Editor's Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (30)

A Big Batch of News Clips from The Gazette, Aug. 9 1943

Monty Heaps High Praise Upon Canadian Troops

"From original caption: "Canada launched its first Lancaster on Friday

and sent it overseas..." Photo found in The Gazette, details below

Introduction:

British, American and Canadian armies have not yet reached Messina or swept remaining (retreating) German forces off the island of Sicily. It won't be too long before stories and photographs appear in The (Montreal) Gazette that depict the end of Operation HUSKY, begun July 10, one month earlier. 

Two weeks ago, January 19, 2026, Cyclone Harry battered parts of the eastern shoreline in Sicily, including an area I visited with my son Paul in September, 2023 (80 years after the invasion of Sicily). Santa Teresa di Riva was central to our visit and the damage done to the shoreline will take many months, perhaps a year or more. Scars related to the upheaval, psychological and physical, will last much longer. "Do you remember when Cyclone Harry....?" will surely last for decades. 

Areas affected by bad weather are seen along the seafront in Santa Teresa

di Riva, Sicily, Italy, 21 January 2026. (Feb. 3, 2026, EPA)

Looking north, then south from the beach at Santa Teresa di Riva in September 2023:

Photos GH

The same is true about damage done to the island of Sicily during WWII. While exploring the inside of a cave in Sept. 2023 a few miles north of Fontane Bianche (home to the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts (LCMs) in 1943), a 70-year-old doctor (we met him and his grandson during a hike along the coast) recalled family memories related to WWII.

"My grandmother lost her house during the Allied invasion. And an uncle was killed," he said solemnly. 

No joy lived in those words. But the scars related to WWII live 'just below the surface' of many, many Sicilians to this day I am certain. And next time Paul and I visit Sicily we will be wise to remember that short conversation.

 And now, on with the show:

Monty heaps praise upon the Canadian Army in Sicily: 

I think that praise from a commanding officer really meant something to the men who received it. At least it did to my father (RCNVR/Combined Operations). In his WWII memoirs - written in the early 1970s - about his month in Sicily he writes:

(We) The men under a new commanding officer did yeoman work, although working long hours, under fed and pestered severely by Stukas and JU88s. The stokers kept the landing craft running, if not on two engines then on one (no down time) and the Canadian Flotillas* were highly praised by the British Admiralty and General Montgomery himself.

Their monkey mascot went bomb crazy and was buried at sea in a sandbag. It was a sad occasion when it was chucked overboard for our safety. "Dad, Well Done" page 75  

Please click here to read more about 'their monkey mascot' (re the 80th Canadian Flotilla of LCMs).

A lengthy article to bring us up to date re where Allied armies are at this point:

Photo Credit: World War II, Operation Husky, 1943

In 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade followed an inland route up the centre of Sicily, acting as the left flank of the British Eighth Army during Operation Husky. Over 27 days, they fought through 240 kilometres of mountainous, tough terrain, advancing from the southern coast to the vicinity of Mount Etna before being withdrawn on August 6, 1943. AI Overview

Montgomery’s plan of attack was to drive northward along the east coast

of Sicily, with Patton’s U.S. Seventh Army protecting his left flank.

A U.S. map. No mention of Canadian Army attached to Monty's 8th.

Source: Warfare History Network

Three 44 Squadron Avro Lancaster B.Is in 1942. Source - Wikipedia

GH googled 'Normandie liner refloated in New York 1943' and AI offered the following:

The SS Normandie (renamed USS Lafayette), the luxurious French ocean liner that caught fire and capsized at Pier 88 in New York City on February 9, 1942, was successfully righted on August 7, 1943. The salvage operation to upright and refloat the ship was one of the largest and most expensive of its time, costing approximately $5 million.

As with the Avro Lancaster bomber, mentioned in an earlier news clip, images abound (including videos on YouTube; click here to view "Why SS Normandie Capsized in New York Harbour"):

The S.S. Normandie, a 1,029-foot-long ship, burned in a spectacular

blaze at a Manhattan pier in February 1942, and had to be removed over

17 months in the Hudson. Credit: The New York Times

From The New York Times we'll switch to an article out of London, England by Associated Press and cabled across the Atlantic Ocean to The (Montreal) Gazette. Brought to you by GH from London, Ontario, Canada via his iMac, built in the USA. It's about a new-found optimism:

The attack of Germany "across the Channel or the North Sea" is

still several months away. First came the long, tough slog for every

mile of the peninsula of Italy, beginning on September 3, 1943. 

