The Invasion of the Toe of Italy's Boot, Beginning Sept. 3, 1943
Articles, Context from The Winnipeg Tribune, Sept. 6, '43
Starring "Miss Canada" and a Darn Good Rum Story
"Sit tight for your rum ration," says the coxs'n. "I can only pour one at a time!"
Photo - The Winnipeg Tribune, Sept. 6, 1943, my father's 23rd birthday
(More about rum, to follow)
Introduction:
D-Day Italy was on September 3, 1943. And three days later, on D-Day +3, my father turned 23, while knee deep in ferrying duties with Canada's 80th Landing Craft Flotilla.
At that time Allied troops and materials of war were crossing the narrow passage of water between Sicily to the toe of Italy's boot unhindered by menace from the Luftwaffe or German fire power on the ground.
About the early days of September's Allied invasion my father writes:
In the morning light on our second trip to Italy (on D-Day) across seven miles of the Messina Straits we saw how the Allied artillery barrage across the straits had levelled every conceivable thing. Not a thing moved, the devastation was unbelievable and from day one we had no problems. It was easy come, easy go from Sicily to Italy...
About half of the Canadian sailors went back to England after the Sicilian campaign. That left about 125 to work about a month across the straits. During that time we received mail and parcels. We worked alongside captured Italian and Sicilian soldiers who were loading our landing craft, egged on by Sweet Caporal cigarettes and some canned food. There were no P.O.W. camps and prisoners wandered freely. The Germans had made good their well- planned escape ahead of the invasion. On occasion during the action along the beaches at Sicily and the quieter time at Italy, we often saw big green turtles swimming about. They didn’t know there was a war on.
And about his birthday he adds the following:
Some buddies and I spent my 23rd birthday singing our lungs out in a cottage-style house near the beach (in Messina), complete with a piano but incomplete with no roof. I had my guitar along and we all had some vino.
Some buddies and I spent my 23rd birthday singing our lungs out in a cottage-style house near the beach (in Messina), complete with a piano but incomplete with no roof. I had my guitar along and we all had some vino.
About midnight with the hilarity in full swing, thunder rolled, the skies opened and the first rain in months came pouring in. Soaked inside and out we headed to where we belonged, singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home” as big as life and twice as natural.
("Dad, Well Done", page 114 - 116)
("Dad, Well Done", page 114 - 116)
While the happy band of Canadian sailors (members of RCNVR and Combined Operations) headed for their hammocks, Canadian soldiers (members of Canada's First Division) headed for the hills - according to a front page headline as found in The Winnipeg Tribune (link to the digitized version at the University of Manitoba).
News from the day and The Tribune continues, including one of the finest pieces related to Canadians in Combined Operations (especially members of the Canadian 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts) - written by Dick Sanburn.
But first, more news from Canadian war correspondent Ross Munro:
The Allies make progress inland, from an Associated Press (U.S.) point-of-view:
Time will tell.
This is not the first time I have presented the following fine news article by Tribune War Correspondent Dick Sanburn. But if readers are seeing it for the first time, please note the many names of Canadian sailors (officers and ratings) that Sanburn has carefully listed.
Several of the names of officers and ratings already mentioned above are familiar to me and perhaps to regular visitors to this site:
Lieut. Jake Koyl
Sub.-Lieut. Ian Barclay
Able Seaman Lloyd Evans
Leading Seaman Don Westbrook
Able Seaman Joe Malone
Canadians in Comb. Ops circa 1942-43, on landing craft hanging from davits.
Back, L - R: unknown, P. Bowers, Lloyd Evans, Don Westbrook
Front, L - R: Don Linder, unknown, A/S Doug Harrison
Photo Credit - From the collection of Lloyd Evans
I have added another two photos here to provide readers with a look at two other sailors mentioned. And please click here to read an earlier presentation regarding Dick Sanburn's news column, in which I share background details re several of the Canadians in Combined Ops that he spoke with for his September 6th report:
Photo - Lloyd Evans (original possibly from The Ottawa Citizen)
Navy No. 1 baseball team, at Canada's only Comb. Ops training camp in
Comox, B.C. circa 1944-45. Front, L - R: Doug Harrison, Joe Malone,
unknown, Art Warrick, Joe Spencer. Photo Credit - D. Harrison
Back, far right - Chuck Rose, mentioned in last story re Miss Canada
Mr. Sanburn continues:
Paul Kern Lee, another U.S. war correspondent, provides details "up close and personal " regarding some of the happenings re prisoners aboard Allied landing crafts.
