On July 10, 1943, twenty thousand Canadian soldiers joined two great Allied armies on the beaches of southern Sicily for Operation Husky -- the first western Allied thrust to win a toehold inside HItler's Fortress Europe.

Guarding the renowned Eighth Army's left flank, 1st Canadian Infantry division and 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade struck out from the sand into the island's rugged interior. In searing heat, these untried troops clashed in ever-intensifying battle to wrest towering mountains and ancient hill towns away from the elite veterans of Germany's Hermann Goring and 1st Parachute divisions.

When Eighth Army's main drive up Sicily's eastern coast stalled, General Montgomery ordered the Canadians to save the day by turning the German left flank. The fighting reached a fever pitch as the Canadians struggled to break through a series of German defensive lines. Celebrated military historian Mark Zuehlke vividly recreates this little-known campaign, which became the Canadian Army's first triumph of World War II.