Operation HUSKY (1943)

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Allied HQ, North Africa (July 16, 1943)

Communiqué:

Navy.
Catania Airfield has again been heavily bombarded from the sea.

Strong naval forces continued to give support on the right flank of the Army.

One of our destroyers operating north of Augusta has sunk one E-boat and probably damaged or sunk a second.

The work of disembarking troops and their supplies is proceeding smoothly.

Ground forces.
Bitter fighting took place, especially in the eastern sector, where the 8th Army made further progress against German troops, who desperately contested every inch of the ground.

Severe losses were inflicted on the enemy in the western sector. The 7th Army advanced several miles across the difficult hill country and captured further important positions.

The following towns can now be added to the list of towns captured by the Allied forces: Bagni, Vizzini, Vittoria, Niscemi, Campobello, Palma di Montechiaro, Sortino, Modica, Comiso, Biscari, Riesi and Canicattì.

The speed of the advance is very satisfactory, but transport and supporting weapons are of necessity limited during the present stages. Little damage has been done by the enemy to communications.

Air Communiqué:

On the night of July 14-15, our bombers attacked the docks and railway communications at Naples and airdromes in the vicinity of the city. The attacks were continued yesterday on communication points and industrial targets at Naples by forces of heavy bombers. Many bombs burst in the target area and numerous fires were started.

The docks at Palermo were bombed during the night by medium bombers, and fighter-bombers by day and light bombers by night continued the attack on road and rail communications throughout Sicily. Paternò, a point of focal communications, was attacked during the day by medium bombers.

Sweeps and patrols by our fighter aircraft were maintained throughout the day over Allied ships and our land forces. During the night, our intruder aircraft carried out operations over southern Italy and Sicily.

Twelve enemy aircraft were destroyed by our night fighters, one enemy merchant vessel was sunk by our torpedo aircraft, four enemy aircraft were destroyed during the day’s operations.

Seven of our aircraft are missing.

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Message of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to the people of Italy
July 16, 1943, 7:00 a.m. EWT

At this moment the combined armed forces of the United States and Great Britain under the command of Gen. Eisenhower and his Deputy Gen. Alexander are carrying the war deep into the territory of your country. This is the direct consequence of the shameful leadership to which you have been subjected by Mussolini and his Fascist regime.

Mussolini carried you into this war as the satellite of a brutal destroyer of peoples and liberties. Mussolini plunged you into a war which he thought Hitler had already won. In spite of Italy’s great vulnerability to attack by air and sea, your Fascist leaders sent your sons, your ships, your air forces, to distant battlefields to aid Germany in her attempt to conquer England, Russia, and the world. This association with the designs of Nazi-controlled Germany was unworthy of Italy’s ancient traditions of freedom and culture – traditions to which the peoples of America and Great Britain owe so much.

Your soldiers have fought not in the interests of Italy but for Nazi Germany. They have fought courageously, but they have been betrayed and abandoned by the Germans on the Russian front and on every battlefield in Africa from El Alamein to Cape Bon. Today Germany’s hopes for world conquest have been blasted on all fronts. The skies over Italy are dominated by the vast air armadas of the United States and Great Britain. Italy’s seacoasts are threatened by the greatest accumulation of British and Allied sea power ever concentrated in the Mediterranean.

The forces now opposed to you are pledged to destroy the power of Nazi Germany – power which has ruthlessly been used to inflict slavery, destruction, and death on all those who refuse to recognize the Germans as the master race. The sole hope for Italy’s survival lies in honorable capitulation to the overwhelming power of the military forces of the United Nations. If you continue to tolerate the Fascist regime which serves the evil power of the Nazis, you must suffer the consequences of your own choice. We take no satisfaction in invading Italian soil and bringing the tragic devastation of war home to the Italian people. But we are determined to destroy the false leaders and their doctrines which have brought Italy to her present position.

Every moment that you resist the combined forces of the United Nations – every drop of blood that you sacrifice – can serve only one purpose: to give the Fascist and Nazi leaders a little more time to escape from the inevitable consequences of their own crimes. All your interests and all your traditions have been betrayed by Nazi Germany and your own false and corrupt leaders; it is only by disavowing both that a reconstituted Italy can hope to occupy a respected place in the family of European Nations.

The time has now come for you, the Italian people, to consult your own self-respect and your own interests and your own desire for a restoration of national dignity, security, and peace. The time has come for you to decide whether Italians shall die for Mussolini and Hitler – or live for Italy, and for civilization.

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79

The Pittsburgh Press (July 16, 1943)

Surrender of Italy demanded by Allies

Die for Il Duce or live for homeland, people told in message
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer

Washington –
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill today served on the Italian people a life-or-death demand that they overthrow their leaders and made peace or suffer the consequences of invasion and total war at home.

Die for Mussolini and Hitler – or live for Italy, and for civilization.

That was the keynote of the message that was drummed into Italian ears by all available United Nations radio stations and put before Italian eyes on millions of pamphlets dropped by Allied air forces over the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula.

The message clearly threatened invasion of the mainland – presumably as soon as Sicily is in hand – unless Italy surrenders.

Although no time limit was set, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill offered the Italian people but one alternative to capitulation – to suffer “the tragic devastation of war.”

The message emphasized that the air over Italy is dominated by vast numbers of Allied planes. They were dropping pamphlets today, but it could be blockbusters tomorrow.

And the Italian seacoasts are threatened by “the greatest accumulation of British and Allied sea power ever concentrated in the Mediterranean,” the message said.

Again and again, the message emphasized that it was the Fascist leaders of Italy who had “betrayed” the Italian people. Italy’s present plight is:

…the direct consequence of the shameful leadership to which you have been subjected by Mussolini and his Fascist regime.

As a prelude to the “last chance” appeal, swarms of Allied planes last night attacked Naples and northern Italy for the second time in three nights. And, of course, for days, the Axis propagandists have been preparing the Italian people for the loss of Sicily, where Allied armies are striking into that island’s vitals ahead of schedule.

The Roosevelt-Churchill message was made public simultaneously here and in London and Algiers at 7 a.m. EWT. At that moment, the pamphlets were being dropped on Italy and radios were beginning to beam the message to Italy.

Despite the lack of a time limit on the demand for capitulation, the message – with its description of the Allied might poised at Sicily implied that the United Nations would not wait long.

Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill have repeatedly hammered at the theme that they believe the Italian people to be the victims of that “jackal,” that “black-hearted Italian,” as Mr. Churchill has called Mussolini.

During Mr. Churchill’s last visit to Washington in May, he appealed to the Italians to revolt against their leaders. Early in June, on the morning of the fall of the Italian island of Pantelleria, Mr. Roosevelt again urged the Italians to revolt.

The joint message to the Italians today warned that they must disavow both the German Nazi leaders and their own “false and corrupt leaders” as the only way for “a reconstituted Italy can hope to occupy a respected place in the family of European nations.”

No promises were held out for the Italians – such as food. The message was devoid of any commitments concerning the future of Italy – such as the type of leaders and government to follow Mussolini.

Likewise, it avoided any statement that would preclude the use of Italian bases to carry the war to the German homeland.

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John Roosevelt sees action near Sicily

Algiers, Algeria –
Lt. John Roosevelt, son of the President, participated in the Sicilian operations, the U.S. Army field newspaper Stars and Stripes disclosed today.

He was one of the officers aboard a U.S. destroyer protecting the Gela landing, the paper said.

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BIG BATTLE RAGES CLOSE TO CATANIA
British Army 15 miles from Sicilian port

Over 20,000 prisoners, many tanks, guns captured
By Edward Gilling, representing combined Allied press

15th Army Group Command Post, Sicily, Italy (UP) –
The enemy fought fiercely on Thursday to prevent the 8th Army from entering Catania Plain and there was exceptionally heavy fighting on the read north from Augusta before our armored units broke through.

Later motorized infantry followed through after overcoming the stiffest Axis defenses.

This suggested that the 8th Army had broken through to the Catania Plain and was advancing northward after a big battle in the Lentini sector, 15 miles south of Catania.

All day Thursday, the enemy, mostly Germans, put up the stiffest resistance to hold up our advance toward Catania.

