"In the first 72 hours we underwent 34 air raids" - Sicilian Invasion
Leading Seaman Joe Watson of Simcoe, Ontario
HMCS - In "His Majesty's Canadian Service"
L/S Joe Watson is squeezed in, second from left in the middle row.
He is seen 'having a puff' before getting to work in Comox, B.C.
He arrived there in January 1944, after 55 days home leave.
Introduction:
Based on the very good company Joe kept, i.e., stalwart mates in RCNVR and Combined Operations, and the many photographs in which he appears, Joe Watson's wartime history likely runs a little bit like this:
He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve sometime in the summer of 1941 (let's say August) in Hamilton or Toronto. After initial training he travelled to HMCS Stadacona in Halifax for a lengthier stint of training and became a well-liked member of the Effingham Division.
The following two photographs are of the Effingham Division in Halifax. The first was taken near the front entrance of Wellington Barracks A (aka Nelson Barracks, now gone, and replaced by modern buildings, including a Tim Hortons). The second, with a fuller compliment of the Effingham Division members (but still not all), was taken near the left end of Wellington Barracks A or B, in my opinion. (Barracks B, for officers, was still standing when I visited Halifax in 2012).
Joe Watson appears in the back row, fourth from the left. circa Fall 1941
Wellington Barracks to the left, Parade Ground (marching drills), right.
Joe Watson is again in the back row, second from the right.
NB - For full lists of names, email gordh7700@gmail.com
A better look at the front of Wellington Barracks A. Rope climbing exercise.
Photo as found in "Sailor Remember" by William H. Pugsley
In January, 1942, Joe Watson was transported to the United Kingdom aboard a Dutch liner called Volendam and soon after landing at Greenock, Scotland, was bussed to nearby HMCS Niobe (a Canadian transport depot) for just enough time for his kit to catch up to him, then whisked by train to a British Navy base on the southern coast of England (HMS Northney 1, on Hayling Island). At Northney he was introduced for the first time to the intricacies of handling a landing craft, likely an LCA (Landing Craft, Assault).
Joe is 2nd from right, outside brick barracks at HMS Northney. Early 1942
He was one of the first 50 Canadian volunteers for Combined Ops
The barracks on Hayling Island were not warm and inviting.
An RCNVR and Combined Ops veteran writes:
We spent little time at (HMCS) Niobe but entrained for Havant in southern England, to H.M.S. Northney 1, a barracks (formerly a summer resort) with a large building for eating and then cabins with four bedrooms.
This was December, 1941 or January, 1942* and there was no heat at all in the brick cabins. The toilets all froze and split. But we made out. Our eating quarters were heated.
"Dad, Well Done" Page 11
(*It was January, '42. The above group of sailors would have arrived at Hayling Island in December, 1941, if their first transport ship from Canada (the Queen of Bermuda) had not run aground outside of Halifax, stranding all aboard in a blinding snow storm. I checked newspaper microfilm of The Halifax Chronicle from that era and there was a big 'news worthy' storm, for certain).
How Joe Watson handled the stranding of his first transport or the cold in his first barracks in the U.K., I do not know. (Surely, his next destination - HMS Quebec, south of Inveraray, Scotland - was at least warmer).
"Dad, Well Done" Page 11
(*It was January, '42. The above group of sailors would have arrived at Hayling Island in December, 1941, if their first transport ship from Canada (the Queen of Bermuda) had not run aground outside of Halifax, stranding all aboard in a blinding snow storm. I checked newspaper microfilm of The Halifax Chronicle from that era and there was a big 'news worthy' storm, for certain).
How Joe Watson handled the stranding of his first transport or the cold in his first barracks in the U.K., I do not know. (Surely, his next destination - HMS Quebec, south of Inveraray, Scotland - was at least warmer).
But according to an interview he offered to an unknown writer in an unknown newspaper (once he returned to Canada in December, 1943, after two years of service overseas), he handled a strafing in the heated Mediterranean theatre of war - in July, '43 - in stride.
As far as I know, he only got caught in the tight crosshairs of the Luftwaffe on one occasion. And when that happened, he was fortunate to be really close to a thick and sturdy truck... or at least one of the truck's fat tires!
That being said, Joe recalled being in a hot spot on many occasions (let's say 34 times) and it made the headlines:
The regular German air raids - about every 2 hours - during Operation
Husky (Sicilian invasion) are confirmed by a number of sources!
