Nazis surrender Pantelleria Island to Allies

By Nick Wahoff Contributing Writer

This week, eighty years ago, the Allies captured Pantelleria Island, located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa, clearing the way for the invasion of Sicily.

On Nov. 8, 1942, American and British forces stormed the beaches of North Africa. Since the United States entered the war almost a year earlier, the Soviet Union had pressed the Western Allies to create a second front against Germany and its Axis partners. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (“Ike”), commander-in-chief of the

Allied Expeditionary Force, sought to destroy the Axis armies in Africa to expose Southern Europe to Allied assault.

Before any assault on Europe could take place, Eisenhower would need to take care of Italian Sicily and the small islands in the middle of the Mediterranean known as “Bomb Alley.” These islands held Axis airfields used to attack Allied ships.

The Italian island of Pantelleria, 9 miles long and 5 miles wide, is strate-