By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa –
The fiercest battle of the Sicilian campaign raged only 15 miles south of the east coast port of Catania today after Allied forces had smashed through Vizzini in a see-saw battle on the central front and Americans seized the road junction of Canicattì on the western flank.

Capturing more than 20,000 prisoners and many tanks and guns, the Allied offensive surged forwards against increasingly desperate Axis resistance as Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s 8th Army fought its way into the Lentini area on the edge of the Catania Plain and beat back heavy counterblows in which the Nazi Hermann Göring Division suffered severely.

Delayed dispatches from Sicily said Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was at the front but it was not immediately clear whether these reports referred to his earlier visit.

Gen. Montgomery, who told correspondents that he was “quite satisfied” with progress so far, hurled his veterans northward from Augusta to the mountainous and narrow Lentini front, where the enemy had massed considerable strength for a counterattack. The reformed Nazi 15th Panzer Division as well as the Hermann Göring Division were in action. But the 8th Army smashed back everything they could offer at the edge of the plain.

At last reports, heavy fighting was still in progress near the edge of the plain and only 15 miles from Catania port, which is the key to the Axis lines protecting Messina, 60 miles farther north at the toe of the Italian boot.

Today’s communiqué told of the capture of 13 additional towns (some of which had been reported occupied yesterday) and field dispatches disclosed important gains all along the front, including extension of the western flank in hard fighting by the U.S. 7th Army under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

In the center of the line, which is now between 30 and 40 miles inland at some points, the Allied forces plunged northward from Vizzini, which changed hands five times before the Axis was finally ousted for good.

The Americans, who had taken 15,992 prisoners in all, pushed forward over difficult terrain in the Naro or extreme western sector near Agrigento and captured Canicattì, which is a road junction only 15 miles from the key town of Caltanissetta, in the middle of Sicily.

Smash 10 tanks

The Americans knocked out at least 10 Mark IV tanks, which are equipped with long-barreled 75mm guns, and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. The American gains were more than four miles and at some points, patrols advanced still farther. A large part of the prisoners captured were Germans.

The Allied advance continued with support of powerful aerial bombardment extending to Palermo, Messina, Naples and other bases in southern Italy and with the aid of naval forces which ranged along the east coast and shelled Catania.

Allied air forces operating from Sicilian fields ranged the length and breadth of the island in support of ground troops, laying down a “rolling barrage” of bombs to soften up Axis resistance.

Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa announced that a Canadian air squadron is operating in Sicily under command of Maj. Gen. James A. Doolittle.

Axis planes scarce

Field dispatches said Axis planes were so scarce on some front sectors that ground forces found it unnecessary to use the foxholes which they had dug hurriedly.

A dispatch from United Press correspondent Donald Coe, at an advanced case, said:

Instead of enemy planes, there are now patrols of Allied aircraft sweeping the sky for hours without encountering opposition.

The communiqué indicated that allied aerial domination was continuing to increase as the ground troops plowed ahead.

The communiqué also announced capture of Riesi, 168 miles northeast of Licata, and Niscemi Airdrome, about the same distance northeast of Gela. These advances extended the American front well inland from the south coast.

Seize Vizzini

Vizzini, a road junction 22 miles east of Caltagirone, was also occupied, while U.S. troops took over Palma di Montechiaro, on the south coast west of Licata.

Other towns taken were: Canicattì, Bagni, Vittoria, Campobello, Sortino, Modica, Comiso and Biscari airdrome, some of which had been previously reported seized.

It was believed the enemy might have decided to fight a rearguard action all the way back to the northeastern tip of Sicily, making the best possible use of the mountainous area across the base of the northeastern strip running from Catania through Mt. Etna to the northern coast, probably around Capo d’Orlando.

The key to the whole campaign, however, may depend on what happens in the next few days on the Catania Plain, since the fall of Catania would endanger the whole Axis line and threaten to cut it off from the Italian mainland.

The Allied naval forces supporting the 8th Army ranged all along the coast and a destroyer operating north of Augusta sank one enemy torpedo boat and probably damaged or sank another.

Both sides were using tanks in the east coast, where the Germans have some of their big 60-ton vehicles in action.

The German communiqué today said that the Allies suffered heavy losses in tanks” south of Catania and that Axis planes successfully attacked Allied shipping, sinking or damaging several transports to boost the total of invasion vessels sunk to 52.

The German radio said that two Allied cruisers, five destroyers, one submarine, two other warships and 27 merchantmen were sunk in the first two weeks of June in the Mediterranean. In addition, many other ships, including 18 cruisers, were damaged and 426 planes shot down, the Nazis claimed.

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Allies rain blockbusters on Naples, supply port

By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa –
Allied bombers rocked Naples yesterday with its heaviest raid of the war and made a bold bid to cripple the Axis Sicilian campaign by smashing the enemy’s lines of supply and war production in Italy and Sicily, Allied announcements revealed today.

U.S. Flying Fortresses flew over Naples in waves, dropping hundreds of tons of high explosive and fragmentation bombs, principally on the dock, railroad and arsenal areas in continuation of the raids on the big port begun Wednesday night by British and Canadian Wellingtons. Smoke rose 21,000 feet from the city’s wreckage.

Seventy U.S. Liberator heavy bombers of the Middle East Command joined the assault on Italy by dropping almost 400,000 pounds of bombs on the vital airdrome at Foggia, 80 miles east-northeast of Naples, near the Italian east coast.

At the Sicilian end of the Axis lifeline, the northwestern port of Palermo was subjected to another heavy air assault. Billy Mitchell medium bombers spilled 100 tons of explosives on the city and port areas, starting many fires and causing at least one big explosion in four hours of steady bombardment.

These and other sharp air attacks put the Allied bombing on an around-the-clock basis and synchronized Allied air force operations with the growing fury of the land campaign for Sicily.

A headquarters announcement said the Allies had dropped two million pounds of bombs on the Sicilian eastern ferry terminus of Messina during the last week. Messina, opposite the Italian mainland, was believed to have been rendered useless as a funneling point for Axis reinforcements and supplies. Since the fall of Tunisia two months ago, 2,000 bombers have rained destruction on Messina, making it the most-bombed place in Sicily.

Blockbusters on Naples

The Canadian and British airmen dumped two-ton blockbusters on Naples during the night. Fires were still burning when the Fortresses arrived to wreak new destruction. Industrial areas and the nearby airfields at Pomigliano and Capodichino were among the targets.

Naples is the chief rail and shipping center on the mainland.

The Liberators made “a flaming shambles” of the main and two satellite airfields at Foggia, according to a Middle East communiqué. No Axis fighter opposition was encountered and all planes returned safely.

Observation was difficult during the latter stages of the Palermo raid because the enemy laid a manufactured smokescreen over the harbor to protect ships and port installations.

12 planes bagged

Allied night fighters based on Malta bagged 12 enemy planes during a 24-hour period.

Torpedo-carrying Wellingtons sank a large, heavily laden cargo ship 40 miles east of Olbia, northern Sardinia, and left its escort in flames. Fighter-bombers also attacked and damaged four merchantmen. During the last 12 hours, coastal torpedo planes have sunk or damaged heavily at least 20,000 tons of Axis shipping headed for Sicily.

Reconnaissance photographs of Messina showed a smoldering mass where 150 bombs fell within a few minutes Wednesday. Three large fires were still burning yesterday, including the remains of an ammunition train. Practically every building still standing was smudged with the smoke of countless fires.

An Italian communiqué reported allied raids on the provinces of Alessandria, Savona, Bologna, Parma and Reggio Emilia.

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Völkischer Beobachter (July 17, 1943)

Weiter schwere Schiffsverluste des Gegners –
Fortgang der harten Kämpfe in Sizilien

dnb. Rom, 16. Juli –
Das Hauptquartier der italienischen Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Vom Gebiet von Agrigent bis zur Ebene von Catania boten italienische und deutsche Einheiten, zäh und tapfer kämpfend, dem beständigen An sturm starker feindlicher Einheiten Front. Dem Feinde wurden erhebliche Verluste an Panzern beigebracht.

Unsere Torpedoflugzeuge erneuerten ihre Angriffe auf Schiffe und Landungsfahrzeuge. Sie versenkten einen Handelsdampfer von 10.000 BRT. und beschädigten drei weitere Einheiten von insgesamt 29.000 BRT.

