Editor's Research: Operation Baytown (Italy WWII) (9)

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

Articles, Context from The Winnipeg Tribune, Sept. 9, 1943

Featuring 'Operation Avalanche,' and the White Ensign

Photo Credit - The Winnipeg Tribune, September 9, 1943 (link)

Introduction:

The landings of troops and materiel of war associated with Operation Baytown, beginning September 3, were continuous and successful, and ongoing progress throughout September - at least on the toe of the boot - can be given a high score. 

However, as of September 9, when chiefly American and British troops invaded Italy's shin at Salerno, "Near Naples" (see headline above), and had to fight desperately to hold ground against a tenacious German defence, Operation Baytown would proceed in relative silence about 225 miles south of the noisy events related to Operation Avalanche. 

Canadian Navy veterans, members of RCNVR and Combined Operations, record details of both operations in memoirs, rare books, news interviews, etc., but as of today, Avalanche sweeps into the forefront of news items and photographs, etc., offered here.

Three rare books filled with Canadian Navy veterans' stories, all re Combined Ops

L - R: Combined Operations by Clayton Marks (of London, Ontario), 219 pages;

St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945 

(2 volumes) by David and Catherine Lewis and Len Birkenes (Alberta), 400 pages

Questions or comments about the books can be directed to gordh7700@gmail.com

News articles and photographs now follow from The Winnipeg Tribune:

The map below reveals two new Allied advances, seemingly from Palermo. The top arrow points to Naples (Salerno is to its right but is not listed; we will see if the term 'Operation Avalanche' is revealed in the accompanying story), the middle arrow provides no city's or town's name as a landing place, but may have been alluded to in yesterday's post. And the bottom arrow of the three surely depicts the advances made since Sept. 3rd of Operation Baytown. 

The Canadian newspapers all hope to be current in providing any news relating to Canadian troops, of course, in order to satisfy the ample curiosity of Canadian readers from Bona Vista to Vancouver Island. but 'hints' are all that can be provided at the moment:

Gulf of Euphemia (not labelled above) is adjacent to Pizzo,  

"30 miles north of Palmi". Photo - ECLIPSE, page 32

The "shelling heard" may have been part of an Allied invasion exercise that took place in the English Channel, within ear-range of an alert resident of the Dover-Folkestone road:

The 'invasion exercises' are also called a 'huge combined operations workout', and the Canadian sailors - members of RCNVR and Combined Ops - performing transport duties between Messina and Reggio (as part of Operation Baytown) would have been quite used to exercises of the nature described in this article.

Please note the second last paragraph above, re the fact that the RAF had a more serious connection to the invasion exercise, i.e., re "a definite cross-channel bombing program." It should be noted as well, that as part of the invasion of Italy's shin at Salerno, there were Canadian pilots in the air - some as part of a reconnaissance mission over Salerno and Foggia - and one pilot in particular made a rather significant report that made it quickly all the way back to Canada as "a rare first."

More details will be revealed in the next post related to Sept. 10 items of interest.

For now, we get to read what Russia thought of Italy's unconditional surrender, September 8th (highlighted in the previous post).

And now, let's all speculate what will happen next!

A bit more speculation follows, but some sharp thinker with the London Evening Standard nailed it, in my opinion: 

Though the landings "Near Naples" get some mention, there is more information about other war fronts, events and industrial output of war materials:

Somewhere in my father's memoirs I will find one or two statements about his appreciation of serving and sailing "under the white ensign." I did not link the white ensign to the Royal Navy at first, due to lack of knowledge, but I am now aware that members of RCNVR who volunteered for Combined Operations (C.O.) may have some small notation in their Navy records about being connected to C.O. (as did my father, see below), and others would say they were "on loan to the Royal Navy."

Opposite last entry (Stadacona) in this partial photo of Dad's navy records, we see

A/L/Smn (Able, Leading Seaman; C.O. (Combined Ops); ty (temporary) - small clues

3 lines up from the bottom we see "Copra" (Combined Ops - Pay, Records, Accounts)

Though my father doesn't write about any connection to the Royal Navy (though his own father served in the R.N. as a stoker), he did have an old Navy flag in his possession when he passed away in February, 2002:

In very good shape. "Well done, Dad," I say. Smaller than the one below.

Nicer photo than the newspaper copy! Credit to World War II Today* and IWM

[*WW2Today is a fine website, updated daily, 80 years after the war, and shares a number of informative details re Operation Baytown. 

