Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (13)

Rome Targets Blasted, Monty Still a Favourite to Troops,

Gazette Correspondent Describes Eastern Coast of Sicily

Correspondent Lionel S. B. Shapiro, The (Montreal) Gazette, July 1943

Photo 21545, Photogr. Dolan, Album 61 from Can. Army Film Unit

with 1st Canadian Tank Brigade and Auxiliary Troops in 'The Med'

Shapiro penned the above book re the invasion of Sicily not

very long after returning from the Mediterranean Sea. GH

Introduction:

The above book is one of my favourites among several about Sicily and Italy. Shapiro was on or near the beaches in GEORGE Sector and may have accompanied Canadian troops to the toe of Italy's boot in September, with Canadian landing craft (80th flotilla) manned by Canadians sailors, including my father, leading the way. 

Shapiro's Gazette articles - quite lengthy, and under his own byline - will soon start to outweigh Ross Munro's (!) in future posts on this site. 

I was able to locate a few more photographs by CAFU (Canadian Army Film Unit) of Shapiro and the Sicilian coast during the first week or two of the invasion (HUSKY) and readers will spot a few as this post progresses.

And now for today's news!

FYI - Enna, mentioned above, is a city at the centre of the island's road and railroad network.

And, of course, Rome is the centre of attention as well, because of its numerous "freight yards and key railroad lines" and "the presence of Germans and their satellites":

Yes, this is the same fellow as pictured in the top photo  - on a Cook's tour - minus the sunglasses, binoculars and sensible Bermuda shorts:

Please note that Shapiro mentions his "Cook's tour" was only possible four days after the invasion of Sicily began. Below are a few words about the first three days by members of the Canadian Navy who transported troops and material of war to shores on the eastern coast:

Simcoe newspaper interview from Dec. 1943, sent to me by Joe Watson's

grand-daughter. Joe is in the middle of the top-of-blog photo. GH

My father wrote the following in memoirs about the same 'first three days':

We started unloading supplies with our LCMs about a half mile off the beach and then the worst began - German bombers. We were bombed 36 times in the first 72 hours - at dusk, at night, at dawn and all day long, and they said we had complete command of the air. We fired at everything. 

An LCM Mark III off Sicily, similar to the model my father manned or operated. 

A smaller LCP (landing craft, personnel) skims by behind. Photo A17955 IWM

My father continues:

I saw P38s, German and Italian fighters and my first dogfights. Stukas blew up working parties on the beach once when I was only about one hundred feet out. Utter death and carnage. Our American gun crews had nothing but coffee for three or four days and stayed close to their guns all the time. I give them credit.

Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie (truck), we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST (landing ship tank) loaded with bofors (guns) opened up and scared off the planes, or we were gone if the bullets had hit the gas cans. I was hiding behind a truck tire, so was Joe Watson of Simcoe. What good would that have done? "Dad, Well Done" pg. 31

Correspondent Shapiro "Near Syracuse" and possibly beside a bofors gun,

as found in Album 61, CAFU, Lt. Dolan, 14 July 1943

"Amphibious Jeeps, near Syracuse" ca July 1943. Photo 21537, 

Album 61, by Lt. Dolan, Canadian Army Film Unit (CAFU)

Amphibious jeep going ashore in Sicily, July 1943

Album 61, by Lt. Dolan, Canadian Army Film Unit

Canadian war correspondent Ross Munro is also on the scene. Monty appeared and addressed "the troops from his desert car:

"Where's the closest gas station, Mate?" Photo 22365, Album 61 CAFU

"Main Transportation Centre of Island in Allied Grasp." That's Enna mentioned again. Meanwhile, Canadians in Combined Ops are establishing supply centres along the eastern coast, but I don't think that will get mentioned anytime soon ; ) :

While writing memoirs in the 1970s my father recalled seeing P-38s over Sicily. They had a distinctive look, in my opinion:

Photos and details found at Wikipedia

Resistance to the bombing of Rome was to be expected. "Avoid ecclesiastical and archaeological damage!" Elsewhere, e.g., in central Sicily, resistance is crumbling rapidly:

Ross Munro covers another first, a head to head battle between Canadian and German troops:

Photo, likely from CAFU originally, as found in Lionel Shapiro's

book They Left the Back Door Open, facing page 31

Canadian troops are 'earning their keep' in Sicily:

Hey, does anybody else have a story about a barrage balloon?