Italienische und deutsche Kampf- und Sturzkampfflugzeuge griffen mit gutem Erfolg englischen und amerikanischen Schiffsraum längs der sizilianischen Ostküste an.

Bei den Kampfhandlungen der Luftwaffe zeichneten sich in diesen Tagen folgende Einheiten besonders aus: der 43. Kampffliegersturm, die 113. Torpedofliegergruppe, die 121. Sturzkampffliegergruppe.

Neapel, Foggia und Genua waren das Ziel feindlicher Luftangriffe. In Neapel sind Schäden und Opfer zu beklagen. Vier viermotorige Flugzeuge wurden von unseren Jägern über Neapel vernichtet.

Auch auf Ortschaften der Provinzen Alessandria, Savonna, Bologna, Parma und Reggio Emilia wurden Spreng- und Brandbomben abgeworfen, die der Bevölkerung leichte Verluste zufügten. Zwei viermotorige Flugzeuge wurden von der Bodenabwehr getroffen und stürzten ab. Das eine Flugzeug stürzte bei Traversetolo (Parma), das andere bei Mirandola (Modena) ab. Einige Besatzungsangehörige wurden gefangengenommen.

Elf feindliche Torpedoflugzeuge wurden von Schiffseinheiten sowie von Flugzeugen abgeschossen, die als Bedeckung für unsere Geleitzüge eingesetzt waren.

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Höchste Abschußziffer der Materialschlacht –
An einem Tag 530 Sowjetpanzer vernichtet

Die feindliche Landungsflotte verlor vor Sizilien 52 Schiffe mit 300.000 BRT.

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 16. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die schweren Kämpfe in der Mitte der Ostfront hielten auch gestern bei schlechtem Wetter an. Der Angriff unserer Truppen nördlich Bjelgorod gewann weiter Raum und führte zur Einkesselung einer starken feindlichen Kräftegruppe. Die Gegenangriffe des Feindes ließen in diesem Frontabschnitt infolge der in den bisherigen Kämpfen erlittenen schweren Verluste an Stärke nach.

Dagegen führten die Sowjets mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkrälten Entlastungsangriffe an der gesamten Front von Kursk bis Ssuchinitschi. Sie wurden überall blutig abgewiesen und dabei allein im Bereich einer Armee über 250 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Insgesamt verloren die Sowjets gestern in der großen Schlacht 530 Panzer.

Die Luftwaffe unterstützte trotz des schlechten Wetters die Kämpfe der Erdtruppen und schoß 49 Flugzeuge ab.

In Südsizilien schlugen deutsche und italienische Truppen auch gestern zahlreiche gegen die Linie Agrigento südlich Catania vorgetragene britisch-nordamerikanische Angriffe ab und fügten dem Feind schwere Panzerverluste zu.

Deutsch-italienische Luftstreitkräfte griffen bei Tage und bei Nacht die Schiffsansammlungen vor der sizilianischen Küste mit gutem Erfolg an. Mehrere feindliche Transportschiffe wurden versenkt oder schwer beschädigt.

In der Zeit vom 10. bis 14. Juli einschließlich verlor die feindliche Landungsflotte mindestens 52 Schiffe mit zusammen rund 300.000 BRT. Zahlreiche weitere Schiffe und Landungsboote erhielten Treffer.

Bei einem Angriff auf ein deutsches Geleit im Mittelmeer schossen Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine und Marinebordflak sieben feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

In der vergangenen Nacht griffen feindliche Fliegerkräfte wie immer unter Verletzung des Schweizer Hoheitsgebietes einige Orte in Ostfrankreich an. Dabei erlitt die Bevölkerung erhebliche Verluste. Einzelne Störflugzeuge überflogen das nördliche und südwestliche Reichsgebiet. Luftverteidigungskräfte brachten am gestrigen Tage und in der vergangenen Nacht 14 britisch-nordamerikanische Flugzeuge zum Absturz.

Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge stießen in der Nacht zum 16. Juli in den Raum von London vor.

Unterseeboote versenkten im Angriff gegen Geleitzüge und Einzelfahrer, die durch Luft- und Seestreitkräfte stark gesichert waren, acht Schiffe mit 51.000 BRT. und einen Transportsegler.

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The Pittsburgh Press (July 17, 1943)

FIFTH OF SICILY OCCUPIED
Axis planes driven from island

Enemy fights fiercely on plain near Catania; British reported six miles from port; Canadian soldiers capture key communications center

Fullscreen capture 7172022 82952 AM.bmp
Four more towns fall to the advancing U.S. and British troops in Sicily as the invasion of the Italian island enters its second week. By capturing Lentini, 15 miles south of Catania, Scordia, Grammichele and Caltagirone, the Allied forces eliminated two Axis salient. The British 8th Army was within 15 miles of Catania. Meanwhile, Allied planes blasted Axis air bases in Italy and the San Giovanni ferry terminal from Sicily (lower left map) while British-based bombers smashed at communications in northern Italy.

Allies capture 4 more towns

By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa –
Allied armies, pushing ahead 10 miles to capture the communications center of Caltagirone, have seized one-fifth of 10,000-square-mile Sicily and smashed northward on the east coast against stiff resistance to the Catania plain sector.

Part of the estimated 60,000 Germans and 264,000 Italians on the island made strong stands on river banks that cross the Catania plain and provide natural defense lines.

The Algiers radio reported the British were less than six miles from Catania, key communications center.

Although the Catania plain, which was opened to the Allies after a hard battle in which Lentini was seized, was generally easier terrain, the Gornalunga, Dittaino and Simeto Rivers cut through the plain to points within 10 miles of Catania port. Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery sent British armor northward from the Augusta sector.

Threaten airfields

The Allied advances, however, cut deeply into the entire network of railroad and highway communications on which the Axis must depend in the eastern part of Sicily, guarding the route to Messina and the toe of the Italian boot.

An Exchange Telegraph report said that the Allies were threatening the Axis network of airfields around Gerbini, 15 miles west of Catania, indicating that the 8th Army and the Canadians in the Militello sector were pressing across the plain at a point deep inland as well as along the coast road.

With the capture of Lentini, which had been the main enemy bottleneck guarding the plain 15 miles from Catania port, and the seizure of Caltagirone, Grammichele and Scordia, the Allies straightened out their entire front from the east coast to the hills around Agrigento on the south-central coast.

London understood that Agrigento had been captured and that heavy fighting was in progress around or on the Catania plain, which is a key to the Axis defenses in East Sicily.

Advance continued

Today’s communiqué from headquarters of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said:

The advance continues.

French Goumiers, native troops from Morocco, are fighting in Sicily as part of the U.S. 7th Army.

The towns of Caltagirone and Grammichele were taken by the Canadians in a 10-mile advance, while Lentini and Scordia were occupied by the British. All are communications centers.

Caltagirone, some 25 miles west of Lentini, controls a network of five roads, one of which winds northwestward to the big enemy concentration point of Caltanissetta, already menaced from the southwest.

Radio Algiers reported that the Allies had cut the railway between Messina and Palermo in northern Sicily and between Messina and Catania in the northeast, presumably by aerial bombardment.

Sees quick cleanup

C. R. Cunningham, United Press correspondent with the U.S. 7th Army, said that the first week’s successes of the Allies had paved the way for a quick cleanup that may see the fall of Sicily within the next three weeks.

The 8th Army was aided by swarms of Allied fighters and bombers and the big guns of the British fleet in his successful advance through the Lentini coastal gap below Catania.

Principal opposition was provided by the new Hermann Göring 15th Panzer Division, but the weight of the Allied assault finally drove the Germans from Lentini, even as it had dislodged them from Augusta after they had reoccupied it only two days earlier.

Yanks capture many

The Americans have already captured more than 16,000 prisoners, 192,000 gallons of gasoline, more than 200,000 aerial bombs ranging from 250- to 1,000-pounders, heavy guns and a number of huge ammunition dumps, one of them at least a mile and a half long.

Ranging ahead of Gen. Montgomery’s thrust up the east coast, a flotilla of British motor gunboats on patrol in the Messina Strait, which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland, sank a Axis mosquito boat and damaged two others, Gen. Eisenhower’s communiqué said.

Adm. Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham sent a message of appreciation to the crews of landing ships and other craft and in shell repair base staff for the great part they played in the success of operations against Sicily.

