More Coverage from The Winnipeg Tribune
Introduction:
As one reads headlines, accompanying articles and other news releases - even captions under photographs - in The Winnipeg Tribune after the invasion of Sicily took place, one can't help but notice the prominence of the role of 'Canada' and 'Canadians' as Operation HUSKY progresses. Canadian war correspondents were definitely on the ground and doing a fine job finding and sharing facts, details and information that people back home - in Canada - would greatly appreciate.
Occasionally, a line or two would include details about landing craft (some manned by about 250 Canadians in Combined Operations) that hit the beach in the right place at the right time, loaded with troops and all the material of war. Generally, however, the news was about Canadian troops moving ashore and then inland and their connections to Monty and his Eighth Army advances.
All well and good, the battle progressed and as time unfolds we learn how, where and why so many men and women in countless and often thankless roles contributed generously to the war effort. That being said, if I find even a few words - very rare indeed - that specifically focus on the Canadians in RCNVR and Combined Operations - i.e., members of the 55th, 61st, 80th and 81st Flotillas of landing craft, I'll point them out.
Navy records belonging to one Canadian in Combined Ops (who manned a 'landing craft, mechanized', aka LCM, for about four weeks near Avola, Sicily, from July 10 - August, 1943) make no mention of Operation HUSKY.
Doug Harrison's paperwork or file appears below. It reveals he is connected to H.M.S. Quebec, the Number 1 Combined Operation training camp near Inveraray, Scotland from April 3, 1942 until August 31, 1943, and then shifts to COPRA (Combined Operations Pay, Records and Accounts) during the invasion of Italy and his return to the U.K. Those looking for assistance tracking the exact whereabouts of a relative during WW2 will not always find an accurate or complete listing of "where he was when" in Navy records.
Doug Harrison's paperwork or file appears below. It reveals he is connected to H.M.S. Quebec, the Number 1 Combined Operation training camp near Inveraray, Scotland from April 3, 1942 until August 31, 1943, and then shifts to COPRA (Combined Operations Pay, Records and Accounts) during the invasion of Italy and his return to the U.K. Those looking for assistance tracking the exact whereabouts of a relative during WW2 will not always find an accurate or complete listing of "where he was when" in Navy records.
One Canadian writer at the forefront of some of the Canadian troop landings was Ross Munro. One of his excellent articles appears below, in part:
Munro continues:
The Canadian troops have been rushing ahead ever since. It is a tough job keeping up with them on two feet....
During my trip around the battle zone I saw only three wounded soldiers, who had been hit while cleaning out a pillbox just before the beach defense collapsed.
Editor: D. Harrison, from his vantage point on an LCM, reported the following in his memoirs:
"Our beach had machine gun nests carved out of the ever-present limestone, with slots cut in them to cover our beaches. A few hand grenades tossed in during the night silenced them forever." ("DAD, WELL DONE")
Munro continues:
There is a British hospital ship in our convoy now. It is lighted up at night. (Allied headquarters in North Africa reported Monday that a lighted British hospital ship had been sunk by enemy bombers but that the wounded had been rescued. There was, of course, no indication whether or not this was the same ship Munro reports as being with the Canadian convoy.)
Editor: Harrison, working near Avola (farther north than Munro) mentions a hospital ship in his memoirs as well:
We had a hospital ship with us named the Alatambra (sic: Talamba) 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 Scotch soldiers.
One night we saw what appeared to be a tremendous bonfire in the east, offshore a long way out. In the morning, the Alatambra 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. (Page 33, "DAD, WELL DONE")
Norm Bowen, another Canadian in Combined Ops, mentions a hospital ship, and its destruction, in an audio file found at The Memory Project. Part of the transcript follows:
We had a lot of wounded and the CO [commanding officer] said “get them out to the hospital ship.” So, I got these guys on the landing craft, an LCM, American, and out to the hospital ship I went. Well there was a cruiser and a monitor circling around the hospital ship acting as artillery for the shore. But the range [bore] of those guns is fifteen-inch on a monitor and I think the cruiser was six-inch. They could have gotten away from the hospital ship and still accomplished what they wanted. But anyway the Stukas was over trying to hit them and here is the poor hospital ship right in the middle.
The Canadian troops have been rushing ahead ever since. It is a tough job keeping up with them on two feet....
