http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jun1943/f25jun43.htm
Allies bombing Messina in Sicily
Friday, June 25, 1943 www.onwar.com
Aerial view of bombing damage in Sicily [photo at link]
In Sicily... The Allies continue bombing the island, concentrating on Messina.
Interesting article on the Germans building up their air defenses. Although the numbers are inflated in that there are not 1.5 million men manning air defenses, it’s pretty clear that the Germans have shifted a significant amount of resources to the aerial defense of the Reich.
The fighter planes will be sorely missed at Kursk, where the Soviets will finally win air superiority. Each anti-aircraft gun between the North Sea and the Ruhr is a 88mm, which could have been mounted in a Tiger tank or used defensively as an anti-tank gun. All of the men manning those guns could have been filling out the depleted infantry divisions in the East.
While the allies do not have ground forces on the Continent, Stalin should be happy that his army will not have to fight the men and material that would otherwise comprise several infantry and panzer divisions, along with supporting fighter cover. The Soviet margin of victory at Kursk was quite thin. That margin was provided by the “round the clock bombing of Europe.”