The island, starting on August 11. XIV Panzer Corps reached the mainland safely, despite Allied naval and air superiority. Bradley’s troops entered Messina on August 16. WGFJ.
Sidewinder missile. Simple US infrared homing air to air missiles first deployed in 1956. They made their combat debut in Nationalist Chinese hands against the communists in 1958 and have seen much operational use. Originally designated AIM-9, the missile has been progressively improved and is now in its AIM-9M version. AIM-9L missiles, with their ability to be fired at relatively long range from a variety of angles, were the major factor in the victory of the Royal Navy’s Sea Harriers in the Falklands War.
Sidi Barrani, Battle of (December 6—11 1940). The advance of Gen Berti’s Italian Tenth Army into Egypt (September 13-18 1940), opposed only by light forces of British 7th Armoured Division’s Support Group (Gott), halted at Sidi Barrani while Berti built up logistic resources. On the night of December 8-9, 4th Indian and 7th Armoured Divisions of British Western Desert Force (O’Connor), having advanced undetected from Mersa Matruh across 100 miles (160km) of desert, surprised Berti’s fortified camps. Unnerved by O’Connor’s apparently invulnerable “I” (Matilda) tanks, the Italians collapsed (33,000 prisoners) and Berti withdrew to Cyrenaica.
Sidi Bou Zid, Battle of (February 14—17 1943). Von Arnim mounted an offensive with 10th Panzer and 21st Panzer Divisions (Lt Gen Ziegler), to neutralize the threat posed by II US Corps (Fredendall) to Axis communications in southern Tunisia. Ziegler surprised 1st US Armoured Division and drove it out of Sidi Bou Zid. American counterattacks were repulsed with heavy losses, seriously undermining American morale just before Rommel attacked the nearby Kas-serine Pass.
Sidi Rezegh, First Battle of
(November 19-22 1941). Having taken Sidi Rezegh airfield, 7th Armoured Brigade hoped to link up with the Tobruk garrison, but
Rommel concentrated 21st Panzer and the Afrika Divisions to destroy the isolated British brigade. 7th Armoured Division’s Support Group (“Jock” Campbell) reached the airfield just in time to help resist the German attacks. After two days of some of the fiercest fighting of the Desert War, in which Campbell won his vc, the survivors managed to withdraw as darkness fell on November 22.
Sidi Rezegh, Second Battle of
(November 29-December 1 1941). While Rommel was making his dash to the Egyptian frontier, the New Zealand Division reoccupied Sidi Rezegh, hoping to link up the Tobruk garrison. Rommel returned to bring the whole weight of the tired but still battle-worthy Afrika Korps to bear on the New Zealanders. After three days’ hard fighting, the New Zealanders withdrew, but they had brought Rommel to the point of acknowledging that he could no longer maintain the siege of Tobruk.
Siegfried Line. In autumn 1917 the Germans began the construction of a major defence line, the “Siegfried Stellung” (Siegfried Line), between Lens and Reims on the northern sector of the Western Front. In 1938, the name was applied to the extensive defence (officially the “West Wall”) under construction along Germany’s western frontiers, running approximately from east of Basel to Karlsruhe, west to Luxembourg, and east along the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. Originally intended to defend the re-annexed Saar region in 1936, it was expanded to become a German counterpart to the Maginot Line. It primarily consisted of mines, tank traps and a thick band of pillboxes. Nazi propaganda elevated these fortifications, known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line, to an impregnable barrier. Left largely untouched during the “Phoney War”, four years later it formed the last bastion of Germany against the Anglo-American armies. Although far weaker than both Hitler and the Allies believed, it was not fully breached until spring 1945. MS.
Sigint. Intelligence secured from signal activity through decipher or traffic analysis.
Sihanouk, Prince Norodom
(h. l922). Cambodian. The French arranged for Prince Sihanouk to succeed his father’s first cousin as King of Cambodia in 1941, believing him pliable. However, the young king became assertive, manoeuvred the French into granting Cambodia full independence in 1953, and abdicated in 1955 to become Premier of a constitutional monarchy. Brilliant, charming, vain, mercurial, Sihanouk continued to enjoy the charisma of kingship, ruling Cambodia in paternalistic, imperious fashion. His paramount diplomatic objective was to keep Cambodia out of the conflicts of its neighbours. This he sought to do by declaring Cambodia neutral and bending with the prevailing wind {see CAMBODIA, WARS SINCE INDEPENDENCE; SIHANOUK trail). Overthrown on March 18 1970, he settled in China, joined forces with the Khmers Rouges, and returned to Phnom Penh in 1975. The Khmers Rouges kept him under virtual house arrest until the Vietnamese invasion of December 1978. Sihanouk subsequently headed the triparite Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, which was opposed to the Vietnamese. WST.
Sihanouk Trail. In 1966, the Vietnamese communists began using the Cambodian port of Sihanouk-ville (Kompong Som), with Prince Noiyodom Sihanouk’s consent, to supply their bases on Cambodia’s border with South Vietnam. Chinese and Soviet bloc ships brought most of the supplies to the port, where the Royal Cambodian Army took charge of warehousing. Barges, sampans and the Hak Ly Trucking Company provided haulage to the Parrot’s Beak for distribution to other bases and to units inside South Vietnam. By the late 1960s, the bulk of communist war material in lower South Vietnam was entering from Cambodia, mostly from Sihanouk-ville. US intelligence was slow to discover the “trail”, and the US government, reluctant to exercise belligerent rights at sea in an undeclared limited war, eschewed blockade. Conservative elements in the Cambodian government forced Sihanouk to close the trail in April 1969. WST.
World History
