Description:

GEN. GEOFFREY KEYES' SECRET FILE ON PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF SICILY
Extraordinary and historic file owned and used by one of the primary planners of the invasion of Sicily (OPERATION HUSKY), Gen. Geoffrey Keyes (1888-1967). Keyes had served as Gen. George Patton's deputy commander in the TORCH landings in North Africa and subsequent action there against the Germans and Italians. While he was occupied in Tunisia, Patton ordered Keyes to draft plans for the Seventh Army's seaborne invasion of southern Sicily. The plans and directives, approx. 220pp. 4to. in 17 parts, are set with fasteners into a period dark brown folder marked on the cover:"SECRET - BIGOT MAJ. GEN KEYES BIGOT FILE". The sections include: a May 19, 1943 4pp. copy of a list of every American battalion involved in the invasion, vehicles, strength, and shipping and craft allotted for their carriage; a May 21, 1943 20pp. list of every type of force available, from infantry to medical to trucking; the concentration of forces to be landed at beaches JOSS, CENT and DIME; FORCE 141 Operation Instructions, May 19, 1943, a 3pp. summary of the intended battle plan; plan for OPERATION SHARK, a beach landing; retained copies of a May 25, 1943 letter from Patton to generals Omar Bradley, Manton Eddy, Hugh Gaffey, Mathew Ridgway, and Lucius Truscott advising each of their orders in general; a listing of aircraft to be used for the airborne assault component of the invasion, as well as forces to be employed; June 19, 1943 radio command channels of communication schematics; telephonic and carrier pigeon arrangements; June 18, 1943 study of enemy wire communications; June 21, 1943 Signal Corps operations including countermeasures, June 15, 1943 3pp. Coastal Defense Plan, engineer, chemical weapons and anti-aircraft deployment; naval gunfire and air support plans, a six page final outline plan, June 20, 1943, large fold-out map of the landing beaches and allotted forces; smaller topographical map also showing beaches and landing zones and allotted forces with clear plastic overlay; a large folded U.S. Army 1943 road map of Sicily; sunrise/sunset schedules; chronological schedule of expected events from D-Day to D+4; possible steps in the development of HUSKY; embarkation details and naval firepower available at the landing zones, an intelligence report, a summation of the invasion's successes and failures, and several of Keyes' hand-drawn maps likely showing advances made from the beaches. This is as complete a major invasion plan as one could possible obtain, possible unique in that some of the reports were limited to less than fifty copies. The amount of detail is staggering, and the reports were generated until almost the very day of invasion. A fantastic archive from one of the Army's most succesful operations - from the estate of a key general crucial in its planning.

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February 18, 2014 11:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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