Italy

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "

• A hundred B-17s attack the oil refinery and shipping at Leghorn (Livorno). Torpedinieres Angelo Bassini and Antares, sloop FR-52, armed merchant cruiser Caralis, and five merchant vessels are sunk.

 

• American B-26s and RAF Liberators hit four Sicilian airfields despite “terrific flak”. USAAF B-24s attack airfields at Foggia while RAF Wellingtons attack targets in Sardinia. A-20s and Bostons with P-40/Kittyhawk escort attack Pantelleria."

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Although it hasn’t been officially approved, General Eisenhower orders Sir Harold Alexander’s staff to draw up preliminary plans for an invasion of Italy once Sicily is secured.

 

• While RAF Wellingtons hit the docks and town area of Pantelleria Island, USAAF B-17s attack the harbor and shipping at La Spezia, Italy.

 

- No hits are made on the ships, but the facilities are damaged.

 

Battleships Littorio and Roma under attack by American bombers at La Spezia 05 June 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• With defenses and storage facilities wrecked by unprecedentedly heavy aerial bombing, Ammiraglio di squadra Gino Pavesi surrenders the unsupplied Italian garrison on Pantellaria. Pantelleria is arguably is the first ground captured by air power alone. Destroyer HMS Nubian will land troops to take possession tomorrow.

 

- The aircraft and crews of the 49th Troop Carrier Squadron had been selected for the airborne landing on Pantelleria July 12th and are standing by at Kairouan. The 313th Group had been picked as the most experienced at night-time over water navigation of the several groups newly arrived in-theater.

 

Glider Training 11 June 1943

 

49th TCS aircraft over North Africa"

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today]

"Operation Husky

 

• The Allies invade Sicily. Paratroopers US 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and glidermen from the British 1st Airlanding Brigade land in pre-dawn darkness to hinder counterattacks on the beach-heads. High winds, poor maps, and dead-reckoning navigation errors scatter the airborne forces. In spite of these mishaps, the widespread landing of airborne troops has a positive effect as small isolated units, acting on their own initiative, attack vital points and create widespread confusion in the Axis command.

 

- Seaborne troops land under cover of naval gunfire and aircraft. P-40s fly cover while A-36 Apaches dive bomb railroads, road junctions, trains, and vehicles. Carefully hoarded reserves of German and mostly Italian aircraft attack the invasion forces. USS LST-313, which has already unloaded her M3 Lee tanks, is bombed by an Italian Ju-87 Picchiatello and set on fire. She is a total loss.

 

LST-313 burning

 

- Destroyer USS Maddox is attacked by one or more Picchiatelli. One bomb detonates the ship’s aft magazine and she sinks within two minutes with the loss of 210 crew. Minesweeper USS Sentinel is sunk by several aircraft reported as Me-210s. RFA Ennerdale, outfitted as a Landing Ship Gantry, is damaged by an unknown aircraft.

 

- Generale d’Armata Alfredo Guzzoni, commanding 6ª Armata, has a total of four combat infantry divisions and six coastal divisions. The Divisiones Costiera are second line formations with obsolete equipment covering large stretches of coastline. With the Germans having fallen for Operation Mincemeat, German units in Sicily are limited to the rebuilding Panzer Division Hermann Göring and newly forming 15. Panzergrenadier Division. The German units do not accept orders from Generale Guzzoni unless approved by the German liaison officer to 6ª Armata.

 

- While at Sea, US I Armored Corps, which has been reduced to headquarters cadre and independent units including Free French, is designated Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George Patton. The Army consists of II Corps with two infantry divisions (1st and 45th) under Lt-General Omar Bradley though a Provisional Corps will be activated within the week for the 82nd Airborne, 3rd Infantry, and 2nd Armored Divisions. The Americans land on the southern shore from the Gulf of Gela. They are opposed by the 4ª Divisione di fanteria «Livorno» and coastal units. Collisions in the crowded waters off the beaches account for damage to American destroyers Roe and Swanson, LST-345 and submarine chaser PC-621.

 

- American Rangers fail to capture the docks in the small port of Gela and middle aged defenders of the 429º Battaglione Costiero hold them off, taking 45% casualties while engineers blow the masonry piers with demolition charges. The Rangers capture the Italians’ three 80mm former Austro-Hungarian guns and use them over the next day or two.

 

- The designated quick reaction battalion of the «Livorno» Division assaults the American beach-head with armor support from 38 elderly Fiat 3000 tanks and artillery fire from coastal formations.

 

Fiat 3000s. Italian tanks are routinely reported as “Tigers” in these battles, sometimes from the engine/track sounds alone. Axis and Allied aircraft are over the battle with several Allied fighters downed by friendly fire.

 

- British monitor Abercrombie and destroyers target the tank-infantry assault while American light cruisers Boise and Savannah target Italian artillery. The attack is broken.

 

- Elements of British XIII and XXX Corps (British 1st, 50th, 51st, and Canadian 1st Divisions) of Eighth Army under Lt-General Bernard Montgomery land on the southeastern shore from the Gulf of Noto south of Syracuse. They are opposed by the 54ª Divisione di fanteria «Napoli» and assorted coast defense units.

 

 

- By evening Montgomery has captured Syracuse, though the facilities are badly damaged.

 

- In the evening, British hospital ship Talamba, properly marked but blacked out, is attacked by Reggiane Re-2002 fighter-bombers. She takes at least one bomb in the engine room, killing five crew. All 400 wounded and the rest of the crew are evacuated before she sinks."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• British battleships King George V and Howe bombard Favignana Island, west of Sicily.

 

• American LST-158, loaded with halftracks, is bombed by a German or Italian aircraft and set on fire.

 

LST-158 burning. She later sinks.

 

- Dutch cargo vessel Baarn is bombed and sunk off the British landing zones.

 

• Patton orders his reserve paratroopers from the 504th PIR of the 82nd Airborne to drop and reinforce the centre. Warning orders are issued to the fleet so that the aircraft will not be fired on by friendly forces. They are intended to drop east of Ponte Olivo to block routes to US 1st Infantry Division's bridgehead at Gela.

 

- While approaching the drop zones, the airborne formation passes over the US Navy ships at 700 feet. A single nervous AA gunner opens fire, followed by a roar as nearly every gun in the fleet and many guns ashore also open up. The aircraft are showing the agreed recognition signal (amber belly lights) but this seems to simply provide better targeting. One witness states later, “The slow-flying, majestic columns of aircraft were like sitting ducks.” 

AA fire from the ships at the troop carriers.

 

- Generals Patton, Bradley, and Ridgeway all observe the “amicide” with helpless fury, bellowing to get the gunners to cease fire but this takes time.

 

- One C-53 ditches near destroyer USS Beatty, which continues firing on it until the pilot turns on all the lights, showing the USAAF roundels. One recovered pilot remarks “Evidently the only safe place for us tonight is over enemy territory.”

 

- Colonel Reuben Tucker of the 504th is one of the few to land safely, jumping from a damaged plane right onto the invasion beaches. He spots five Sherman tanks firing .50 caliber machine guns at other troop carrier aircraft and bangs on them with his helmet to order them to cease fire. He reports seeing paratroopers shot while hanging from their chutes and others fired at after landing.

 

- Twenty-three C-47s and C-53s of the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing are shot down by friendly fire. Another thirty-seven are damaged. There are 83 killed and 235 wounded, mostly from the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. It is unknown how many paratroopers are killed by friendly fire on the ground.

