Short Story re Sicily, "An Unknown Destination"

The Invasion of Sicily - 9/10 July 1943 

Used with the permission of Lloyd Evans, Markham, Ontario

The following short story is taken from the memoirs of Lloyd Evans (member of RCNVR and Combined Operations) as found at Combined Operations Command, an exceptional website developed and maintained by Geoff Slee, Scotland. Mr. Evan's memoirs, organized and presented by Mr. Slee (after an undoubtedly lengthy email correspondence with Mr. Evans) is well worth a full examination.

Sicily  

The next day we sailed in fairly heavy seas and, as usual, for an unknown destination. A few days later we were given a booklet describing Sicily. That night we unloaded the landing craft in exceptionally heavy seas - Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, was on.

A British soldier reads up on Sicily, the target for an Allied invasion, July 1943. 

Photo Credit - WW2 Today

The initial landing was fairly quiet but later heavy enemy artillery opened up. This was quickly silenced by a few salvos from the 16-inch guns of a supporting Monitor. This particular Monitor was one of two shallow draft Cruisers that had been built for bombardment duties in the China seas. It had been fitted with large blisters on the sides, a kind of sacrificial layer, to reduce damage from a torpedo attack. An hour or two into the landing enemy planes started bombing the beach area. It was very intensive in the first 24 hours with nearly thirty raids but continued for several days at less intensive levels. The first of the raids each day were a regular wake up call in the mornings! By the waters edge and beach area there were several crashed American gliders which had been cut loose too early and failed to reach their designated landing zones. They still had bodies in them. After several days of almost continuous bombing our ship ran low of 20 mm Oerlikon A.A. ammunition. Such was the intensity of the firing that the gun barrels overheated and were replaced by the guns crews. Until our ship received fresh supplies of ammunition we only fired in self defence of a direct attack on our ship.

While all this bombing was hard on the nerves it didn’t accomplish very much. However about noon one day, three Stuka dive bombers came screaming from behind the mountain and out of the sun....

The remainder of this short story about Sicily can be found at Memories of a WW2 Landing Craft Volunteer

When you visit Combined Operations Command, I recommend the 'All Pages Index' as an excellent starting point. Then explore at your leisure.

As well, please link to Short Story re Sicily, "Ed Corbett's Diary"