Presentation: Dad's Navy Days, Part 2 (3)

D-Day Sicily, Plus Thirty Days

SE Sicily: A rare mention of Canadian flotillas. "Dad is here!"]

My father recalls the following about D-Day Sicily:

July 10, 1943. We arrived off Sicily in the middle of the night and stopped about four miles out. Other ships and new LCIs (landing craft infantry), fairly large barges, were landing troops. Soldiers went off each side of the foc’sle, down steps into the water and then ashore, during which time we saw much tracer fire. This was to be our worst invasion yet.

The new LCI(L)s were more common during D-Day Normandy in 1944. Dad likely thought the sets of stairs on each side were an interesting modification. “Off they go, twice as fast!”

His comment,  “This was to be our worst invasion yet” requires some explanation, because early reports delivered to Canada were mostly very positive.

For example, this article by Louis V Hunter, CP War Correspondent, as found in The Winnipeg Tribune, July 14, 1943:

Headline: Local Tars Help Put Army on Sicilian Beach

It is estimated today that 500 Canadian naval men took part in the Sicilian landings.

There were no casualties in the two R.C.N. flotillas which have returned to port, an R.C.N. spokesman announced today. Other flotillas have not returned. Some of the Canadian seamen ferried in British troops who were part of the first wave of the invasion forces to move onto beaches in the southeastern corner of Sicily.

I will add the following:

1. The 500 Navy men were not all in Combined Ops. E.g., some were RCNVR, serving on RN troop ships.

2. The 55th and 61st Flotillas of Assault Landing Craft (ALCs) deposited troops ashore in Sicily, without a great deal of resistance, and when finished that task returned to home base, likely in Alexandria, North Africa. The 80th and 81st Flotillas of Landing Craft Mechanized (LCMs) were not too busy for the first few hours because - in Sicily, unlike in North Africa - they were not heavily involved in moving troops. Their job related to transporting the materials of war after troop landings were complete. Once in operation, they stayed in Sicily for 3 - 4 weeks.

About the early hours of the invasion Hunter tells us the following:

The majority of the Canadian seamen were veterans of the Dieppe and North African landings last summer and autumn and were perfectly trained for their task.

The Canadian sailors were not perturbed when they were briefed for the landings a few days before the assault. But when told that Canadian soldiers* would be part of the invasion force they "were simply delighted."

(*Editor: Canadian sailors on landing crafts did not transport Canadian troops until Sept., in Italy.)

Hunter continues:

The story of Petty Officer E.H. Randall, of Halifax, shows how well trained these Canadians were. Although his assault craft was not under fire a heavy sea was running when a line fouled the propeller, forcing him to drop behind.

In the darkness he attempted to clear the stern but realized he would not be able to, so he decided to continue with one engine and by skillful manoeuvring was in the exact position he was supposed to be at the proper time.

Some assault craft brought back the wounded to the ships offshore.

The morale of the men was "tremendous". Before the landing operation started, a public relations officer went below decks to see what the men were doing and counted seven keen card games* in one mess.

(*Editor: Doug Harrison was not there. He writes that he went fishing. “But there were no fish.”)

Hunter continues:

The Canadian seamen were dressed and ready to go ashore. They were a motley crew, in khaki or blue jerseys with grey flannels. Each wore the inevitable tin hat and carried emergency rations. They sipped cocoa, coffee, ate cheese, as they prepared for the landing. The traditional tot of navy rum was absent.

The first landing craft encountered some brisk opposition but the troops wiped out machine-gun nests and other opposition. The naval bombardment facilitated the later movements of the troops ashore. The naval craft delivered the fighting men right up on shore where the water was no more than ankle deep. The troops spoke in muffled tones as they moved ashore. One muttered, almost under his breath, "”I wish we could have this invasion in a place where we could get over bridges."