 

- When the gunners are later questioned, most simply explain that they thought the low flying transports were German bombers, and that they had taken so much punishment during the day that they were looking to get some of their own back. Some of the more inexperienced men admit that they could not recognize a C-47 from a German bomber and others claim they thought the planes were dropping German paratroopers onto the beaches.

 

- In response to an investigation ordered by General Eisenhower, Troop Carrier Brigadier General Williams and Lt-Gen Carl Spaatz draft a report that is endorsed by Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, saying that it is simply a mistake to put friendly aircraft over friendly ships at night.

 

“Even if it was physically possible for all the troops and ships to be duly warned, which is doubtful, any fire opened either by mistake or against any enemy aircraft would almost certainly be supported by all troops within range--AA firing at night is infectious and control almost impossible.”

 

- The report determines that the only way to prevent such a disaster is to prohibit AA firing when the troop carriers are scheduled to be overhead. Both British Admiral Cunningham and American Admiral Hewitt refuse to do this.

 

 

• Ashore, the American and British landings expand their bridgeheads.

 

- A coordinated German and Italian counterattack on the American sector is planned but the Germans aren't able to get into position in time so it’s delayed until tomorrow.

 

- American Liberty ship Robert Rowan is attacked by Ju-88s and struck by three 500 kg bombs. As she is carrying troops plus a cargo of munitions she is abandoned immediately. All are safely evacuated before she explodes a few hours later.

 

Liberty ship Robert Rowan explodes"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Allied aircraft drop pamphlets over the Italian mainland with the message, "Die for Mussolini and Hitler, or live for Italy and for civilization".

 

• HMS Tactician fires six torpedoes at the Italian submarine Luigi Settembrini that is about to enter Brindisi harbour. All miss though the Italians report one passes within 15 meters.

 

• An Italian SM.79 aircraft of 204ª Squadriglia torpedoes carrier HMS Indomitable off Sicily. She floods and takes on a 12.5⁰ list, but counterflooding and effective damage control allows her to withdraw under her own power. She will be repaired in the USA, returning to service in April, 1944.

 

HMS INDOMITABLE TORPEDO DAMAGE 16TH JULY 1943

 

 

• In a night engagement, four British motor torpedo boats damage and drive off five German E-boats in the Strait of Messina. Italian light cruiser Scipione Africano, on passage from La Spezia to Taranto, responds and in the first combat use of EC.3 Gufo radar, engages the British, sinking MTB-316 and damaging MTB-313 and MTB-260.

 

RN Scipione Africano with radar visible on masthead

 

• Italian submarine Dandolo torpedoes AA cruiser HMS Cleopatra off Sicily. She will be repaired in the USA, returning to service in November, 1944.

 

• In Sicily, British secure Lentini and descend on to Catanian Plain. Americans begin their assault on Agrigento.

 

• General Sir Harold Alexander issues a directive for the British Eighth Army to drive enemy NE into the Messina peninsula while US Seventh Army protects Montgomery’s flank and rear. Lt-General George Patton will fly to Algiers to protest the order in strong language, threatening to go to Eisenhower. Alexander will relent and grant Seventh Army permission to conduct its own offensive towards Palermo.

 

• Father Marie-Benoit, a French Roman Catholic priest, meets with Pope Pius XII in hopes of getting Vatican support for the transfer of 30,000 French Jews from the Italian occupation zone at Nice to Italy, before the area is turned over to German administration. Benoit is unsuccessful in persuading the Pope to act."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In the first Allied bombing raid on Rome, 158 B-17s and 112 B-24s attack the Lorenzo and Littorio rail marshalling yards outside of the city proper. B-26s, B-25s and P-38s later hit Ciampino Airport. Five aircraft are lost.

 

- Pope Pius XII drives to the bombed area later to comfort victims. He returns, prominently wearing blood streaked vestments for the cameras. He will draft a public letter of protest for President Roosevelt decrying “the harrowing scene of death leaping from the skies and stalking pitilessly through unsuspecting homes striking down women and children.”

 

• Mussolini and Hitler meet at Feltre in northern Italy. For five hours Hitler harangues a haggard and listless Mussolini, desperate to rekindle the flame of fanaticism in his partner. The tirade is to no avail. Il Duce says little and picks at his lunch while the Führer storms; his despair not helped by a note telling him that Rome is being bombed.

 

• Polish submarine Dzik fires torpedoes at a submarine off Malta. Fortunately, they miss sistership HMS Unshaken.

 

• Axis opposition is concentrating against the British Eighth Army in Sicily, leaving largely static forces to oppose US Seventh Army. Montgomery is forced to pause his advance on Catania and expand his front to the left, while bringing up his reserve 78th Infantry Division.

 

• A-36 Apaches attack trains and motor transport in western Sicily.

 

• In the Sicilian campaign, friendly fire continues to be one of the biggest reasons for aircraft losses. Both of the below aircraft were downed by Allied anti-aircraft fire in daylight. Note the Spitfire still has the yellow ringed “Torch” roundel."

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Benito Mussolini is summoned by King Vittorio Emanuele III and dismissed from office. Mussolini collapses and mutters, “Then my ruin is complete.”

 

- On leaving the palace, Mussolini is arrested by Carabinieri. He will be moved regularly to prevent the Germans from rescuing him. Afterwards, the King walks for a long time in the gardens with his Ordnance Officer, telling him "Today I had my 18 Brumaire". Having already contacted Generale Pietro Badoglio the day before, he summons and tells him that he must form a new government.

 

The King and new prime minister. One of the first acts will be to integrate the fascist blackshirt militia into the Royal Army.

 

- The Germans get the news of the arrest of Mussolini in the evening causing Hitler to go on a lengthy rant, screaming “Treason!” aloud several times. Kesselring contacts the head of the blackshirt armored division “M”, urging him to drive on Rome and free Il Duce, but the newly formed unit is scarcely more than cadre.

 

• The US 9th Infantry and British 78th Infantry Divisions are landed to reinforce Sicily.

 

• Patton’s Seventh Army makes limited progress along the north coastal road, repelling an Italian spoiling attack east of Gangi. Montgomery’s Eighth Army is making slower progress in the Agira sector against tougher opposition, but is being welcomed by civilians in conquered areas.

 

Sicilian children welcome tankers of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago yesterday] "• American poet Ezra Pound, who has described Hitler as "a Jeanne d'Arc, a saint" is indicted for treason for making radio broadcasts from Rome for the Axis powers.

 

• In Sicily, German troops complete the abandonment of the west and central part of the island, leaving Italian forces to hinder the progress of Patton’s Seventh Army. With Mussolini gone, there is high expectation among the Italians of an armistice, and little desire to be one of the last casualties from fighting the Allies.

 

• With Seventh Army still making limited progress, Lt-General Bradley puts Free French troops of the 4e Tabor Marocains at the head of the column. They are adept at scouting then bypassing roadblocks and strongpoints to hit them from behind, allowing the Americans to advance more quickly.

 

Goumiers of the 4e Tabor north of Coastal Highway 120

 

• Général Henri Giraud’s reorganization of the Armée d’Afrique and consolidation with Free French units is proceeding rapidly. 19e Corps is largely filled with replacement troops and will remain as garrison in North Africa. Louis Koeltz, who led the corps capably in the campaign, will be sidelined for his longstanding support of Vichy before switching sides. The ad hoc divisions de marche are reorganized as the colonial divisions below, composed of one third French and French settlers, and two thirds North Africans.

 

- The new frontline unit is designated Corps Expéditionnaire Français and placed under Alphonse Juin. It consists of the 1st Free French Division, which is motorized, 2e Division d'Infanterie Marocaine, 3e Division d'Infanterie Algérienne, 4e Division marocaine de montagne, plus attached armor, artillery, and scouting formations.

