This Military Service Page was created/owned by
LTC Harry G Cramer, III
to remember
Blanchard, Henry Nathan, Jr., CPT.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Mobile
Casualty Date Jun 17, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Location France
Conflict WWII - European Theater of Operations/Normandy Campaign (1944)
Location of Interment American Cemetery - Normandy, France
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Sicily Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
July / 1943
To Month/Year
August / 1943
Description (Sicily Campaign 9 July to 17 August 1943) In preparation for the invasion of Sicily the Allies captured the islands in the Sicilian strait, with aerial bombardment forcing the capitulation of Pantelleria on 11 June 1943. By that time Allied air power had begun the attack on Sicily by bombing defenses and airfields. The invasion itself got under way on the night of 9/10 July with airborne landings that were followed the next day by an amphibious assault. The enemy offered strong resistance, but the Allies had superiority in the air and soon had planes operating from Sicilian bases to support Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Patton’s Seventh.
Interdictory operations against communications in Italy and between Italy and Sicily convinced the enemy that it would be impossible to move strong reinforcements. By 17 August 1943 the Allies were in possession of the island, but they had not been able to prevent a German evacuation across the Strait of Messina.
