Editor's Research: Operation Baytown (Italy WWII) (8)

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

Articles, Context from The Winnipeg Tribune, Sept. 8, 1943

Featuring Italy's Surrender ("Flusho!") and Many Mosquitoes

Introduction:

The surrender of Italy was celebrated by Allied forces, including approximately 250 Canucks in Combined Operations who were members of the Canadian 80th Flotilla of Landing Craft and involved in transporting troops and all the materiel of war from the north-eastern corner of Sicily (e.g., from Messina) to the toe of the boot of Italy (e.g., at Reggio di Calabria) as a part of the invasion of Italy beginning September 3, aka Operation Baytown.

Guns were fired. Vino was drunk. And though a few sailors might have been a bit cranky on the "morning after the night before," the transport of soldiers and goods continued unabated, per a regular schedule.

As well, there are hints and reports that Canadian soldiers were involved in another invasion farther up the coast, and in Navy memoirs we read that some Canadians in Combined Operations (handling landing crafts) were involved as needed.

First, a few words and items about Italy's unconditional surrender, from the September 8, 1943 issue of The Winnipeg Tribune:

The King of Italy looks none too pleased, whereas the Premier looks happier than Ike!

Not the world's best photograph below, but it indicates the transport of troops and supplies (likely from Messina, Sicily) to Italy's toe in what look to be DUKWs:

A similar photo - link to online source w mention of Operation Baytown (in Italian):

Caption - Reggio, 3 Settembre 1943: Lo Sbarco Degli Alleati In Calabria

Another similar photo - link to an online source re Operation Baytown:

Caption - Amphibious DUKWs loaded with men and equipment, enter

the water at Messina in Sicily to cross to the Italian mainland.

About the capitulation of Italy, I have read some materials that refer to some celebration by Allied forces, and Italian residents of Sicily and Reggio (on the toe of the mainland), and by Canadian citizens. But the celebrations were not extensive because the events were overshadowed by the invasion of Italy at Salerno on September 9 (Operation Avalanche, coming up next). And that operation was extensive and heavily opposed and for several days the battle could have gone either way.

War correspondent Alan Moorehead, in his book ECLIPSE, published first in 1945, provides some context to those days when Italy's capitulation and further invasions tumbled upon one another:

The issues seem almost childishly simple now. Montgomery had landed with just two divisions - the Third British and a Canadian division... and on the third day it was arranged that the Malta Brigade should make a second landing a little higher up the toe at Pizzo. 

[Editor - see map below, from page 32, ECLIPSE]

Pizzo can be seen above and to the right of Messina, Sicily

Moorehead continues:

Many of the ships supplying it were taken away after the first few days in order to make the major Salerno landing under (U.S.) General Clark a week later, on September 9th... For the Taranto landing on Italy's heel the British had in reserve their First Airborne Division and the Seventy-eighth...

Against this three-legged invasion the Germans deployed only four divisions in southern Italy... As a first step in the plan the Germans began to pull out of Calabria in the extreme south, leaving only rearguards to impede Montgomery's advance. At the same time, Kesselring, who was in command, suspected that we would make our major landing at Salerno - the obvious place - and he was willing to contest it... One of (his) divisions was stationed in the Salerno area... In other words, our minor landing on Italy's toe did not for one moment deceive the enemy...

There remained the Italian side of the picture. It was at last agreed that Italy should announce her unconditional surrender at the moment when we disembarked at Salerno. The idea was that the Italian army, and especially the part of it manning the beaches, should lay down their arms and welcome our men at the precise moment they stepped ashore. The Germans not unnaturally saw that coming... By September they were taking over the coastal strongpoints themselves - particularly in the Salerno area...

It was General Eisenhower and not Badoglio who had to make the armistice announcement. The news was broadcast from Algiers, not from Rome. The troops on the transports heard it the night before they were to go ashore at Salerno. The immediate effect it created was: "Well, this is going to be an easy landing after all... we should be able to step ashore and go right ahead." 