Patton gives order

A dispatch from Sicily revealed that Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., the American commander, in an order of the day to his troops on the eve of the invasion, said it was to be their “honor and privilege to attack and destroy” the Axis forces.

Gen. Patton said:

Many of you have in your veins German and Italian blood, but remember these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up their home countries to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestor’s people we shall kill lacked courage to make such a sacrifice and continued as slaves.

Italians complain

Captured Italians complained to the Allies that the Axis command had placed them in front of minefields which protected the Germans. Supposed gaps in the minefields were not marked, they said, and it was impossible to fall back due to the danger of their own mines.

Field dispatches reported Fascist civil authorities were fleeing from towns captured or about to be captured with parish priests taking over the administration.

Bombers hit 4 Italian bases

By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa –
Allied Mediterranean air fleets heavily attacked four air bases on the Italian mainland after driving the dwindling Axis air forces from virtually all of their Sicilian airdromes, it was announced today.

The Vibo Valentia and Reggio Calabria Airdromes on the southwest coast of Italy, Crotone on the south coast, and Bari on the southeastern coast were pounded in day-and-night raids by two- and four-engined bombers from both Northwest African and Middle East Commands.

An Italian communiqué broadcast by the Rome radio reported raids on Naples, Italian west coast port, and Messina in northeastern Sicily as well as on Bari and Reggio Calabria, but said damage everywhere was “unimportant” and casualties “limited.”

Hit ferry terminal

Other forces attacked the ferry terminal of San Giovanni, across Messina Strait from Sicily, by day and night, hammered enemy communications throughout Sicily and shot down 13 enemy planes, including six bagged by night fighters. Seven planes were lost in all operations.

The principal attacks were apparently those against Vibo Valentia and Crotone.

The operations were coordinated with blows delivered by the Middle East Command which reported the destruction of 15 more enemy aircraft in a daylight assault by U.S. Liberators on Bari. Four were burned on the ground.

Vibo Valentia was bombed heavily Thursday night and medium bombers with fighter escort followed up with an attack in which many fires were started. Similar day-and-night blows were made against San Giovanni, one of the Axis supply points for Sicily.

Hangars set afire

At Crotone, Liberators and Halifaxes, in a night raid, set fires in the hangars and touched off other blazes that covered the field building area. Planes from both the North African and Middle East forces participated.

Other planes attacked Axis communications throughout Sicily, destroying or damaging a number of vehicles. Medium bombers raided the communications center at Randazzo.

Intruder and fighter aircraft, patrolling without a stop over land and sea, ranged as far as southern Italy to keep down any Axis effort to harass the American invasion.

German Field Marshal Baron Wolfram von Richthofen is directing the German and Italian Air Forces in the defense of Sicily, Allied headquarters announced. Authorities said he was made “Ersatz Führer” of Sicily a month ago. He formerly commanded an air fleet in Russia.

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‘AMGOT’ set up to rule Sicily

British, U.S. administrators govern populace

Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
An Allied military government, known as “AMGOT,” has already been established in occupied sections of Sicily, it was announced today.

AMGOT stands for Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories.

Gen. Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, commander of ground forces, has been appointed military governor of occupied Sicily by Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Will keep order

The immediate heads of “AMGOT” were announced as Maj. Gen. Lord Rennell of the British Army and Brig. Gen. Frank J. McSherry of the U.S. Army.

Officers attached to “AMGOT” will be charged with seeing that the Sicilian population obeys orders and proclamations of Gen. Alexander.

“AMGOT” is strictly a military government with no political implications of any kind. It consists of hundreds of American and British officers who have been training for months to govern enemy territory as they are taken over.

British and American flags will fly side-by-side over every AMGOT headquarters.

Rennell expert on Italy

Gen. Rennell has been named chief Civil Affairs officer, it was stated, and Gen. McSherry is deputy chief.

Gen. Rennell is one of Britain’s leading experts on Italian affairs. He has recently served in military administrations in the Middle East and Madagascar.

Key positions in the government alternate between British and American officers.

AMGOT has announced it will be benevolent in its jurisdiction so far as the Sicilian population is concerned, but that Fascist ringleaders will be removed from office.

Aims of government

Other tenets of the Allied military government are:

  1. The Fascist militia and so-called Fascist youth organizations will be abolished.
  2. There will be no negotiations with exiles or refugees.
  3. No local politicians will be given preferential treatment.
  4. The administration of affairs will be carried out as far as possible through Italian officials in Sicily who have not been active members of the Fascist Party.

Gen. Alexander issued a proclamation assuring the Italian people that so long as they comply with the government’s orders, they may go about their normal business without fear.

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U.S. Ranger officer refuses promotion

By Harold V. Boyle, representing combined U.S. press

With the U.S. 7th Army, southern Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 15, delayed)
Lt. Col. William O. Darby, leader of the U.S. Rangers, accepted a Distinguished Service Cross from Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, but refused a full colonelcy and command of an infantry combat team.

For the third time, Col. Darby, from Fort Smith, Arkansas, turned down such an offer yesterday because it might take him from the Rangers who idolize him.

The DSC was awarded for his work at Gela. His men captured 600 prisoners. Col. Darby and 18 Rangers cornered 52 Italian officers in one hotel and went in after them with hand grenades and automatics. The surviving Italians came out with their hands up.

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88

Allied warning may hit Italian will to resist

Fascists tighten control to prevent popular uprising

Washington (UP) –
The Allied demand that the people of Italy surrender was being counted on in official quarters today to soften resistance to the present invasion even though it falls short of touching off an Italian revolution against Fascism.

Persons in a position to judge the probable reaction in Italy said they believed Fascist control had been tightened drastically in recent weeks to prevent a popular uprising against Mussolini.

They viewed the Roosevelt-Churchill appeal to the Italian people as more likely to undermine Italian will to fight and to encourage an attitude of non-resistance toward the invading Allies.

To spur underground

Also, the Italian underground movement, while not as powerful as that in France, may be expected now to increase its efforts toward sabotage and a general slowing down of the Italian war effort.

Much of the effect of the message calling upon the Italian people to choose their own destiny – “whether Italians shall die for Mussolini and Hitler – or live for Italy and for civilization” – will depend upon how widely the appeal is distributed in Italy.

Mussolini’s underlings have been trained to be alert for Allied messages from the skies and it is to be expected that general orders have been issued for the confiscation of all copies of the message dropped by Allied planes on Italian soil.

It is believed that the Fascists will be less successful, however, in shifting off the radio messages. A radio station in Tripoli, originally set up by the Italians in their empire-building days, can broadcast on the same medium wavelength used in Italy itself.

Officials believe stiff fighting is ahead for Allied troops in Sicily and also after the defenses of Italy itself have been breached. However, once the Italian Army sees that resistance is useless, it is expected to take a realistic viewpoint and surrender.

The message drafted in Washington and Lincoln is regarded as admirably suited to appeal to the Italian mind. References to Italy’s ancient traditions of freedom and culture, and the poor economy Italy is now keeping, are expected to fit in neatly with what the Italian people must now be thinking about the sorry situation into which Mussolini has led them.

Hate Nazi overlords

The offer of an honorable capitulation and restoration of national dignity, all but eclipsed under the arrogant treatment from the Germans in their midst, will undoubtedly drop on fertile soil. There will be considerable support for following the recommended course of surrender if for no other reason than the hatred and contempt Italians feel for their Nazi overlords.

There was considerable interest here in reports that Lt. Col. Charles Poletti, former Governor of New York, was in Sicily and might become Allied administrator of conquered Italy. Col. Poletti’s Italian ancestry, his administrative background and his training in the War Department since he entered the service last winter, would appear to fit him for the job.

Italian rejection reported by Nazis

By the United Press

Italy has flatly rejected the Roosevelt-Churchill ultimatum for surrender, Berlin radio said today, quoting Rome newspapers and the Italian news agency Stefani.

Berlin said:

Stefani emphatically declares that the Italians are not interested on messages coming from the enemy. The suffering which has been inflicted on the Sicilian people has caused the whole Italian nation to rally still more closely around the Duce and stiffen the resolution to defend itself against the invader at any cost.

The newspapers Messaggero and Popolo di Roma were quoted as warning that capitulation would bring no peace but that Italy, id she surrendered, would be used as an operations base for Allied attacks on the rest of Europe.