 

- The corps will be sent to Italy while Giraud turns to forming 1re Armée which will be established in 1944 for the libération of France.

 

• Destroyer USS Mayrant is attacked off Palermo by Axis aircraft and damaged with her engineering spaces flooded. Five crew are killed with eighteen wounded. Executive officer Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr will be awarded the Silver Star for coordinating damage control. She will be under repair into 1944.

 

• Pietro Badoglio forms his cabinet, which immediately dissolves the Fascist Party, though radio announcements proclaim that the war and alliance with Germany continues. Martial law is in force throughout the country with four divisions detailed to keep public order. The Chamber of Fasci and Corporations is stripped of legislative power.

 

• Hitler's impulse is to strike with lightning speed--seize Rome with the 3. Panzer Grenadier Division (located near Lake Bolsena 35 miles north of the city), and the 2. Fallshirmjäger Division (to be air-transported from France to the Rome); kidnap the King, Crown Prince Umberto, Badoglio, and the cabinet ministers, and liberate Mussolini as the only means of rejuvenating the Fascist party. OKW advocates caution, fearing that a blow against the King will turn the Italian officer corps against Germany. Rommel and Kesselring advocate retiring from Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy, but to hold northern Italy. The only immediate actions taken are for the 44. (Austrian) Infanterie Division and 36. Gebirgsjäger Brigade to occupy the Brenner, Reschen and Toblach passes to prevent Italians from sealing them off. Within two weeks, seven more Wehrmacht Divisions will be moved to northern and central Italy, their trains decorated with murals praising Mussolini. Ironically, these are the same troops Mussolini and Comando Supremo had requested be sent to Sicily in June but been denied.

 

• Over a hundred German aircraft attack an Allied convoy off Cape Bon, Tunisia, but defending British fighters prevent them from inflicting any damage."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• US 1st Division takes Nicosia while British XXX Corps takes Agira. General Sir Harold Alexander moves his 15th Army Group HQ to Sicily. General Montgomery visits Lt-General Patton at Palermo to discuss army cooperation.

 

Montgomery and Patton, 28 Jul 1943

 

• US Naval Operating Base, Palermo, Sicily, is established. The first cargo ships arrive at the port which is still being repaired.

 

• General Eisenhower makes a radio broadcast to Italy, urging the Italian people to follow up the overthrow of Mussolini by withdrawing from the Axis powers.

 

• Allied light and medium bombers hit Regalbuto, Milazzo, and Centuripe; A-36 Apaches and P-40s target vehicular traffic on the Troina-Randazzo road, bridges and roads north and west of Cesaro, the landing ground at Falcone, and buildings near Randazzo. Almost one hundred Kittyhawks hit shipping at Catania and Santa Teresa di Riva, fly patrol over the Straits of Messina, and bomb encampments.

 

• Generaloberst Kurt Student and Otto Skorzeny, having been directed to locate and rescue Mussolini, arrive at Kesselring’s villa outside Rome to begin planning. They are being fed information by fascists in the Royal Army.  Skorzeny is the head of the Oranienburg Special Training Unit, the first attempt by the SS at creating special forces."

Edited July 28, 2023 by cardboard_killer

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Italian submarine Pietro Micca is at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea on a supply mission to island garrisons when HMS Trooper fires six torpedoes and sinks her. Eighteen survivors are picked up by an Italian small craft but fifty-four go down with the boat. A rescue vessel later arrives and lowers a listening device to see if there are survivors, but it has no way of communicating. Several hours later, pistol shots are heard coming from the wreck and it is believed that the survivors took their own lives rather than endure slow asphyxiation.

 

• Off Sicily, three American PT boats detect three Italian MAS boats on radar and fire torpedoes that miss or run under the targets. In a brief gunfight PT-218 is damaged with 20mm fire.

 

• The rail line between Palermo and Cefalu is restored, allowing Seventh Army to move more quickly. Three small islands off Trapani, western Sicily (Favignana, Marettimo, and Levango) surrender. French troops clear a pocket west of Capizzi. The recently arrived British 78th Div, reinforced by the Canadian 3rd Brigade, opens an assault along axis Catenanuova-Adrano.

 

• While Italian media does not, the German press celebrates Mussolini’s 60th birthday, showing Hitler's continued loyalty to Il Duce.

 

• More than two hundred P-40s and Kittyhawks attack Messina Riposto, shipping at Catania, Santa Teresa di Riva, Taormina, Milazzo, and in the Straits of Messina. This is the largest fighter deployment to date of the Sicilian campaign.

 

Curtiss P-40Fs Sicily"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Free French submarine Casabianca is loading French commandoes and supplies into rubber boats off Corsica when spotted by a German patrol ashore and taken under fire. Capitaine de Frégate Jean L’Hermimier orders everyone back on deck and then below, backs her out of the cove towing the rubber boats while the deck and AA guns fire at gunflashes, then brings the boats aboard, deflates them, and submerges. L’Hermimier will successfully land the men and supplies at the alternate site tomorrow.

 

Named for an eighteenth century Corsican naval officer and the subject of intense German and Italian ASW hunts for the French “phantom submarine” in response her support of Corsican partisans, Casabianca’s conning tower is maintained at Bastìa.

 

• Thousands of Italian workers down tools to march through the streets demanding an end to the war. Soldiers charged with enforcing martial law - which prohibits strikes and demonstrations - refuse to open fire. Guards stand back and watch as an angry mob storms the Cellari prison and frees hundreds of Anti-Fascist prisoners. Small knots of fanatical Fascists, one of them Mussolini's nephew, Vito, have barricaded themselves into Fascist headquarters, and there are reports of lynchings from other parts of the country.

 

• The Germans are reinforcing the garrisons on Sardinia and Corsica. Off Corsica, a patrolling RAF Martin Baltimore shoots down an Me-323 transport which is carrying supplies. This aircraft crash-lands on the shore and disintegrates, but the crew survives. Both pilots survive the war and become friends in 1982.

 

• Off Sardinia, American P-38 and P-40 aircraft down twenty-one German transport aircraft and five fighters of the Luftwaffe's III/JG77 group.

 

• More than a hundred P-40s again make sweeps over the Straits of Messina.

 

• General Eisenhower publically offers to free Italian prisoners of war if Italy ceases co-operation with the Germans. New Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio wants to take his country out of the war; but whether he can take the war out of Italy is doubtful."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] " The British 78th Division takes Centuripe, forcing the Germans and Italians back across the Salso River.

 

Knocked out Panzer-III in Centuripe

 

• The US 3rd Infantry Division encounters stiff opposition at San Fratello, the northern end of the Etna Line. Here the 29. Panzer Grenadier Division and 26ª Divisione di fanteria «Assietta» have entrenched on a ridge overlooking the coastal highway. Major General Lucien Truscott makes repeated attempts to crack the San Fratello position over several days but fails. The strength of the Axis positions prompt Lt-General George Patton to try to outflank it by an amphibious end run. The US 1st Division is still making limited progress in Troina area.

 

• Patton visits the 15th Evacuation Hospital in Nicosia, Sicily, where he encounters Private Charles H. Kuhl from Indiana, who is in the hospital for malaria and dysentery with a 102.2º fever as well as shell shock. When the general asks Kuhl what he was in for, Kuhl replies, "I guess I just can't take it." Patton loses his temper and strikes Kuhl with his gloves, then grabs him by the collar and drags him to the tent entrance. He shoves him out of the tent with a kick to his backside. Yelling "Don't admit this son-of-a-bitch!", Patton demands that Kuhl be immediately be sent back to the front, adding, "You hear me, you gutless bastard? You're going back to the front!" Staff officers accompanying Patton later admit that they saw nothing remarkable the incident.

