Sicily: An Italian Blog re Allied Invasion

The Invasion of Sicily from an Italian Point of View

"Fontane Bianche beach was assaulted by two battalions"

Fontane Bianche beach, Sept. 22, 2023 (aka GEORGE Sector, 1943)

Introduction:

My son and I travelled to Sicily last September (2023), 80 years after the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation HUSKY, beginning July 10, 1943) and Allied invasion of Italy (Operation BAYTOWN, at the toe of the boot, beginning September 3, 1943). Our interest ran high about the date and destination of our trip because my father, as a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve ("We are, we are the RCNVR") and Combined Operations (U.K.) organization, served for four weeks - "ship to shore" i.e., transporting all the materials of war for Monty's Eighth Army - aboard landing crafts, on this very beach above, aka Beach 44.

My main contact in Sicily is a Sicilian film maker and writer who lives 100 km or more north of this beach, at Santa Teresa di Riva, aka Charlie Beach in 1943, a WWII Allied embarkation site during Operation BAYTOWN.

Please note* the slope of the background landscape as it tapers off, left.

A close up of the same coastline appears below, Sept. 2023. Photo GH

Landing crafts replaced by holiday caravans. The same change has taken place

at No. 1 Combined Ops Training Camp in Inveraray, Scotland, 80 years later

* Please note: Yes, I did write the preface for Fabrizio's book. You didn't know I was world famous?

My interest still runs high as I search for more materials re the role of Canadians in Combined Operations during WWII. And though only 950 - 1,000 Canadians enlisted in RCNVR and later also volunteered for Combined Ops (about 1% of the total who joined the Navy between 1939 and 1945), their small slice of Canadian Navy history provides a 'close up' view of many significant events, both directly and indirectly.

Recently, a blog entry by 'Berto' - presenting important details re the Italian defences during Allied landings, from the Sicilian point of view - caught my eye and I encourage readers to take the time to explore the slice of WWII history that took place at Fontane Bianche, Cassibile and other small towns and hamlets, near the very place the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts (including my father) served for four weeks beginning July 10, 1943. 

Many statements or details are not only directly connected to Italian divisions but to the Allied forces (Montgomery's Eighth Army, and Canadian sailors, indirectly) present along Sicily's eastern coastline during the opening days of Operation HUSKY.

Berto's entry begins as follows:

No maps of the area are provided but I have been fortunate to find a few

(Berto's blog has not been active since Oct., 2018 (Send comment!)

Acid North, including Acid Center can be found south of Syracuse, upper right:

South East Sicily: GEORGE, HOW and JIG Sectors were served

by the 80th and 81st Canadian Flotillas of Landing Craft.

Map as found at Canadians at Arms, Sicily 

The area between Cape Ognina (upper right) and Cape Negro (lower left) was "defended by four strongpoints" says Berto:

Map as found at "Allied Landings in Sicily Museum" in Catania, Sicily

Evidence of the "four strong points" may still exist. My son and I found pillboxes near both ends of the beach at Fontane Bianche, and an air tower was still found at Torre Cuba:

Pill box 200 - 300m from the south end of F. Bianche's beach

Opposite side of above pill box, damaged and repaired

Pill box found on the north side of F. Bianche's beach. Photos GH

Please click here to read an excellent article re "Operation Ladbroke" and "3 Commando - the Storming of Torre Cuba" posted by Ian Murray. The article begins as follows:

3 Commando – the Storming of Torre Cuba

3 Commando’s capture of the Italian strongpoint at Torre Cuba helped prepare the ground (literally) for the surrender of Italy and the signing of the Armistice.

Major Peter Young had a disappointing start to Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943. He was the commanding officer of half of 3 Commando, and he had been ordered to neutralise Italian defences on the shoulder of George Beach*, prior to the main seaborne forces arriving. However he and his men spent the night in their landing craft shuttling from one wrong position to another. They finally arrived off George Beach after the assault waves had gone in and the beach had been captured. Already annoyed at missing the action, he was even more frustrated when his men were then given what was in effect a lowly garrisoning role, well behind the front lines.

*Be sure to click on GEORGE Beach (above) for a "modern day" look at the area.