The effect on the Italians was not very happy. They were confused. They had barely received the news when the (Salerno: Operation Avalanche) landing was in top of them... so the Salerno landing went in at a time when all Italy was in a state of utter confusion and powerless to help us. Worse still, the Germans were awaiting our coming.

Pages 33 - 34.

SALERNO: American combat teams male an assault landing.

Photo Credit - ECLIPSE, page 35    

My father makes two references to the Italian capitulation in his memoirs, "Dad, Well Done":

When Italy caved in there was a big celebration on the beach, but I had changed my abode and was sleeping with my hammock, covered with mosquito netting, slung between two orange trees. I didn’t join in the celebration because I’d had enough vino, and you not only fought Germans and Italians under its influence, you fought your best friend. (Page 36)

Some buddies and I spent my 23rd birthday (September 6) singing our lungs out in a cottage-style house near the beach, complete with a piano but incomplete with no roof. I had my guitar along and we all had some vino. About midnight with the hilarity in full swing, thunder rolled, the skies opened and the first rain in months came pouring in. Soaked inside and out we headed to where we belonged, singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home” as big as life and twice as natural.

One night shortly after that event I was all snug in my hammock, mosquito netting all tucked in (it took a while). I was ready to drop off to sleep when all hell broke loose on the beach. 

Machine gun fire, tracer bullets drawing colourful arcs in the dark sky. Someone shook my hammock and asked if I was coming to the beach party - Italy had thrown in the sponge. I said, “No, I’m not coming, and would you please keep it down to a dull roar because I want to log some sleep.” (Page 116)

I believe the Canadians in Combined Ops (manning landing crafts) eventually had a regular routine of transporting supplies that was not as demanding as earlier invasions (during Operation Torch, the invasion of N. Africa, some sailors worked several days straight with no breaks and only grabbed food and drink when they could 'borrow it' from supply ships. However, they were finished duties re Torch in under two weeks, whereas in Italy they performed their routines for a full month or more with no guarantee of having suitable accommodations or food and drink on a continuous basis. 

It is apparent from my father's notes that vino was in good supply at least.

Some of the Canadian Navy boys in the 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts (members of both RCNVR and Combined Ops) mention some connection to an operation farther up the Italian coast, perhaps related to "a second landing a little higher up the toe at Pizzo," as mentioned earlier in this piece by Alan Moorehead.

Lloyd Evans writes a significant paragraph in his memoirs (My Navy Chronicle) that refers to an "unplanned landing further up the coast" and during preparations Mr. Evans was injured for the first time. I include an earlier paragraph as well as it mentions Italy's capitulation.

He writes:

We spent a couple of days in the harbours of Augusta and Catania and then to Messina for the attack on Italy itself (September 3, 1943). We went in at Reggio with our load of Canadian troops under a very heavy allied artillery barrage from the hills of Messina. There appeared to be little or no opposition. We later found out that Italy had already agreed to surrender but hadn’t announced it to wrong foot the Germans. The deception worked, since the Germans did not reinforce the positions vacated by the Italians. I can still see the Sicilians running around cheering, 'Benito et finito' [Benito (Mussolini) is finished.] To celebrate, one of the locals dug up a bottle of great wine he had buried to keep it safe from the Germans.

Allied forces advanced quite rapidly, so another unplanned landing further up the coast was set in motion. The object, this time, was to land supplies for the advancing Allied forces, and our flotilla was one of several selected for the job. While we waited on a safe beach for the signal to leave, a few large warships, including a battleship, went past at high speed. Their mission was to shell the new landing beach before we moved in during the night. The waves they created started to wash the landing craft off the beach, so I winched the door up a little, prior to ramming the craft back onto the beach. 

Unfortunately I left the safety catch off the winch handle and the next wave lifted the boat and I took the full force of the spinning winch handle on my left leg before I could remove it. One of the other boys made a similar mistake but this time with the kedge anchor winch. It hit him on the head to his severe injury. An Italian surgeon inserted a steel plate in his skull to repair the damage. Since this landing was not part of the original plan, there was little reliable intelligence as to enemy defences. An LCI was sent in to investigate but luck was against them, as the beach was defended by some top German artillery units and the craft was destroyed. The landing was called off. (My Navy Chronicle Page 33)

(A link is provided here to Combined Operations Command (creator Geoff Slee, Scotland), home to the Evan's 'navy chronicle' in full.)