During my trip around the battle zone I saw only three wounded soldiers, who had been hit while cleaning out a pillbox just before the beach defense collapsed.
Editor: D. Harrison, from his vantage point on an LCM, reported the following in his memoirs:
"Our beach had machine gun nests carved out of the ever-present limestone, with slots cut in them to cover our beaches. A few hand grenades tossed in during the night silenced them forever." ("DAD, WELL DONE")
Munro continues:
There is a British hospital ship in our convoy now. It is lighted up at night. (Allied headquarters in North Africa reported Monday that a lighted British hospital ship had been sunk by enemy bombers but that the wounded had been rescued. There was, of course, no indication whether or not this was the same ship Munro reports as being with the Canadian convoy.)
Editor: Harrison, working near Avola (farther north than Munro) mentions a hospital ship in his memoirs as well:
We had a hospital ship with us named the Alatambra (sic: Talamba) 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 Scotch soldiers.
One night we saw what appeared to be a tremendous bonfire in the east, offshore a long way out. In the morning, the Alatambra 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. (Page 33, "DAD, WELL DONE")
Norm Bowen, another Canadian in Combined Ops, mentions a hospital ship, and its destruction, in an audio file found at The Memory Project. Part of the transcript follows:
We had a lot of wounded and the CO [commanding officer] said “get them out to the hospital ship.” So, I got these guys on the landing craft, an LCM, American, and out to the hospital ship I went. Well there was a cruiser and a monitor circling around the hospital ship acting as artillery for the shore. But the range [bore] of those guns is fifteen-inch on a monitor and I think the cruiser was six-inch. They could have gotten away from the hospital ship and still accomplished what they wanted. But anyway the Stukas was over trying to hit them and here is the poor hospital ship right in the middle.
For more details, please link to Norm Bowen at The Memory Project.
Ross Munro continues:
The Italian beach defenses which folded up like a concertina were merely barbed wire and some machine gun posts which fired a few bursts and then gave up. On our beach the enemy was evidently counting on a sandbar 15 feet offshore as a natural defense. But the Canadians surprised them completely by coming in on heavy surf and battling ashore through water to the waist.
Coastal batteries shelled the landing boats but the fire was erratic. The Canadians went through the beach defenses in a matter of minutes and struck inland....
Editor: The landing boats mentioned by Munro were likely manned by members of the Royal Navy or their own Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). It is my understanding that Canadian troops were not transported by Canadian landing craft until Operation BAYTOWN or AVALANCHE, D-Day Italy, September, 1943.
That being said, Canadians manning landing craft faced machine gun posts as well as they steered landing craft toward shore and suffered through the worst bombing raid imaginable. D. Harrison (RCNVR, Comb. Ops.) writes:
Munro, writing from a more southerly location, records the following about the Canadian landings:
Troops Pour Into Bridgehead
Thousands upon thousands of troops poured on the bridgehead after the successful assault, and vehicles, guns and stores and ammunition have been rushed to the beaches.
This attack was the stuff the men had prepared for in intensive combined operations training in Britain. After the exercises the convoy carrying assault troops sailed for the Mediterranean, and they went right to these Sicilian beaches without being attacked by aircraft.
More stories like the above by Ross Munro and other war correspondents (several Canadian writers) can be found in The Winnipeg Tribune (digitized), organized and presented by The University of Manitoba (Link). Happy hunting!
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The map above, found in The Winnipeg Tribune, depicts where Canadian troops (and war correspondent Ross Munro) landed near Pachino, and where Canadians in Combined Ops took RN troops ashore in ALCs, along with all the material of war in LCMs, i.e., near Syracuse, Avola, and Noto.
In the July 12 issue of The Tribune we read:
Prime Minister Mackenzie King today said in the House of Commons that the "first critical period has passed" for Canadians engaged with the Allied forces invading Sicily, but "the most critical period is to come."
A hint that the Sicilian campaign is not officially expected to end quickly was given by the prime minister when he referred to Canadian interest "in the coming weeks" centring in the battle for Sicily.
"We should remember, too, that Sicily is only an outpost of Europe," he said. "Many other bridgeheads will have to be established before the final struggle begins."
Editor: It is known that Canadian troops, and members of RCNVR (and Combined Ops) manning and transporting supplies in LCMs, toiled in Sicily into the first week or two of August.