 

• The Italian submarine Argento is forced to the surface by depth charges from destroyer USS Buck off Pantellaria. The Italians scuttle and abandon ship under gunfire. The Americans pick up 45 of her crew of 49.

 

• HMS Unruffled torpedoes and sinks the Italian 3,400 ton Citta di Catania off Bridisi.

 

• Italian motor torpedo boats MAS-573 and MAS-568 attack Soviet flotilla leader Kharkov in the Black Sea. After missing with torpedoes, they drop depth charges ahead of her in rapid passes but inflict no damage. MAS-568 is lightly damaged by gunfire near misses."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• American II Corps advances steadily eastward along the coast highway against dwindling rear-guard opposition.

 

US Army Medic Harvey White administering plasma to wounded Private Roy Humphrey, 9 Aug 1943. Axis troops pull back to the Simeto River line, between Cesaro and Randazzo.

 

• Since the Axis forces are delaying the advance on Messina in XXX Corps sector, General Montgomery decides to make a greater effort along the coast with XIII Corps. He requests more reinforcements but is told by Sir Harold Alexander that he will have to continue with what he has.

 

• In neutral Ankara, Hungary and Britain reach a secret agreement; Hungary will not fire on British or American aircraft flying to Italy, and the Allies will not bomb Hungarian targets.

 

• Submarine HMS Simoom attacks Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi off La Spezia. The torpedoes miss the cruiser but hit destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, detonating her aft magazine and blowing her in two.

 

Vincenzo Gioberti sinking, the forward part continued at high speed but is starting to slow and settle.

 

• Hitler summons Tsar Boris III to a stormy meeting at Rastenburg. Despite being ranted at, Boris once again refuses to get involved in the war against the Soviet Union. After returning to Sofia, the 49 year old Tsar will die of apparent heart failure on 28 August 1943. Two German doctors who attend the Tsar both believe that the king died from the same poison that Dr. Eppinger had allegedly found two years earlier in the postmortem examination of Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas, a slow poison which takes weeks to do its work, and which causes the appearance of blotches on the skin of its victim before death. Whether or not Boris was murdered remains a mystery.

 

• B-17s conduct a heavy raid on Messina while P-40s strafe shipping in the straits. Additional AA guns are being emplaced on both sides making the area more dangerous.

B-17 over Messina."

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• British submarine HMS Parthian is declared overdue at submarine base Beirut. She had failed to respond to signals since August 6th. The reason for her loss is unknown, and assumed to be a mine in her patrol area around Brindisi and the Otranto strait. Laid down in 1928, the submarine has been a constant in the Mediterranean war, sinking numerous small vessels as well as the Italian submarine Diamante and the Vichy French submarine Souffleur.

 

 

• As a result of the successful amphibious operation, The US 3rd Division overruns Naso with little difficulty and enemy retires eastward beyond Patti. A German/Italian counterattack halts American forces at Brolo, during which seven A-36 dive bombers mistakenly attack the American positions, destroying a command post and four artillery pieces.

 

• General Montgomery, anxious to prepare for the imminent invasion of Italy, orders XXX Corps HQ to take over duties of XIII Corps HQ.

 

• The Germans begin a full scale withdrawal from Sicily. Once the Italians realize what they are doing, they initiate their own separate withdrawal. This often results in acrimonious exchanges over shipping, land transport, and air cover.

 

 

 

- Despite these issues, the German and Italian evacuation schemes will prove to be highly successful. The Allies are not able to prevent the orderly withdrawal nor effectively interfere with transports across the Strait of Messina. The narrow straits are protected by 120 heavy and 112 light anti-aircraft guns. The resulting overlapping gunfire from both sides of the strait is described by Allied pilots as worse than over the Ruhr. Naval interdiction is decided against due to mines and coastal artiller. The straits vary from two to six miles wide and are covered by artillery up to 24 centimetres (9.4 in) in calibre. Furthermore, there are fears among senior Allied naval commanders that Italian warships are preparing to intervene and clear the Straits of Messina in a suicide run."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• William MacKenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, hosts the sixth Anglo-American War Conference between US President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Château Frontenac. It is commonly called the First Quebec Conference, codenamed Quadrant.

 

- Key decisions made are to abandon invasion of Greece and the Balkans, to invade Italy and knock her out of the war as rapidly as possible, to invade France under an American theatre-commander, and due to constant feuding and conflicting objectives of British, American, and Chinese commands, to split the CBI command into separate Chinese and Southeast Asia theaters. The conference formally condemns German atrocities in the occupied territories.

 

- Roosevelt and Churchill sign a secret agreement to share nuclear technology and to not use the weapons against any target without the approval of the other government.

 

• Lieutenant E.A. Dubose, USNR, accepts the surrender of the Lipari Islands (Alicudi, Filicudi, Vulcano, Stromboli, Salina and Lipari) off the north coast of Sicily after motoring into the largest settlement with PT-215, PT-216 and PT-217.

 

• The Sicilian campaign ends with the capture of Messina and the successful evacuation of German and Italian forces. The Italians evacuate 62,182 men, 41 guns and 227 vehicles from Sicily with the loss of only 1 motor raft and the train ferry Carridi which had to be scuttled when Allied troops entered Messina. The Germans evacuate some 52,000 of their troops (including 4444 wounded), 14,105 vehicles, 47 tanks, 94 guns, 1,100 tons of ammunition, and about 20,700 tons of supplies.

 

- During the campaign, the various sides lost:

 

Italian: 132,000 men, mostly PoWs and 144 aircraft.

 

German: 32,000 men, mostly PoWs, and 597 aircraft.

 

British and Canadian: 12,843 casualties, mostly wounded.

 

American and French: 9,968 casualties, mostly wounded.

 

Allied aircraft losses total 345.

 

PoWs bound for North Africa

 

Using an abandoned Luftwaffe base in Sicily

 

Wing Commander G H Westlake with liberated Sicilian wine"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In the early evening, General Eisenhower broadcasts news of the Italian armistice, followed by a statement from Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio:

 

“The Italian Government, recognizing the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against the overwhelming power of the enemy, and with the object of avoiding further and more grievous harm to the nation, has requested an armistice from General Eisenhower... This request has been granted. The Italian forces will, therefore, cease all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American forces wherever they may be met....”

 

• While the Regia Aeronautica is caught by surprise, having been left out for security reasons as the most Fascist dominated of the services, the Italian Admiralty is ready, having fueled the long empty bunkers of the battleships. Vittorio Veneto, Italia, Roma, Andrea Doria, Giulio Cesare, and Caio Duilio, eight cruisers, twelve destroyers, and two torpedo boats of the battle fleet leave their bases for Malta. Other forces including convoy escorts and submarines are given directions on Allied ports for which to head.

 

- The captains of several Italian ships, including incomplete light cruisers Vesuvio and Etna, that are unable to get underway scuttle as German troops attempt to seize them. They are later shot for treason.

 

- Approximately 35,000 Allied PoWs in Italy are able to walk out of their camps when Italian guards throw open the gates. The Germans attempt to round them up but many will reach the Allied lines with the help from Italians.

 

• Convoy FSS-1, bound for Salerno, is attacked by German Ju-88s; LCI(L)-87 and LST-375 are damaged by near misses. In the evening, German torpedo planes attack but score no hits with destroyer HMS Inglefield shooting one down.

