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Randall Stiles-Family
to remember
Stiles, John Dwire, 1st Lt.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Bayard, Iowa
Last Address Kairouan Airfield, Tunisia
Casualty Date Jul 10, 1943
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Mediterranean Sea
Conflict World War II/Asian-Pacific Theater
Location of Interment Highland Cemetery - Bayard, Iowa
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.
