Pachino Stalemate

During the opening hours of Operation Husky, many of the towns and ports intended to be cleared and captured remained stubbornly in Axis control. Progress could be measured in kilometers during the invasion; it took five days for Allied forces to break the stalemate at Pachino and advance to Gramichelle, less than a kilometer an hour, in part due to the stubbornness of their foe and in equal measure due to the thoroughness of their mine-laying.