Navy Boys Get a Word In Edgewise!
Canadians in Combined Ops get front page treatment on June 16, 1943
(After the King has his day. See below)
Introduction:
The digitized Winnipeg Tribune from June and July 1943 is actually a treasure trove, especially for those wishing to learn more about the history of the day (Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily occurred on July 10) and glean more than a few details about the role of Canadians in the various branches of Canada's armed forces.
The Canadian Army and Air Force grab more headlines than the few hundred Canadian sailors involved in the landings on Sicilian shores, but, in both a June newspaper and articles posted on July 15 (1943), one can read a few more details - below - about the Canadians in Combined Operations and those safely delivered to shore in the early days of the assault.
Canadian men, described as enthusiastic (overly so, at times: "Sometimes they hurt each other."), received praise from The King of England and Monty on more than one occasion. Readers are encouraged to visit the digitized Tribune, found online at the University of Manitoba. Though I share copies of their photographs and stories here, I express that I have no rights to the material.
Please link to The Winnipeg Tribune, digitized.
Canadians training on landing crafts in the U.K. grabbed the headlines too. Just don't call them barges, I am told:
Sanburn begins as follows:
LONDON, June 16 - Tough Canadian seamen today are training in the Combined Operation Command (Commandos) for heavy responsibilities in what prime Minister Churchill has called "the coming amphibious operations of peculiar hazard and complexity."
I visited a South Coast training base to see these Canadians at work with their British companions-in-arms. They were learning to become skilled in the operations of all types of landing craft. I travelled with a "Combined Ops" flotilla which was making a practice assault.
In no other branch of the British Navy does such a heavy responsibility fall on naval ratings. The entire crew of the smaller craft are non-commissioned men. As few as three ratings can be responsible for the safe landing of many soldiers and valuable equipment.
[Editor: More information about Lieut. Johnny O'Rourke of Calgary, mentioned above, is found in St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, (two volumes): E.g., "....on March 28, 1942, John O'Rourke was present at the heroic, bloody but effective raid on St. Nazaire. During this ferocious engagement he was in close proximity to Commander R.E.D. Ryder RN who received one of the three St. Nazaire Naval Victoria Crosses. John has commented that the most desirable award was a longer lease on life." Page 6, Appendix IV]
Sanburn continues:
Dangerous - Like Sharks
Under a brilliant afternoon sun, a party of war correspondents roared out from shore in a flotilla carrying a company of Royal Marines. The flat snouts of the troop-landing craft that were strung out behind us chewed up the turbulent wake like giant sharks - and the craft were equally dangerous.
Grey in the mist churned up by the flotilla loomed huge tank-landing craft and a secret type of anti-aircraft vessel. Typhoon fighter planes skimmed the waves alongside.
Troops were led ashore in a matter of seconds under a smoke screen laid by support craft and the flotilla. The craft were unbeached again to dart away under the cover of their own smoke screen.
This type of assault is not new, but Canadians should appreciate the little-known big job done by the landing-craft crews.
This branch of the Navy is expanding the most rapidly of all. The numbers of trained men, far up in the thousands, would surprise Canadians - and it would give Hitler an unpleasant jolt.
The crews are trained to fight the sea and to fight battles. If necessary, they can fight ashore like soldiers. Each man can do many jobs and in a pinch any one seaman could operate the small landing craft.
No Easy Job
That's no easy task, as witnessed one experienced commander of a warship, who almost washed out the dock while attempting to bring one of these landing craft to shore.
The ratings I saw do it, and they don't lose an inch of paint tin the process.
The landing craft crews are building up their own traditions. They hate being regarded as anything but pure Navy. They also have a violent dislike of anybody who calls their fast, efficient craft "barges."
"For God's sake, don't call them that," said one British officer. "These aren't anything like the tiddlypoop stuff that Hitler had in 1940."
Coming events will more than likely prove him right.
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Good news. The Canadian Army, Air Force, Winnipeggers and "wheatfield seadogs" received front page tributes, as well, on Thursday, July 15, 1943:
About Canadians in Combined Ops, as well as in the Royal Navy, Mr. Allen writes the following:
ALGIERS, July 15 - In a swelling sea off Sicily just before the zero hour Saturday morning, 500 Canadian sailors groped expertly through dark, crouching huddles of British infantrymen waiting to finish their part in one of the most spectacularly successful jobs the Canadian Navy has ever done.
Allen continues:
First details of the participation in the Sicilian landing operations by the young navy, which the old salts of the british Fleet admiringly call "The Wheatfield Seadogs," was brought to Allied headquarters by Lt.-Cmdr. E. H. Bartlett, R.C.N.V.R., formerly of Toronto, who went in with one of the four Canadian flotillas that aided in the historical ferrying job. Bartlett borrowed a favourite expression of the messdecks to describe the functioning of the whole operation of getting troops ashore as "top line."
"Organized Excitement Out"
Despite the confused, rolling sea, the job was fulfilled exactly according to specifications and in two full flotillas that he has since seen and those he has been able to contact, not one Canadian sailor's life was lost. Though resistance was stiff in the early stages, these two flotillas put their British infantrymen ashore with negligible casualties. En route back, Bartlett heard one rating grumble: "Hell, they organized all the excitement out of this show."