Amphibious convoy departing for Salerno

 

HMS Warspite firing AA at German torpedo planes off Salerno"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• German troops launch a surprise attack on Italian naval units at Bastia, Corsica. Torpedo boat Ardito is badly damaged by artillery and captured. The Germans will murder 70 members of her crew. Torpedo boat Aliseo, under Capitano di Corvetta Carlo Fecia di Cossato (Italy’s top submarine ace), fights her way clear. The Germans expect di Cossato to flee. Instead, he will join with corvette Cormorano and surprise the Germans by returning early the next morning and attacking, sinking German torpedo boat TA-11, sub chasers UJ-2203 and UJ-2219, five Marinefährprahm landing craft, and three patrol boats before heading for Palermo and ultimately Malta as per the armistice.

 

Torpediniera Aliseo

 

- For his daring, di Cossato will be awarded the Medaglia d'oro al Valore Militare.

 

• German attempts are made against other Italian bases, especially La Spezia. The Regia Marina scuttles two destroyers, seven submarines, six torpedo boats, three corvettes, eleven motor torpedo boats, and numerous smaller ships and auxiliaries to keep them out of German hands.

 

• The main strength of the Italian battle fleet is off the Island of Asinara near Sardinia. It consists of battleships Vittorio Veneto, Roma (flag), and Italia, six light cruisers, and eight destroyers. Destroyer Antonio da Noli is mined and sunk in the Strait of Bonifacio. Destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi attempts to leave La Maddalena and join the fleet but is damaged by German shore batteries and sunk by aircraft.

 

- A Luftwaffe flight of Do-217s catches up with the fleet. Unable to identify them due to their altitude, Ammiraglio Carlo Bergamimi orders no fire brought on them as they may be the air cover promised by the Allies. The Dorniers are carrying Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X bombs. Commonly referred to as the Fritz-X, each one is a ten foot long, 3,000 lb armor piercing radio-controlled glider with 705 lbs of amatol explosive.

 

- Once it becomes obvious the aircraft are attacking, all ships begin evasive maneuvers and open fire. Italia (ex-Littorio) is hit on the starboard side underneath her forward main turrets, while Roma is hit amidships by a bomb that penetrates through the bottom of the ship and explodes beneath the ship's keel, flooding the after engine room and two boiler rooms.

 

- Italia is not badly damaged but Roma is losing speed. She begins to fall behind and another Fritz-X hits in the forward engine room, detonating ammunition for a secondary gun turret. Seconds after the initial blast, the number two triple 15” turret is blown over the side by a massive explosion.

 

- This causes additional catastrophic flooding in the bow, and the battleship begins to go down by the head while capsizing to starboard and breaking in two. Roma had a crew of 1,849 when she sailed; 596 survive while 2 Admirals, 86 Officers and 1,264 sailors go down with her.

Roma explosion

 

 

Roma stricken with No 2 turret gone"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The liberation of Corsica begins with the landing of Free French commandos from submarine Casabianca. They link up with Coriscan résistants and take Ajaccio from the Germans.

 

- Tomorrow, elements of the newly reconstituted 1er Corps d'Armée under Général Henry Martin will begin landing at Ajaccio, but with most landing craft being used in Italy, build-up is slow with troops and supplies being ferried by contre-torpilleurs Le Fantasque, Le Terrible, L’Alcyon, and Tempête in a series of high speed runs, and submarines Aréthuse, Perle, and Casabianca. Once an aerodrome is taken French aircraft will begin bringing in troops and supplies as well.

 

- The Italian garrison on Corsica, VII Corpo d'Armata, will join with the French in the coming days with its two infantry divisions, leaving the coastal divisions in place until the Corps is relocated to Sardinia next month.

 

- The German forces (SS Sturmbrigade “Reichsführer” and the 90. Panzergrenadier Division) retreat rather than oppose the liberation. The French will pursue them northwards as they evacuate, with the Germans suffering about 700 dead plus several hundred more taken prisoner.

 

German PoWs on Corsica

 

• Nearly complete Italian light cruiser Giulio Germanico has most of her crew aboard and has repelled German attempts to seize her for two days. Bottled up in harbor at Castellammare di Stabia, the crew wrecks her machinery before surrendering. Italy will complete her after the war as destroyer leader San Marco and she will serve until 1971.

 

• British paratroops reach Brindisi, welcomed by Italian troops and the government.

 

• With German reinforcements arriving around Salerno, the US Fifth Army slowly expands the beach-head amid heavy fighting, but the US VI Corps and British X Corps are still separated.

 

• British XIII Corps continues northwards from Calabria in an attempt to pin down the Germans heading for Salerno.

 

• German motor torpedo boats attack a convoy of empty ships returning to Oran from Salerno. Destroyer USS Rowan is hit and her magazines explode, sinking her in less than a minute with 273 killed.

 

• In the morning, German Do-217 bombers attack the naval forces off Salerno, targeting American light cruisers Savannah and Philadelphia with Fritz-X glider bombs. Philadelphia takes a near-miss that kills several crewmen while Savannah is hit on top of the No. 3 gun turret.

 

- The bomb passes through three decks into the lower ammunition-handling room, where it explodes, blowing a gaping hole in her keel and port side. 197 crewmen are killed. For at least 30 minutes, secondary explosions in the turret and its ammunition-supply rooms hamper fire-fighting efforts.

 

- By the evening, the crew has stemmed the flooding and corrected her list, and she gets underway on her own power bound for Malta, and then to the US where repairs will continue into mid-1944.

 

USS Savannah hit by glide bomb off Salerno

 

Hole in No 3 turret after fires put out"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• British forces occupy the islands of Leros and Samos. The Americans have been against these Aegean/Dodecanese operations, considering them “sideshows”.

 

• Germany begins the first deportation of Jews from Italy

 

• German troops attempt to attack positions held by troops of British X Corps near Salerno, but made little progress. Among the British killed is Henry Wellesley, 6th Duke of Wellington who was commanding No.2 Commando under Lieutenant Colonel John “Mad Jack” Churchill. Advance patrols from the US Fifth and British Eighth Armies make contact near Vallo.

 

• British paratroopers capture Gioia, Italy. Canadian patrols from Eighth Army make contact with the paras at Taranto.

 

• Six hundred men of the 50th (Northumbrian) and the 51st (Highland) Divisions mutiny at Salerno, refusing transfers to the 46th (Midlands) Territorial Division. Veterans of North Africa, they had been promised that they would be returned to their parent units but once aboard ship, new orders came for their transfers. After confinement for several days, all but 192 decide to follow orders. All 192 are courts-martialed and found guilty with three sergeants being sentenced to death. The death sentences will be commuted to 12 years at hard labour.

 

• The British battleship Warspite is badly damaged by two hits and two near misses by Fritz-X glide bombs off Salerno. Although the damage is considerable, Warspite’s casualties amount to nine killed and fourteen wounded. She is towed to Malta by USN fleet tugs. At one stage she breaks all tow lines and drifts sideways through the Straits of Messina. After emergency repairs she is towed to Gibraltar, having final repairs at Rosyth. Her X turret will never be operable again.

 

Low in the water HMS Warspite returns to Malta"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years and a day ago] "• Allied codebreaking warns General Eisenhower and top Allied commanders that the Germans have decided to defend Rome and the southern two-thirds of the Italian peninsula. Radio decryption has discovered that three veteran German divisions have reinforced Generalobest Heinrich Gottfried Otto Richard von Vietinghoff's 10. Armee along the Volturno River, twenty miles north of Naples.

 

• General Eisenhower angers Prime Minister Churchill by informing him that he doesn’t have enough men and equipment for Italy and to continue supporting the faltering Dodecanese campaign. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder supports Eisenhower’s decision.