In my opinion, the first hours of the landing were certainly not a cakewalk because there was some brisk opposition. However, something is missing from the news story that the Canadian crews of the 80th and 81st Flotillas of LCMs encountered to make it “the worst invasion yet.”

My father says the following:

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.

So, what newsman Hunter and the early troops missed was the German Air Force, perhaps only by one hour.

My father continues:

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 days and stayed close to their guns all the time. I give them credit.

He adds:

A signal came through, i.e., “Do not fire on low flying aircraft, they are ours and towing gliders.” What, in the dark? Next 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.

Lloyd Evans, from Markham, is another RCNVR and Combined Ops veteran like my father. His memoirs are so similar to my father’s, I thought at first they were oppos, Navy term for close work mates. When Lloyd and I met in 2014, he did not recall Doug, but he did have this photo:

Canadians in RCNVR and Combined Ops, S. England, perhaps Portsmouth.

Doug Harrison (4th from left) peeks out from behind C. Dale's shoulder. 

Lloyd recalls the following in his memoirs, about the landing in Sicily:

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. 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 was a regular wake up call!

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.

My father said:

Ephus P. Murphy’s pet monkey went mad and we put it in a bag of sand meant to douse incendiary bombs and threw him over the side. The Russian Stoker on our ship, named Katanna, said Dieppe was never like this and hid under a winch. Shrapnel and bombs just rained down.

Sticks of enemy bombs hit the water offshore Sicily, seen from a Canadian landing craft. 

Photo found in St. Nazaire to Singapore, D. Lewis.

Once, with our LCM loaded with high octane gas and a Lorrie (truck), we were heading for the beach when we saw machine gun bullets stitching the water right towards us. Fortunately, an LST (landing ship for tanks) loaded with bofors (guns) opened up and scared off the planes, or we were gone if the bullets had hit the gas cans. I was hiding behind a truck tire, so was Joe Watson of Simcoe. What good would that have done?

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. Slowly we took control and enemy raids were only sporadic...

Several of the Canadian boys in the 80th were eventually able to set up camp, in a cave they called The Savoy. From there they continued their work in Sicily into August.

About day to day work and meals my father says:

Later we moved into a limestone cave, dank and wet, but safe from bombs. We hung a barrage balloon over it, about 1,000 feet up. So, we had 50 - 60 feet of limestone over our heads.

I had 27 days at Sicily living on tomatoes and Bully Beef. I swore I would kick the first bull I saw - right in the posterior - if I got back to Canada. We used a pail of sand saturated with gasoline to heat our meals on. Everywhere I looked there were anti-personnel, hand-sized grenades that needed only to be touched to go off. They were built to maim and not kill, because it takes men to look after the wounded, but if you’re dead, you’re dead. We threw tomatoes at them and exploded a lot of them in that manner.

My father's commander, Jake Koyl, writes the following about the same time period in his memoirs:

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.

The LCM's were kept on the job for longer than had originally been planned. Ports had been destroyed and obstructions in the water also hindered ships in coming alongside any dock. Therefore a greater volume of stores had to be taken over the beaches. This proved unexpectedly difficult in the last days of the operation when ships were unloading into LCM's bulky cargoes* originally intended for discharge onto the docks of Catania.

(*Editor: Life was not all bad for the sailors unloading LCMs. My father recalls that one day a shipment of Navy Rum landed aboard his craft. Labels read, "Consigned to Officer’s Mess." It didn’t arrive at the Officer's Mess.)

Jake Koyl writes:

In spite of everything the projected totals of stores taken over the beaches from Landing Craft was considerably exceeded; in other words, the operation as a whole was most successful in its achievement, however hard it was on the personnel who did the job....

Koyl adds details from another officer's report:

"GEORGE" sector will close 1200 tomorrow 5th of August. In 25 days, during two of which we had no ships here, we have discharged 24,959 personnel, 4,871 vehicles and 19,814 tons of stores. In addition 1,900 prisoners of war have been embarked....

That is a grand job well done and it has been done due to three things: common sense, guts and real co-operation between services.