Wishful thinking? Mystery and intrigue? All this, even before AI was invented!

Lionel S. B. Shapiro, author of "They Left the Backdoor Open" ("Who is 'They'?" I won't tell you what it's all about, it would spoil the surprise!), is one of my favourite war correspondents, along with Ross Munro, especially as their stories relate to Sicily. Shapiro's lengthy columns under a specific heading are upcoming, as found on microfiche at the University of Western Ontario. Here he shares his account of "British and Canadian troops of the Eighth Army "swarming over the hills..." and earlier, "Monty's left hook":

Photo from Lionel Shapiro's aforementioned book, very close to GEORGE

Beach, home of the 80th Flotilla. This is likely HOW Beach, 2 - 3 miles to

the south, home of the 81st Canadian LCMs. Click here for more details.*

*If you don't like surprises.

"Canadian and British units captured Aderno" and more from other war fronts:

The following article takes us many miles from Sicily:

re Kolombangara: The cruisers USS St. Louis and HMNZS Leander firing

Click here for more about the 'Battle of Kolombangara' at Wikipedia.

Please click here for even more (a video) about the Battle of Kolombangara as found on YouTube.

And now a word from our sponsor, the people from Tic Toc!!

Juanita Rios, mentioned as "star of the broadway show, Star and Garter" in the above caption was actually listed as 'first girl' (a long way from 'star of the show) in the only list of characters I could find for Mike Todd's Broadway hit from 1942 - 43. I think Gypsy Rose Lee, featured on the Ed Sullivan show when I was a kid, was the real star.

Speaking of 'star of the show', the Lancaster was another one (one of many):

Please click here to view an excellent website re the Lancaster, how it came to be made in Canada (and many other features re WWII history).

Avro Lancaster B Mk. I (Serial No. R5727), built in the UK and

flown to Victory Aircraft in Malton, Canada in August 1942 to serve

as a pattern for the other Lancasters to be built in Canada.

CFJIC-DND Photo, PL-1173 via Don Smith)

405 (B) Squadron RCAF Avro Lancaster “Ruhr Express” being bombed up

for a mission over Berlin. Ground crews are steering two “cookies” (block-

buster bombs) into position under the bomb-bay. This aircraft was the first

Canadian built Lancaster. (Library and Archives

Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4542805)

I think this cartoon is depicting Hitler's dilemma, i.e., the destruction of his once-powerful submarine fleet is out-pacing the German industry's ability to build new ones, replacements:

Another episode of "The Great Escape":

Like your mustard?

The Dieppe Raid occurred on August 19, 1942 and about two years later (two weeks shy since the following article was delayed from August 5th) members of the Canadian 1st Division exacted some revenge, balancing the scales to some immeasurable degree:

Private D.B. MacDonald of The Royal Canadian Regiment, who carries a Bren

light machine gun, near Campobasso, Italy, October 1943. Photo: Jack H. Smith.

From the Faces of War collection at Library and Archives Canada.

As found at The Regimental Rogue

"We just spit back at them." I think that many readers would say, "That's a pretty good response. I'd maybe do the same in the same circumstances."

My response is, "Hey, the guy was from London, Ontario, i.e., where I make my current home. I wonder if I can find any living relatives of Harvey Bonner in this fair city of mine and pass along the WWII article?" 

I found 6 phone numbers for 'Bonner' in London (and I think I taught a Bonner back when I was a young teacher! Wouldn't that be a major league coincidence?!

So, I will call the 6 numbers to see if I can find a relative. If I do I will report back here.

On to Mr. Clapper's column. I wonder if he's in the phonebook?