Edgar (Ed) Corbett, a member of the "80th LCM Mark 3 Flotilla," shares the following in his diary:

Photo Credit - St. Nazaire to Singapore - The Canadian Amphibious War 

Volume 1, Page 191, as found at The University of Calgary

Landing Craft Mechanised (LCM), far right, possibly linked to the 80th flotilla

Photo Credit - St. Nazaire to Singapore - The Canadian Amphibious War 

Volume 1, Page 192, (and Ed Corbett) as found at The University of Calgary

And now, back to news clippings from The Winnipeg Tribune (Sept. 8, 1943). Though I tend to focus on the Canadians in Combined Ops who piloted landing crafts onto foreign beaches, sometimes a piece re soldiers or pilots catches my eye. A few particular lines reminded me of something written by Alan Moorehead (featured above re his book ECLIPSE) on September 3rd, the first day of Operation Baytown, the invasion of Italy at Reggio. 

Can you spot it?

For those scratching their heads, I refer to Canadian writer Alan Randal's apt descriptions of the pilots, i.e., "the Mosquito boys rely on their tremendous speed for protection from German flak," as well as, "...with Mosquitoes. They're that fast." 

British writer Alan Moorehead wrote an article referring to a "mosquito fleet" as well, on September 3, as Operation Baytown commenced. I include the first few paragraphs below:

Though Moorehead's mosquitoes were invasion barges, e.g., Canada's 80th flotilla of LCMs, they too relied on speed to avoid enemy flak.

"Small crafts make small targets," said one Canadian sailor. 

Although we find few reports about the destruction of landing crafts or losses suffered by their crews, destruction and injuries and losses ("Utter chaos and carnage," wrote one sailor re landings in Sicily) did occur. More details below.  

[Link here, if desired, to news clippings from Sept. 3, including Moorehead's full piece entitled "Starlight Guides Invasion Forces"]

While Allied forces marched onward in Italy, the occasional news report returned to Canada related to casualty lists associated with the invasion of Sicily:

And prior to writing a report about the invasion of Italy, my father mentioned the status of Canadians in Combined Ops while prepping for the invasion:

There were still about 250 of us (in Malta, packing their bags for Italy) - we hadn't lost a soul, but one man had a terrible shrapnel wound in his arm. ("Dad, Well Done," page 113)

My father does not give us a name, but during my years as a weekly columnist for a local newspaper, I was contacted by a reader (of a column re Remembrance Day) who told me her had served in the navy with my father. And upon meeting him and his wife (married in Scotland), I was informed that he had suffered a serious wound to his arm in Sicily. 

The man's name is Al Adlington and he appears in the photo below of eight members of RCNVR, new recruits to Combined Operations while at HMS Northney on Hayling Island, circa March 1942:

L - R: Al Adlington, Joe Spencer, Chuck Rose, Doug Harrison, Art Bradfield

Don Linder, Joe Watson, Jake Jacobs. Photo - Collection of Joe Spencer

L - R: Chuck Rose, Al Adlington, Mary Adlington, Mary's sister. Glasgow, 1942

Photo Credit - Al and Mary Adlington

L - R: Chuck Rose, Al Kirby, Lloyd Evans. English Channel, circa 1942 - '43

Photo Credit - From the collection of Lloyd Evans

L - R: Chuck Rose, Doug Harrison. Comox, B.C. HMCS Givinchy III

Canada's Combined Ops Training Camp, circa 1944 - '45

L - R: Doug Harrison, Chuck Rose. Navy reunion, 1970s

Photo Credit - Doug Harrison

While British, Canadian and U.S. forces were busy in the Mediterranean theatre of war, Russian armies were advancing elsewhere:

More details, articles and context related to Operation Baytown to follow on this site.

Questions or comments can be directed to Gord Harrison at gordh7700@gmail.com

For more information, please link to Editor's Research: Operation Baytown (Italy WWII) (7)

Unattributed Photos GH