WOUNDED ARRIVING ON BOARD A TRANSPORT. During the first days of the invasion the seriously wounded were brought back to transports equipped with surgical and medical facilities. These ships would then deliver the wounded to base hospitals in Africa.] [Illustration: SICILY FLYING AMBULANCE. As soon as airfields had been captured many of the U. S. wounded were evacuated by planes to hospitals in North Africa. The Douglas C-47 transport was generally used for this purpose. Medical personnel accompanied wounded.] [Illustration: SICILY FIRING A HOWITZER INTO ENEMY POSITIONS on the road to Palermo. After securing the beaches the U. S. forces drove to the west and north and began the advance on Messina along the north coast road. Palermo, one of the most important ports in Sicily, fell to U. S. forces on 22 July 1943. (75-mm. howitzer motor carriage T30 with a .50-caliber antiaircraft gun mounted in rear.)] [Illustration: SICILY HALF-TRACK DETOURING THROUGH A SIDE STREET. When the enemy retreated through the Sicilian villages he would often blow up buildings on both sides of the main street, thus blocking the passage for vehicles. If he had time he would also mine and booby-trap the road and ruins. (The 75-mm. gun motor carriage M3 was the first standardized American self-propelled antitank weapon used in World War II.)] [Illustration: SICILY TROINA. View from the northwest with Mt. Etna in the background. The town is located on top and around the base of the hill in the center of horizon line (top). View from Troina toward the northwest showing Highway 120 winding over the hills to Cerami (upper left corner) (bottom). Troina lies at the junction of Highway 120 and the road to Adrano and Paterno. The U. S. Seventh Army took Troina on 6 August after some of the fiercest fighting of the campaign.] [Illustration] [Illustration: SICILY ENEMY ARTILLERY. At top is the famous German 88-mm. gun. The pillbox in the background was sited to fire both toward the sea and along the road. The coast of the island was ringed with pillboxes, some of which had not been completed at the time of the invasion. The self-propelled gun (bottom) of Italian manufacture is a 90-mm. cannon. It was used in North Africa as well as in Sicily. (Top, German 8.8-cm. Flak 18 with single-piece barrel; bottom, 90/53 Ansaldo self-propelled (SP) gun on redesigned M 13/40 Ansaldo chassis.)] [Illustration] [Illustration: SICILY HALF-TRACK MOVING THROUGH A SICILIAN TOWN. The gun is a 75-mm. howitzer M1A 1 used generally as an infantry support weapon. (75-mm. howitzer motor carriage T30.)] [Illustration: SICILY