Pause. I'll come to Clapper's Column in a few minutes. First, wouldn't this be a good time to remember a perfectly decent citizen of London, Ontario, who volunteered for the RCNVR in and around the same time as my father did in 1941 (their volunteer numbers are really not too far apart; Dad - V8801; Allan 'Addy' Adlington - V8786). He participated in Operation HUSKY, was injured while manning a gun turret during the landing of troops beginning July 10, 1943, and sent to hospital in one country then another. And he showed me the scar when I met him and his wife Mary about 15 years ago. I was writing for a local newspaper, mentioned my father's link to the RCNVR and he called me. "I trained and served with your dad during WWII," he said. My gosh, I've even got their wedding photo (given to me by Mary) and my Dad's best friend during WWII (Chuck Rose) stood up with Addy.

And it just so happens that when I was searching for one thing online I found another with Addy's picture on it. "I know this fella!" I said and then fell off my chair. I still carry the bruise. I'll show it to you sometime.

The following memorial page (and several pages re veterans I did not share here) was printed in honour of veterans from Dutton Township, and of the two Adlingtons listed on one page 'Addy' is the one with no link to Dutton mentioned, though all the others on subsequent pages had a defined link to that Township. I had the thought that maybe 'Addy' got included  because he was listed on the same page with another Adlington, with described link to Dutton Township, though he did have a scar to prove he'd paid a heavy price for volunteering.

Being hospitalized in Scotland was fortuitous! 'Addy' had met a wee Scottish girl at a dance club in Glasgow (while on leave from a training camp in Irvine, Scotland in mid-1942). They were married in Glasgow (date?) and Mary later came to Canada via the SS Île de France, and fortunately not SS Normandie! Though she recalled to me that she did land in New York. Source - written memorial page and photograph (?)

 

Of course I have the wedding photo!

L-R: Chuck Rose (looking as if he has not done this before), 'Addy',

Mary, and Mary's sister, just a bit more 'wee' than Mary

And then there's the 'Addy' Adlington and 'Cactus' (and 'Dogo') Harrison connection:

Eight of the first 50 Canadian ratings to volunteer for Combined Ops.

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

field, Don Linder, Joe Watson (with a large bee on his face?) At HMS

Northney (one of 4 camps, (I - IV), Hayling Island, Jan.- March, 1942

*Doug's nicknames, i.e., 'Dogo' or 'Do-Go' and 'Cactus') may be related to (a) his poor guitar playing (the guitar was purchased in S. Africa on his way to Sicily) as in "Do go somewhere else with your fumbling around off-key", and (b) his quick, sharp and prickly reactions to impertinent questions or being criticized. 'Like father, like son' rings true with me... but only occasionally. "I said, only occasionally!!"

Back to Clapper's Column:

Please click here to read a fine tribute to Fred Painton (mentioned in the second to last paragraph above) by U.S. war correspondent Ernie Pyle, seen in the photograph below: 

Fred Painton: A Tribute, Saturday, April 28, 1945

In his last published column, which was issued posthumously, Pyle honors

the memory of a fellow war correspondent. Indiana University Archives

Another informative article by Lionel Shapiro (maybe he knew that Ross Munro was taking a day off):

Ross Munro and Bill Stewart of the Canadian Press with Lionel Shapiro

(right) in France, August 1944 (Library and Archives Canada)

Found with an excellent article at World War II on Deadline

Map of Canadian Operations in Sicily, 10 July to 17 August 1943.

Map drawn by C.C.J. Bond, in C.P. Stacey, The Canadian Army 1939-

1945: An Official Historical Summary (1948), Dept. of National Def.

Found at Military History by Harold A. Skaarup

RAF air raids reduce the German industrial war effort by... well, do the math!

More of, do the math!

HMCS Grou K518. Photo and more navy history can be found here 

The battle for Troina, "a well-earned, hard-fought victory":

Finishing on a positive note - send books and Christie's biscuits - it's a wartime duty!

More news clippings from The Montreal Gazette will follow shortly.

Please click here to view Editor's Research: Three Months in the Mediterranean, 1943 (29)

Unattributed Photos GH

Editor's Research: The RCN and Overseas Operations (1939 - 1945)

Early 1942, 50 Officers and 300 Sailors Proceeded to Britain

Some were Soon on British Landing Crafts at Dieppe

The Effingham Division, December 1941 at HMCS Stadacona, Halifax

Volume 1 of Canadian Navy veterans' stories about their experiences

in Combined Operations, including the Dieppe Raid.