"Fleets of Allied fighter-bombers" attacked significant targets in Sicily and Italy, not only to support Operation HUSKY, i.e., the month-long invasion of Sicily, but also to prepare for the next step into Europe, the invasion of the Italian mainland.
Canadians in Combined Operations, would transport men and the material of war in assorted landing craft beginning on September 3, 1943 (after a few weeks of rest and repair in Malta - during August) to Reggio Calabria, on the toe of Italy's boot, and that centre was one of the bomber fleets' significant targets.
We read in The Tribune, in part:
These new aerial blows were keyed with assaults by fleets of heavy bombers from the Middle East command which heavily bombarded the Reggio Calabria and Vibe Valencia aerodromes on the toe of the Italian mainland....
At Reggio Calabria, Italian terminus of the vital ferry connecting the mainland with Sicily, bombs were dropped on the runway and large fires were started, a communique said.
Caption with above photo: THE INVASION COAST - Typical of most of Sicily's shoreline is this view, showing the cliffs which protect most of the island's northern and eastern shores. News dispatches reveal that the assault force landed on the south and east coasts of Sicily, and is driving steadily inland. (A.P. Wirephoto.)
"Clean up problems with Sunlight Soap"
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A second article by Ross Munro appeared in the same issue of The Winnipeg Tribune. It appeared with a singular introduction and reads, in part:
Ross Munro's following eye-witness story of the Canadian invasion of Sicily near Cape Passero was a 7 1/2-hour "beat" or "scoop" over 53 other war correspondents covering all phases of the Allied invasion.
His story was written late Saturday afternoon in Sicily and reached The Canadian Press cable desk in New York at 4:17 a.m. C.D.T. Sunday.
The mention of Pachino as the point near where the Canadians landed was the first word from any Allied source naming an Allied bridgehead. It was 10 hours later before Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's North Africa headquarters announced troop activities in the Pachino and Gela area.
WITH THE CANADIANS IN SICILY. July 10 - (Delayed) - Behind an enormous naval and air night bombardment the Canadians practically walked into Sicily Saturday, meeting very little determined resistance on the beaches four miles southwest of Pachino on the southeast tip of the island....
I landed at 5:15 a.m. this morning from a naval launch which guided the infantry assault to the beach. There was scarcely a shot fired as I passed through the wire and the troops infiltrated into the countryside....
It was a most fantastic spectacle to see and hear. Two assault units stormed the left sector....
.... from a cliff top near the main beach where I am writing this, with the fleet nearby and landing ships and warships spread out in the bay, I can see the smoke and hear gunfire some miles inland on the front....
All day long our fleet of landing ships, cargo vessels, and Royal navy ships have been in the bay disembarking men by the thousands and discharging vehicles, guns and supplies.
Caption with above photo: LOADING THE INVASION FLEET - Ships which moved on Sicily early Saturday here are shown being loaded in harbor for the assault. Invasion troops and the multitude of items needed to supply them are taken aboard. Note other ships further out in the harbor. (A.P. Wirephoto.)
The following headline also appeared in The Tribune:
Part of the story follows:
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, July 12: Several thousand Canadian reinforcements have been landed in North Africa within 24 hours of the start of the Allied invasion of Sicily in which soldiers of the Dominion are participating....
The troopships also carried Canadian medical personnel and a number of Canadian nursing sisters and British troops.... Every province in Canada was represented among the troops and nurses....
It can now be stated that the following major towns and ports have been captured by our forces: Syracuse, Avola, Pachino, Pozzalio, Gela, Licati, Ispica, Rossolini and Noto.....
With the Italian fleet still noticeable by its absence, Allied naval forces continued large-scale operations, putting ashore more and more Allied troops and equipment, although the Allied communique said the enemy's air opposition was increasing....
One Allied hospital ship, which was fully lighted and anchored three miles off the Sicilian coast, was sunk Saturday night by enemy bombers, but the 400 wounded were successfully transferred.
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Ralph Allen writes, in part, about life aboard ships bound from England to Sicily:
.... The most surprised man aboard was Pte. Peter Bross of Winnipeg. Bross smuggled a dog named Bob aboard inside his kitbag. The officer commanding the troops discovered Bob on the fourth day out. His only remark was, "Hello, dog."