FYI. I do. I.e., I have another story about a barrage balloon, from GEORGE Beach in Sicily, after the Allies gained control of the skies and Canadian sailors were into a steady routine of transporting goods from ship to shore:

Later we moved into a limestone cave, dank and wet, but safe from bombs. We hung a barrage balloon over it, about 1,000 feet up, and one sailor got drunk and shot it down but we had 50 - 60 feet of limestone over our heads. Dad, Well Done, page 33

Not a great story, but least a short one.

Another short one from Ross Munro:

Civilians "show genuine joy over the arrival of Allied armies."

Special note: I am sure not all civilians were joyful upon seeing Allied forces. When exploring a cave south of Syracuse (Siracusa, September 2023, 80 years after the invasion) with the help of a doctor and his friend, I exclaimed that my father likely had not lived inside it during the war (it was too small, too far away from GEORGE Beach...).

The words were just out of my mouth when the doctor told me his own thoughts.

"Allied bombs destroyed my mother's house, and a neighbour was killed that same day." 

Visible cars are seen to this day on buildings in town and villages throughout the island. Invisible scars are very close to the surface as well throughout the island. Lesson learned more deeply as the days went by.

Thoughts at the time about "air warfare":

Two "quick photographs... target pictures... air reconnaissance (photos)" tell a tale:

The 81st Flotilla of Canadian Landing Craft served at HOW Beaches, center.

The 80th Flotilla served at GEORGE Sector, right (north), just off the page.

81st at Beach 46 and 45. 80th Flotilla at Beach 44 (today Fontane Bianche)

Above two photographs found at very informative website COPP Survey

Clapper's Column continues:

Italian prisoners helping clear barbed wire, reportedly on Beach 44. 

Also found at COPP's Survey site: Photo source: © IWM NA4635

Beach 44, aka GEORGE Sector, looks a bit different today, as of September 2023 when my son and I visited. E.g., the swimming was perfect, the cold beer was perfect, the hospitality was perfect...

Looking north from a ridge that is not too far away from a new blue house

(seen in next photo) that is near the cave (The Savoy) in which  that my

father and Navy mates sheltered for about three weeks, for safety. GH

Blue house, atop a ridge far right, backs onto land once used for cattle grazing.

"The Savoy" was an old cattle cave, "dank and wet," but cool in the summer

Please click here to view Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (12)

More to follow from The Montreal Gazette, July - September, 1943

Unattributed Photos GH 

Memoirs: William N. "Bill" Katanna, Leading Stoker (1)

 "Bill" Katanna Rose Through the Ranks, from Dieppe to Italy

Key Member of the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts

William "Bill" N. Katanna (back left), Leading Stoker, RCNVR, Combined Ops

Editor's guess: Reggio di Calabria (toe of the boot of Italy), September, 1943

Photograph from collection of Susan Katanna (Bill's daughter)

Bill kept his LCMs in top shape for two invasions, Operations HUSKY (July) and

BAYTOWN; E.g., he transported Canadian and British troops from Messina to

Reggio di Calabria beginning September 10, 1943

Bill Katanna served in ''the Med" for three months, beginning in Sicily, July

10, 1943 for HUSKY, and then in Italy beginning Sept. 3 for BAYTOWN,

plying the strait from Messina to Reggio. Above 2 photos from Canadians

in the Italian Campaign, Facebook group

Introduction:

The name 'Katanna' stuck in my mind after seeing it on a rare Navy hammock along with my father's, and next in one of my father's stories about the invasion of Sicily. The hammock, displayed in the photo below, has a story attached to it, and when I was able to connect with W. N. Katanna's daughter in Manitoba (in spring 2023) I learned a bit more about the hammock's journey and a lot more about the man.