For example, the entry re Baytown begins as seen below, and is accompanied by an impressive photo array:

3rd September 1943: Operation Baytown: the invasion of Italy

All this turned out to be a complete waste of ammo. When we hit the beach at 0615, four kilometres north of Reggio di Calabria, our landing was unopposed. We were slightly dazed by the silence after the profligate bombardment.

If someone had bothered to recce the beaches, I thought, or checked aerial reconnaissance photos, the shelling of an undefended coastline should surely have been avoided. But Monty had the firepower and there was an inevitability in its use.

Please visit the site at your leisure.]

The first two Canadian drafts of volunteers for Combined Ops reached UK training grounds (re landing crafts) in February/March, 1942, and their first action was the Dieppe raid, Operation Rutter (July; cancelled) and Operation Jubilee (August 19, 1942).

Below is a very rare photo of two Canadians returning to Southampton with their landing craft via New Haven - after the raid at Dieppe, e.g., August 20 - 21, '42 - flying "under the white ensign."

 

ALC 269 returning to Southampton from New Haven; C. Sheeler, J. Spencer

Photo Credit: From the collection of Joe Spencer

Operation Jubilee would likely never be far from the minds of those who took part or those who lost mates for the first time at Dieppe. And moving forward, Canadians in C.O. served diligently in North Africa (Torch), Sicily (Husky) and Italy (Baytown, Avalanche), often without much complaint. 

In hindsight, members of all forces, not just Combined Ops, would complain that the following headline gives the wrong impression. The battle for Naples, then Rome and the ultimate domination of the entire Italian peninsula was far from being a 'mop up' job. It was one tough slog from beginning to end (and the capture of Rome only happened a day or two in advance of D-Day Normandy, so when it actually did happen any fanfare attached was soon hushed by the overwhelming focus of the world's attention on the attack upon the shores of Western Europe.

Before the news media provides more details about the invasion "Near Naples" in this and future issues of The Winnipeg Tribune, I will share the following from COMBINED OPERATIONS by Londoner Clayton Marks:

On September 11th the British landed unopposed in the harbour at Taranto (on the heel of the boot) but Salerno was a far tougher nut. Apart from Dieppe, which was a special case, it was the first seriously opposed landing that we* had ventured on, and there was a period when it was near to failing altogether.

[*we - I assume Mr. Marks is referring to Canadians in Combined Ops, either members of the 80th Canadian Flotilla of landing Crafts, or Canadians (members of RCNVR and Combined Ops) sprinkled among Rn crews aboard landing crafts]

The date selected for Avalanche was the 9th of September. The Italian request for an armistice was made public on the evening of the 8th, which led some of the more ill-advised among the troops, despite warnings, to expect something like a walkover. Top level arguments, and the consequent lower level adjustments, were still continuing when the first and slowest elements of the invasion force crept out from their bases and set their course for Salerno. Sixteen separate convoys sailed from five separate ports on six different dates, according to their speed and port of origin. There were several air attacks on passage, but the total damage was negligible; it amounted to only one LCT (Landing Craft, Tanks) sunk, one Hunt Class destroyer damaged by a near miss, and one LST (Landing Ship, Tanks) damaged by a bomb which passed clean through her without exploding. The last two reached their objectives, and the destroyer played a notable part in the bombardment of the beaches before being ordered back to Malta for repairs on the second day of the landings. It was a poor score for the Luftwaffe against 700 ships and landing craft.

Rendezvous and landfalls were made faultlessly, and the assault began more or less on time. The northern or British half of the front comprised of sectors, each of two beaches. On the northernmost beach the leading battalion got ashore successfully, and Brigade Headquarters followed it soon afterwards; but the right battalion on the next beach was less fortunate.

By bad luck the LCT(R)s discharged their rockets too far south, and the Commanding Officer of the leading wave had to make up his mind quickly whether to land on his allotted beach, where the defenders had escaped attack, or to switch to where the rockets had struck, so as to exploit their effect. He chose the latter course, and it proved to be a wrong decision. Trying to fight his way north to the area in which he should have landed his men came under heavy fire. His supporting weapons, following in the next wave, did not know of the change of direction, and landed on the original beach, where, with no bridgehead to protect them, they were wiped out. This battalion and the reserve battalion following in its wake, each suffered 50 percent casualties.

