Editor's Research: Invasion of Italy (16) - Montreal Star (Sept. 28-29, '43)

Another Fine Article by Sholto Watt,

Montreal Star War Correspondent

In my search for stories related to RCNVR members and the role(s) they played in the invasion of Italy I come across all sorts of material about members of other armed forces and their roles in the battles they faced over a long haul in the "soft under-belly of Europe," as PM Winston Churchill was known to say.

I present some stories here about the advances of the American 5th Army and Montgomery's 8th Army, and, at the very end of the post, a story by Sholto Watt, war correspondent for The Montreal Star. It is full of details related to Army food, the dusty roads in Sicily, the shortage of water and the hungry people of a liberated island. And finally, Mr. Watt closes with the scene before him - as he looks across the Messina Strait to Reggio - just hours before the invasion of Italy.

The map below draws our attention to the location of key sites that the Allied forces want under their full control: Messina and Reggio, where Canadians in Combined Operations are at work aboard the 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts, daily transporting the materiel of war in great quantities; Naples, for its port facilities; Foggia, for its landing strips; Taranto, for its port facilities and safe harbour:  

Operation Baytown, Sept. 3, 1943. Supplies from Messina are

being unloaded at Reggio by Canadians in Combined Ops.

Walter Cronkite, later to become a well-respected reporter on radio and television, brings us news from Europe:

Salerno, another landing site for Allied troops along the coast, south of Naples, was a hard-won bridgehead:

Hospital ships were well marked but still were targeted by German bombers: 

My father mentions the fate of another hospital ship that served off the coast of Sicily in July, 1943:

We had a hospital ship with us named the Alatambra (sic) with many nurses and doctors aboard. She came in to about three miles in daytime and went out to seven miles and lighted up like a city at night. No one was to bomb a hospital ship and for days on end we took the wounded out to her, many being glider pilots with purple berets. Never a sound out of them, no matter how badly they were hurt. Mostly Scottish soldiers.

HMT Talamba, lost off Sicily’s coast, 1943. Photo link - Recollections

[From 'Recollections, photo source: The Talamba herself was to be lost, whilst serving as a hospital ship off Sicily in 1943].

One night we saw what appeared to be a tremendous bonfire in the east, offshore a long way out. In the morning, the Alatambra (sic) was gone, nursing sisters, doctors, wounded and all. Seven hundred and ninety were killed or drowned. The Germans had either bombed or torpedoed her that night. So goes war.

"Dad, Well Done", Page 35

While reading scores of stories related to the invasion of Italy I became interested in one about RCAF pilot (FO John Vasicek) from Chatham, Ontario (about a 1hr.20min. drive west of my home). I located surviving members of John's family (his brother Charles is 92 years of age) and was shown copies of his flight log, which mentioned recon missions over Foggia.

'Photo Recco' is photo reconnaissance

Readers can link to a significant collection of materials related to FO Vasicek here on this site.

Regular readers will now I am searching for stories by Sholto Watt because there is a very good chance he travelled from Messina to Reggio aboard the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts. My father was a Leading Seaman during the invasion of Italy and one of his officers mentioned that Mr. Watt accompanied them one day as landing craft travelled across the strait. I hope Mr Watt took lots of pictures!! 

I feel that some of Mr. Watt's descriptions of what he saw and experienced are very significant even if he didn't hitch a ride with my father. But if he did, you're going to hear about it here first!

More news from Italy will follow. Hopefully a bit more from Sholto Watt of The Montreal Star.

Please link to Editor's Research: Invasion of Italy (15) - Montreal Star (Sept. 25, 27, '43)

Unattributed Photos GH