Lt. Koyl concluded:

At the end of the 28 days, the record of the Canadians was particularly good. The eighty operational LCM's proceeded under their own power down the east coast of Sicily, anchored under the shelter of Cape Passero, and made Malta the next afternoon, the 7th of August. (Page 181 - 182, Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks)

LCMs enroute to Malta, August 1942. Collection of Joe Spencer]

The LCMs were perfectly capable of travelling under their own steam from Sicily to Malta. My father, however, got to Malta a few days ahead of his mates.

He writes:

After approximately 27 days I came down with severe chills and then got dysentery. I was shipped to Malta on the Ulster Monarch and an intern came around and handed me 26 pills. I inquired how many doses was that? “Just one,” he replied.

At Malta I was let loose on my own to find Hill 10 Hospital. I did after a while and they asked me my trouble. I said, “Dysentery.” “Oh, we’ll soon cure that,” they said. How? “We won’t give you anything to eat.” So for four days all I got was water and pills and soon I was cured, though weak. I recalled those poor devils in the desert.

Days later, Lt. Jack Koyl, Joe Spencer, Al Kirby, Chuck Rose, Westy Westbrook, and others in Combined Ops landed in the Great Harbour of Malta. Doug Harrison was there, to greet them. There they stayed for a few weeks for rest, recovery and repair. Italy was 4 weeks away.

(More details concerning the “rest, recovery and repair” in Malta and the invasion of Italy, and more, will follow in next year's presentation.)

These Canadians in Combined Ops were capable young men, who trained with and like Commandos at times, and excelled in handling their landing crafts with skill.... and more.

Dick Sanburn, a Winnipeg Tribune War Correspondent, wrote the following about them in June, 1943.

Headline: Canadians Train for Deft Landing of Commandos

Tough Canadian seamen today are training in Combined Operations 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. 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.

Several complete flotillas are manned by all-Canadian volunteer crews. I saw one all-Canadian flotilla in charge of Lt. Johnny O’Rourke*, of Calgary. They were slamming each other about in unarmed combat.

(*Editor: More information about Lt. Johnny O'Rourke, is found in St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941-1945: E.g., "....on March 28, 1942, John O'Rourke was present at the heroic, bloody but effective raid on St. Nazaire.)

Sanburn continues:

The only comment of one British officer was: “Canadians are too enthusiastic. Sometimes they hurt each other. They are also a trifle rough on the English in inter-camp contests.”

Canadians are training amid constant reminders of tragically glorious Dieppe. Several craft used in that reconnaissance in force are now employed in Commando training.

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. I observed that 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.

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."

It is evident that Canadian Navy boys built up their own traditions while overseas and their own language as well. In the back of Combined Operations, by Clayton Marks, a healthy glossary of navy terms is listed.

For example:

Oppo - a close friend (opposite number)
Wet - stupid ("That’s wet.")
Salty dip - a tale of an experience at sea. 

There are dozens more.

Scott Young, father of musicians Neil and Astrid Young, was a Canadian Press Staff Writer article during WW2. He wrote an article entitled “No Joe Gets Nattered With Slops Like This” about the slanguage in the three armed forces he encountered during WW2.

He writes:

One of the best army terms is "glass house" - meaning jail, a bit of slang with just as much quality as anything any of the other services have produced. But for quantity go to the fliers and sailors. The air force and navy have quite a few slang terms.

A navy stoker may tell you that he is extremely "nattered" by it all and is going immediately to "flake" himself out for a "spot of biz." Translated that means that he is bored and is going to lie down and sleep.

He may have been "bottled" (bawled out) for doing the same thing before but he knows the "Jimmie" (first lieutenant) and his buffer (petty officer who carried out officers' orders) are both ashore so he is safe.

In all three of the services "Pukka Gen" is information and "guff gen" is a wrong steer or misinformation. (“No guff,” I say.) The army uses "pugged" for anything tough, "dummy up" for shut up, "armored cow" for canned milk, and "Joe" for anyone in the ranks instead of "type."