 

• A task force consisting of British light cruiser Carlisle with destroyers Panther and Petard and two escort destroyers (British Rockwood and Greek Miaoulis) is returning from another anti-shipping sweep between Rhodes and Karpathos. Long range fighter support is provided by P-38s flying out of Gambut, Libya, more than a thousand miles away. The current CAP is forced to head back due to fuel constraints before the next flight arrives.

 

- During this gap, twenty-six Ju-87s of I Gruppe Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 arrive and begin attacking. HMS Carlisle takes four direct hits and several near-misses that kill twenty crewmen but miraculously do not sink the ship. Destroyer HMS Panther takes two direct hits and four near misses that blow her in half with the loss of thirty-three crewmen. RHS Miaoulis rescues the survivors. One Stuka is shot down by AA fire.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Ju-87Rs of II.StG3 over Crete in 1941

 

- The Germans had intended for II Gruppe to make a coordinated attack with the I Gruppe, but it arrives fifteen minutes later and prepares to attack, climbing to a position directly above the now stopped Allied force.

 

- Arriving at the same time and able to see the burning HMS Carlisle are seven P-38s of the US 1st Fighter Group. The Germans see the fighters and jettison their bombs, firewalling the engines while diving towards Rhodes which is less than ten miles away.

 

 

1st Fighter Group P-38s over Tunisia in March, 1943

 

- The P-38s attack and are credited with downing seventeen Ju-87s and one Ju-88. Two of the Americans achieve “instant ace” status. Actual losses are six Ju-87s and one Ju-88.

 

- HMS Rockwood takes Carlisle in tow and she reaches Alexandria, but the 25 year old cruiser is declared a total loss.

 

• B-17s bomb airfields at Larissa, Athens, Argos, and Salonika, Greece. B-24s hit Kastelli/Pediada Airfield on Crete. American and Commonwealth fighters begin operating from the massive airfield complex at Foggia, Italy."

Edited October 10, 2023 by LukeFF
swastikas

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Personnel of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division are en route Italy from the UK without their vehicles in convoy KMF-25A. On arrival, they will receive the worn out vehicles of the British 7th Armoured Division which is receiving new ones. The convoy is escorted by AA cruiser HMS Colombo, eight American destroyers, three British, and two Greek escort destroyers.

 

- As the convoy is north of Algeria around sunset, its land based fighter cover returns to base and it is attacked by German He-111s with torpedoes and a mixture of Ju-88 and Do-217 aircraft with Fritz-X glider bombs. Several aircraft target American destroyers Tillman and Beatty. The former takes concussion damage from several near misses and USS Beatty has her back broken and eleven men killed by a torpedo.

 

- Glider bombs hit the Dutch 19,400 ton Marnix van St Aldegonde and the 9,100 ton US Army Transport Santa Elena. Both are set on fire and evacuated. Through good training and discipline the crews and Canadian personnel (some 6,000 people in all) are evacuated from both troopships without loss, though the division loses all of its hospital equipment. Both troopships will founder under tow to Philippeville.

 

• HMS Seraph sinks the Greek sailing vessel Narkyssos with gunfire off Karpathos, Greece.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Convoy AH-9 is inport Bari and has been there for a week as unloading is slow. After an Me-210 reconnaissance aircraft reports the crowded harbor, 105 Ju-88 bombers attack in the evening. There are no fighters aloft, the anti-aircraft defenses are surprised, and the Germans are surprised to find the harbor illuminated. Sixteen ships are hit, but two of them are loaded ammunition ships that explode, wrecking other ships and throwing flaming debris across the harbor. A fuel pipeline is broken and catches fire, spreading burning fuel.

 

- All total 3 British, 2 Canadian, 5 American, 1 French, 11 Italian, 2 Norwegian, and 2 Polish ships are sunk with 11 more merchant ships and escort destroyer HMS Zetland damaged. 38,000 tons of cargo is lost. The port itself will be closed for three weeks, hampering Eighth Army operations. Nearly 900 military personnel are killed in the raid which has been described as a “little Pearl Harbor”.

 

- One of the vessels lost is the American Liberty ship John Harvey which is carrying a classified cargo of 2,000 mustard gas bombs designed to be delivered by aircraft. They were being stockpiled for retaliation in case Germany begins using her own chemical weapons. Liquid sulfur mustard spills into the water, mixing with burning fuel, and a cloud of mustard vapor to blows over the city, home to a quarter million civilians.

 

- The military clamps tight security on the incident, which complicates treatment since medical personnel don’t know what is causing the chemical burns they are seeing. Firefighters and rescue personnel are unaware of the risk as well. 628 military victims will be hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and by the end of the month, 83 of them will die. The number of civilian casualties has been roughly estimated at a thousand but it cannot be gauged since many leave the city to seek shelter with relatives.

 

- The US will declassify the information in 1959, and the British in 1986.

 

Bari the morning after

 

Bari burning 03 December 1943

 

Bari burning 03 Dec 43

 

Bari waterfront."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force begins flying regular missions in support of the Allies in December. The Italians are transitioning to P-39 and Spitfire fighters and Martin Baltimore bombers, though they will retain the more modern Italian fighters as well as air-sea rescue planes, transports, and the SM-79 Sparviero which is very useful for long range maritime patrol over the Adriatic and Aegean.

 

- The Italians are not permitted to fly missions over Italy, partly to avoid confusion with aircraft of the Fascist Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana and to avoid the possibility of downed pilots being murdered for "treason" against Mussolini. They will fly over 11,000 missions by 1945, mostly over the Balkans.

 

Macchi MC-205 Veltro in colours of Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana

 

A Spitfire Mk IX of 5° Stormo

 

Savoia-Marchetti SM-79

 

Italian Martin Baltimore

 

P-39s of 10°Gruppo - 4°Stormo"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• German and Italian aircraft attack invasion shipping off the Anzio/Nettuno beachhead again: Properly marked British hospital ship St David is sunk with the loss of 96 crew and patients. Bombs damage American destroyer Plunkett and minesweeper Prevail while destroyer USS Mayo is torpedoed. Despite being nearly broken in half, Mayo will reach Naples for emergency repairs.

 

Shipping under attack off Anzio

 

• French forces attack the 5. Gebirgs Division north of Monte Cassino and the US 34th Infantry Division replaces the battered 36th in attacking across the Rapido River. This attack is more successful with the 34th getting all three regiments across in good order. By the end of the month they will have driven to Monte Castellone while the French have taken the heights at Colle Belvedere.

 

• At the Garigliano bridgehead, Private George Mitchell of the London Scottish Regiment charges alone through intense machine-gun fire, jumps into a weapon pit that had pinned down his unit, and shoots or bayonets the crew. Shortly afterwards, he similarly assaults a second position, killing six of the enemy and taking twelve prisoners. He is killed when one of the Germans who had surrendered snatches up a discarded rifle and shoots him in the head. Mitchell will be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross."

Edited January 24, 2024 by cardboard_killer

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Off Anzio, destroyer escort USS Herbert C. Jones is damaged by radio-controlled bomb, and large infantry landing craft LCI(L)-2 is damaged by mine. Another bomb holes freighter Elihu Yale; the explosion starts fires that spread to tank landing craft LCT-35 alongside, destroying that vessel. Firefighting efforts by fleet tug Hopi ultimately prove successful but Elihu Yale is written off as a total loss.

 

• The rocky height known as Monte Cassino houses a Benedictine Abbey founded by Saint Benedict in 529 CE after he seized and destroyed the (still in use at the time) Roman Temple of Apollo and cut down the grove of trees on the site.

