Context for Combined Ops, "Shipping Out, December 1943"

Back to North America for Christmas and Repair

Map of Salerno, Italy, from WITH UTMOST SPIRIT, Pg. 271

In the fall of 1943, some Canadian members of Combined Operations participated in the invasion of Italy at Reggio di Calabria (the toe of the boot). After transporting men and the materials of war across the Strait of Messina for about one month - described as easy by some men - they returned to the UK, then (as in the instance below) Canada, which was a pretty good way to finish the year's work, described below by Leading Seaman D. Harrison (RCNVR, Comb. Ops, 1941 - 45):

Our flotilla went back to Malta for a few days and from there we took fast Motor Torpedo boats to Bougie in North Africa and boarded a Dutch ship, the Queen Emma, whose propellor shaft was bent from a near miss with a bomb. In convoy we made about eight knots up the Mediterranean to Gibraltar, anchored inside the submarine nets for a couple of days, and slowly moved out one night for England. In true navy fashion, after landing at Gourock, near our Canadian barracks H.M.C.S. Niobe in Greenock, we entrained for a barracks at Lowestoffe, where on a clear day the church spires of Norwich could be seen. We spent a month there, then went by train to Niobe, received two new uniforms and a ticket aboard the Aquitania, arriving safely at Halifax on December 6th, 1943. I had a wonderful Christmas at home with Mother and family. It was sure nice to walk down Main Street (Norwich, Ontario) and meet the people. (Taken from an article re Combined Ops, "The Invasion of Italy")

Also in the fall of 1943, other Canadian members of Combined Operations participated in the invasion of Italy at Salerno (farther north on the western coast) and were witness or party to some very hot action, particularly if landing crafts past through the same waters at USS Rowan or Savannah.

Below are excerpts from WITH UTMOST SPIRIT: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942 - 1945 by Barbara Tomblin that reveal the trying adventures of Savannah and her crew leading up to their return home - under hair-raising circumstances - 2 and a half weeks after the Aquitania.

September 10, 1943 - As Eisenhower suspected, the slowness of the Allied buildup was apparent to the German command as well, and they quickly reinforced the Salerno area. The Germans' ability to shift their forces quickly to the beachhead virtually assured that the struggle to secure control of the Salerno plain would be a bitter one.

Newspaper clipping showing some of the survivors of the Rowan, sunk off

Salerno, Sept. 11 1943. Photo credit - NavSource Naval History, R. Reeves

That the price of victory might be high was clearly indicated on the evening of D-Day Plus One when the destroyer Rowan was torpedoed by an enemy E-boat... Rowan sank in less than a minute with heavy loss of life....

September 11 - the cruiser Savannah was lying to in her support area in the Gulf of Salerno, her crew relaxing following a long night of enemy air activity.... a german Do217 dropped a bomb from eighteen thousand feet that some of Savannah's crew thought was an enemy plane shot down by a P-38. Captain Cary recognized the characteristic white tail and knew it was no ordinary bomb but a lethal new German FX-1400 radio-controlled bomb. He watched helplessly as the guided bomb hurtled toward him at over six hundred miles per hour, fell through the top of number 3 turret, and exploded deep within the ship, blowing a hole in her bottom.... Quick action by Captain Cary kept the Savannah from colliding with invasion shipping, and after what one officer described as "quite a hair-raising experience," at 0952 the ship cleared the transport area and headed out the swept channel. The ship's situation remained serious, however.... 

The force of the explosion had blown doors, wrinkled bulkheads, and blown all the sick bay doors open, and the ship had taken on a 7.5-degree list to port with fires and smoke in number 1, 2, and 3 turrets.... at 1008, a loud explosion knocked men to the deck and threw rescue workers off the top of number 3 turret.... word came that four men were trapped in Radio III, a small compartment on the starboard side of the ship below the waterline. They were unaware that the adjacent evaporator room had flooded and that two men had died trying to escape through the overhead hatch.... Garmy (one of the four trapped men) tried to attract attention to their plight by pounding on the bulkheads with a wrench and shouting into the phones. Eventually he heard a weak response. Rescue efforts had begun....

A diver from the USS Hopi, sent down to inspect the cruiser's bottom, reported a large hole to her port side and a seam with plates open for a length of fifty feet. Despite this disconcerting news, the condition of the ship improved.... and preparations were made to get underway. Within the hour, accompanied by Philadelphia and four destroyers, Savannah got underway for Malta even as another raid began in the Gulf of Salerno.... but below in the radio room the four trapped sailors still awaited rescue.

September 12 - At 2048 Savannah reached Grand Harbor, Malta, where the crew renewed efforts to reach the sailors in Radio III.... British shipyard workers drilled a hole through the deck to the radio room, where they found the four sailors alive and well after sixty hours in the compartment surrounded by tons of flood water.

With their rescue, Savannah's ordeal was over. All that remained was to recover and bury the bodies of the 163 men killed by the explosion and to patch up the cruiser's damage sufficiently so she could sail for permanent repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she arrived on December 23.

Excerpts from Pages 273 - 275. 

The book can be previewed in its entirety at Google Books.

Please link to more information about Salerno "Operation AVALANCHE"

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