Books re Combined Operations

Drop Zone Sicily: Allied Airborne Strike, July 1943

By William B. Breuer

Drop Zone Sicily, like most books concerning the hundreds to thousands of specific events related to World War II, does not chiefly focus on the Combined Operations organization. For those searching for information about where the men who volunteered for Combined Ops served during 1943, however, and what conditions were like, what was behind some of the particular episodes of action they participated in, witnessed first-hand and questioned ("What caused so many airborne mishaps?" Link to  Sicily, Airborne Mishaps), this book plays a vital role.

Within the first 100 pages in particular, I learned more about where Canadians in Combined Operations (e.g., the 55th, 61st, 80th and 81st Flotillas of landing craft) played a significant role and what important activities were taking place over their heads while they laboured upon the barges and beaches near the SE corner of the island of Sicily, July 1943.

Above photos reveal Canadians at work on LCMs near Avola, Sicily 1943

Photo Credit to Imperial War Museum, UK

Table of Contents, in part:

Mr. Breuer writes a well-researched report of the invasion of Sicily, from start to finish, and tells much about airborne action, some of it disastrous, as seen and reported on by Canadians in Combined Operations.

Chapter Seven, 'Assault by Sea' mentions in several places the role of landing craft under tough conditions: (In the Gulf of Gela, with US troops) "Grim-faced American infantrymen, burdened with heavy combat gear, struggled up steel steps from the cramped and stifling holds, climbed over railings and down slippery rope ladders into little assault boats. Minutes after scores of the tiny landing craft began the nine-mile run to Axis-defended beaches of southern Sicily, many of the assault troops became violently ill, hanging their heads over the sides of the pitching, bucking boats and vomiting into the angry sea..." page 102

Below are a few excerpts from earlier chapters that may whet the appetite of students of Combined Operations' history.

"The combined airborne-amphibious assault would be a mammoth undertaking. Forces had to be collected, trained, equipped and eventually embarked from widely dispersed bases in the Mediterranean, England and the United States, the latter more than 4,000 miles from Sicily. In the initial assault there would be 160,000 men, nearly 3,000 ships and landing craft, 14,000 vehicles, 600 tanks and 1,800 guns." Page 17

Later we read about a planned night glider assault, the results of which were, in part, disastrous, at least a part near the beaches where Canadians were to focus their transport efforts (re troops and all the material of war):

"...Montgomery had insisted that the glider mission at Syracuse and a later parachute drop just south of the Catania plain be included in Operation Husky. Now Hopkinson was briefing Colonel Chatterton in glowing terms on the British glider assault. The colonel commanding the glider pilots became increasingly disturbed, then totally dismayed. General Hopkinson made it all sound so routine... but (Chatterton) was convinced the night glider assault as planned would result in disaster." Page 19

Photo of Page 46

"In the chaos, a number of tow planes climbed to 3,000 feet, and their gliders released high above the other tug-glider combinations. The released gliders then drifted down through the wildly gyrating aircraft flying at a lower level. Most gliders were cut loose at random and soon the moonlit sky was awash with motorless craft moving in exorably toward crash landings somewhere in Sicily. Few pilots knew which part of Sicily." Page 46

Canadians in Combined Ops, on Assault Landing Craft (ALCs) and Landing Craft, Mechanized (LCMs) were very likely first-hand witnesses to the "crashed gliders, lying silently in grotesque, twisted masses or burned to a crisp (that were) scattered about the landscape over a wide expanse of south-east Sicily" reported by Mr. Breuer on page 48. (Please link to  Sicily, Airborne Mishaps if you have not already done so).

Photo of map as found on page 105

I purchased my used copy at AbeBooks and am happy to have it in my growing collection of WW2 texts.

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Unattributed Photos by GH