Next we see a link between Commando forces and the Combined Operations (C.O.) organization. COHQ was in London, England. My father said he trained with commandos, and like commandos, but was not a commando:
In the previous post (link below, at bottom of this post) there was mention of the sabotage re Italian railroad lines. Now those same lines are a prize in the hands of the Allies:
"Rosie the Riveter" hard at work!
Frankly, Sinatra's work was cut out for him too! Look at him sweat!!
Some would say that there was one naval tradition that stood out from all the rest:
Now, about that naval tradition concerning "a daily issue of rum."
Did everyone take a rum ration? No. Some abstained and banked a few extra pennies per day.
How easy was it to get "seconds"? Almost impossible.
Has anyone got a story about "rum gone missing" or officers having to do without while ratings enjoyed seconds and even - oh, I'm a wishful thinker, eh - thirds? Step right up.
Round about the middle of July, 1943, while Canadians in Combined Ops (55th, 61st, 80th and 81st Canadian Flotillas; about 250 sailors in all) were transporting soldiers and goods from cargo ships to beaches on Sicily's coast during Operation HUSKY (beginning July 10, amid much opposition from the Luftwaffe), a special delivery was made to my father's Landing Craft Mechanised (LCM).
Map as found in Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks
Post questions/comments below or write me at gordh7700@gmail.com
Dad writes:
Late that same night, we were resting aboard ship, trying to round up some food and comforting a chap with a terrible toothache, when suddenly the sky all along the beach lit up like a ball diamond at night. A German plane - with its engine cut - had coasted overhead and dropped chandelier flares. Amidst the racket of ack-ack fire we all abandoned ship, toothache and all, and headed our landing craft out of the convoy. We knew the bombers would swiftly take advantage of the lighted sky.
A few miles up the beach we anchored our craft, took out our saltwater soap and went for a swim while all Hell broke loose down the beach. The word got around somehow that I had rum and before long I had more friends than you could shake a stick at.
A fool and his rum are soon parted, but for a few nights we slept in the lap of the gods. In the wartime Navy, a sailor is rated as either G or T (Grog or Temperance). If Temperance, the sailor gets extra pay of six cents a day. Suddenly, every darn one is G, but as I said, we all slept well and although my head was splitting, I took it in good part. We needed each other. In the early morning it was back to the firing line.
“DAD, WELL DONE” Naval Memoirs of G.D. Harrison, Page 104
“DAD, WELL DONE” Naval Memoirs of G.D. Harrison, Page 104
Word probably leaked out that Dad had a bit of extra rum after he provided a big dose to the "chap with a terrible toothache." I say that because he shares the rum story in a book containing dozens of veterans' stories (i.e., Canadians in RCNVR and Combined Operations) and adds more detail about "poor Tommie!"
Dad writes:
Question: Did the rum reach the Officers’ Mess?
P.S. I certainly did not help drink the Officers’ rum and I never will again...
One evening just after we had supper aboard ship, one of our shipmates, Tommy Enright, was seen running a few steps, then deliberately slamming his head into the bulkhead of the ship. After two or three trips we thought he had gone off the deep end.
I asked him what in hell was the matter. He replied that he had an unbearable toothache and was trying to get out of the pain by trying to knock himself out.
We had no dentist or doctor available. We scrounged around for some pain killers. However, we were able to get into him a big slug of rum; Tommy was a non-drinker. The pain was doused and we watched him drift off into a deep slumber. Poor Tommie!
St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Vol. 2, Page 377
And "Poor Officers Mess!" Soon thereafter their rum was gone!
Two volumes of veterans' tales, as rare as hens' teeth.
Check AbeBooks for details re Volume 2.
Last but definitely not least, a "Miss Canada" story, about a Canadian landing craft referred to by Dick Sanburn in his most informative article, presented above, in which he writes the following:
John E. Rimmer, a member of the 80th Flotilla, writes the following adventure related to the crew of LCM 1022 (landing craft, mechanised) during the very early days of Operation Husky (beginning July 10, 1943), the invasion of Sicily:
St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War, Vol. 1
More information about Operation Baytown and the invasion of Italy - and the Canadians who participated on foot, in the air or aboard landing crafts - soon to follow.
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