Sunday, October 8, 2023

Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (12)

 Monty's 8th and Canadian Forces are Well on the Move Northward

Many Great News Items on a "Not-So-Slow-News" Monday

"General Sir Bernard Montgomery standing on a DUKW amphibious vehicle
to address Canadian troops." Pachino, Italy (vicinity) July 11, 1943
Photo 21789 found in Album 61, Canadian Army Film Unit (CAFU)

Introduction:

Montgomery's Eighth and Canadian Army forces are headily steadily northward after multiple landings began on July 10, 1943, at multiple beaches, as part of Operation HUSKY. A few hundred members of RCNVR and Combined Operations were also involved in the landings, operating landing crafts to ferry British troops and all the materials of war (ammunition, fuel for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks, along with food, more fuel...) to such places as Fontane Bianche (GEORGE Sector with 80th Flotilla) and Gallina (HOW Sector with 81st Flotilla of Canadian landing crafts) along Sicily's eastern coast.

LIFE Magazine, August 1943 edition as found on display at "Allied
Landings in Sicily Museum" in Catania, Sicily. Photo GH

Readers, click here to peruse vintage copies of LIFE Magazine

Article re "British 8th Army Lands in Sicily" will appear in a future post.
Another map in the museum reveals the location of 'The Savoy', the
cattle cave inhabited by the 80th Flotilla for 2 -3 weeks. GH

Questions or comments re the landings along the east coast, The Savoy, the museum etc., can be addressed to GH at gordh7700@gmail.com

The news clippings that follow are from microfilm of The Montreal Gazette that is stored at the University of Western Ontario, a one-hour walk from my house. Many more walks lie ahead!

Catania is today home to a modern airport, a gateway to WWII research


Many readers are no doubt aware that photographs found on microfilm leave a lot to be desire, as above. That being said, more resources are available to us all in which better copies of particular photos can be found (e.g., at Imperial War Museum and Library and Archives Canada). Below we see Gen. Montgomery (2nd left) waiting for a cup of tea, I presume:

Gen. G. G. Simonds, General Officer Commanding 1st Canadian Infantry
Division, 3rd from left. Valguamera Italy (vicinity) July 17, 1943

Photo 21916 from Album 61, Canadian Army Film Unit.
Photographer's last name - Royal

Finally, a cup of tea for Monty:



Please click here for more details about the Stars and Stripes newspaper

After nine days the combined Allied forces already control "one-third of Sicily". Read all about it!



I guess "Hitler's secret flop" isn't a secret anymore:




Again, a few better-than-average photos can be found at Canadian Army Film Unit website:



By Canadian Army photographer (last name) Stirton, June '43

Warning! Keep your head down!


The "hundreds of Canadians" who had experiences with snipers includes Canadians in Combined Ops who manned landing craft in GEORGE Sector, beginning July 10, 1943. My father writes:

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.


From "Dad, Well Done" pages 31 - 32

While visiting GEORGE Sector or Beach in September 2023 I spotted more than one location within sight of the landing zone that may have given Canadians quite the fright:



Four pill boxes at GEORGE Beach are circled in yellow, and my son and I found
the one that's farthest left inside the circle. Original 1943 reconn photo is from the
book St. Nazaire to Singapore, the Canadian Amphibious War, Vol. 1
pg. 179. Please compare it to the earlier photos shared from LIFE Magazine

Hopefully, this hospital ship - Canada's first vessel in the Mediterranean - survived the war!


Not all hospital ships survived the war. HMHS Talamba did not survive the first two days of Operation HUSKY, as noted in earlier posts re The Montreal Gazette's news clippings. 

And as we well know, Adolf Hitler did not survive the war either!

The Allied armada that stormed Sicily was the largest
in history up to that point in time

High praise in this article for the Merchant Navy, also known as 'the forgotten navy'. When beginning my study of my father's 'navy days, WWII' I actually thought he was a member of the Merchant Navy, which would have been, of course, no small thing. But little did I know! He was, however, a member (1 of about 1,000) of 'the almost forgotten navy', as a member of RCNVR who also volunteered for Combined Operations and were therefore, as some say, on loan to the Royal Navy. 


(One of my father's naval heroes was Admiral Nelson; the barracks he stayed in while training in Halifax was known as 'Nelson Barracks'; he was very proud to sail under 'the white ensign' as well, a symbol of the Royal Navy. "Not a bad outfit," he would have said. Click here to read a brief history of the white ensign).

"Don't call me a donkey. Call me up a mule!!"


The exact same "regiment of long-faced Sicilian mules" mentioned above may not appear below, but I bet they are related in some way:

Personnel of the Support Company of the Royal Canadian Regiment,
riding mules near Regalbuto, August, 1943. Photo 22522, Album 61 
Canadian Army Film Unit, Photographer Smith

Please note - in the above photo and the one following - the large quantity of cactus plants lining the roads in 1943. 

Personnel of the Support Company, Royal Canadian Regiment, riding on mules
used to transport supplies and casualties, near Regalbuto, August 3, 1943
Photo 22529, Album 61 Canadian Army Film Unit, Photographer Smith

re the cacti: They line the roads and rail lines in many places I visited along the eastern coast of Sicily in September, 2023, 80 years later:



The small fruit of the cactus can be cleaned, sold, then cut into tasty morsels

More long faces!

Personnel of the Pioneer Platoon, Support Company, Royal Canadian Regiment,
using mules to transport supplies in mountainous terrain near Regalbuto, July 31
1943. Photo 22526, Album 61 Canadian Army Film Unit, Photographer Smith

It's true, everyone enjoys a parade. Especially if Allied troops "swing through the town."

Special Note: "Sicilians are islanders and have little patriotic feeling toward 
Italy." The same is perhaps very true today. Plans to build a bridge between
Sicily and mainland Italy (at the toe of the boot) are hotly contested (GH)

Monty was earlier given his due, and a cup of tea. Now it's time to shine the spotlight on a Canadian commanding officer:


Gen. B. Montgomery and Gen. G. G. Simonds, General Officer Commanding
1st Canadian Infantry Division, Valguamera Italy (vicinity) July 17, 1943

Photo 21917 from Album 61, Canadian Army Film Unit.
Photographer's last name - Royal


The last news clipping for this day in 1943:


More rare, informative news clippings by Canadian war correspondents to soon follow.

Please click here to link to Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (11)

Unattributed Photos GH

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