Husky (Sicilian invasion) are confirmed by a number of sources!
The news report, featuring an interview with Joe Watson, begins below:
Joe and others in his group were at ports in southern England at the
time of the Dieppe Raid, but were not assigned to ALCs.
A12063. Landing Craft, Mechanised (3), front view with ramp down.
Joe and mates trained aboard LCMs at HMS Quebec, Loch Fyne
Photo Credit - Lt. R.G.G. Coote, RN; Imperial War Museum
A12064. LCM (3), interior view taken from aft. Loch Fyne, Scotland.
Photo Credit - Lt. R.G.G. Coote, RN; Imperial War Museum
Joe and mates trained aboard LCMs at HMS Quebec, Loch Fyne
Photo Credit - Lt. R.G.G. Coote, RN; Imperial War Museum
Photo Credit - Lt. R.G.G. Coote, RN; Imperial War Museum
The news article continues:
Fortunately Joe lived to tell the tale!
The duty of the crew was pretty straight-forward in all likelihood: Load the landing craft with supplies and equipment (to support troops) from the holds of cargo or transport ships; drive it to the assigned landing beach, e.g., Green Beach or Red Beach or White, etc.; help unload the landing craft, keeping one eye open for bombers or snipers or any other hostile elements; return to a designated transport ship for more supplies; return to the assigned beach; unload; repeat, repeat, repeat until the transport ships are empty. Ten, maybe go grab a cuppa joe or tea and a smoke. As long as an officer was on one of every 3 - 4 landing crafts (ALCs or LCMs), then the work could be completed efficiently without tons of supervision.
Something Watson mentions gives the reader a good clue about a standard operating procedure during landings: "The barges carrying the troops went in about an hour ahead of our barges carrying trucks and supplies."
The smaller landing crafts (LCAs - Landing Craft, Assault; LCPs - Landing Craft, Personnel) were used during early raids and invasions to ferry troops to landing beaches, followed shortly thereafter by larger landing crafts (e.g., LCMs - Landing Craft, Mechanised; LCTs - Landing Craft, Tanks) filled to the gunnels with almost every conceivable piece of equipment required for the successful completion of the raid or invasion.
Landing crafts underwent design and size changes as the war progressed (as models of automobiles and trucks and many other goods have done in our own lifetimes), and that being said, the LCMs became known as the workhorse of many operations, capable of carrying more troops and supplies as sizes increased.
The map below, re the Sicilian invasion, mentions the four Canadian Flotillas of Landing Crafts that were active in July, 1943, when Joe was serving in The Med. The 55th and 61st Flotillas were made up of ALCs (smaller, w troops) and the 80th and 81st Flotillas were made up of LCMs, "our barges carrying trucks and supplies," as Joe says.
Lower right - 4 Canadian flotillas active in July (7/10/43) support UK troops
Upper right - 80th Flotilla supports UK/Canadian troops, in Italy 9/3/43
Map - Combined Operations, page 76, by Londoner Clayton Marks
Joe would have one eye on the shoreline and the other on the sky as he steered his LCM away from a cargo ship.
"Enemy planes were very active overhead..." he says.
"And in the first 72 hours from the time the invasion started (7/10/43), we underwent 34 air raids," he recalls.
The extent of the bombing and strafing was significant in Joe's mind. That type of barrage and hostility he had never endured before, not during the November, 1942 invasion of North Africa, certainly not in training exercises in England or Scotland. He remembered the regular beatings.
The details were significant in the mind of the listening reporter, and they made the headlines: "In 34 Raids in 72 Hours During Sicilian Campaign Simcoe Sailor Uninjured."
Besides the regular beatings Joe remembered some details about one significant, particular event: "A German plane came down real close to our barage (sic) and strafed us with machine gun fire.." but no member of the Canadian crew was injured.
In my estimation, an LCM would make an appealing target for the enemy because it was bigger than an ALC ("small crafts make a small target," said my father in memoirs). As well, equipment on board an LCM, like a truck or lorry, would fill the sight lines of a sharp-eyed, approaching pilot more clearly than crouching troops in an ALC. And during that trip to shore when Joe's LCM got caught in the cross hairs, there was at least one truck on board.
Unlucky for Joe and crew? Unlucky and lucky as it turns out.
Doug Harrison, a member of Joe's crew, recalls the constant bombings during the first three days of the landings as well as one particular trip to shore:
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.
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.
Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie, we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST 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 (Simcoe). What good would that have done?
"Dad, Well Done", pages 31 - 32
It would have been unlucky for all aboard the LCM had the gas cans exploded, but the truck tire (and rim, bumper, engine) might have stopped the bullets from hitting Joe and his crew members. Perhaps it was luckier still that a bristling LST was nearby.
Photo Gallery:
(*Likely Al Adlington of London, Ontario, seen with Joe and six other sailors in an earlier photograph, "outside brick barracks at HMS Northney. Early 1942." Near top of page.)
"Dad, Well Done", pages 112-113
Joe reports that the invasion of Italy came up next, and he served there "for three weeks... in support of the Allied forces."
"Enemy planes were very active overhead..." he says.
"And in the first 72 hours from the time the invasion started (7/10/43), we underwent 34 air raids," he recalls.
The extent of the bombing and strafing was significant in Joe's mind. That type of barrage and hostility he had never endured before, not during the November, 1942 invasion of North Africa, certainly not in training exercises in England or Scotland. He remembered the regular beatings.
The details were significant in the mind of the listening reporter, and they made the headlines: "In 34 Raids in 72 Hours During Sicilian Campaign Simcoe Sailor Uninjured."
Besides the regular beatings Joe remembered some details about one significant, particular event: "A German plane came down real close to our barage (sic) and strafed us with machine gun fire.." but no member of the Canadian crew was injured.
In my estimation, an LCM would make an appealing target for the enemy because it was bigger than an ALC ("small crafts make a small target," said my father in memoirs). As well, equipment on board an LCM, like a truck or lorry, would fill the sight lines of a sharp-eyed, approaching pilot more clearly than crouching troops in an ALC. And during that trip to shore when Joe's LCM got caught in the cross hairs, there was at least one truck on board.
Unlucky for Joe and crew? Unlucky and lucky as it turns out.
Doug Harrison, a member of Joe's crew, recalls the constant bombings during the first three days of the landings as well as one particular trip to shore:
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.
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.
Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie, we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST 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 (Simcoe). What good would that have done?
"Dad, Well Done", pages 31 - 32
It would have been unlucky for all aboard the LCM had the gas cans exploded, but the truck tire (and rim, bumper, engine) might have stopped the bullets from hitting Joe and his crew members. Perhaps it was luckier still that a bristling LST was nearby.
Photo Gallery:
Fortunately, Joe lived to tell the tale
The Fab Five on leave in Glasgow. Back, L - R: C. Dale, P. Bowers, Joe Watson.
Front, L - R: Chuck Rose, Joe Spencer. Photo - J. Spencer. circa 1942
Joe Watson would have been aboard ALCs and LCMs in North Africa.
Photo taken Nov. 8, 1942 by RN Photographer F.A. Hudson (IWM).
Canadians in Combined Ops assist British troops; landings in Sicily, July 1943.
A loaded LCM, front right. Photo by Ray Priddle, at The Memory Project.
The interview with Joe Watson concludes below:
Combined Operations by Clayton Marks, page 182
When my friends returned from Sicily in their landing craft, I was waiting for them at the bottom of the cement steps. Our commanding officer Lt/Comdr Koyl and a few hands disappeared for awhile and when they returned they were weighted down with kit bags of parcels and mail.
Joe very likely lived inside a protective, limestone cave near Avola, Sicily with a good number of other Canadian sailors for parts of July and August. They called the cave The Savoy and ate a lot of bully beef and tomatoes (perhaps U.S. rations on occasions) that was heated up over a makeshift stove.
Lt. Cmdr. Jack Koyl recalls the following in memoirs:
The conditions for men ashore off duty varied. The 81st Flotilla Officer, Lt. Mullins, went ashore on the second day, after a day of ferrying high octane gas through air attacks, and managed to arrange with the (Eighth, British) Army for the billeting and feeding of his men at a rough camp about three minutes walk from the beach.
The 80th did not fare so well and had to fend for themselves. They found, after living and feeding from ship to ship until the 21st of July, a cattle cave near the beach, which provided shelter but was uncomfortable and dirty. Both Flotillas lived mainly from Army "Composite" rations and what meals they could get from merchant ships they were unloading.
Combined Operations by Clayton Marks, page 181
L/S Watson would have been very happy to receive word that the collective duties of the LCM flotillas (re transporting all manner of supplies to Sicilian shores) were over - perhaps near the end of July or in the first week of August. Along with many others, he was soon in Malta.