After the area had been secured, the Allies converted the farmland

around Torre Cuba into Cassibile Airfield. The tower became an air

traffic control tower. Source: NARA (as found at above link)

The first paragraph of Berto's blog entry continues:

These strongpoints were covered by three artillery batteries belonging to the 27th 149/35 mm Artillery Group (Major Giuseppe Mineo), the 79th, 80th and 81st*, located in their rear. The battery that most concerned the British was the 81st, the one in the highest position, located in the Cafici farm in the hamlet of Spingallo**, north of Fontane Bianche.

*re 79th, 80th and 81st artillery batteries... it is an interesting coincidence that the 80th and 81st Canadian flotillas of LCMs were landing Allied materials of war on nearby beaches.

**Spingallo - I could not find a hamlet by this name but did find a 'Spinagallo Rd' going north from Cassibile (just 2 km east or inland of Fontane Bianche, so there may be remains of the hamlet in the area (as well a Spinagallo cave and fossils belonging to a very small elephant species!) ; )

Berto's piece continues:

This battery was one of the two objectives of the No. 3 Commando. At 3:00 in the night of 10 July, 180 British commandos from the No. 3 Commando, led by Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater, landed near Scoglio Imbiancato (“Whitened Rock”, between Cape Ognina and Fontane Bianche)

My son and I walked the roads and fields between Cape Ognina and Fontane Bianche on two occasions, on the same day, as we searched for suitable caves in which my father and 50 - 60 other Canadian sailors may have lived for 2 - 3 weeks while supplying Monty's Eighth with all manner of supplies (minus a goodly supply of rum) and cannot recall a "Whitened Rock" (Scoglio Imbiancato, circled in yellow below). I would have called the area "Blackened Lava Rock" instead. But the views were glistening as we walked and looked south west toward GEORGE Beach.

The map, re WWII, has many notes, and was scouted by COPP (Combined

Operations Pilotage Parties prior to the invasion. Click here for details re COPP,

and look for section entitled "Sicily reconnaissance - Avola, 24 - 29 June 1943".

Please read the next paragraph (lengthiest so far) in Berto's account that begins "They (3 Commando) silenced an Italian machine gun position that had opened fire on them, and then they moved inland..." and that ends with "The same authorities that had punished him for his ‘excessive’ parental concern now awarded him a posthumous Bronze Medal for Military Valor.." The story of "a small cheese vendor" may help us understand that while visiting a country that was for a time a WWII battle field (even though 80 years ago), it is still home to many, many people who were/are still scarred by what happened to their land and their families - during a fierce battle that had very little to do with most land owners. 

During the day that my son and I explored the fields and ridges near Scoglio Imbiancato we met a retired doctor (age 72) who had been fishing near a lovely beach with his 20-year-old grandson. We chatted, roughly, but connected with enough shared words to inform them we were looking for cattle caves. The doctor felt he knew the location of one, in an area my son felt positive about too because of his research. Off we went, the doctor armed with a saw and clippers from his car, to do battle with brambles and cactus that covered the entrance to a relatively medium-sized but promising hidden cave (home to Romanians for five years, filled with worn, torn mattresses, cooking gear, plastic bins, all material related to poverty and struggle). 

We chattered back and forth about a blackened ceiling and markings on the walls - but nothing that I felt related to Canadian sailors - and after I'd expressed a feeling it was not a strong possibility that Canadians had lived there, the doctor spoke.

"When the Allies attacked this country my mother's house was destroyed and a relative was killed before her eyes."

He was generously helping us but at the same time remembering too that WWII had not treated his family very generously. Buildings in many cities, towns, hamlets and farms in Sicily carry battle scars, bullet holes; minds and hearts and psyches in many corners of Sicily carry deeper scars. I won't soon forget his words, what he worked really hard to communicate. He was no "small cheese vendor" who had "stubbornly fought on with his machine gun, for patriotic pride, for fear, for a sudden surge of sense of duty, for reasons that only he knew" but he was speaking for him. And I'm very glad that my son and I listened attentively and learned a valuable lesson about life and death and war. 

Photos taken as we "explored the fields and ridges (and a cave) near Scoglio Imbiancato":

Remnants of Italian WWII defensive positions?