Joe has replaced entirely the words guy, fellow and chap. (Joe still lingers today).

In navy "slops" are stories, "hang upon" means correct and "beat up" means a party. A mid-shipman is a "snottie," a sub-lieutenant is "subbie" and when a buffer carries out an officer's order, he is "tying on the can." Anything free is "gash."*

Dad, *Gash Bailey, Clayton Marks, David Lewis, Al Kirby

These men, about 50 years older in the above photo than when they returned home to civilian duties in 1945, and many more Canadians like them, still have hundreds of stories to tell you, about resting up in Malta, working like bees during the invasion of Italy, returning to Canada for Christmas 1943, and then serving again for almost another two years in many new locales, in Europe, Singapore, and here in Canada. In my father’s case, at a Combined Operations Training Grounds in Comox, Vancouver Island.

The Spit at Comox, Vancouver Island. AKA Givenchy III, 1943 - 1946.

Canada's Combined Operations training. Now home to HMCS Quadra

Conclusion:

I follow faint footsteps when looking for more information about my father and other Canadians who served in the RCNVR and Combined Operations.

Most WW2 veterans with important stories are dead. Significant places no longer exist as they did in the 1940s. Artifacts lay in dust, sometimes in a garden shed.

That being said, we are fortunate to have good stories, photographs and more - already in hand - to inform us now and also provide clues to help us find more historic treasures in the future.

So, the search is on and more stories will be shared in the future, to help us remember all men and women who have served their country without thought of any great reward and who deserve on Remembrance Day, and all other days a heartfelt “JOB WELL DONE.”

Resource List, as provided on Nov. 8, 2017:

Resources related to Canadians in Combined Operations, WW2 

Books:

"DAD, WELL DONE" The Navy Memoirs of Leading Seaman Coxswain Doug Harrison, compiled by Gord Harrison

Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks

St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, (2 volumes) by David and Kit Lewis and Len Birkenes

The Watery Maze - The Story of Combined Operations by Bernard Fergusson

Dieppe, Dieppe, by Brereton Greenhous


Websites:

1,000 Men, 1,000 Stories - Canadians in Combined Operations, WW2, by Gord Harrison @ http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/

Combined Operations Command by Geoff Slee, Scotland, @ http://www.combinedops.com/

St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945 Volumes 1 and 2 @ Canada’s Local Histories Online http://www.ourroots.ca

Imperial War Museum, re photos - WW2  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205186062

Web Links to Stories:

The Grounding of the Queen of Bermuda, 1941 @
http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/2016/03/story-canadas-early-days-in-combined-ops.html

Small Landing Craft Training (Memoirs of Lloyd Campbell) -
http://www.combinedops.com/Training%20in%20Landing%20Craft%20Operations.htm

Full Interview, London Free Press, 1944 - NORWICH BOYS IN THICK OF TWO INVASIONS - http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/2016/01/articles-re-combined-ops-norwich-boys.html

Dieppe: The Landing by Lt. R.F. McRae - http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=882820

“REINA DEL PACIFICO SERVED WELL IN WAR YEARS” - Gazette article (1990s) - @
http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/2016/01/short-story-re-combined-ops-n-africa.html

News Articles from The Winnipeg Tribune: July 14, 1943: http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/2017/03/articles-sicily-july-14-1943-pt-8.html

News articles about Sicily; Research re Combined Ops in Canada: http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/search/label/Editor%27s%20research

A link to all you wanted to know about Sicily but were afraid to ask: http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/search/label/Sicily

A link to my archive re Dieppe: http://wavynavy.blogspot.ca/search/label/Dieppe

What goes good with Navy Rum? Ask a sailor.

From The Winnipeg Tribune, July 1943

Please link to Presentation: Dad's Navy Days, Part 2 (2)

Unattributed Photos GH