Berlin said:

At the same time, they point out a perceptible stiffening of material and moral resistance by the Italian people.

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89

Italians strain at Nazi leash

Open castigation of German troops reported

London, England (UP) –
Constant bickering over lack of Nazi and for Sicily has strained relations between Italian and German officers, Madrid dispatches said as the Italians were reported hastily withdrawing troops from France, presumably for home defense.

Madrid said the Roosevelt-Churchill message had made a deep impression in Italy.

Need of arms bemoaned

In the first reaction from Rome, a Stefani News Agency dispatch said the Italians would resist to the end, but then complained of lack of weapons to allow them to fight with “stiff more bitterness.” A Berlin broadcast said the Roosevelt-Churchill message was merely another note in the nerve war.

Madrid said reports from Italy told of Italians in northern cities openly shouting at German soldiers:

What are you doing here?! Why don’t you go to Sicily to fight? You got us into this war!

The Strait of Messina are practically blocked, Madrid said, and three Fascist divisions intended for the island were still at mainland ports.

‘Troops moving home’

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung of Zürich reported that Italian troops in the Haute-Savoy region of France were being pulled out and that all transportation facilities in the area had been requisitioned.

A Radio Rome dispatch recorded by the Daily Mail said six British battleships, four aircraft carriers and two U.S. battleships had entered the Mediterranean for “the attack on Europe.”

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90

With the Allies in Sicily –
Trail of death and ruin left behind by 7th Army

War correspondents tell of fighting in Sicily, give sidelights on invasion
By C. R. Cunningham, representing the combined U.S. press

Reports from war correspondents with U.S. and British forces in Sicily are often delayed for many days before transmission facilities are available, but they give an interesting picture of the invasion and background for today’s news. The following dispatches arrived today.

With U.S. 7th Army, Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 13, delayed)
A trail of death and ruin – wrought in many cases by U.S. soldiers of Italian descent – lay behind the American 7th Army pushing northward through Sicily today.

And the Italo-American in this outfit are as anxious to get the job done, at whatever cost, as any other man.

Pvt. Jim Sangemino of Brooklyn, New York, whose parents came from Sicily, said:

I hope they put up the white flag. But if they’re really going to give us a scrap, we’ll give it right back to them.

Big tanks knocked out

Dead Germans and Italians, burned-out tanks, at least of 20 of which were German Mark VI Tigers smashed around Gela alone, gave testimony to the striking power of the Yankees. I saw the destruction they left behind on an 80-mile jeep ride from a beach command post east of Gela, through Gela, Vittoria and Comiso and on to Ragusa.

As we saw bodies hanging from burned-out armored vehicles, my driver, Pvt. Vincent Sokol, of Chicago, said:

It’s too bad we’ve gotta kill a lot of these palookas. But it was a question of their lives or ours and I’m damned sure it isn’t going to be mine if I can help it.

People nervous

On the road between Gela and Vittoria, there were at least two dozen knocked-out enemy tanks, some of them still smoking. Gela was a dirty-looking spot, not too badly battered by the fight that raged around it. Its inhabitants are mostly old men and women and children, plus a few Sicilians who escaped Mussolini’s conscription.

The people in Gela, underfed and nervous, nearly go crazy when planes approach.

The people in Vittoria were hostile at the start although the town was practically untouched. Now thousands of soldiers are pouring in, handing out cigarettes in exchange for wins.

Through this part of the country our vehicles ramble through at high speed because there are snipers still left in the hills. Our jeep was fired upon numerous times.

Barbers with razors don’t scare Yanks

With U.S. 7th Army, southern Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 14, delayed)
Two U.S. paratroopers – Pvt. Wilfred Thomas of Milton, Oregon, and Pvt. Cecil E. Prine of Bartow, Florida – related how they had killed or helped to kill six enemy troops since landing on Sicily as they waited their turn today in the chair of a Sicilian barbershop.

As Prine told about his foray, the Sicilian barber turned toward the two. The chair was empty. Thomas, who had told of killing three Italians, got into the chair, looked at the little barber waiting with a razor, then leaned back, bared his throat and said calmly, “Shave.”

Yanks take airfield, then raid from it

Advance airdrome, Sicily (UP) – (July 14, delayed)
The first U.S. fighter group landed in Sicily occupied this airdrome today and immediately began making 26 missions a day –virtually a non-stop job of flying – over main beachheads established by U.S. troops.

Veterans of air battles over England, France, Algeria and Tunisia, the men of this outfit were handpicked to lead the air battle over Sicily. This group, which shot down 27 enemy planes when the Allies took Pantelleria, has already shot down 12 enemy planes since beginning operations against Sicily.

Faith in Hitler gone, says Nazi youth

With U.S. 7th Army, Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 15, delayed)
There is evidence the youth of Germany – at least the youth fighting on Sicily – have lost faith in the Hitler regime.

One young German prisoner told American officers:

Life in Germany today is the most modern form of slavery.

Lack of opposition puzzles U.S. pilots

With U.S. forces, Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 15, delayed)
Failure of Axis planes to attack U.S. forces with any semblance of strength constitutes one of the major mysteries of the Sicilian campaign, U.S. officers said today.

The Americans had expected plenty of air battles over Sicily.

Italian prisoners said there were simply no pilots to take up their planes and that at the Comiso Airfield, German air personnel pulled out as the Americans pushed toward the field.

Harold Boyle, representing the combined U.S. press, said in a dispatch datelined July 14 that one reason for the “fading Axis air strength” was the Allied bombing attack that wrecked Comiso. The airfield, Boyle wrote, was strewn with bodies of German soldiers, pockmarked with huge craters and covered with wreckage of 75-100 enemy planes ranging from transports to fighters.

Yanks use pistols, stop Axis tanks

With U.S. troops, Niscemi, Sicily, Italy (UP) – (July 13, delayed)
The men of the 2nd Battalion, who went through the hell of Hill 41, marched into Niscemi today.

With a single anti-tank gun, they refused to yield before a mass attack by 20 German tanks and used pistols on the enemy armor when they had nothing else.

They even staged a counterattack.

Of the 48-hour flight, Capt. Robert Irvine of Framingham, Massachusetts, said:

You’re supposed to have anti-tank guns against tanks, not supposed to fight them with your hands. But that’s almost what we had to do.

I saw tanks knocked out by mortars. I saw men stand up in slit trenches and shoot pistols and grenades at them. One man even threw an anti-tank rifle grenade at a tank from close range and he set it afire.

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91

Völkischer Beobachter (July 18, 1943)

Blutige Feindverluste im Osten und Süden –
Erfolgreiche Abwehr wütender Durchbruchsversuche

Wieder 251 Sowjetpanzer und 80 Flugzeuge vernichtet

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 17. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Während die Kampftätigkeit nördlich von Bjelgorod gestern nachließ, hielten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe im Raum von Orel weiter an. Die Angriffe der Sowjets wurden in harten und wechselvollen Kämpfen abgeschlagen. Im Gesamtabschnitt wurden gestern wieder 251 Panzer abgeschossen.

Von der übrigen Ostfront wird die Abwehr mehrerer von Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützter Angriffe gegen die Ostfront des Kubanbrückenkopfes und mehrerer örtlicher Angriffe an der Mius front gemeldet.

Die Luftwaffe bekämpfte gestern mit besonderem Erfolg Bereitstellungen und Truppenbewegungen des Feindes. 80 Sowjetflugzeuge wurden in Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe abgeschossen.

Auf Sizilien vermochte der Feind gestern trotz mehrfach wiederholter heftiger Angriffe besonders lm Gebiet von Catania keine nennenswerten Erfolge zu erzielen. Deutsche Jagdflugzeuge und Zerstörerverbände fügten dem Feinde durch Tiefangriffe schwere Verluste zu und schossen über Sizilien 16 feindliche Flugzeuge ab. Insgesamt verlor der Feind gestern im Mittelmeerraum 34 Flugzeuge.

In der Messina-Straße kam es zu mehreren Gelechten zwischen deutschen und britischen Schnellbooten, bei denen ein britisches Schnellboot versenkt, ein weiteres wahrscheinlich vernichtet und mehrere andere in Brand geschossen wurden.

Deutsche und italienische Flieger setzten die Angriffe gegen die Landungsflotte vor Sizilien auch gestern erfolgreich fort.