The second most surprised man was Sgt. John Carroll of Toronto. Landing on Dieppe beach 11 months ago, the sergeant absorbed most of a German mortar shell. It bestowed several abdominal and leg wounds on him, but he dragged himself through the sand and water and was pulled aboard a vessel under fire....
(Later, in a hospital, a surgeon attended to his wounds).
The job took four months but the sergeant's wounds healed....
Despite the sober realization of what lay at the end of the journey and despite the crowding below decks the troops entered into the voyage with all the good cheer of tourists taking a cabin cruise....
Douglas Amaron, Canadian Press staff writer, asked the following question in an article appearing in The Winnipeg Tribune, July 12, 1943:
LONDON, July 12 - The future of the Canadian army's place in the Battle of Sicily and in the war as a whole was under discussion after disclosure in Ross Munro's eyewitness account of the Sicilian landings that the Canadians apparently form a part of the battle-tried British 8th Army.
(Concerning) the strength and composition of the Canadian formations he accompanied from England to Sicily were not revealed.... but it is safe to assume that they are in greater number than at Dieppe last August when two infantry brigades and part of one tank brigade were used....
Ross Munro reveals an interesting role played by Canadian planners in Operation X, with connections to Combined Operations:
Munro writes, in part:
Editor's Note (as found in The Tribune): This story by Ross Munro, Canadian Press war correspondent, was written before embarking on expedition "X" - and expedition which turned out to be the attack on Sicily and here Munro tells of the part Canadians had in its planning.
SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND, (Delayed) - Working secretly in London for six months on special duties, a small group of officers on a Canadian planning staff evolved detailed preparations for operation "X".
They were the "backroom boys" in this attack and some of them were involved particularly in this tremendous task, and also in the organization of a head planning staff established last fall without public mention of its creation.
It was intended that some of those who planned the operations would participate in it. One officer on the planning staff was Maj. A.F.B. Knight of Winnipeg.... another was Maj. Harold Hacking, Vancouver.
At offices in Whitehall, London.... Officers of the planning staff said they were given every facility by the British authorities and added they had complete access to the War Office, Admiralty, Air Ministry and Combined Operations headquarters whenever they required it.
An operation was planned for Canadians during the first of the year, it now can be said, and the planning staff got everything ready. However, the operation was suddenly cancelled and the planning staff went on to prepare for Operation "X" which was assigned to the Canadians.
The job was completed in May and the force was concentrated, given special training and embarked. The planning staff did considerable pioneering in the realm of Combined Operations but immediate help was obtained from British authorities in the pre-battle preparations.
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The following map, found in the July 13 issue of The Winnipeg Tribune in 1943, just a few days after D-Day Sicily, is revealing:
In The Tribune we read:
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, July 12 - Gen, Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's British armies raced northward up the east coast of Sicily today in a tremendous push toward the strategic straits dividing the island from the Italian mainland....
On the editorial page of The Tribune re read the following (under the heading "SO FAR, ALL GOES WELL") that relates to the value of a well-rehearsed 'combined operation':
The coastal sweep began after the big city of Syracuse had fall to Gen. Montgomery's forces, with which the Canadians are associated in this operation....
Inside the British lines were nine towns [Editor: Avola, Noto included], mostly rail points along the line that circles the island....
On the editorial page of The Tribune re read the following (under the heading "SO FAR, ALL GOES WELL") that relates to the value of a well-rehearsed 'combined operation':
We are over the first "hump" in the invasion of Sicily. There are other "humps" to be surmounted but the greatest of them all was the huge scale landing operation which went off with the precision of a "Spithead review. The Allied navy and Air Force gave an exhibition of supreme skill and co-ordination....
Main elements in the initial success were, of course, the softening up of the island by the Air Force, the landing of the glider forces and paratroops behind the enemy lines, clockwork precision by the navy and the shock troops establishing bridgeheads.
"Where is the Luftwaffe?".... Goering's air force may yet be heard from but it simply was not there at the most critical moment - the landing operations - when the maximum damage could be inflicted on the Allied force. At Dieppe, in a few brief hours, Goering combed Europe for air support and threw in everything he had. No such opposition has yet been encountered by our airmen over Sicily....
Editor: Because the Allied landings were widespread, conflicting reports about the amount of resistance from the air have been found. Little resistance was encountered by Canadian Army landings west of the SE tip of Sicily, but the Luftwaffe was busy north of the tip, near Avola and Syracuse, for several days after the initial landings there.