 

- The controversial bombing of the Abbey of Monte Cassino occurs today when one hundred forty-two B-17s, forty-seven B-25s, and forty B-26s drop 493 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on the site.

 

- There is strong political and media pressure to reduce casualties by destroying the abbey. The British press and C. L. Sulzberger of The New York Times had frequently and convincingly in (often manufactured) detail written of German observation posts and artillery positions inside the abbey. The commander in chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces Lieutenant General Ira Eaker accompanied by Lieutenant General Jacob Devers (deputy to General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean Theater) personally observed during a fly-over “a radio mast [...] German uniforms hanging on a clothesline in the abbey courtyard; [and] machine gun emplacements 50 yards from the abbey walls.”

 

 

- Major General Geoffrey Keyes of US II Corps also flew over the monastery several times; he then reported to Fifth Army G-2 that he had seen no evidence the Germans were in the abbey. When informed of others who had claimed to have seen Germans in the abbey, he stated: “They’ve been looking so long they’re seeing things."

 

- Major General Francis Tuker, whose 4th Indian Division would have the task of attacking Monastery Hill, had made his own appreciation of the situation. He stated to NZ Corps Commander Sir Bernard Freyberg that regardless of whether the monastery was currently occupied by the Germans, it should be demolished to prevent its effective occupation. He also pointed out that with 150 foot high walls made of masonry at least 10 feet thick, there was no practical means for field engineers to deal with the place, and that bombing with "blockbuster" bombs would be the only solution since 1,000 pound bombs would be "next to useless". Tuker said he could not be induced to attack unless "the garrison was reduced to helpless lunacy by sheer unending pounding for days and nights by air and artillery"

 

- American Lieutenant General Mark Clark does not favor bombing the abbey and requires General Sir Harold Alexander to put the order in writing.

 

 

 

- The aerial bombing is augmented by artillery bombardment as well. An estimated 400 Italian civilians who had taken shelter in the abbey are killed. It is now known that the Germans had an agreement with the Church to not use the Abbey for military purposes. After the bombardment, paratroopers move into the ruins.

 

The Abbey in 1945

 

The rebuilt Abbey today."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Fighter-bombers attack the already-destroyed historic Benedictine monastery atop Monte Cassino, Italy.

 

• After visiting Anzio, General Sir Harold Alexander reports to Churchill and Brooke: “I am disappointed with VI Corps Headquarters. They are negative and lacking in the necessary drive and enthusiasm to get things done. They appeared to have become depressed by events.”

 

- At the same time, Major General John Lucas writes in his diary: “I am afraid that the top side is not completely satisfied with my work... They are naturally disappointed that I failed to chase the Hun out of Italy but there was no military reason why I should have been able to do so. In fact there is no military reason for Shingle.”

 

Sir Harold Alexander (right) talks with British and American officers at Anzio, 14 February 1944.

 

- Today, Alexander meets with Generals Mark Clark and Sir Henry Maitland-Wilson. It is decided that in an attempt to stiffen VI Corps, two deputies will be appointed to assist and advise Lucas: American Major General Lucien Truscott and British Major General Vyvyan Evelegh.

 

• The Germans launch Operation Fischfang, throwing seven divisions against the Allied beachhead at Anzio after a thirty minute artillery barrage. The Germans receive the heaviest air support of the Anzio campaign, bombing the Allied front lines, the beaches over which most of the supplies are still being landed, and shipping offshore. Allied aircraft are diverted from Cassino to support of Anzio beachhead forces. The German attack includes Borgward remotely operated demolition tanks and thrusts at various points held by 56th, 45th, and 3rd Divisions, with the main effort being against 45th on left flank. 3rd Division repels all attacks before Cisterna, but the Germans make limited gains in other sectors at great cost in tanks and personnel.

 

 

• Destroyer USS Hilary P. Jones is damaged by near- miss of bomb off Anzio.

 

• U-230 hits British LST-418 with a homing torpedo off Anzio, then finishes her off with a coup de grâce."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 14. Armee commander Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen launches a new attack on the Anzio beachhead with the Hermann Göring and 26. Panzer Divisions, 362. and 716. Infanterie Divisions, and the 16. SS and 29. Panzergrenadier Divisions. Rainy weather restricts both Allied aircraft and Allied naval gunfire support. German artillery opens fire on the US 3rd Infantry Division’s sector. The Allies reply with counter-battery fire as well as artillery fire on the logical avenues of German approach. The initial assault overruns part of a battalion of the US 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment and penetrates the lines of the 504th Parachute Infantry.

 

- Heavy fighting continues throughout the day. Dense clouds and frequent rain squalls ground Allied planes during the morning, but in the afternoon 247 fighter-bombers and 24 light bombers carry out close-support attacks, hitting German tanks and infantry. At the end of the day, despite its heavy losses, the 3rd Infantry Division launches a counterattack and regains the few hundred yards earlier relinquished.

 

M7 Howitzer Motor Carriages at Anzio

 

Spitfires at Anzio"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The third attempt on Monte Cassino begins with the greatest air effort yet made in MTO. 800 tons of bombs are dropped from 0830 until noon, with artillery firing between each bombing wave to give the defenders no respite. Poorly aimed bombs kill 45 Allied soldiers and 40 civilians, wounding 179 soldiers and about a hundred civilians.

 

- General Clark is watching from three miles away along with Devers, Alexander, Eaker, and Freyberg. The ground is shaking at their vantage point. When the planes are finished, a forty minute cannonade begins, followed by the assault by the 2nd New Zealand and 4th Indian Divisions.

 

- General der Panzertruppe Frido von Senger und Etterlin reports that the air attack is ineffective against the entrenched paratroopers, but that Allied counterbattery fire is devastating, knocking out all but five of the ninety-four artillery pieces the Germans have for defense.

 

- The Commonwealth troops are met by heavy machine gun and mortar fire from the 1. Fallschirmjäger Division. They make some advances, but are largely pinned by the fire from the heights. Allied tanks advancing in support find their paths blocked by rubble, while German snipers pick off engineers trying to clear obstacles. During the attack A-20s, A-36s, and P-40s provide direct support, dropping another 88 tons of bombs in repeated sorties.

 

- In the evening, a massive downpour arrives, bogging up the churned ground. Clark and Freyberg had counted on the three days of clear skies predicted by the meteorologists.

 

Bombardment of Cassino 15 March 44

 

New Zealand troops with a captured 75mm Pak-40 anti-tank gun putting direct fire on Cassino height."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The US 34th Infantry Division arrives at Anzio, having been shifted from Monte Cassino. During March, all of April, and the first part of May, veterans describe the Anzio beachhead as resembling the Western Front during World War I. The vast majority of Allied casualties during this period are from air and artillery attacks.

 

German pilot descends by parachute after being shot down over Anzio 21 March, 1944.

 

• As the Third Monte Cassino offensive enters its seventh day with no advance, Generals Clark and Alexander hold a command conference. French Général de corps d’armée Alphonse Juin states that the attack is proving too costly and should be halted. General Freyberg is unwilling to call it off, saying that if the New Zealand Corps can keep up the pressure for twenty-four or forty-eight hours more, the German defense might collapse. British Eighth Army commander Oliver Leese agrees with Freyberg and Alexander supports them. The attack will continue.

 

- Monte Cassino won't fall for another two months.