Im Seegebiet von Ymuiden wehrten deutsche Hafenschutzboote den Angriff eines britischen Schnellbootverbandes ab. Ein feindliches Torpedoschnellboot wurde so schwer beschädigt, daß mit seiner Vernichtung gerechnet werden kann.

Wenige feindliche Flugzeuge überflogen in der vergangenen Nacht das nordwestliche und südliche Reichsgebiet. Durch vereinzelte Angriffe entstanden unerhebliche Schäden.

92

Italienischer Wehrmachtbericht –
Hohe Feindverluste an Menschen und Material

dnb. Rom, 17. Juli –
Das Hauptquartier der italienischen Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Auch gestern wurde auf Sizilien und besonders im Gebiet von Agrigent und von Catania erbittert gekämpft. Trotz seiner starken Angriffe gelang es dem Gegner nicht, weitere Vorteile zu erringen. Der Gegner erlitt hohe Verluste.

Kampf- und Schlachtflugzeugverbände brachten den feindlichen Truppen bei wiederholten, Im Tiefflug durchgeführten Angriffen schwere Verluste an Menschen und Material bei.

Torpedoflugzeuge und Kampfflugzeuge der Achsenmächte führten starke Angriffe gegen feindliche Schiffe im Gebiet von Kap Passero und in der Nähe der Häfen Syrakus und Äugusta durch. Ein in Brand gesetzter feindlicher Dampfer von 7000 BRT. ging unter.

Deutsche Jäger schossen über Sizilien 16 Flugzeuge, darunter 12 viermotorige „Llberator“-Maschinen, ab.

Feindliche Luftangriffe auf Neapel, Bari, Reggio Calabria und Messina verursachten keine bedeutenden Schäden. Die Zahl der Opfer ist gering. Mit Spreng- und Brandbomben durchgeführte Luftangriffe von geringer Bedeutung wurden auch gegen La Spezia sowie Ortschaften in der Lombardei und der Landschaft Emilia durchgeführt. Insgesamt wurden von der Abwehrartillerie und von den Jägern 18 Flugzeuge vernichtet. Hievon wurden 5 zwischen Messina und Reggio Calabria, 3 in Bari, 7 in Neapel, 3 zwischen Varese und Pavia abgeschossen.

Rom wurde in der vergangenen Nacht von Flugzeugen überflogen, die Propagandaflugblätter abwarfen.

In den Gewässern Ostsiziliens versenkte einer unserer leichten Kreuzer, der von einigen Schnellbooten angegriffen wurde, zwei Schnellboote und führte sodann seine Aufgabe zu Ende, ohne irgend welchen Schaden davongetragen zu haben. Ein feindlicher Zerstörer wurde von einem unserer U-Boote torpediert.

93

Heldenhafte Bespiele aus der Schlacht um Sizilien –
Zäher Kampf gegen die Übermacht

pk. Catania, 17. Juli –
Die fünfte der flammenden spukhaften Nächte unseres sizilianischen Sommers ist vorüber – die fünfte seit der ersten Landung des Feindes. In täglich gleich starker Helligkeit und Hitze steigt die Sonne heute wieder über das Meer, das genau zu unseren Füßen an den Lavafels brandet. Tausendmal haben wir in diesen Tagen auf das sich gleichbleibende Meer hinausgeschaut, hinter dessen dunstiger Kimm wir den Feind wissen, seine Geschwader an Kriegsschiffen, Transportern und Landungsbooten. Hin und wieder lief er auch am Tage so nahe an die Küste heran, daß die großen Frachter mit bloßem Auge gut zu erkennen waren. Mit dem sinkenden Tag aber näherte er sich mehr und mehr, und seine Absicht für die kommende Nacht wurde deutlicher erkennbar. Einmal schlugen auf der Höhe von Syrakus Funkenbündel und Flammen empor, die selbst im grellen Schein der Tagessonne weithin sichtbar waren: ein Munitionsdampfer der Briten war von einer deutschen Bombe getroffen worden.

Zweitausend Schiffe aller Art sind nach den Angaben der Engländer und Amerikaner an dem Unternehmen gegen Sizilien beteiligt, von Panzerschiffen und Flugzeugträgern, Kreuzern und Transportern bis zu den zahlreichen Panzerlandungsbooten und Sturmbooten. Daraus geht der ungeheure Einsatz des Gegners hervor, der vieles auf diese Karte setzt, um sich eines der Tore nach Europa zu öffnen. Daran mag man aber auch erkennen, wie hart und schwer die Abwehrkämpfe der deutschen und italienischen Einheiten auf Sizilien sind. Spähwagen, Panzer, schwere Waffen warf der Feind an Land, Fallschirmjäger und Luftlandetruppen wurden an verschiedenen Stellen abgesetzt, stärkster Einsatz der gegnerischen Luftwaffe versucht, mit viermotorigen Bombern, mit Zerstörern und Jägern, um den von See kommenden Truppen den Weg zu bereiten und die Nachschub- und Verkehrswege der Verteidiger in den Bergen zu stören – ohne allerdings deren verbissenen Abwehrwillen erschüttern zu können. Unermüdlich greift unsere Luftwaffe mit kleinen und großen Verbänden in blitzschnellem Überfall die Schiffe, die Panzer und Kraftfahrzeuge der Eindringlinge mit guten Erfolgen an.

Frontverkürzung steigert Widerstandskraft

Nach erfolgreichen Vorstößen und einem zeitweiligen Zurückdrängen des Gegners besonders im Raum von Gela mußten die deutsch-italienischen Linien vor der feindlichen Übermacht in erbitterten Kämpfen um ein Stück zurückgenommen werden, um durch Frontverkürzung die Widerstandskraft zu erhöhen. An Stellen neuer Landungen wurden in blitzartig schnellem Entschluß dem Gegner deutsche, schnell herangeführte Reserven als Riegel vorgesetzt. Nach Aufreibung größerer britischer und amerikanischer Fallschirmeinheiten antworteten die Alliierten darauf mit erneutem Absetzen von Truppen aus der Luft.

Nur nach und nach, oft durch Zufall, erfährt man einige der zahlreichen Beispiele von über jedes Lob erhabener Tapferkeit oft kleiner und kleinster Gruppen, wie hier ein Flugplatz schließlich nur noch von 30 Mann Luftnachrichtentruppen gegen Panzer und Infanterie verteidigt wurde, wie eine Flakbatterie mit 20.000 Schuß ihrer leichten Waffen einen Fallschirmverband der Amerikaner vernichtete, wie sich weit an die Küste vorgeschobene Posten, Trupps und Spezialeinheiten durchschlugen und die deutschen Panzer in den knappen Räumen zwischen Bergen und Küstenebene den Gegner ansprangen. Mit dem mächtigen Kegelmassiv des Ätna im Rücken, liegt unsere Front nach Süden und Südosten gerichtet. Aber Front ist im weiteren Sinn längst die ganze Insel. Kämpfe zwischen deutsch-italienischen und feindlichen Jägern fegen dröhnend dicht über die Dächer der Häuser, und hart peitschen die Geschoßgarben aus den feindlichen Bordwaffen gegen die Mauern.

So wird auch der heutige Tag im schnellen Pulsschlag erregender Geschehnisse vergehen, der Tag, dem eine Nacht voranging, pauselos angefüllt mit dem schweren Dröhnen der Schiffsgeschütze und dem Zucken von Einschlägen der Granaten und Bomben, eine Nacht, zu deren Grundton das ständige Summen der Flugmotoren gehörte, in der die Flak mit heller und rauher Stimme über Land und Meer schrie, in der die leichten Waffen mit roter und Weißer Leuchtspur in flachstem Winkel schossen und dadurch schon erkennen ließen, daß Feindflugzeuge in geringer Höhe im Anmarsch waren und Fallschirmjäger absetzen wollten, in der die Stoßtrupps aller Waffengattungen vorgingen und das unübersichtliche Gelände durchkämmten, in der rote Brände von Feindschiffen auf See leuchteten und überall Trauben von Leuchtschirmen über Land und Meer standen. Fenster und Türen der Häuser an der Küste springen auch jetzt wieder auf unter dem Schüttern der Luft von Artillerie und Bomben… Sizilien kämpft seinen harten Kampf für Europa!

