To understand the role the Canadians played in the planning for the invasion of Sicily it is necessary to research secondary sources. G.W.L Nicholson describes in his book "The Canadians in Italy", why the Canadians were chosen to accompany the British task force. He illustrates that the Canadian divisions were located in Britain and had hardly been involved in any military action. This lack of participation displeased not only the Canadian army but also many people who were voicing their concern in Canada. Canadians were worried that because of their lack of participation they would not be involved with the post-war world. Nicholson portrays this concern and describes how the Canadians were pleading to the British government to be involved with the action in North Africa. This internal dispute within the British task force was not described in the primary documents. The records simply detailed that the 1st Canadian Division was going to be involved in the Eastern task force. This is a limitation to the researcher because

The Records of the Joints Chief of Staff does not give insight into the thoughts of the soldiers that were involved in Operation Husky. These primary documents are extremely technical and offer details of what took place rather tha

Some common words found in the essay are:
Chiefs Staff, Operation Husky, Canadian Division, War Sicily, Axis Allied, Augusta Syracuse, Italians Allies, Allies Italian, Husky Montgomery, Alexander Montgomery, chiefs staff, operation husky, joint chiefs, joint chiefs staff, primary documents, records joint chiefs, records joint, invasion sicily, secondary sources, task force, planning operation, sicily primary, british task force, combined chiefs staff, 1st canadian division,
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Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)