Lt. Cmdr. Koyl continues:
At the end of the 28 days, eighty LCMs in the two squadrons of three Flotillas each which had been working "GEORGE" and "HOW" sectors, remained in operation. The record of the Canadians was particularly good since only two of their craft out of twenty-two were non-operational. In another Flotilla working the same sector, the 83rd LCM Flotilla, only three craft out of fourteen remained operational.
The eighty operational LCMs proceeded under their own power down the east coast of Sicily, anchored under the shelter of Cape Passero, and made Malta the next afternoon, the 7th of August (1943).
Convoy of LCMs approach Valetta, Malta in August, 1943
Photo from the collection of Joe Spencer, RCNVR/C.Ops.
In Malta, much needed rest and recuperation time for the LCM crews was provided. My father, who had travelled from Sicily to Malta a week earlier because of dysentery, was well on his way to full recovery when the Canadian crews arrived in Valetta Harbour.
Tired sailors love clean beds, mail and chocolate bars, and once Joe Watson and his mates had safely parked in one of the most scenic harbours in The Med, they didn't have to wait long.
My father writes:
The blues disappeared and quietness settled in as every one of us, in a different posture, chewed on an Oh Henry bar and read news from home. The war wasn’t so bad after all. We shared with anyone who hadn’t received a parcel; no one went hungry. We feasted on chocolate bars, cookies, canned goods and the news.
There were still about 250 of us - we hadn’t lost a soul, but one man had a terrible shrapnel wound in his arm*. We conserved parcels for a rainy day and were dispersed to ships and tents to live for a few days while our stoker got the engines on each craft ready for the invasion of Italy.
There were still about 250 of us - we hadn’t lost a soul, but one man had a terrible shrapnel wound in his arm*. We conserved parcels for a rainy day and were dispersed to ships and tents to live for a few days while our stoker got the engines on each craft ready for the invasion of Italy.
Of course, no one knew when that would be, but urgency was the order of the day and repair parts were non-existent. We toured the island of Malta and some sailed over to Gozo, another small island. We mingled with the inhabitants but generally we took the opportunity to get some rest and re-read mail.
(*Likely Al Adlington of London, Ontario, seen with Joe and six other sailors in an earlier photograph, "outside brick barracks at HMS Northney. Early 1942." Near top of page.)
"Dad, Well Done", pages 112-113
Joe reports that the invasion of Italy came up next, and he served there "for three weeks... in support of the Allied forces."
After that, he was transported back to England. There he received a pretty fat pay packet, several days leave, and a ticket aboard the Aquitania for the trip back to Canada, having served for two years overseas.
Once back home he very likely enjoyed his 55 days leave to a great extend. And before volunteering for more service with the RCNVR or Combined Operations, a local writer or reporter found his door and knocked.
When Joe was asked for an interview, he obliged.
Once back home he very likely enjoyed his 55 days leave to a great extend. And before volunteering for more service with the RCNVR or Combined Operations, a local writer or reporter found his door and knocked.
When Joe was asked for an interview, he obliged.
Photo Gallery:
Home Leave, Service at HMCS Givenchy III, Discharge
Joe Watson, right of centre (straightening his collar), with other mates from
Comb. Ops., head toward Halifax aboard Aquitania after two years of service.
December 1943. Photo - From collection of D. Harrison
Don Linder, Chuck Rose, Buryl McIntyre, Joe Watson, Don Westbrook.
Stop at Hornepayne on the way to West Coast. January, 1944
Joe's last posting: The Spit (Goose Spit), Comox, B.C. HMCS Givenchy III
Today - HMCS Quadra. Photo - Comox Library. Taken in the 1930s.
Back row: Donald Westbrook, Charlie Rose, Joe Spencer
Front row: Joe Watson, Doug Harrison, Arthur Warrick
A naval photographer took a picture of six of us... because we all joined the same day (i.e., Combined Operations, in Halifax; December, 1941), went through twenty-three months overseas together and were going to be discharged all on the same day too (at HMCS Star, Hamilton, Sept. 5, 1945).
Thus the big smiles on some.
More photographs related to Joe were displayed earlier at Joe Watson, RCNVR and Combined Operations, 1941 - 1945.
More articles to follow concerning adventures overseas from the sailors who were there.
Please link to Article: Six Canadian Sailors Make Headlines (1).
Unattributed Photos GH
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