| Summary: | The main objective of this thesis is to describe the problems and difficulties of an island population, which had suffered from extreme shortages of food and other basic necessities for a number of years and also endured months of intense aerial bombardment before being invaded by an Allied army which became engaged in fierce combat with the defending forces. The conquest of the island was followed by the establishment of the first Allied Military Government of an enemy territory in Europe in World War II. This government, a joint UK/US enterprise, also had its problems, caused not only by the war-torn conditions in Catania but by its inefficient and inept military headquarters in Algiers. The Civil Affairs Officers (CAOs) responsible for the administration had a duel task: to support the combat forces by ensuring roads were cleared for the passage of troops and to obtain supplies for them, and to keep law and order and relieve distress among the civilian population, the needs of the military always taking priority. The thesis aims to show the tenacious way in which the CAOs, in very restricted numbers, coped with acute shortages of food and other necessities, which Allied propaganda had promised the islanders, while the military forces, with only a few exceptions, were most unhelpful.
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