coast of the island at Station Cerda, five miles east of Termini Imerese, taking thirteen days to move from south coast to north coast. The division then moved east along the coast, reaching its objective of Santo Stefano on 30 July. Here they were stormed by the Germans, but fought back, forcing the German rear guard out of the area by the following morning. This was the end of active fighting for the 45th in Sicily, where the division endured 1,156 casualties while taking nearly 11,000 prisoners. The Third Infantry Division was moved in to replace the 45th, which was now ticketed for the upcoming invasion of the Italian mainland. In recalling events on Sicily in his biography, Middleton noted a strain in his relationship with General Patton. Patton, never comfortable as the brunt of someone else's humor, felt that the Mauldin cartoons published in the division newspaper were irreverent and unsoldierly. Middleton consistently defended Mauldin, but was verbally ordered by Patton to get rid of Mauldin and his cartoons. When Middleton told Patton to put the order in writing, the issue was dropped. Soon thereafter, Patton had much more to worry about after he slapped two soldiers who he suspected of malingering in hospitals. These incidents brought General Patton public condemnation, and loss of his command. Italian mainland The month of August 1943 was used by the 45th Division for some rest and planning. Seven plans for the invasion of Italy were put on the table, and three of them were adopted, of which the British had two (Operation Baytown and Operation Slapstick) and the Americans had one, called Operation Avalanche. The 45th Division would be under Major General Ernest J. Dawley's U.S. VI Corps, within the U.S. Fifth Army commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark. The plan called for the landing of the Allied forces in the vicinity of Salerno, Italy, about 200 miles north of Sicily. The first Allied landings on the beach occurred on 9 September, with two regiments of Middleton's 45th Infantry Division, the 157th and 179th Infantry, landing the following day. The other regiment of the division, the 180th, would land at a different point and be held in reserve by Clark. Middleton was responsible for ten miles of beachhead between the British X Corps and the U.S. 36th Infantry Division. The German defensive positions pounded the Allies, who gained little ground in