From HUSKY to AVALANCHE: May--Mid-August 1943 Although TRIDENT
did not settle the role the Mediterranean was to play in long-
range European strategy, the need for deciding the size, timing,
and direction of immediate operations in the Mediterranean
became urgent. One effect of TRIDENT Was to speed preparations
for the invasion of Sicily. By the close of the conference,
operational planning for HUSKY was taking final shape. The
Germans had at last been defeated in Tunisia, and the Allied
headquarters in Algiers could turn its full attention to Sicily.
Pantelleria had been accepted as an intermediate objective, an
ad hoc, or modified, HUSKY had been rejected, and a full-scale
operation had been projected in accord with a plan developed by
General Eisenhower's staff. The final outline plan for Sicily,
approved by the CCS on 13 May during the TRIDENT meetings,
provided for British and American assaults against southern and
southeastern areas of the island. On 22 May, while the CCS were
still at the conference, Ge