Invasion of Mainland Italy, September 3, 1943 and Landings
at Charlie Beach, by Canadian 80th Flotilla Landing Crafts
The below photograph's heading at Imperial War Museum (IWM) - THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH AFRICA, SICILY, ITALY, THE BALKANS AND AUSTRIA 1942-1946
NA 6162 Original wartime caption: First casualties from the Italian mainland
arrive by Invasion craft at Messina. A stretcher case being carried ashore.
Credit - Photographer Leonard Chetwyn (link to Chetwyn's collection)
of the No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section (AFPUnit)
B-side of top photo (or a separate card?). Date - September 3, 1943,
D-Day Italy at the toe of the boot, e.g., Reggio di Calabria
Introduction:
Numerically, the series of 15 photographs shared in this post (i.e., NA 6162 - 6176, all found at Imperial War Museum (IWM) in England) follow directly on the heels of those shared (i.e., NA 6149 - NA 6161) in Operation Baytown, Invasion of Italy, 1943 (1) posted here on October 26, 2026, two weeks ago tomorrow.
Why the big gap in time between Parts 1 and 2? "Literary license" I think it's called : ) Another series - very unique, I wrote all four parts and there's more coming(!) - was ready to go and I just couldn't wait to drop 'Bury Me At Sea' (1) into the "1,000 Men" blog. That's the honest answer.
Back to the series re "First Pictures of the Invasion of Italian Mainland." Some of the following photos are very significant as they concern Canadians in Combined Operations in a very direct way. Members of the 80 Canadian Flotilla of Landing Crafts appear in some shots aboard their LCMs (landing craft, mechanised) at Messina on the first and perhaps subsequent days of the invasion at the toe of the boot.
The 80th and 81st Canadian LCM Flotillas served during Operation HUSKY
beginning July 10, 1943 near Avola. The 80th served during Operation Baytown
beginning Sept. 3, 1943 near Reggio (R & R & R in Malta during August*)
Map from Combined Operations by C. Marks, London Ontario, Canada
*R & R & R means Recuperation (from illnesses) and Rest (perhaps read some mail) and Repair the landing crafts after tough sledding between July 10 and August 7, 1943
LCMs were workhorses during WWII, at N. Africa, Sicily, Italy and France.
Off Sicily's coast at Pachino. Photo Credit - IWM
The following is from a newspaper interview of my father that appeared in The Brantford Expositor in December, 1943 or January, 1944:
SICILY “PLENTY HOT”
The Sicilian invasion he described as plenty hot. “We had 72 air raids in 36 hours,” he said. “We were bombed for three or four hours at a stretch, every night and every morning for a month, from the time the invasion started July 10.”
“We found the people of Sicily in bad condition, nearly starving. We practically kept them, with our own food. I saw boys 19 years old, only as big as Canadian boys of 11 or 12. They were begging for food all the time.”
EASY AGAIN
The Italian campaign was “easy,” so far as his share of the invasion was concerned, he said. “There was nothing to it. It was just a matter of walking in and taking over, after a 55-minute bombardment of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of the Italian boot, by naval guns and rocket guns.”
As recorded in Navy memoirs, i.e., "Dad, Well Done" by Gord Harrison, page 123
NA 6163 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Note: "At Messina" as in first photo may mean "at (the capital city of) Messina"
or "at (the metropolitan city of) Messina" which stretches down the coast
The metropolitan city (formerly 'province') of Messina includes Mili Marina, which was mentioned as a launching point for Allied landing crafts in Part 1 of this series of photographs.
Allied landing crafts (incl. Canada's?) depart from Mili Marina for Reggio
Photo from Allied Invasion of Sicily WWII Museum, Catania
Google Map view of the direct route from Mili Marina to Reggio
Leonard Chetwyn's photographs in the series continue under IWM's initial heading - THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH AFRICA, SICILY, ITALY, THE BALKANS AND AUSTRIA 1942-1946:
NA 6164 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
One can see in the above photo that there is a particularly distinctive coastline running south from the Red Cross or Allied ambulance along the east coast of Sicily. But not only is the coastline distinctive. So is the tall gentleman about 15m behind the medical crew. Is he a local Sicilian in his PJs and bathrobe with his morning coffee? Or an Allied officer overseeing the spacing of landing craft, mechanised (LCMs) on the beach behind him? Too hard to tell.
But what I can tell, from experience, is that the landing zone for the return of Allied casualties - from the very recent invasion of Italy (Operation BAYTOWN) at the toe of the boot - happens to include part of the eastern shores of Sicily home to Santa Teresa di Riva and Sant'Alessio Siculo, two lovely cities that are side by side in modern times (e.g., as of September 2023, 80 years after the WWII invasion of Sicily, then Italy).
'Modern day' photos of the 1943 landing zone, aka Charlie Beach:
2023: Fabrizio Sergi (left) from Santa Teresa di Riva and Paul Harrison
(London, Canada) exploring the same beach as seen in the WWII photos
Metal sculpture, the work of Nino Ucchino (uncle of Fabrizio S.)
Looking north from Santa Teresa di Riva, across Messina Strait to Reggio
F. Sergi (author, film maker, artist) and I share thoughts re Charlie Beach,
the book he is holding. Behind us, 'the Med' and Reggio di Calabria.
Photos from the collection of GH
Lt. L. Chetwyn's photographs in the series continue:
NA 6165 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Special Note: When I see sailors manning a landing craft (e.g., above, check(!), seven in a tight cluster), particularly an LCM (check!), I always take a careful second or third look in case my father might be one of them. And in the photo above, I will say "that the short guy farthest left - wearing his white sailor's cap - looks like Doug Harrison. I give him an 8 out of 10!"
NA 6166 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Special Note: I think that the "two walking casualties" above also appear below, first two on the left waiting for a light. I think as well that the location given, i.e., "(at Messina)", is not really meaningful. The shoreline beyond a second LCM (far right) is the same as earlier photos, e.g., NA 6164, that is at Charlie Beach, the shores of eastern Sicily at Santa Teresa di Riva, south of the city of Messina and Mili Marina.
The distinctive shoreline is very close to Sant'Alessio Siculo, lower left
The next photo is the last in the series by Lt. L. Chetwyn:
NA 6167 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
The next eight photographs in the series were taken by Sgt. Geoffrey Loughlin, a photographer with No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit and at Catania:
Heading - INVASION OF ITALIAN MAINLAND
NA 6168 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Loughlin's photos are found at the Imperial War Museum and in this
series are dated 1943-09-02, the day before Operation Baytown began
Heading - THE INVASION OF ITALY SEPTEMBER 1943
NA 6169 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Original Caption : Troops from 51st Highland Division boarding landing
craft at Catania, 2 September 1943.
Heading - INVASION OF ITALIAN MAINLAND
NA 6170 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Original wartime caption: Men of the 2nd Inniskillings embarking
on L.C.Is at Catania.
NA 6171 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
NA 6172 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
NA 6173 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Heading - INVASION OF ITALIAN MAINLAND
NA 6174 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
NA 6175 Imperial War Museum (IWM)
More to follow in the near future related to early training days re Combined Operations in Scotland in 1941, another series of Sgt. Geoffrey Loughlin's photographs at another Charlie Beach along the east coast of Sicily (even farther south than the ones shared above at Santa Teresa), and more news clipping from August, 1943 issues of The (Montreal) Gazette .
Above photo and its B-side are found at Imperial War Museum
Unattributed Photos GH
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