Kriegsberichter Markus-Joachim Tiddick

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94

Harte Abwehrkämpfe im Raum von Syrakus

Von Kriegsberichter Lutz Koch

dnb. …, 17. Juli –
pk. Am vierten Tag nach der Landung englisch-amerikanischer Truppen auf Sizilien ist der Oberbefehlshaber der 8. englischen Armee, General Montgomery, bestrebt gewesen, das Tempo seines immer wieder von schwerer Schiffsartillerie unterstützten Angriffes längs der Küstenstraße nach Norden von Syrakus über Augusta nach Catania vorzutragen. Unter dem schweren Druck der an Zahl und Materialfülle weit überlegenen englischen Truppen mußten nach heldenhafter Gegenwehr die vorgeschobenen Teile in neue Bereitstellungen zurückgenommen werden. Meter um Meter mußte sich der Gegner unter harten Kämpfen erzwingen, bis unter dem übermächtigen Druck schwerer Waffen und den Breitseiten der Geschütze sich die Unseren zurückzogen. Immer wieder beobachteten wir in diesen Tagen das schon aus Libyen und Tunesien bekannte Blocken mit einer Überzahl an Material und unter Verzicht auf Übernahme auch des kleinsten militärischen Risikos, wobei den die Transporter begleitenden Kriegsfahrzeugen die Rolle des Niederhaltens des Gegners zugeteilt wird und die Panzer und Infanterie gewissermaßen nur noch in bereits aufgegebene Räume einrücken. Durch die Zähigkeit der deutschen Verteidigung wird aber erreicht, daß dem Gegner dieses Spiel mit seiner Materialfülle immer wieder bitter durchkreuzt wird. Schwelende Panzer und abgeschossene Fahrzeuge zeugen von dieser Härte der Verteidigung. Die Igel unserer Panzer und Sturmgeschütze halten immer so lange, wie die Führung es befiehlt, um das bewegliche Ausweichen in neue Linien sicherzustellen.

Unter dem Schutz seiner Flotteneinheiten ist es den Engländern trotz des sehr starken Einsatzes der Achsenluftstreitkräfte, die den Landungsschiffen schwere Verluste und zeitraubende Beschädigungen zugefügt haben, gelungen, neue Truppen und neue Panzer bei Augusta an Land zu bringen. Mit allen Mitteln versucht Montgomery, eine schnelle Entscheidung gegen die deutsch-italienische Abwehrfront an dieser Stelle zu erzwingen, um im raschesten Tempo seinen geplanten Stoß auf Catania durchführen zu können. Immer wieder schickt er seine, inzwischen an Land gebrachten schweren Panzer vor, um sich den Weg längs der Küstenstraße nach Norden freikämpfen zu können. Diese Absicht, einer schnellen Entscheidung nahe zu kommen, wohl nicht zuletzt verursacht durch die Verluste auf See infolge der ständigen Angriffe durch Bomber und Sturzkampfflieger, führte auch dazu, daß in der Nacht zum 14. Juli über mehrere Stunden hinweg in einigen Wellen englische Fallschirmspringer in der Nähe des großen Flugplatzes von Catania, südlich der Stadt, abgesetzt wurden. Sie kamen bei ständig stärker werdendem Beschuß, der viele Opfer unter ihnen forderte, mitten in deutsche Stellungen hinein, wo kleinere Trupps in sofortiger Gegenwehr, teilweise in wenigen Minuten, aufgerieben wurden. Andere Einheiten kamen weiter nach Südosten zu Boden. Eingeleitet wurde dieses Unternehmen durch eine schwere Beschießung des Flugplatzes Catania durch Schiffsgeschütze, nachdem der Hauptplatz, wie fast jeden Tag, das Ziel pausenloser Angriffe der gegnerischen Bomber gewesen war.

So kam der Sprung aus dem nächtlichen, vom Mond magisch beleuchteten südlichen Himmel nicht allzu überraschend. In einem wahren Feuerzauber der Leuchtspurgeschosse der Abwehrwaffen kamen die einzelnen Wellen aus niedriger Höhe heran. Viele traf noch in der Luft das tödliche Geschoß der hart zupackenden Abwehr. Die ganze Nacht war erfüllt von dem brausenden Lärm der Motoren, dem Prasseln und Scheppern der kleinen Kaliber, dem grellen Aufzucken der gewaltigen Münder der Schiffsgeschütze, dem donnerartigen, vielfaches Echo auslösenden Grollen der allerschwersten Kaliber, überall am Horizont flammten unter dem Beschuß Brände auf, die magisch die Nacht erhellten. Wie Geisterfinger griffen Scheinwerfer nach den Fallschirmen und lenkten das Abwehrfeuer auf sie. Aufflammend und glutrot aufzuckend, schossen die Betroffenen in die Tiefe – eine erregende und blutvolle Szenerie des Krieges.

Zwischen den in Wellen aus der Luft heranbrausenden Angriffen mit dem lauten Aufschrei aller Waffen lag bedrückend und unheimlich eine unsagbare Stille über der Südebene zu Füßen des gewaltigen Ätnamassivs. Diese Stille aber verbarg nicht die etwaigen Bewegungen auf beiden Seiten. Noch im Schutz der Nacht formierten sich unsere Abwehrkräfte in den von den Fallschirmjägern bedrohten Gebieten neu, um im ersten Tagesgrauen gegen die inzwischen versammelten gegnerischen Kräfte antreten zu können.

Die Hoffnung Montgomerys, daß sein Stoß von der Küste bei Augusta nach Catania noch rechtzeitig zum Einsatz seiner Fallschirmjäger zum Tragen kommen werde, hat sich nicht erfüllt, dank der starken und bis zum letzten kämpfenden Abwehr. Nun gehen in dem Vorfeld von Catania die englischen Fallschirmjäger ihrer Vernichtung entgegen.

Im Zuge der Bewegung verdient als hervorragendes Beispiel des Einsatzwillens die Leistung eines 15-Zentimeter-Geschützes besondere Erwähnung, dem es mit wenigen Schüssen gelang, einen sich allzu nahe an die Küste heranpirschenden englischen Zerstörer in Brand zu schießen und schließlich zu versenken.

Jeden Tag mehr muß so der Gegner erkennen, daß trotz der Überfülle an Material und der ihm immer neu bleibenden Wahl des Einsatzortes er nur unter größten Opfern und in Küstennähe Erfolge gegen die Abwehr zu erreichen vermag.

95

The Pittsburgh Press (July 18, 1943)

Americans take key Sicilian city; air and sea attacks fire Catania

Agrigento falls to Patton as 8th Army gains in fierce battle
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

Screenshot 2022-07-18 181601
Capture of Catania near was the report today from Allied North African headquarters as the British drove to within six miles of the key Sicilian port. The Allied forces (British, Americans and Canadians) smashed inland and along the coasts of the Italian island. The Americans captured Agrigento on the southwestern coast.

Shaded portion of the map shows the approximate area occupied in the Allied advance. Broken arrows point to possible directions of the Allied drives, the British along the east coast toward Messina, the Canadians and Americans headed in the direction of Stefano, another column toward Palermo, and one up the coast toward Marsala. Completion of the drives would cut the Axis forces off from the toe of Italy, and would divide the enemy into three pockets.

In support of the invasion of Sicily, Allied bombers based in Africa and in Britain pounded the island and points on the Italian mainland. Places bombed are shown in the lower-left map.

Allied HQ, North Africa – (July 17)
U.S. forces pushing westward along Sicily’s southern coast have captured the transport and communications center of Agrigento, it was announced officially tonight as British troops reportedly smashed within six miles of the east coast base of Catania whose fall appeared imminent.

Catania was ablaze from five days of air and sea bombardment. While the British 8th Army battled for the vital key to eastern Sicily against the most violent Axis resistance of the Sicilian campaign, other Allied forces drove 10 miles deeper into the island’s interior, capturing four more important communications centers.

Agrigento, southwestern anchor of the Axis line whose defenses had been pounded by the Americans for 48 hours, was taken in a 12-mile push by the U.S. 7th Army under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton. The doughboys drove on at the northern end of the American line after taking the Italian base.

The fall of Agrigento was announced in a dispatch by United Press correspondent Richard D. McMillan, who obtained the official report at an Allied force command post.

