Here's a bigger missed opportunity.
At least four He-111 Kampfgeschwader supported the German offensive at Kursk. That aircraft is marginal for CAS but it's an excellent torpedo bomber. Retrain the crews for maritime attack and throw them en mass against the Allied invasion of Sicily. APs (assault transports) and LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) are the only acceptable targets. Aircrew will specifically refrain from attacking warships.
Evening. 9 July 1943. Operation Husky Command Center. Malta.
"Eisenhower reviewed his options, lighting one damp cigarette from another. Staff officers calculated that if the invasion were postponed, two to three weeks would be needed to remount it. No doubt by then the enemy would be alert, and perhaps was already: the fighter control room inside the bastion reported a German reconnaissance plane near the fleet at 4:30 pm and another at 7:30."
Excerpt from "The Day of Battle" by Rick Atkinson.
About midnight. 10 July 1943. Gulf of Gela.
226 C-47s carrying U.S. 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment are fired upon by American troop transports and their naval escort. 23 aircraft are shot down before USN leaders regain control over AA gunners. As a result of this incident AA gunners are forbidden to shoot at aircraft until further notice.
About 0100. 10 July 1943. Gulf of Gela (Sicily).
Troop transports assigned to U.S. 7th Army anchor and begin to lower landing craft.
30 minutes later….
Four He-111 maritime attack Kampfgeschwader strike the anchored troop transports en mass using a combination of torpedoes and skip bombing. Thanks partly to confusion from firing on U.S. transport aircraft an hour earlier no AA guns open fire until the first assault transport blows up. U.S. 7th Army (Gen. Patton commanding) is destroyed before it can get ashore.