1000 Men, 1000 Stories : July 2020

The Invasion of the Toe of Italy's Boot, Beginning on Sept. 3, 1943

Articles, Context from The Winnipeg Tribune, Aug. 24 - 27, '43

Humphrey Bogart ("more wonderful than ever") hits the big

screen at the Capitol (at Portage and Donald St.), Winnipeg

Photo Credit - The Winnipeg Tribune, August 27, 1943

Introduction:

In August, 1943, while Mr. Bogart was involved in "Action in the North Atlantic" at the Capitol Theatre, there was important action about to unfold in the Mediterranean Theatre of War.

Allied forces, including a large, significant contingent from the Canadian Army on land, Canadian Air Force in the air and Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve/Combined Operations on flotillas of landing craft in the Med, were finishing off duties related to the successful invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky; D-Day had been on July 10, '43).

As well, Allied forces were, in various ways, preparing their minds and hearts and plans for the next significant action, i.e., the invasion of mainland Italy (aka Operation Baytown), to begin on September 3rd at the toe of the boot, at and near Reggio di Calabria. As well as at the toe, Allied forces were going to land on Italy's shin (e.g., Salerno) and at the heel (e.g., Taranto) in very short order.

Thanks to a digitized, online version of a fine Canadian newspaper, The Winnipeg Tribune, readers can collect countless stories, maps and photographs re the mop-up of Sicily, the build-up of forces, the preparations to attack (e.g., softening of Axis defences), the actual landings on D-Day September 3, the progress of the Allied advance in several specific areas, and more.

My collection here, of course, is not all that one can find re WWII in The Tribune, as my focus mainly relates to the Canadians in RCNVR/Comb.Ops, i.e., the members of the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts who not only participated in the initial landings at Reggio (and other nearby beaches), but stayed for about 4 weeks to supply advancing troops with all the materials of war.

As materials are revealed from The Tribune, I will present additional findings from Canadian Navy memoirs and other sources that relate in some way to the newspaper accounts. Readers of this relatively short series of posts will hopefully grow in their understanding of the efforts made by some of the 950 - 1,000 sailors (including my father) who, by volunteering for Combined Operations while completing their RCNVR training in, initially for example, Halifax in late 1941 (and Halifax and other centres later), became involved in a series of actions that took them to Dieppe and North Africa in 1942, and Sicily and Italy in 1943, for starters.

Allied troops will embark onto landing crafts from Messina to Taormina;

They will disembark at Scilla - Reggio - Melito, beginning Sept. 3

Illustration from ECLIPSE by Alan Moorehead (p. 32)

The first two posts in this 'Editor's Research' series will present news from August 24 - 31, 1943. The battle for Sicily, which began on July 10, is all but over. During August my father is in Malta, initially recovering from dysentery, and the landing crafts of the 80th flotilla are there as well, being repaired for the next assault at Reggio.

Meanwhile, WWII goes on - in several different areas, e.g., in Russia and Alaska - and some attention is being given to bombing particular Italian targets.

News from the Aug. 24 - 27 issues of The Tribune appear below to help set the stage and provide realistic context for Operation Baytown, D-Day Sept. 3., 11 days off.

I will suggest that there are a lot of targets the Allied bombing planners wanted to hit because there were a lot of landing areas the naval forces wanted to hit with landing crafts filled with troops in the near future. Naples was a target and Salerno (not too far away to the south) was a future landing site. Bari was a target and Taranto (not too far away to the south) was a future landing site.

Reggio di Calabria was not targeted on the 24th, though it was where Allied forces initially landed on D-Day Sept. 3. That being said, don't be surprised if it is a target within a few days.

Below: One of the "major calamities of the entire campaign"! (Keep your eyes peeled for other articles by Dick Sanburn. I hear he got up close and personal with the Canadians in Combined Ops : )

A landing ship, tank (LST) is photographed approaching Kiska, Alaska ("the Japs had fled"). As this is happening in the northern Pacific Ocean, Canadian sailors left Malta aboard the same type of vessel, heading toward ports on the north eastern shore of Sicily (facing the toe of Italy's mainland).

"We took a Landing Ship Tank back to Mili Marina, Sicily," writes a Navy vet, and he and his mates later took landing crafts to Messina (10 km. farther north), to provide transport for troops and supplies during Operation Baytown.

While Canadian sailors were preparing for D-Day Italy, Allied leaders were making more plans for the future, at the Quebec Conference:

With the British Prime Minister fully occupied in Canada, the Queen of England goes on a unique inspection tour:

War correspondent Ross Munro was one of the busiest and most informative of the 15 - 20 Canadian writers (that I know about) in the Mediterranean theatre of war. He was a star reporter who accomplished many firsts on various D-Days, i.e., first ashore with troops, first stories back to Canada, North America even, and more.

