It Strikes Me Funny by G. Harrison: Editor's Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (32)

Montreal Gazette News Clippings Provide Context for "How

Goes the War" and "Where's Your Dad At in Malta?"

The (Montreal) Gazette, August 11, 1943. The series starts here.

Introduction:

This series of entries related to news clippings from The Gazette, providing some context for the three months that Canadians in Combined Operations served with Allied forces in Sicily (beginning July 10, 1943) and Italy (beginning September 3, ending in early October at the 'toe of the boot') will one day - not soon apparently!* - include 60-plus offerings, ending with the members of the 80th Canadian Flotilla of Landing Crafts (LCMs) returning to England for a well-earned leave. And since my father's memoirs touch on numerous instances of fun and frolic (and provide the names of several pubs in London where some of the fun and frolic took place, e.g., The Lord High Admiral) I will share a few stories in the "On Leave" section of the 'Directory A - Z' found in the right-hand margin.

*not soon - I have a few more issues of The Gazette on a handy USB-stick and will, hopefully, after sharing those issues return to my habit of visiting the dust-covered rolls of micro film still available to me at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Unfortunately this lovely building no longer exists but there are still

a few other pubs that do... from the WWII era. Photo Credit

The clippings shared below are from August 11, 1943, at which time my father and mates in the 80th Flotilla - now all on the island of Malta - were recovering from dysentery at Hill 10 hospital (in my father's case), or resting in a 'tent city', relaxing on leave and/or repairing their landing craft, mechanised (LCMs) prior to going back into service for Operation Baytown, the invasion of Italy at 'the toe about three weeks away.

About Malta my father writes (in part):

After approximately 27 days (of hard work in Sicily, with a poor water supply) I came down with severe chills and then got dysentery. I was shipped to Malta on the Ulster Monarch and an intern came around and handed me 26 pills. I inquired how many doses was that? “Just one,” he replied.

At Malta I was let loose on my own to find Hill 10 Hospital. I did after a while and they asked me my trouble. I said, “Dysentery.” “Oh, we’ll soon cure that,” they said. How? “We won’t give you anything to eat.” So for four days all I got was water and pills and soon I was cured, though weak. I thought of those poor devils in the desert (i.e., his mates who got dysentery at HMS Saunders in Egypt prior to the invasion of Sicily).

Blue arrow points to Don Westbrook, Hamilton (RCNVR/Combined Ops)

in his 'borrowed shorts' after recovering from dysentery while at HMS

Saunders (June - July, 1943). Tents visible (barely) in background.

Photo - Collection of Doug Harrison (RCNVR/Combined Ops)

When I felt better they sent me to a tent where I got regular meals. I saw an air force newspaper and on the front was a picture of Bob Alexander of Norwich, a school chum. But Bob returned to the fray and was lost on one of his bombing missions. How sorry I was to hear that news. He had already done so much.

I suggest that some of the LCMs above might belong to the 80th and

81st Canadian Flotillas. Some ALCs might be from the 55th and 61st

Canadian Flotillas, all active in Sicily beginning July 10, 1943

Soon all the boys returned to Malta and we prepared for Italy, though all our barges (not entirely true, some Canadian sailors drove LCMs to Malta) stayed in Sicily. We took a Landing Ship Tank (LST) back to Mili Marina, Sicily, and if memory serves me correctly, attacked Italy at Reggio di Calabria across Messina Straits on my birthday, September 6*, 1943.

*September 6. That is my father's birthdate but the invasion of Italy began 3 days earlier.

Original caption: "convoy, Sicily to Malta, J Spencer in boat 2nd in

foreground" Photo Credit - Joe Spencer (RCNVR/Combined Ops)

Used with permission. GH

Questions or comments about Combined Operations in the Mediterranean can be addressed to me @ gordh7700@gmail.com

News clippings from The Gazette now follow:

"British Forces Reach Within Six Miles of Randazzo" on their race

to get to the city of Messina before US troops. One week to go!!

Lionel Shapiro, 'War Correspondent of The Gazette' provides our first report of Allied progress for the day:

Will the Germans achieve their goal? Will the "sacrifice companies and road demolitions" allow Hitler's troops - "aided... by the mountainous country and scarcity of roads" - to escape the island in force and then drag out the Allied advance through Italy for another year or more? Read Lionel Shapiro's book ("They Left the Back Door Open") about what subsequently happened in Sicily. Oh! Did I give away the plot line? Drat!

Map of Sicily, 1943 as found at Wikipedia with added 'blue oval'

While some of the Canadian landing crafts are being repaired in the Grand Harbour, Malta, with members of the 80th Flotilla of LCMs - including my father - preparing (unknowingly!) for the invasion of Italy in early September, some of the German landing craft in Messina are taking a beating from the RCAF and RAF. See below:

Click here for more 'About the Citadel, Quebec' Source

The hugely versatile and high-performance DH98 Mosquito was unquestion-

ably de Havilland’s greatest contribution to the success of the RAF in

the Second World War. Photo Credit and more details here.

More details from the Quebec capital:

Lionel Shapiro has his own byline! Excellent!

Lionel B. Shapiro, war correspondent, off the coast of Sicily

Photo Credit - CAFU, Canadian Army Film Unit, Album 61

Here's how to make YOUR meat ration last even longer!

Another of Canada's prolific war correspondents shares the following:

Canadian artillery is definitely leaving its mark in Sicily against German troops:

And what are you having for supper tonight? (I've got my menu planned!)

"Only thing we want is a spaghetti dinner and a bottle of beer."

"A can will do." Photo - CAFU (Canadian Army Food Unit) GH

The only reason I added this clip is because my father worked at the Cotton company while training for the Navy at Hamilton Division 1, now known as HMCS Star. He writes in memoirs:

June 21, 1941, I went on probationary strength of HMCS Star in Hamilton, corner of McNab and McNutt streets, a building which was at one time a cider mill. By probationary I mean I went nights from 7 to 10 p.m. and took instructions on semaphore, rifle drill, marching, compass work, bends and hitches, knots and splices etc.

I lived with my late sister Gertrude Stopps on Bay St., Hamilton. During the day I was employed at James St. North Hamilton Cotton Mills where I progressed from one job to another very rapidly. ("Dad, Well Done" page 3)

When some of the Canadians in RCNVR and Combined Operations returned to Canada in December, 1943, they were assigned to Canada's Combined Operations training school at HMCS Givenchy III on Vancouver Island. William H. Pugsley (ex-RCNVR), author of Sailor Remember, includes several photos from that time, e.g., one of a sailor 'swinging the lead':

Sure looks like my father "heaving the lead"!!

Sailor Remember page 95

Please click here to view more 'Arts of War' including hand drawn illustrations of landing crafts.

"Almost like a holiday... at times?" Raw recruits at a training camp on

Vancouver Is., B.C., Canada. Diving tower in background. Photo

Credit - Roy Burt, RCNVR, Combined Ops (back, center)

More news clippings from the Montreal Gazette to follow related to providing some context re Canadians in Combined Operations in Malta - after approx. 30 days service in Sicily.