 Edited by David and Kit Lewis, Len Birkenes

Introduction:

My father, front row and third from the left in the top photo, wrote that most of the Effingham Division  volunteered for Combined Operations in December, 1941 after having a chat with one of their Petty Officers about the posters ("Volunteers Needed!") that littered a few walls in barracks and mess halls at HMCS Stadacona. 

"Almost to the man," he said. Likely for most not because of the pay or promise of "dangerous duties overseas," or opportunity to man "small crafts." Likely because of "nine days leave" thrown in. Christmas was coming and in nine days a sailor could get back to Ontario from Halifax (3 days!), see his family and girlfriend for 3 days before heading back east to Stadacona (3 days)! Slick advertising I say. 

Eventually about 1,000 sailors from across Canada signed on during WWII, and that is about 1% of all Canadians who joined the Canadian Navy during that time. That's not a big turn out so it should come as no surprise to most people that most people don't know very much about the Canadian sailor's role in Combined Ops, where they went and when. How, why, when, where? Even most of the sailors would come up short answering those questions. The officers knew of course. But generally speaking, ratings didn't have to know (just obey orders).

Because I am likely not officer material, when I come across a story or article that shares a bit of information about Canadians in Combined Ops I like to pass it on. At no extra charge.

What follows are three paragraphs from a Government of Canada source, a lengthy piece, mostly about the larger Navy (the 99% section), free to all online under the heading 'The Royal Canadian Navy and Overseas Operations (1939-1945): Stepping Forward and Upward.

(I recommend readers click here to read the full article (about 9,000 words) written by author Donald E. Graves.)

Below I share the three paragraphs - along with added notes of interest, I hope - that pertain to the Canadian sailors who volunteered for Combined Operations not knowing what actually lay ahead other than "dangerous duties overseas aboard small crafts." FYI Al Kirby of Woodstock, Ontario was taking a Torpedo class or course at Stadacona at the time, and thought volunteering would offer him an opportunity to blow up a few German boats with his own personal MTB, so raised his hand. "I'm in!" Please click here to read more about Al Kirby.

Al Kirby aboard an LCM of the 80th Flotilla, prior to Operation HUSKY

beginning July 10, 1943. Property of Al's son, David Kirby

The back of Al Kirby's LCM photo above

Stepping Forward and Upward:

The RCN also made a substantial contribution to the Combined Operations service, the organization created to carry out raids on occupied Europe and develop the specialized techniques required to conduct the large amphibious landings that marked the latter years of the war.

(From The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations by Bernard Fergusson we read that in the early days of Combined Ops (C. Ops) a couple of people, i.e., PM Winston Churchill and the new Commander of C. Ops, Lord Louis Mountbatten) were heavily concerned about two things. Fergusson writes: "Obviously two of the most urgent problems were the provision of landing ships and craft, and the crews to man them... As an illustration of the magnitude of the crew problem, the Joint Planners, in the very month of Mountbatten's appointment (late October 1941), had persuaded the Chiefs of Staff that our requirements in LCTs alone (Landing Crafts for Tanks) for the eventual invasion (of Europe) would be 2,250 - a figure to daunt almost anybody. And where were the crews to come from? (Emphasis mine. GH) Canada made an offer, which was gratefully accepted, of 50 officers and 300 ratings, but this was a drop in the bucket." Page 93)

Stepping Forward and Upward continues:

In early 1942, 50 officers and 300 ratings proceeded to Britain to form two flotillas of landing craft. On 19 August 1942, 15 officers and 55 ratings from this group were with British landing craft flotillas that participated in Operation Jubilee, the ill-fated raid on Dieppe that cost the Canadian army nearly 3,000 casualties, or about 65 percent of the troops that took part. 

(From Al Kirby's account of the Dieppe Raid:

- Tuesday, August 18th, 1942 (one day before "the ill-fated raid")

The morning of Tuesday, August 18, 1942 dawned as bright and full of hope as each day for the previous week had done. After breakfast, we were met at R-135 by Sub Lieutenant Leach and told that we had a busy day ahead of us. "Is this the big day Sir?" I asked, the first time that I had a chance to talk to him, and he replied, "What big day?" "Well....the day of the exercise. What all this fuss is about," I said. "Oh....we have a lot to do yet, but I expect we will be told in good time," was his reply. He seemed to me to be going a long way out of his way to keep something from us. I could not understand why an exercise would have to be so secret.