The capture marked a notable American gain from Palma, on Sicily’s south coast, and the conquest of another important road and rail junction and vital center of communication. The city is the terminus of important roads leading from Palermo on the north and Trapani on the west to join highways to southern and eastern Sicily.

The British forces fanning out across the flat plain of Catania were also battling for the airport facilities at Gerbini, 15 miles west of the coast, and the twin drive along the Allied fright flank threatened to deprive the Axis of its last good sea and air bases in eastern Sicily.

The whole southern end of Catania was ablaze, Allied fliers reported, and cruisers and other naval units sailed up and down the coast at will, pouring shells into the port and points farther north.

NBC correspondent Alfred Wagg reported that the Germans were “attempting to rally their forces at the foot of Mt. Etna after combined warship and artillery bombardments had blasted a path for British armored units into the suburbs of Catania.” Mt. Etna is 28 miles north of Catania, indicating that the main Axis defense forces had probably withdrawn from the port.

In anticipation of occupation of all Sicily in the wake of the fast-moving Allied advances, an Allied military government known as AMGOT was established in occupied Sicilian territory and immediately proclaimed the annulment of the authority of the Italian Crown, the Fascist Party and all discriminatory and racial laws.

One-fifth of Sicily’s 10,000 square miles were now in the hands of hard-fighting Allied forces that had raced 20-40 miles inland since they fought their way onto the beaches a week ago.

London military observers said the situation was “more satisfactory than ever would have been dreamed a week ago” when the problem was whether the Allies could establish beachheads and hold them against Axis counterattacks.

A British military expert said:

Now there is no question of our being driven out. The only question is if the Axis will be able to make any kind of a stand or will himself be swept into the sea.

While the British spearhead on the Allied right flank drove steadily up the coastal road toward the toe of Benito Mussolini’s boot, Americans and Canadians in the center were moving toward the inland supply centers of Enna, 34 miles north of Gela. A third spearhead, led by U.S. forces, took Agrigento on the left flank.

A front dispatch from United Press correspondent C. R. Cunningham said a trail of death and ruin lay behind the advancing U.S. Army. The blackened hulks of Germany’s prize Mark VI Tiger tanks littered the roadsides in testimony to the deadly accuracy of American anti-tank guns and 105mm howitzers.

Italians, surrendering by thousands, complained that the Axis command had placed them in front of minefields that protected the Germans. More than 20,000 had been taken – of these about 16,000 by the Americans.

The U.S. 7th Army, with which French Goums from North Africa were officially reported to be fighting, straightened its lines in the rugged terrain on the Allied left flank where they had penetrated 20 miles in a week and then smashed into Agrigento.

Canadian units, driving inland on the central sector for a gain of 10 miles, captured the communications center of Caltagirone, 18 miles northeast pf Gela, and pushed on another five or six miles to the east, taking the town of Grammichele. Their gains for the week was more than 30 miles.

Capture Lentini

The British, whose 40-mile gain for the week was the greatest, opened the way through the narrow bottleneck into the Catania plain by taking Lentini, 14 miles southwest of the port, and Scordia, seven miles west of Lentini, in a hard-fought action supported by naval bombardments.

As the troops swirled through the Lentini bottleneck onto the Catania plain, Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s battle-wise veterans faced the problem of crossing the Gornalunga, Dittaino and Simeto Rivers which cut across the flatland. On the banks of these streams and along irrigation ditches south of Catania, the Axis forces stiffened in a desperate effort to stave off the capture of the port.

Strengthens position

The capture of Lentini, where British armored units had been engaged in hard fighting for two days strengthened the Allied position in the race up the east coast to the chief Sicilian port of Messina, already blasted into almost complete uselessness by repeated raids by the Northwest African Air Forces and U.S. Liberators from the Middle East.

The Allied advances cut deeply into the network of railroad and highway communications feeding the Axis frontline troops in eastern Sicily, protecting the route to the toe of Italy.

An Exchange Telegraph report said the Allies were threatening the Axis airfield network around Gerbini, 15 miles west of Catania, indicating that the 8th Army and Canadians in the Militello sector, midway between Catania and Gela, were pressing across the flat plain as well as up the coastal road.

Some 60,000 Germans, chiefly the Hermann Göring Division that appeared to have been spread throughout Sicily to stiffen the Italians, were fighting on the island. Italian forces, under Gen. Alfredo Guzzoni, were estimated at 264,000.

The capture of Caltagirone was especially significant in that it left the Axis with only three roads over which reinforcements can be sent to the north and west.

Actually, almost half the network of roads in central and southeastern Sicily have been unavailable to the enemy by the captured of all important communications centers.

Radio Algiers reported that the railways connecting Messina with Palermo and Catania had been cut.

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Italian mainland blasted, 33 Axis planes shot down

By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa – (July 17)
Allied warplanes, strangling Sicily’s supply lines and spearheading their way to ultimate invasion of the mainland, pounded five ports and airdromes in southern Italy nine times Thursday night and Friday and shot 33 planes from the ranks of stiffened Axis air resistance.

The latest blows gave the people of southern Italy new evidence of the Allies’ determination to bomb their way to victory if, as President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill suggested Friday, they do not overthrow the Fascist regime and accept “honorable capitulation.”

Allied losses for all Africa-based operations were seven planes – three Liberators of the U.S. Middle Eastern 9th Air Force and four of the Northwest African Command.

The Italian communiqué said Allied planes flew over Rome Friday night dropping leaflets, presumably the Churchill-Roosevelt message to Italy.

Targets bombed in southern Italy were the airfield at Bari, at the top of the boot on the Adriatic, which was hit Friday by the Liberators; Crotone Airfield, struck Thursday night by Royal Air Force Liberators and Halifaxes of the Middle East and again by RAF Wellingtons of North Africa; Vibo Valentia, on the western side of the “boot,” twice Friday by U.S. medium bombers of North African and Thursday night by Wellingtons; Reggio di Calabria, ferry terminus for lines over to Sicily, Thursday night by Wellingtons, and San Giovanni, another ferry port, Friday by Flying Fortresses and Thursday night by Wellingtons.

Simultaneous with the increase in enemy fighter strength over Italy came the revelation here that Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, one of the Luftwaffe’s top commanders, was in charge of Italian and German fighter planes in the southern Italian front.

The British radio reported the Axis had withdrawn all its bombers from southern Italian airfields and only maintained some fighters in Sicily. It said the Axis was prepared to write off Sicily as far as air protected was concerned. The Algiers radio said the devastating Allied air attacks had knocked out the Sicilian railway running between Messina, Palermo and Catania.

While the bombers worked on southern Italy, fighter-bombers, fighters and attack bombers kept their daily hammering of troops, trucks, supply depots, railroads and other facilities behind the lines in Sicily. They operated almost unmolested. Two of their biggest attacks were on the railyards of the central Sicilian town of Valguarnera and the important communication center of Randazzo, just north of Mt. Etna.

U.S. Mitchell medium bombers struck Valguarnera, hitting buildings near the railyards, one of which went up with a terrific roar.

The Fortresses gave San Giovanni one of its heaviest bombings of the war Friday, scoring at least 50 direct hits on a rail spur near the ferry terminus and laying waste eight acres of the city, including a barracks area. The Fortresses flew unescorted and went through accurate anti-aircraft fire to plant their bombs.

Paid back with interest

Lt. Gordon B. Olson, of Los Angeles, said:

They gave us hell with flak but we paid them back with interest.

Vibo Valentia was hit twice by daylight by Marauder and Mitchell medium bombers escorted by lightning fighters. They spread a destructive pattern of bombs through the center of the city and the airport from which Axis planes have been taking off in attempts to intercept Allied shipping to Sicily.

At Crotone, hangars were set afire and the whole airdrome became a mass of flames.

A dispatch from Malta said that the RAF had announced that in seven days since the Sicilian invasion started. Malta-based Spitfire fighters, Beaufighters and Mosquitoes had destroyed 15 enemy planes for a loss of 35.

The Italian communiqué said German pursuit planes shot down 17 Allied planes on Sicily while Italian fighters bagged 18 for a total of 35. Rome said the enemy raided Naples, Bari, Reggio di Calabria, La Spezia in the north and points in Lombardy and Emilia.

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