 

US Army Private Jonathan Hoag awarded Croix de Guerre by Général Juin for courage shown treating wounded under fire in Italy 21 Mar 44"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• MC-205s from 1ª Squadriglia «Asso di bastoni» of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana intercept an American bombing raid over Comacchio. Two confirmed B-24s and three P-38s are shot down, as are two of the Veltros.

 

 

- Later in the year with replacement aircraft and parts disrupted by divided Italy, most of the fascist Italian fighter squadrons will transition to Bf-109Gs."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Commonwealth Spitfires and fighter-bombers destroy a large number of German aircraft on the ground at Banja Luka, Yugoslavia. One Kittyhawk shoots down a Bf-109 in what will be the last P-40 aerial victory in the Mediterranean theatre.

 

• HMS Ultor torpedoes and sinks the Greek 200 ton sailing vessel Agios Dionyssios off Monemvassia, Greece.

 

• 159 B-17s escorted by P-38s attack the rail marshaling yards at Treviso, Italy. One B-17 is lost. The bombing is inaccurate resulting in 700 buildings destroyed and three thousand damaged. More than a thousand civilians are killed. The propaganda arm of Mussolini’s Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia will release the below poster [made private here due to racist nature], and fascist American poet Ezra Pound will refer to it in his regular pro-Axis radio broadcasts.

 

Spoiler

 

[cardboard_killer]

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today--I know, not Italy, but it is in the Med] "• Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe, commander of the 22. Luftlande Division and military governor of Crete, is being driven home when his car is stopped at a military police checkpoint. As papers are being readied to show, the men open the car doors and point submachineguns at the occupants. An English voice says, “Please consider yourself a prisoner of war.”

 

- The general's captors are Major Patrick Fermor and Captain Stanley Moss of the British Special Operations Executive, assisted by two Cretan agents. They make directly for the beach, abandon the car, and make it look like they have left by submarine, while doubling back and making a slower escape, lying low in several places before reaching another cove from which they will be recovered by motor launch in May.

 

- They originally planned to kidnap the brutal Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller who is guilty of numerous atrocities against the Greeks, but Kreipe relieved Müller shortly before the agents arrived. They decided to go through with the plan anyway.

 

- The agents leave a note in the car telling the Germans that this is an exclusively British operation and that reprisals against the civilian population would be wholly unwarranted. It ends: “We’re sorry to leave this nice car behind.”

 

General Kreipes car at a museum in Archanes Crete"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• American pilots flying four P-47 Thunderbolts mistakenly strafe Australian held Cutella airfield in Italy, thinking it a German base. The pilot of an air-sea rescue Walrus is killed. At the time, engine fitters Corporal Slim Moore and LAC Kev Harris are servicing a Kittyhawk in the dispersal bay next to two other Kittyhawks (all with 500lb bombs loaded). Bullets from the P-47s sets one of the Kittyhawks alight, but before the flames spread, these two men, ignoring the possibility of the bomb exploding, unshackle and drag it clear of the burning aircraft. Then they start-up and taxi the other two Kittyhawks away from the fire. By doing so they help avoid a catastrophic explosion on the Squadron apron area right next to the Operations Tent.

 

The Kittyhawk burning after the attack.

 

- Slim and Kev are Mentioned in Despatches for their bravery. The Commanding Officer of the US 325th Fighter Group later visits to make a formal apology for the incident.

 

• Royal Marines board and take control of Greek submarine Papanikolis in Port Said after the crew refuses orders in response to the government-in-exile arresting officers for presenting petitions."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• US motor torpedo boats PT-202, PT-213 and PT-218, under command of Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Lieutenant Commander Robert A. Allan, sink German corvette UJ-2223 (ex-Italian Navy Maragone) and damage corvette UJ-2222 (ex-Italian Navy Tuffeto) off Tuscany.

 

• At Anzio, the relentless Allied assault begins grinding through the German defensive lines with heavy artillery and airstrikes. The US 3rd Infantry Division reaches the outskirts of Cisterna, which is tenaciously defended by German and fascist Italian units.

 

• Elements of the French Expeditionary Corps are driven from the crest of Monte Pizzuto but recover it by counter-counter-attacking; at the same time a seesaw battle rages for Vallecorsa.

 

• Canadian I Corps takes Pontecorvo early in the day while the Canadian 5th Armoured Division establishes a bridgehead across the Melfa River, holding it overnight in the face of German counterattacks and artillery barrages.

 

• Allied medium and tactical bombers conduct many airstrikes against German defensive positions, logistics, and motor transport in Italy.

 

Martin Baltimores over the Liri Valley

 

Baltimore of RAF No 223 Squadron in Italy 1944"

 

• Ammiraglio Inigo Campioni is executed by firing squad in Parma. He had commanded the Italian battlefleet in 1940 in the battles of Calabria and Spartivento. Captured by the Germans following the Armistice, he refused to renounce his oath to the King and serve Mussolini’s fascist Salò Republic. Three other senior Regia Marina officers are also executed by the Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana.

 

- They will be posthumously awarded the Medaglia d'oro al valor militare."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The last German supply convoy departs for the garrison on Crete: Three heavily escorted cargo ships will be attacked by Commonwealth Beaufighters, Baltimores and Marauders and Italian SM-79 Sparvieros. Freighter Sabine is sunk and another cargo ship badly damaged, returning to Greece. Also sunk are subchasers UJ-2101 and UJ-2105. The third freighter will be sunk during the return voyage by submarine HMS Vivid.

 

Beaufighters attacking German convoy off Crete"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In Italy, the Corps Expéditionnaire Français takes Castellina and Poggibonsi. British XIII Corps opens an attack on Arezzo after a strong artillery preparation. The New Zealand 2nd Division takes Monte Lignano.

 

• Allied medium and light bombers and fighter-bombers continue an intensive campaign against roads, railways, and bridges to interdict the flow of German supplies and reinforcements into Italy. In the past two days, bridges at Taglio di Po, Piacenza, Bozzolo, Desenzano de Garda, Cremona, Borgoforte, Ostiglia, Piteccio, Polesella, Sermide, Ferrara, Aulla, Filattiera, Ficarolo, and Chiavari have been damaged or wrecked.

 

French B-26 bombing Piteccio viaduct"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Italian troops of the fascist Repubblica Sociale Italiana search the home of Ruža Petrović in Istrian Croatia, suspecting that she and her family are assisting the partisans. She is a member of the Women’s Antifascist Front of Croatia. Finding more food in the home than she or her husband should have, they torture her for information. After she tells them nothing, she is released and then accosted again as she makes her way home. One of them digs out both of her eyes with a dagger and they leave her tied to a tree.

 

- Villagers will find and take her to the partisans where she will recover in their hospital and help the movement by knitting socks and other clothing. After the war she will found the Pula Association of the Blind and the Pula Home for Abandoned Children.

 

- The Croatian Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare building will bear her name until a right-wing government removes it in 1996. An anti-fascist government will restore it in 2013.

 

• In Italy, the Indian 10th Infantry Division takes Città di Castello and continues north.

 

Humber armoured cars of 10th Indian Division 22 July 1944

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Lorrainian pilot René Darbois defects with a Bf-109G after faking a mechanical problem and crash (to keep the defection secret and protect his family). He lands at an American airbase in Italy. The Messerschmitt is currently in the Smithsonian. After convincing the Americans and then the French that his defection was long planned, Darbois will join the Armée de l'air, flying Spitfires. After the war he will serve in French IndoChina."

 

In the Smithsonian.

 

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbird-articles/smithsonians-bf-109-unveils-a-hidden-story-of-resistance.html

 

"• King George VI visits Allied troops in Italy, where the New Zealand 2nd Infantry and South African 6th Armoured Divisions are driving on Florence."