The assault on 10 July 1943 opened with large-scale airborne operations; the paratroopers of the 505th Parachute Infantry were carried to battle by Douglas C-47s of the 51st Wing, NAAF Troop Carrier Command. Tactical aircraft from NAAF were busy over the heads of the invasion fleet and ahead of the assault, flying 5,000 combat sorties during that phase. The Allies had seized and held air superiority; the Luftwaffe had evacuated what they had left to the mainland, and there was not a single serious air attack on the invaders.

Patton's Seventh Army and Montgomery's Eighth landed under air cover that was part of a model campaign. Before the landing, Allied air power had reduced enemy resistance, pounded the airfields, destroyed most of the aircraft, and cut the lines of communications. During the assault, tactical aircraft patrolled above the fleet and protected the beachheads, while the transports moved the paratroopers to their landing zones. Then the task turned to support of the invasion, bombing and strafing ahead of the troops, and flying interdiction missions to cut lines of communication and isolate the battle.

Sicily fell in 38 days. The beaten Germans had been harassed every foot of the way back to the ferries and across the Strait of Messina into their mainland retreats.