1000 Men, 1000 Stories : Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (12)

Monty's 8th and Canadian Forces are Well on the Move Northward

Many Great News Items on a "Not-So-Slow-News" Monday

"General Sir Bernard Montgomery standing on a DUKW amphibious vehicle

to address Canadian troops." Pachino, Italy (vicinity) July 11, 1943

Photo 21789 found in Album 61, Canadian Army Film Unit (CAFU)

Introduction:

Montgomery's Eighth and Canadian Army forces are headily steadily northward after multiple landings began on July 10, 1943, at multiple beaches, as part of Operation HUSKY. A few hundred members of RCNVR and Combined Operations were also involved in the landings, operating landing crafts to ferry British troops and all the materials of war (ammunition, fuel for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks, along with food, more fuel...) to such places as Fontane Bianche (GEORGE Sector with 80th Flotilla) and Gallina (HOW Sector with 81st Flotilla of Canadian landing crafts) along Sicily's eastern coast.

LIFE Magazine, August 1943 edition as found on display at "Allied

Landings in Sicily Museum" in Catania, Sicily. Photo GH

Readers, click here to peruse vintage copies of LIFE Magazine

Article re "British 8th Army Lands in Sicily" will appear in a future post.

Another map in the museum reveals the location of 'The Savoy', the

cattle cave inhabited by the 80th Flotilla for 2 -3 weeks. GH

Questions or comments re the landings along the east coast, The Savoy, the museum etc., can be addressed to GH at gordh7700@gmail.com

The news clippings that follow are from microfilm of The Montreal Gazette that is stored at the University of Western Ontario, a one-hour walk from my house. Many more walks lie ahead!

Catania is today home to a modern airport, a gateway to WWII research

Many readers are no doubt aware that photographs found on microfilm leave a lot to be desire, as above. That being said, more resources are available to us all in which better copies of particular photos can be found (e.g., at Imperial War Museum and Library and Archives Canada). Below we see Gen. Montgomery (2nd left) waiting for a cup of tea, I presume:

Gen. G. G. Simonds, General Officer Commanding 1st Canadian Infantry

Division, 3rd from left. Valguamera Italy (vicinity) July 17, 1943

Photo 21916 from Album 61, Canadian Army Film Unit.

Photographer's last name - Royal

Finally, a cup of tea for Monty:

From Baldwin Battlefield Tours

Please click here for more details about the Stars and Stripes newspaper

After nine days the combined Allied forces already control "one-third of Sicily". Read all about it!

I guess "Hitler's secret flop" isn't a secret anymore:

Again, a few better-than-average photos can be found at Canadian Army Film Unit website:

By Canadian Army photographer (last name) Stirton, June '43

Warning! Keep your head down!

The "hundreds of Canadians" who had experiences with snipers includes Canadians in Combined Ops who manned landing craft in GEORGE Sector, beginning July 10, 1943. My father writes:

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 tank) 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.

From "Dad, Well Done" pages 31 - 32

While visiting GEORGE Sector or Beach in September 2023 I spotted more than one location within sight of the landing zone that may have given Canadians quite the fright:

Four pill boxes at GEORGE Beach are circled in yellow, and my son and I found

the one that's farthest left inside the circle. Original 1943 reconn photo is from the

book St. Nazaire to Singapore, the Canadian Amphibious War, Vol. 1 pg. 179

Please compare it to the earlier photos shared from LIFE Magazine

Hopefully, this hospital ship - Canada's first vessel in the Mediterranean, survived the war!

Not all hospital ships survived the war. HMHS Talamba did not survive the first two days of Operation HUSKY, as noted in earlier posts re The Montreal Gazette's news clippings.

And as we well know, Adolf Hitler did not survive the war either!

The Allied armada that stormed Sicily was the largest

in history up to that point in time

High praise in this article for the Merchant Navy, also known as 'the forgotten navy'. When beginning my study of my father's 'navy days, WWII' I actually thought he was a member of the Merchant Navy, which would have been, of course, no small thing. But little did I know! He was, however, a member (1 of about 1,000) of 'the almost forgotten navy', as a member of RCNVR who also volunteered for Combined Operations and were therefore, as some say, on loan to the Royal Navy.

(One of my father's naval heroes was Admiral Nelson; the barracks he stayed in while training in Halifax was known as 'Nelson Barracks'; he was very proud to sail under 'the white ensign' as well, a symbol of the Royal Navy. "Not a bad outfit," he would have said. Click here to read a brief history of the white ensign).

"Don't call me a donkey. Call me up a mule!!"