This strange complaint was not fully justified. For instance, at one boat, with the muffled thrum of its motors barely audible to even its occupants, stole toward shore in the lee of a concrete mole, an Italian sniper crept around the corner of the mole and began pinging wildly, but uncomfortably close to the tense passengers.
A Canadian seaman grabbed a revolver, stood erect, and engaged the Italian in an old-fashioned duel at 40 paces. The Italian suddenly remembered that the age of chivalry was dead and ducked for cover.
As another boat slipped through the last 100 yards to shore, a big coastal gun's shell churned up a geyser nearby and a stoker raised appreciative chuckles from the British infantrymen waiting to be put ashore by grunting: "That doesn't sound like any .303 to me."
Petty Officer E. A. Randall of Halifax came the closest to missing his schedule but arrived at the specified landing place exactly on time. As his formation peeled off from the larger formation for the slow deliberate journey ashore, a rumpled sea caught a tow rope and jammed it into one of the craft's propellors. Riding half in the Mediterranean and half on the ship like a sea-borne cowboy, Randall hacked away at the rope with his sea knife. He failed to clear the propeller and his craft fell behind its companion vessels. Randall finally completed the journey on one propeller but the overall operation was so unhurried and so carefully insured against such minor accidents that he was pin-pointed as reaching his rendezvous exactly at the landing deadline.
"Under Fire - Get Off"
As successive boats hit the beach and the reception of mortar bursts and machine-gun fire made them "welcome," Bartlett heard army officers ashore call out distinctly, but not unnecessarily loudly: "All right, lads, this beach is under fire. Get off it." But the infantrymen plunged right ahead.
In the face of their determined action, the enemy fire soon slackened to a fizzle and then almost ceased as the invaders came to grips with the enemy, whose heart quite apparently was not wholly in his work.
The complete success of the Allied invaders did not alter the fact that their voyage was by no means pleasant. Heavy seas buffeted their little boats all the way in from their secondary base, and mal de mer was not unknown.
Each soldier had been equipped by far seeing staff planners with a paper receptacle to meet obvious purposes, and most were used on the run in, with one of the many descriptive comments including a forlorn Lancashire wail: "Somebody's stolen my bucket!" Complimentary to this protest came a Scottish growl: "I wish we'd have invasions where you can get there by bridges!"
The Canadian naval force involved was representative completely of the oldest Dominion and included many officers and ratings who were seasoned by the landings at Dieppe last August and during the North African campaign.
One Thing In Common
Besides Bartlett there was Lieut. A. J. Drew and Sub.-Lt. L. Williams of Vancouver, Lieut. J. C. Davie Duncan, AB. W. A. Jacob and Sub.-Lt. G. E. Allin of Edmonton, Lieut. G. E. Nuttal: and Ldg. Stoker J. Halas of Calgary, and Stoker G. V. Franklin and AB. J. B. Stewart of Winnipeg.
Bartlett noticed one thing: All of the Canadian naval personnel had one thing in common, a strong affection and respect for the Canadian Army, which in this great hour overrode all traditional feuds between soldiers and sailors.
As they were briefed for operations a few days before the fighting started, sailors sat smoking silently, suppressing their excitement as they learned, first, of their destination and, second, their time of arrival.
When their officers told them that Canadian troops were going in, they broke their silence for the first time.
"Baby, if we could only take them in," a seaman shouted above the hubbub of voices. It is not known yet whether Canadian sailors ferried Canadian soldiers in the operation referred to.
[Editor: As far as I know, they did not. However, they certainly did so two months later during the invasion of Italy's mainland.]
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We read again of the role of Canadians in Combined Operations in an article by Louis Hunter, Canadian Press War Correspondent:
COMMANDOS LAND FIRST IN SICILY
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, July 15 - Commando troops paved the way for the Canadian landing on the southeast tip of Sicily, it was learned here Wednesday when two British officers returned to Africa from the embattled island. The landing was accomplished in the face of very light resistance.
The Commandos went in ahead of the Canadians with whom they had traveled from Britain protected by a naval force. A naval officer, Lt.-Cmdr. J. D. Fernald, who was aboard the headquarters ship on the way to Sicily, said the wind reached almost gale proportions, threatening to upset the whole operation but, fortunately, it subsided just before the landing. Some landing craft shipped considerable water as they plunged through the surf....
It was also learned here today that 500 Canadian naval men took part in the landings, many of them veterans of the Dieppe and North African landings. They manned the assault craft that ran into the shallow water, permitting the troops to splash ashore.
Of the two crews that have returned here, there were no casualties.
[Editor: The 55th and 61st Canadian flotillas of assault landing craft returned to North Africa (perhaps Alexandria or Algiers) after troops were delivered to Sicilian shores. The 80th and 81st Canadian flotillas of LCMs (landing craft, mechanized) remained for the duration of the invasion.]
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The following article is included here in order to provide the names of war correspondents who may have written stories about not just the Canadian role in Sicily but specifically, the Canadians in Combined Ops. "Happy Hunting with Google", I say.
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Unattributed Photos GH
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