With the war now three years old, we were quite accustomed to the need for security and you can be sure that we were all quite happy as our ships sailed out of harbour on their various missions, that Naval security was reasonably good. Often, at sea, we would wonder if the enemy knew just where we were and what we were doing, whether we were unknowingly sailing into a trap that was about to spring, sending us all into oblivion, or, worse still, leaving us struggling in the icy North Atlantic, grasping at the flotsam of our sinking ship. I could not help but be impressed by the number of landing craft here. We all seemed to be preparing for something really big. There had been some talk for some little time about a second front, but no one expected anything like that this year.

About mid morning, a Navy lorry arrived on the bank nearest our landing craft, and we were issued a World War I Lewis gun, a brand new Thompson sub machine gun and a case of ammunition for each weapon. Please click here to read Kirby's full account of the Dieppe Raid.)

"Canadians in Combined Operations try out new weapons"

L-R, C. Rose, S. Dewey (?), Lloyd Evans - English Channel

Photo by Lloyd Evans, circa 1942

Al Kirby (far right) meets with other WW2 Combined Ops veterans

Photo from Combined Operations by Clayton Marks, London

Stepping Forward and Upward continues:

In a letter home written shortly afterward, Sub-Lieutenant D. Ramsay, RCNVR, provided a dramatic kaleidoscope of the images he had witnessed that terrible day (August 19, 1942), including:

a German armed trawler blown clear out of the water by one of our destroyers; a five-inch shell right through from one side to the other on the boat next to me without exploding; the boat officer, Skipper Jones, RNR (ex-Trawlerman as you can guess) screaming invectives at the Jerry and coming out once in a while with the famous Jonesian saying, “get stuffed;” a large houseful of Jerry machine gunners pasting hell out of anybody who dared come near the beach; a Ju 88 whose wing was cut in half by AB [Able-Bodied Seaman] Mitchinson of Ontario in the boat astern (see photo directly below);

Marksman (!) AB Seaman Norm Mitchinson (centre oval) at HMCS Stadacona

(Alas! Dieppe fatality Aug. 19 1942, Richard Cavanaugh, 2nd row, 2nd left)

Sub-Lieutenant D. Ramsay's eye-witness account concludes:

a plane swooping down low behind a destroyer and letting go a 2000 lb. bomb, which ricocheted over the mast and burst about 10 yards on the starboard bow; peeking over the cox’ns box and looking into the smoking cannon of an Me 109. I’m here to state that that was close.2

(Please click here to read the full letter from Sub. Lt. Ramsay to his father as found in Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks, pages 63 - 65)

And Stepping Forward and Upward* concludes:

Organized as four distinctly RCN flotillas, Canadian Combined Operations personnel then took part in Operations Torch (the landing in North Africa in November 1942), Husky (the Sicily landing in July 1943) and Baytown (the Italy landing that September). The achievements of the Canadian flotillas were almost unknown in Canada, much to the chagrin of NSHQ, which became determined that the same case would not apply with the RCN’s Tribal-class destroyers when they entered service.

The "four distinctly RCN flotillas" of landing craft (LCAs and LCMs) the author is referring to are likely the 55th, 61st, 80th and 81st Flotillas as listed on the following map re the invasion of Sicily beginning July 10, 1943. My father was a member of the 80th Flotilla and very proud of it.

Map of Sicily, Operation HUSKY, found in Combined Operations pg. 76

Doug Harrison (center) assists American troops from LCA428 at Beach Z,

Arzeu, North Africa in November 1942, Operation TORCH. Photo IWM

*Stepping Forward and Upward was highlighted above because the three paragraphs I have shared here actually comprise 4% of the total article, not the 1% I would have expected. Things are looking upward!

Please click here for more information about the origins, roles and history of the members of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve who volunteered for Combined Operations during WWII.

Comments or questions can be emailed to me at gordh7700@gmail.com

Unattributed Photos GH