In the morning, as we slowly moved in, we saw gliders everywhere. I saw them sticking out of the water, crashed on land and in the vineyards. In my twenty-seven days there I did not see a glider intact. 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.
We fired at everything. I saw P38s, German and Italian fighters and my first dogfights. 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. I give them credit. ("DAD, WELL DONE")
Photo and caption as found in The Winnipeg Tribune, July 12, 1943
Caption - LANDING CRAFT MASSED IN BIZERTE HARBOR FOR THE
INVASION OF SICILY. 3d Division troops marching aboard, 6 July 1943.
Similar photo as found at ibiblio.com (HyperWar: US Army)
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Headline in The Winnipeg Tribune, July 13, 1943
Ralph Allen brings us up to date on some progress in the area where Canadians in the 80th and 81st flotillas, manning LCMs (landing craft, mechanized), were busy as bees transporting war materials to shore, e.g., at Avola and Noto, while under constant bombardment:
ALGIERS, July 13 - As the Sicilian campaign passed Monday from battles for bridgeheads to the secondary stage of battles for communication, Canadians again joined with the British operating on their right flank to place on record important gains. They are officially credited with the capture of the towns of Ispica, Rosolini and Noto.
Thus, of the 13 ports and towns already mentioned as captured in official communiques, at least three have been taken by the Canadians and three others - Syracuse, Avola and Pachino - were taken with Canadians either on the scene actually at the time of surrender, or in the immediate vicinity.
More news about fresh landings on July 13:
By Relman Morin, Associated Press Staff Writer
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, July 13 - British and Canadian invasion forces swept up the east coast of Sicily at a breathtaking pace today, capturing the port of Augusta, 19 miles north of Syracuse, while other British troops piled ashore on the beaches near Catania, nearly half-way up the coastline to Messina....
Augusta, with a population normally running between 20,000 and 25,000 persons, is a fine fortified port which has been used as a naval harbor....
The capture of Augusta was preceded by a heavy bombardment from Allied warships, which stood off and lobbed high explosives into the town.
Details of the new landings near Catania were not given immediately, but it was assumed they were made by units of the veteran British 8th Army which originally attacked that side of the island....
Pilots of Allied bombers participating in the furious aerial onslaught against Axis targets throughout Sicily reported that the Sicilian Straits still were choked with transport and supply ships carrying reinforcements to the British, Canadian and American forces which spearheaded the invasion....
Allied headquarters announced that more than 3,000 vessels of all types, now are taking part in the tremendous task of transporting men, munitions and supplies to Sicily. The work was said to be "proceeding satisfactorily." despite a surf that had made operations difficult at the more exposed positions.
In an article delayed by a few days, Canadian war correspondent Ross Munro "tells of the voyage into battle of the Canadian force from the time it left Britain up to the beginning of the invasion".
He writes, in part:
AT SEA WITH THE FIRST CANADIAN DIVISION in the central Mediterranean, July 9 - (Delayed) - This convoy of assault craft, landing ships and special cargo craft carrying the First Canadian Division of assault troops completed the more than 2,000-mile voyage from Britain in the simmering Central Mediterranean ocean without the loss of a ship or a man.
An armada of more than 2,000 ships is being employed in this, the most gigantic Combined Operation ever attempted, and now the larger portion of all this shipping, which includes everything down to tank-landing craft, are gathering together in one tremendous fleet within striking distance of the Sicilian target.
Canadian soldiers are crowding the decks of our ships. There are British, Canadian and American convoys, jammed with troops, supplies, guns, and vehicles all around us, with the Royal Navy guarding it all with a tremendous force of warships....
War correspondents with the assault troops received some indication of the projected operation without the target being named when they were called to the ship a few hours before the convoy sailed for a conference with the Canadian commander.
In his map room the general, wearing battledress, started by saying, "We are going to join the 8th Army. Speaking of the difficulties the expedition might encounter, the officer indicated that quite probably there would be trouble getting the vehicles, tanks and such ashore on the beaches where the Canadians were to land....
It wasn't until we were several days out in the Atlantic that the troops got the first intimation of their destination when a special notice was posted on the decks reading: "We are on our way to the Mediterranean to take part in the greatest Combined Operation ever attempted...."
This was great news to the fighting men and their British comrades aboard.... At last they knew it wasn't just another big-scale manoeuvre.