Once again the use of smoke, as in the crossing of the Messina Straits, proved to be a mistake. The enemy gunners had ranged on the beaches, and their aim was not affected by their inability to see their targets; whereas the attackers could not see what was going on, and coxswains found difficulty in recognizing the silhouettes which they had so carefully memorized. During an air raid on the first evening, two cruisers, Delhi and Uganda, were actually in collision in a smoke screen.

Destroyers were steaming close inshore to engage shore targets, cutting across the bows of landing craft as they steered their painstaking way. The exits from the beaches were bad, and there was not room in the beachhead to deploy all the artillery that careful planning had got ashore in the early stages. The deficiency in fire support was made by units of the Royal and United States Navies. Every round fired from the sea during those fourteen hectic days in September of 1943 was a horrid warning to professors of tactics not to be dogmatic. A strong case could be made in support of a claim that Naval bombardment saved Salerno. The lessons deriving from this experience were to be applied with devastating effect in Normandy nine months later.

On the extreme left of the British front, the American Rangers and British Commandos, were having a rough time. The LCAs (Landing Craft, Assault) which were to have landed the Commando stores apparently found the fire too heavy for their liking, and withdrew without unloading. Objectives changed hands more than once, but were finally captured and handed over to the left flank British division. Out of a total strength of 738, more than half ware casualties. As the landing craft came ashore, all supplies were unloaded and stored, and the beach area was kept clear for incoming craft by the Indian Gurkhas and Italian prisoners.

Rangers, Commandos (CDO) and two Allied Corps are hard at work

Photo Credit - St. Nazaire to Singapore, Vol. 1, page 198

In the American areas, south of the Sele River (see map above; the pen is pointing at the Sele River which runs from north to south), the battle remained critical for several days. For some reason fewer close support craft were allotted to this part of the front, and all landings were made under heavy machine gun fire. Here again, the exits from the beaches were defective and the build-up caused many delays. American reports on Salerno are sternly self-critical. The scales of equipment taken ashore were far too generous; no labour was provided to unload the LCTs and the DUKWs. DUKW's were misappropriated and used as trucks instead of returning to the ships for more stores.

Many ships had been improperly loaded, with a lot of irrelevant and unauthorized items on top of the urgently required tactical ones, and at one stage there was a mass of unsorted material - petrol, ammunition, food, equipment - lying so thick on the beaches that landing craft could find nowhere to touch down. Eventually a thousand sailors were landed from the ships to clear the waterfront, and pontoons were rushed in to the sector to make piers. But for some time all landing of stores had to be suspended.

Although some of the troops had penetrated inland a mile or more by first light on the 9th, they were very weak; and when the Germans counter-attacked with tanks they had nothing with which to defend themselves. The first American tanks did not get ashore until 10 a.m.

From 0800 onwards, regardless of the risk of mines, two American cruisers, the British monitor Abercrombie, and several destroyers, both British and American, were engaging enemy tanks from seaward. The American destroyer Bristol fired 860 rounds during the day, closing at one time to a range of 7500 yards.

Pages 102 - 104

Perhaps after reading the account by C. Marks (RCNVR, Combined Ops), readers will agree that the early hours of the Allied invasion at Salerno did not look like or jive with "Mopping Up Italy."

Questions (e.g., "What's the difference between an LCT and LST?") or comments about the contents of the above passage can be directed to the Editor at gordh7700@gmail.com

Another editorialist for The Tribune sets the stage for, what turned out to be, the tough, nine-month-long slog ahead:

Perhaps in the early hours or day of the initial invasion at Salerno - or "in the vicinity of Naples" (as mentioned above) - it looked like Gen. Mark Clark would have an easy time. Information, news and details to follow in future posts will add another side to how things progressed.

Meanwhile, here's a bit of propaganda from Berlin:

Below we read of one (or should we say 70,000) of the benefits, POW-wise, from the capitulation of Italy:

I close today's entry with little-known news I like to call a "cabbage and Christmas combo":

Though it is only September 23, 2020 at time of writing, may I be the 

first to wish you all "A Very Merry Christmas and Happy 2021"

More news articles, photographs and navy memoirs will soon follow concerning Operation Baytown (the invasion of Italy at Reggio) and Operation Avalanche (the invasion of Italy at Salerno).

Please link to Editor's Research: Operation Baytown (Italy WWII) (8) for more details.

Unattributed Photos GH