Saturday, June 24, 2023

Photographs: Invasion of Sicily, July 1943 (2)

 Imperial War Museum (IWM) Has 1,000,000 Photographs...

(Surely!) Just From the Invasion of Sicily, July 1943

If you lived today in Caltanissetta, "a city in the heart of Sicily," you
would be reminded of the ferocity of battle for the island during WWII.
Photo: Used with permission of Fabrizio Sergi, Film Director, from Santa
Teresa di Riva, 2023 (Very rare, i.e., not from the Imperial War Museum!)

Introduction:

As I continue to share posts of the battle for Sicily (Operation Husky, beginning July 10, 1943), using news clippings from The (Montreal) Gazette, a few photographs from various sources are also included... but their quality is usually very poor, especially when compared to the vast collection of excellent photographs available at the IWM.

So, I will occasionally share, as below, high quality shots found under various headings that compliment the flood of clippings already provided (with many, many more to follow).

Heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN SICILY 1943 NA 5924 IWM 1/1
 Private Stanley Davis of 5th Seaforth Highlanders rides a pack mule with a
swastika emblem branded on the mule's neck, 16 August 1943. The animals were
now being employed by 51st Highland Division in the hilly terrain near Mt Etna.
(Above are three separate links: Please click on Heading, Sgt. Drennan,
and No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section (etc.) for more excellent shots)

The back side of photo NA 5924 (Credit IWM 3/3)

Before Pte. Stanley Davis (or Davies) found his mule, there's the possibility he'd first hitched a ride to shore aboard a Canadian landing craft, i.e., either the 55th or 61st Flotilla of Landing Crafts, Assault (LCAs). And after the initial landing, all of his supplies - right down to the last bullet he ever fired in Sicily - were delivered to shore via the 80th* or 81st Canadian Flotillas of Landing Crafts, Mechanised (LCMs). 

In St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 45, Volume 1 (page 144) we read the following:

From Force G Conference Report by Acting Cmdr. K.S. Maclachlan, RCNVR
(5th Seaforths is part of the 51st Highland Division)

*Doug Harrison (my father), of Norwich ONT was a member of the 80th Flotilla

Heading -  THE ALLIED INVASION OF SICILY, JULY - AUGUST 1943
The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: Troops of the German XV
Panzer Grenadier march through undergrowth in the Sicilian Mountains,
August 1943. Creator - German official photographer MH 6301 IWM 

Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5286 IWM
The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: A panoramic view of the 
Catania Plain. Through the mist in the distance is Mount Etna. Gladstone (Sgt). 

Heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5545 IWM
General Montgomery stops his car to talk to Royal Engineers working
on a road near Catania, 2 August 1943. Gladstone (Sgt) 

Heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5083 IWM
A Bishop 25-pdr self-propelled gun of 142nd Field Regiment firing, 27 July 1943.

Heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5387 IWM
Universal carriers of the 6th Inniskillings, 38th Irish Brigade, 78th Division
in Centuripe, August 1943. Gade, Richard Felix (Captain)

An article by Canadian war correspondent Ross Munro tells us about the action a few weeks before the photo above was taken:


Note to Self: When I pack for my trip to Sicily in July (beginning one month from today!) be sure to pack an umbrella. 

More photographs from the Imperial War Museum follow:

Heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN SICILY 1943 - NA 4979 IWM
Signaller W. Bale working on his jeep using an umbrella for shade, 23 July 1943.

8. Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - CNA 1098 IWM
The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: The first Royal Air Force 
Supermarine Spitfire lands at an airfield, converted from a wheat field,
watched by Sicilian farmers who are working on the harvested wheat.

Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - NA 3947 IWM
Planning and Preparations January - July 1943: A DUKW amphibious vehicle
is loaded onto a landing craft at Sousse Harbour. The Sicilian Campaign was
the first to use the American DUKW* and it proved vital in maintaining the supply
link between the sea and land based forces. Creator - Dawson (Sergeant)

*DUKW is the GM manufacturer's code based on D indicating the model year, 1942; U referring to the body style, utility (amphibious); K for all-wheel drive; and W for dual rear axles. )Called a “duck,” the vehicle was shaped like a boat.)

FYI. If used appropriately, the DUKW could prove "vital in maintaining the supply link between the sea and land based forces" as mentioned in the caption with the above photo. However, if misappropriated...

Headline (This Just In!): Ducks Misappropriated by Yanks

From address to Maritime Museum of Vancouver, 1995, by Lt. Cdr. L. Williams,
RCNVR. (re Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Italy at Salerno, Sept. 9, 1943)

From St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War, page 199

Lesson learned?

Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - CNA 1293 IWM
The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: Chandelier flares light up
an Allied airfield during a night raid by Axis bombers. Bombs are bursting and
a column of smoke rises into the night sky from a fire. Creator - Daventry (F/O)

Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5130 IWM
The Drive for Messina 10 July - 17 August 1943: A huge dump of German
Teller mines captured by the Americans near Roccopalunba during their drive
on Palermo. Creator - Whicker (Lt)

Heading - THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943 - NA 5543 IWM
Operation Husky: The Sicily Landings 9 - 10 July 1943: An Airborne
Division Horsa glider, after landing off course nose down in a field near
Syracuse. Although unsuccessful in achieving their primary objectives, the
Airborne forces did cause considerable disruption behind the lines.*

*"considerable disruption" and considerable destruction to glider pilots, materials of war, and all those on board. These things went hand in hand.

In memoirs my father writes about July 10, 1943 (D-Day Sicily):

"July 10, 1943. We arrived off Sicily in the middle of the night and stopped about four miles out. Other ships and new LCIs (landing craft infantry), fairly large barges, were landing troops. Soldiers went off each side of the foc’sle, down steps into the water and then ashore, during which time we saw much tracer fire. This was to be our worst invasion yet....

A signal came through, i.e., “Do not fire on low flying aircraft, they are ours and towing gliders.” What, in the dark? Next morning, as we slowly moved in, we saw gliders everywhere. I saw them sticking out of the water, crashed on land and in the vineyards. In my twenty-seven days there I did not see a glider intact."

From "Dad, Well Done" page 31

In St. Nazaire to Singapore, Volume 1 (a collection of WWII Navy/Combined Ops veterans' stories re WWII) is found the following photograph and excerpt from page 181:



And who towed the decomposing bodies, "mermen in the greeny blue depths... over to the landing beach?" Men like my father, with landing crafts at HOW and GEORGE Sectors, July 1943. 

One of the new, larger landing crafts, a Landing Craft (for Infantry, Large (LCI(L), first used at Sicily, I believe:

Heading - THE INVASION OF SICILY JULY 1943 - NA 4513 IWM
British troops go ashore from an infantry landing ship, 10 July 1943. 

The last two recent photos are used with permission from Fabrizio Sergi, Film Director, from Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicily, as a reminder that the effects of WWII are lasting in many ways:



More photographs and news from 'the Med' to follow shortly.

Please click here to view Photographs: Invasion of Sicily, July 1943 (1)

Unattributed Photos GH

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