Augusta, with a population normally running between 20,000 and 25,000 persons, is a fine fortified port which has been used as a naval harbor....
The capture of Augusta was preceded by a heavy bombardment from Allied warships, which stood off and lobbed high explosives into the town.
Details of the new landings near Catania were not given immediately, but it was assumed they were made by units of the veteran British 8th Army which originally attacked that side of the island....
Pilots of Allied bombers participating in the furious aerial onslaught against Axis targets throughout Sicily reported that the Sicilian Straits still were choked with transport and supply ships carrying reinforcements to the British, Canadian and American forces which spearheaded the invasion....
Allied headquarters announced that more than 3,000 vessels of all types, now are taking part in the tremendous task of transporting men, munitions and supplies to Sicily. The work was said to be "proceeding satisfactorily." despite a surf that had made operations difficult at the more exposed positions.
In an article delayed by a few days, Canadian war correspondent Ross Munro "tells of the voyage into battle of the Canadian force from the time it left Britain up to the beginning of the invasion".
He writes, in part:
AT SEA WITH THE FIRST CANADIAN DIVISION in the central Mediterranean, July 9 - (Delayed) - This convoy of assault craft, landing ships and special cargo craft carrying the First Canadian Division of assault troops completed the more than 2,000-mile voyage from Britain in the simmering Central Mediterranean ocean without the loss of a ship or a man.
An armada of more than 2,000 ships is being employed in this, the most gigantic Combined Operation ever attempted, and now the larger portion of all this shipping, which includes everything down to tank-landing craft, are gathering together in one tremendous fleet within striking distance of the Sicilian target.
Canadian soldiers are crowding the decks of our ships. There are British, Canadian and American convoys, jammed with troops, supplies, guns, and vehicles all around us, with the Royal Navy guarding it all with a tremendous force of warships....
War correspondents with the assault troops received some indication of the projected operation without the target being named when they were called to the ship a few hours before the convoy sailed for a conference with the Canadian commander.
In his map room the general, wearing battledress, started by saying, "We are going to join the 8th Army. Speaking of the difficulties the expedition might encounter, the officer indicated that quite probably there would be trouble getting the vehicles, tanks and such ashore on the beaches where the Canadians were to land....
It wasn't until we were several days out in the Atlantic that the troops got the first intimation of their destination when a special notice was posted on the decks reading: "We are on our way to the Mediterranean to take part in the greatest Combined Operation ever attempted...."
This was great news to the fighting men and their British comrades aboard.... At last they knew it wasn't just another big-scale manoeuvre.
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Also found on July 13th in The Tribune:
ALEXANDER TELLS OF NAVY'S WORK
IN MEDITERRANEAN
LONDON, July 13 - Describing the assault on Sicily as the "largest amphibious operation ever attempted," A.V. Alexander, first lord of the admiralty, praised today the skill and determination of the Royal and United States navies in carrying Allied forces to the beaches and expressed confidence in the "great task which lies ahead."
Mr. Alexander said the landings were carried out despite the "most difficult weather condition."
"In the two months between Nov. 8, 1942 [Editor: D-Day North Africa] and Jan. 8, 1943, " he said, "1,000,000 tons of supplies, 400,000 men and 40,000 vehicles were landed in North Africa.
"From July, 1942 to D Day, 1943, 346 enemy ships totalling 860,000 tons were sunk in the Mediterranean," he added.
And finally, from the Navy League we read the following:
CANADIANS have thrilled to the news that their troops have been among the first to clamber ashore from the invasion barges along the dark Sicilian coasts. In their pride at the fact that at last the United nations have come to grips with the Axis on the home ground, the people of Canada have not forgotten that the navy is largely responsible for the safe passage of our men to the island.
News reports indicate that 2,000 ships took part in the attack, fighters and transport. Besides the men of the Navy the work of thousands of merchant seamen was required to transport the troops and munitions first to Africa and then to Sicily.
These men deserve well of us and have a claim on our gratitude. The best way we can show it is by helping the Navy League.... The increasing personnel means the League has that many more boys to look after in the matter of ditty bags, kits, and hostel accommodations.....
We cannot and we will not let our sailors down.
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Please link to Articles: D-Day Sicily, July 10, 1943 - Pt 6.
Unattributed Photos GH
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