WWII Navy hammock, listing Katanna and Harrison side-by-each in third row.

Displayed upon request at the HMCS Naden Navy Museum, Esquimalt, B.C.

Note - the hammock once belonged to W. N. Katanna; his stencilled name is

partially hidden near top of the maple leaf. Photo - collection of GH

Next is an excerpt from a chapter re the invasion of Sicily (Operation HUSKY) from my father's memoirs ("Dad, Well Done", pages 31 - 32), depicting Katanna, Harrison and Joe Watson (Simcoe, Ontario) getting rattled around inside their LCM while transporting materials of war to GEORGE Beach, now modern day Fontane Bianche:

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. Those left aboard had to wait until daylight so we went fishing for an hour or more, but there were no fish.

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. We started unloading supplies with our LCMs about a half mile off the beach and then the worst began - German bombers. We were bombed 36 times in the first 72 hours - at dusk, at night, at dawn and all day long, and they said we had complete command of the air.

We fired at everything. I saw P38s, German and Italian fighters and my first dogfights. Stukas blew up working parties on the beach once when I was only about one hundred feet out. Utter death and carnage. Our American gun crews had nothing but coffee for three or four days and stayed close to their guns all the time. I give them credit.

The Russian Stoker on our ship, named Katanna, said "Dieppe was never like this!" and hid under a winch. Shrapnel and bombs just rained down.

Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie (truck), we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST (landing ship tank) loaded with bofors (guns) opened up and scared off the planes, or we were gone if the bullets had hit the gas cans. I was hiding behind a truck tire, so was Joe Watson of Simcoe. What good would that have done?

Our beach had machine gun nests carved out of the ever-present limestone, with slots cut in them to cover our beaches. A few hand grenades tossed in during the night silenced them forever.

Map is from August 2, 1943 issue of LIFE Magazine, on display at

"Allied Landings in Sicily, 1943 Museum" in Catania, Sicily. GH

Pill boxes still stand facing GEORGE Beach in Fontane Bianche. GH

(Please link to a YouTube video re modern day Fontane Bianche (translation: White Fountain). Creator of video is walking toward the above pill box, seen on the left 50 m ahead, at 1min:31sec.)

Looking across Strait of Messina from Mili Marina to Reggio, the waters

that W. N. Katanna would have been very familiar with in summer of '43

Susan Katanna has shared with me details re the rare Navy hammock in a letter she compiled initially for Commander E. R. Paquette (OMM CD), Director of CFB Esquimalt Navy and Military Museum, in her support of a display of WWII Navy pictures and materials to benefit the education of the general public, re Canadians in Combined Operations.

And about that one-of-a-kind hammock she writes the following:

"five (5) months" is disputed. Doug Harrison writes about boarding the

Silver Walnut no earlier than April, possibly May. So, 2 - 3 months est.

Questions, comments? Please address to gordh7700@gmail.com

Other members of the 80th and 81st Canadian Flotillas circled Africa

aboard different ships, e.g., HMS Keren and HMS Charmian (& more)

Note the name of the ship written north to south, right side of above shot

Bill Lindsay, 81st Flotilla, received the above certificate after crossing

the equator aboard HMS Charmian on his way around Africa to Sicily

Editor's note - 2nd from left, back row, is likely Ephus P. Murphy. 

See next photo with more of the 80th crew aboard Silver Walnut

More of the 80th Flotilla, including W. N. Katanna, are listed in the following photo taken in 1943 aboard SS Silver Walnut:

More to follow re Bill Katanna and family, including letters, reunions and more.

Please click here to read Memoirs: William Eccles, at D-Day France, Parts 1 - 4  re "A Front Row Seat on LCI(L) 295"

Unattributed Photos GH