![]() Seventh Army controlled the entire western half of the island. ![]() It took only 72 hours to capture Palermo, and by July 24, the U.S. The Italian commander had pulled the other German panzer division out of western Sicily, leaving behind Italian troops with little interest in fighting. He pushed for permission to head north, toward the island's capital, Palermo, the capture of which would be a public-relations coup and provide a base of operations on the northern coast. Patton was irate that his line of advance had been blocked. The British force was told to cast farther west as it headed to the northeastern corner of the island, which would take it around the main resistance points. The British began to face stiffer resistance after July 13, and as the advance slowed, Montgomery convinced Alexander, the British general commanding the overall operation, to give him a broader front on which to advance. ![]() British forces progressed at a similar pace, but in the days after the landing they started finding more opposition, particularly from elite German paratroopers who had arrived from France. ![]()
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