In May 1061, under the cover of darkness broken up only by the stars, a handful of small

transport vessels struck out from the larger fleet they'd been attached to, slipping over

the Straits of Messina from Reggio on the Italian mainland.

Rolling waves of the Mediterranean, lapping gently around them.

Under the overall command of the Duke of Apulia, Robert Giscard, the thousands of Normans

prowling the decks of the still stationary larger vessels had been eyeing up the island of Sicily

for decades.

And now, after major victories throughout the 1050s, they'd been legitimized by the Pope in Rome

to reconquer the island from the Arab Emirate that had held it for two centuries.

An ancient land of mountain valleys and crystal blue seas.

As dawn rose over the bay, the Arab and Berber defenders on the coast saw little difference

in the main fleet, still loudly preparing for an invasion of their island.

Lombard stable boys tending to fierce war horses, Greek mariners hoisting

sails and above all, Norman knights sharpening swords and joking with each other on deck.

All seemed normal.

Down by the shore meanwhile, obscured by sand dunes and tall grass.

The men on the little boats moved quickly and carefully.

They knew the winding paths and twisting gullies of the coastline well,

having already raided in the area twice over the past year.

Some of them may have even been veterans from the last Christian attempt to retake the island

under the Byzantine general George Maniacase in 1040.

A lot had changed in the two decades since that attack, whereas those grizzled veterans had been fighting under the command of William

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