Operation Lehrgang (German: Unternehmen Lehrgang) was the evacuation of German and Italian forces from Sicily during World War II. Undertaken in mid-August 1943, Lehrgang evacuated just over 100,000 soldiers from Sicily, which had been the target of an Allied amphibious invasion since July.
Lehrgang was the codename given by German forces for the evacuation of Axis forces from Sicily, undertaken between 11 August and 17 August, 1943.[3]: 1114 After the beginning of the Allied invasion of Sicily ("Operation Husky"), it was quickly determined by OKW and the commander-in-chief of Army Group C (which contained all German forces in Italy), Albert Kesselring, that a repetition of the mass surrender of German forces at the end of the Tunisian campaign in May 1943 had to be avoided, and that an organized withdrawal from Sicily was preferable over a defense to the last man. The first official indication of Lehrgang's preparation was a meeting by senior operations officers in Frascati (Central Italy) chaired by Siegfried Westphal, Kesselring's chief of staff, who gave the operational details about Lehrgang.[4]: FN21 The evacuation plan was approved by Kesselring on 2 August and its execution authorized by him to the German commander of Axis forces in Sicily, Hans-Valentin Hube, on 8 August.[5]: 11
The evacuation between 11 and 17 August included 39,569 Wehrmacht troops with their weapons, 9,065 vehicles, 27 tanks, 94 heavy guns, 1,100 tons of ammunition, 970 tons of fuel. Between 3 and 17 August, a total of 62,000 Italian soldiers also reached the Italian mainland from Sicily.[3]: 1114 The operation was overseen by Gustav Freiherr von Liebenstein, the Seetransportführer (See Transport Leader) for the Strait of Messina.[4]
In spite of Allied air attacks, losses were very low due to sufficient Axis anti-aircraft coverage.[6]: 345
^Citino, Robert M. (2012). The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943. University Press of Kansas. ISBN9780700618262.
^ abSchreiber, Gerhard (2007). "Das Ende des nordafrikanischen Feldzugs und der Krieg in Italien 1943 bis 1945". In Frieser, Karl-Heinz (ed.). Die Ostfront 1943/44: Der Krieg im Osten und an den Nebenfronten. Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (in German). Vol. 8. Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. pp. 1100–1162. ISBN9783421062352.
^ abD'Este, Carlo (1988). Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 1943. HarperCollins. ISBN9780061940811.
^ abZaloga, Steven J. (2013). Sicily 1943: The Debut of Allied Joint Operation. Osprey Publishing. ISBN9781780961279.
^Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1974). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945, Volume Two: 1943–1945. Arco Publishing. ISBN9780668034012.
