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Editorial Note on Plans for HUSKY

April 1943

At General Marshall’s urging the War Department was studying the possibility of advancing the date for launching HUSKY before July 10, 1943, the tentative date scheduled for the operation. Interested in limiting the scope of Allied commitment to the Mediterranean, Marshall proposed a modified HUSKY which called for advancing the operation and invading Sicily before the elimination of German-Italian forces in Tunisia was complete. This would give the Allies the advantage of strategic surprise and prevent unnecessary diversion of Allied military effort to the Mediterranean at the expense of mainland Europe. Marshall brought this proposal to the attention of the British Chiefs of Staff and to the headquarters of General Eisenhower. (Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943-1944, pp. 72-73. See Marshall to Eisenhower, April 23, 1943, Papers of George Catlett Marshall, #3-622 [3: 661-62].)

Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens(Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981- ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), p. 656.