I have read in Navy memoirs that one reporter "with The Montreal Star" took a trip aboard a Canadian landing craft between Messina and Reggio di Calabria in September but I have found no newspaper article in The Star that matches that description. Perhaps the sailor got it wrong. Perhaps he escorted a writer from another Montreal newspaper, e.g., The Gazette, The Standard. Perhaps he escorted a 'star reporter', like Ross Munro.

Whatever the case. I will keep my eyes peeled for such a report.

Hats off to Ross Munro and other writers who took the time to record as many names as possible, giving a shout out to folks back home, or giving credit where credit is due, so to speak.

Sometimes, when a last name is rare and the person was from a town nearby to my own, I reach out to find if surviving family members exist. I have had minimal good luck but I will share a "success story" here... at a later date, around September 9, 1943, re D-Day Salerno.

Munro finishes with more names:

"Let's soften Axis defences in Italy," says an Allied bombing planner.

"Yes, let's," says another.

Lt.-General McNaughton made his first visit to his troops (see above) in Sicily with Monty's 8th Army. "The soldiers are now resting and getting back into top shape after their strenuous campaign," it is reported. Also reported, below, is a small part of the Butcher's Bill, i.e., re the cost of such a campaign.

At the time, correspondents wanted to inform surviving family members back home, as well as friends and readers in general. And today, perhaps we are encouraged - at the very least - to remember the costs associated with WWII, or any war, and our personal freedoms.

I suggest that Foggia is a significant target because of the airfields there. During the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky, beginning July 10) the Luftwaffe was very active and deadly, creating "chaos and carnage" (wrote one Navy vet) during the first three days of landings between Syracuse and Avola. Perhaps the German air force would be weakened as a result, thus assisting the upcoming landings on the toe of the boot and elsewhere.

I include the following article because of the line, "He is the man chiefly responsible for bringing the combined operations forces to their present highly trained and efficient state. He was the commando chief..."

Any mention of Lord Louis reminds me of the direct connection he has with the first two drafts of Canadians (about 100 members of RCNVR, including my father Doug Harrison) who first joined/volunteered for the Combined Operations organization in December 1941 based on very little information ("dangerous duties overseas, handling small craft, with nine days leave thrown in," writes my father).

"Almost to a man," the Effingham Division volunteered for Combined Operations.

Halifax, approx. Dec., 1941. Photo - Doug Harrison, front row, third from left.

The early plans re combined operations (in part - army, navy, airforce working cooperatively in amphibious assaults) and how Canadians became involved in them, can be traced back with some degree of clarity to Oct. - Nov. 1941.

In The Watery Maze by B. Fergusson we read:

Obviously two of the most urgent problems (re the assault of the French coast) were the provision of landing ships and craft, and the crews to man them... (and) as an illustration of the magnitude of the crew problem, the Joint Planners, in the very month of Mountbatten's appointment (October 1941), had persuaded the Chiefs of Staff that our requirements in LCTs alone for the eventual invasion would be 2,250 - a figure to daunt almost anybody.

And where were the crews to come from? Canada made an offer, which was gratefully accepted, of 50 officers and 300 ratings (sailors), but this was a drop in the bucket. On the 29th, November (1941)... (it) was concluded that 1,500 officers and almost 20,000 ratings would be needed by May 1943.

Page 93

Monty held the Canadian Army in high regard:

Monty had congratulated all Allied forces earlier in July:

And I say, "Well done, everyone. Enjoy your Creamettes!"

Don't be surprised if Reggio and other nearby areas get hit again, not only by dive-bombers but naval vessels as well (see below):.

Ross Munro strikes again, this time with a wee story out of Catania (delayed, from Aug. 25th), a large city situated at about the mid-point of Sicily's east coast. My father was likely there at about the same time, perhaps later in the week. Had he been there at the same time, surely he would have recalled the pipe bands and mentioned them in memoirs.

As it is, he writes the following about that time period:

There were still about 250 of us (in Malta) - we hadn’t lost a soul, but one man had a terrible shrapnel wound in his arm. We conserved parcels for a rainy day and were dispersed to ships and tents to live for a few days while our stoker got the engines on each craft ready for the invasion of Italy. Of course, no one knew when that would be, but urgency was the order of the day and repair parts were non-existent.

We toured the island of Malta and some sailed over to Gozo, another small island. We mingled with the inhabitants but generally we took the opportunity to get some rest and re-read mail. I saw a movie, and before the show the music consisted of western songs by Canada’s own Wilf Carter.

Loaded LSTs in Catania harbour, September 1, 1943

Although no one ventured a word, we all had Italy in the back of our minds. Before we got too settled in, we were throwing our hammocks aboard our landing craft again and heading for Sicily. Our flotillas beached at the mouth of a now dried up river bed at Mila Marina, then a few days in Catania harbour itself, where we had a good view of German low-level attacks on a British cruiser. At night we watched German planes try to take evasive action as they were caught in the searchlights which circled the harbour. During the day we could see the smoke from Mt. Etna.

Page 113, "Dad, Well Done"