Inside a cave used for human habitation but not likely for cattle

The flotsam and jetsam of cave life; I was looking for Canadian etchings. GH

Berto shares in his blog a lengthy paragraph concerning the coming to shore of "3rd Army Commando, led my Major Peter Young" at Fontane Bianche, and "its march toward its designated objective, Torre Cuba, to the north-east." After taking control of Torre Cuba the commandos "proceeded towards Torre Ognina, where they demanded the surrender of the small Italian garrison of 17 men, who laid down their arms without resistance."

The map below, found by clicking on "GEORGE Beach" in the article re "The Storming of Torre Cuba" above, has 5 numbers added that reveal the location of significant sites related to the paragraph above, and more:

1. Donna Coraly Resort, home to a replica of the stone marking the site the Italian surrender, Sept. 3, 1943

2. Torre Tonda, a fortified tower farther inland than Torre Cuba

3. Torre Cuba

4. Torre di Ognina, about 1.5 km east of Torre Cuba

5. Gord and son Paul's B&B in Fontane Bianche, so we were within walking distance of many significant WWII sites and clashes:

Gord and Paul at the Donna Coraly resort in September, 2023

The stone marker is not the original. See below

The original stone has once stood in a nearby field

In Berto's entry re 'the landing and the battle for Cassibile and Casanuova' we also find details about the strength and courage related to the Italian resistance from the Allied point of view, a rare occurrence, or so it is suggested:

For a change, the Italian resistance is acknowledged even by the British side, in the memoirs of a Scot soldier who was there and was evidently uninformed, unlike some armchair historians, that the wops were supposed to have come out with their hands raised, eager to be taken out of the war. Then-sergeant James (Jim) Stockman, of the 6th Seaforth Highlanders, later recalled the battle for Cassibile in his book “Seaforth Highlanders 1939-1945: A Fighting Soldier Remembers”. In his memoir book, Stockman recalled that immediately after the landing his battalion had headed towards Casanuova, east of Cassibile, where it was met with strong Italian resistance. The Seaforth Highlanders managed to break this resistance with the help of a company from the 2nd Northampton, which carried out a converging manoeuvre in order to cover the Seaforth’s attack. Once they had stabilized the bridgehead and overcome a number of clashes with Italian infantry and artillery, the three battalions readied themselves for the assault, that would be carried out with the light of the day. Stockman considered it unlucky that Cassibile and its adjacent crossroads were located within his battalion’s landing area, as both of them were tenaciously defended by an Italian machine gun company, supported by tanks, howitzers and high caliber guns, all of them directly pointed at the beaches; this initially caused considerable losses, while they (the Seaforth) were frustrated by the apparent absence of their own artillery. Not even the Navy could help them, as naval guns risked to hit them as well, besides the enemy. It took three bloody hours for the Seaforth Highlanders to take Cassibile and silence those guns, which costed the Scots 40 casualties, including three officers killed. So far, Stockman’s memoirs.

Regular readers will know that my father's memoirs are quoted (admittedly) quite often in my own entries and so I will again because during the first day or two of the Allied landing he carried wounded soldiers out to a Hospital ship (HMHS Talamba) and some were likely the aforementioned Seaforth Highlanders.

Doug Harrison writes:

We had a hospital ship with us named the Alatambra (sic - HMHS Talamba) with many nurses and doctors aboard. She came in to about three miles in daytime and went out to seven miles and lighted up like a city at night. No one was to bomb a hospital ship and for days on end we took the wounded out to her, many being glider pilots with purple berets. Never a sound out of them, no matter how badly they were hurt. Mostly Scotch soldiers.

One night we saw what appeared to be a tremendous bonfire in the east, offshore a long way out. In the morning, the Alatambra was gone, nursing sisters, doctors, wounded and all. Seven hundred and ninety were killed or drowned. The Germans had either bombed or torpedoed her that night. So goes war. (Page 33 from "Dad, Well Done")

Red Star: Talamba sunk, according to a map re the 81st Flotilla, on July 10, first

day of invasion, whereas my father said he took wounded out "for days on end."

Let the debate begin!

Stories related to the brave resistance of other Italian soldiers and officers conclude the entry by Berto.

As I share information about the role of Canadians in Combined Operations during WWII I hope I come across more articles or blog entries, etc., that reflect the Italian or Sicilian or North African (Operation Torch), etc., point of view. And of course, if there is a way to attach some details re the 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts, I'll continue to do so, hopefully in an understanding and appropriate manner.

Please click here to view more stories about the Allied invasion of Sicily

Unattributed Photos GH