1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Articles: Sicily, July 16-23, 1943

Focus is On The Troops Now

PASS THE AMMUNITION: (Above) Troops identified as British Tommies form a human chain to pass ammunition ashore somewhere on the Sicilian coast after the Allied invasion. - (Official British Photograph - A.P. Wirephoto) The Winnipeg Tribune, July 16, 1943

Introduction:

As I scan the newspaper coverage in The Winnipeg Tribune (digitized) in the days after Operation HUSKY commenced, the majority of the news articles concern the progress of Canadian troops, Montgomery's Eighth Army, and Patton, and the U.S. troops.

At the same time about 250 Canadians in Combined Ops, members of the 80th and 81st flotillas of LCMs, continued to toil on Sicilian beaches (near Syracuse, Avola and Noto), many living inside dirty, limestone, cattle caves, doing "ship to shore" in regular shifts.

Canadian Lt. Cmdr. Jake Koyl (R.C.N.V.R.) wrote the following re Sicily:

The administration of the Flotilla contributed much to efficiency. For the first forty-eight hours every boat worked all the time, but after that two 81st Flotilla boat Officers were at all times afloat and two were resting, working twenty-four hours on and twenty-four off, while for the coxswains and men, a routine of forty-eight hours on and twenty-four off was found necessary. However, many of the personnel chose to remain with the craft all the time and slept when they could on the beaches.

The complement of the Flotillas allowed for 50% spares, three men per craft. In contrast to the LCA Flotillas, which did not need their spares, the LCM's made the fullest use of all their men so as to give as much rest and, in the later stages of the operations, recreation as possible.

The usual routine throughout the operation was to knock off for the night between 2300 and 0500, when darkness made ferrying slow and dangerous. The beach labour parties could not handle as much as the craft could land, and used the nights to clear the beach of the day's surplus.

Life Ashore -

The conditions for men ashore off duty varied. The 81st Flotilla Officer, Lieutenant Mullins, went ashore on the second day, after a day of ferrying high octane gas through air attacks, and managed to arrange with the Army for the billeting and feeding of his men at a rough camp about three minutes walk from the beach.

The 80th did not fare so well and had to fend for themselves. They found, after living and feeding from ship to ship until the 21st of July, a cattle cave near the beach, which provided shelter but was uncomfortable and dirty. Both Flotillas lived mainly from Army "Composite" rations and what meals they could get from merchant ships they were unloading.

[Editor: The cave was known as "The Savoy".]

However, there were compensations. After things settled down, there were frequent opportunities for visiting nearby Sicilian towns, and sampling (to say the least) the local wine, Vino. Leave expeditions were organized to Noto (15 kilometres away) and to Syracuse, where the Canadians patronized the Fascist Armoury which contained all manner of war trophies.

(Combined Operations Pages 180 - 181, by Londoner Clayton Marks)

While the members of Combined Operations performed their valuable tasks related to the transport of much needed supplies, the following headlines, articles, photographs and other small items appeared The Trib:

Troops advance toward Messina; Combined Ops at work near Syracuse

Many members of RCNVR were assigned to merchant ships; a few volunteered for Combined Ops (i.e., about 1,000 between 1941 - 45).

There were many roles for men and women to play during WW2

In some Navy memoirs I read of sailors visiting AMGOT stores, mentioned below. Some used false papers to buy guns as souvenirs:

Cartoons by Mozel feature a unique artistic style:

Cigarettes were obtained cheaply by members of the armed forces. Men bought 3 - 4 cartons at a time before going on leave and in many photographs of the day we see sailors with the ever-present smoke between their fingers.

Caption with above drawing reads: "We but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor." Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 7.

Men and women doing research re Canada's role in WW2 may find this next clipping useful. British Associated newsreels may still exist.... somewhere.

The following headline, caption and "panoramic picture" appeared in the July 21 issue of The Winnipeg Tribune:

Excellent view of various landing craft. Number 27 may be an LCT (tank)

Above, Canadians study a booklet that was prepared to assist in their understanding of what to expect in Sicily and Italy. The photograph below depicts a similar scene, as found at WW2Today (link).

Caption: "A British soldier reads up on Sicily, the

target for the next Allied invasion, July 1943."

Articles by Dick Sanburn, from The Winnipeg Tribune, are featured in part, below:

Sanburn continued:

The secrecy of the Canadian move was phenomenal. Even the skipper of the ship did not know his destination. Shipboard rumors reached fantastic numbers and heights. Algiers, Alexandria, Cairo, Syria, India and Dakar - all were backed and all were wrong.

"Canada" flashes and cap badges were temporarily removed.

British, American and some French colonial troops are in the same camp. The intensely blue Mediterranean distracts attention sometimes from the flies and mosquitoes, blazing heat and constant dust.

Lifts are easy to a nearby town, where the prices in francs are low. For instance, you can buy a round of vin blancs and three shoe shines from Arab urchins for less than 50 cents.

Canadians were wised up on the price scale by British and Americans to forestall the natives in skyrocketing prices to Canucks and spoiling it for everybody. Natives in fezzes and rags offer pears, grapes and watermelons. Oranges are out of season.

On the first evening in Africa thousands of weary, dusty troops gathered on a hillside in the cork forest for a Protestant church parade. Three padres conducted the service. It was an impressive, solemn scene far from home, as the tropic dusk brought blessed coolness.

Various landing craft are visible in a few photos above and below

Caption: Three phases of the Canadian landing on Sicily are shown in these first photographic prints received from the invasion front. (Above) A group of Italian soldiers captured by the Canadians at Cape Passero poses willingly with the single guard (left). Most of the prisoners taken were found to be poorly-clad and equipped. They are guarded in the ratio of three Canadians to 200 prisoners.

Caption: Above, a Canadian bull-dozer levels the beach at Cape Passero for the heavy trucks that came off the invasion barges. Among the first Canadians to set foot on Sicilian soil were those (below).

Caption: They are Piper N. A. McLeod, L/Cpl. C. A. Jones and Pte. L. Dunn, all of Vancouver, here walking inland from the beach past one of the few pillboxes which were part of the scanty Italian defenses. - (A.P. Photos)