Lets start in Sicily!

Sicily stats and learned lessons...

160,000 troops - 4000 aircraft - 7 amphibious divisions (only 5 such divisions at Normandy June 6, 1944)
Adm. Hewitt = 580 ships & 1124 landing craft
Adm. Ramsay = 795 ships & 715 landing craft
LST = Landing Ship Tank (or Large Stationary Target) = held 20 tanks, or 12 deuce trucks or, if hit sand bars, could disgorge DUKWs that would go into water
LCT = Landing Craft Tank = held 3 tanks
LCI = Landing Craft Infantry = entire company of 196 men

Patton got 3rd star March 12 - now a Lt. General able to command an army, not just a corps

July 10 - lucky bomb hit on HQ of Italian Gen Guzzoni - no communication for 24 hrs

7000 U.S. casualties but took 100,000 prisoners - British lost 12,000 casualties

LESSONS LEARNED

lack of any grand strategy - decisions made by Patton and Montgomery
American soldier took the spotlight away from the British
concentrated power of TOT artillery - but shortage of ammo
success of amphibious landings - but lack of landing craft
lack of AAF support - planes strafed own soldiers
WEFT (Wings, Engine, Fuselage, Tail) came to mean "Wrong Every F---ing Time" - like the dillies of Lt. Richard Osborn
Patton careless with logistics - too eager to outrun his supplies - ignored maintenance - but tactical success of his wide flanking movement
Patton slapped soldier in field hospital as a coward - ordered by Ike to apologize to all - but story not made public until November by Drew Pearson
Patton was hero to U.S. public, but not allowed by Ike to command in Italy

WAS PLANNED :

daring parachute drop on Rome planned for Sept 8 by Ridgeway & 82nd
but called off at last minute, stopped by code word "Innocuous" because would have been suicide due to 40,000 Germans near Rome...



http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Europe03.html

 

Hermann Goering Attack
July 11, 1943

At 6:15 AM on July 11, 1943 General Conrath, commander of the German Hermann Goering Panzer Division, started moving his attacking panzer and panzer grenadier columns, toward the port of Gela. The previous day's attacks had been uncoordinated and repulsed by the American troops of the 1stU.S. Infantry Division and the elite 1st and 4th Ranger Battalions. Now, however, after having regrouped Conrath,was ready. He had a powerful panzer force including seventeen of the Tiger I tanks (2/504 Heavy Panzer Battalion). They were almost unbeatable in battle, if they could get to the enemy front lines (they kept on constantly breaking down).
In addition the Italians the day before had severely damaged the Gela pier and do to the poor beaches and wind, no U.S. armor had yet arrived in the Gela beachhead. Patton would need the help from his tanks and naval gunfire support to be able to repel Conrath's counterattack. The German/Italian attack on the 10th was broken up by infantry/anti-tank guns and naval gunfire, which had proved to be invaluable.
On the German right flank the sixty medium tanks of the reinforced IInd Battalion of the HG Panzer Regiment overran the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment/1st Infantry Division. General Conrath himself led the column of the 1st Battalion of the HG Panzer Regiment with twenty-one medium panzers and with heavy artillery support. The U.S. 2nd Battalion, most of which were recent replacements, partly broke and ran when confronted by the panzer force. The remaining 50% of the battalion stayed put and put up a fierce firefight, but to no avail. The 1st Division's center was now caved in and was in serious trouble. The 26th Infantry's anti-tank guns had not arrived being sunk on a LST. On the German left flank, Kampfgruppe Links pierced the front line breaking through the remnants of the 180th RCT. Here were the Tiger tanks and they continued on toward Gela driving the Americans to Biazzo Ridge and later penetrated the regimental command post. The Tigers were now about only two miles from Gela.
By 9:30 AM the U.S. positions were being pushed back in all sectors. General Patton had come ashore and gave much encouragement to the engineers attempting to repair the pier so his tanks could land. The U.S. 7th Army formed its final defensive positions on the sand dunes south of the coastal road almost on top of the invasion beaches. The 32nd Field Artillery deployed rapidly after just arriving on shore. In addition the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment and the 18th RCT took up these final positions awaiting the German thrust. The Shermans finally made it ashore but got stuck in the soft sand. The German forces were nearing Gela. Patton needed his tanks desperately.
Casualties, however, were mounting in the HG Panzer Division as it continued to fight toward Gela. The U.S. cruisers Savannah and Boise with the destroyer Glennonpoured round after round into the German ranks. At 11:00 AM the battle reached its climax. The navy could do no more due to the fact that both sides were too close for naval gunfire. The battle was a free for all with combat at close quarters. The U.S. 16th Infantry had been badly mauled with only 2 of 9 anti-tank guns left and had retreated into the U.S. final defensive line. The other units of the 1st Infantry and elements of the 82nd Airborne still held some of the positions in the hills.
Conrath was within 2000 yards of the beach and his gunfire had raked supply dumps and landing craft already. Victory seemed within his reach very shortly and he would push the Big Red One into the sea. The German attack, however, was halted just in front of the final defense line by the combined firepower of the U.S. 32nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 16th Cannon Company, the heavier weapons of the 18th RCT and the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, plus four Shermans which had finally gotten off the beach. After 10 panzers were knocked out and others damaged, the German tankers hesitated and then slowly retreated. Now there was breathing room for naval gunfire and the Boise opened up on the German forces with its 6" guns. The Germans retreated faster. The American forces did not pursue so at 2:00 PM General Conrath, after failing to get his troops reorganized sufficiently to launch another attack, called off the battle retreating to his original starting positions.

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Den/7664/hermanng.html

 

From Hitler´s sky warriors by Christophe Ailsby (2000)

The axis defenders were under the overall command of General Alfredo Guzzoni´s Italian sixth Army.The Italian troops were organised into six coastal divisions, four infantry divisions and a variety of local defence forces. Many were poorly trained and equipped , and their morale was questionable. The 30,000 german troops were grouped in the 15th Panzergrenadier Division and the elite Hermann Göring Panzer Division.

Guzzoni realized his only chance of success was to crush the Allies on the shore before they could consolidate their beachhead.He therefore spread his coastal units in a thin line around the island´s perimeter and placed two Italian infantry divisions in the island´s western and southeastern corners. He wanted to concentrate the German divisions in the southeast, too, but Field marshal Kesselring transferred the bulk of the 15th Panzergrenadier division to western Sicily before the invasion to cover the eventuality of the Allies landing there. As a result, only the Herman Göring Division was in a position to launch a counter attack during the first few hours of the invasion.

The invasion took place during the night 9/10 Jul. Opposition from the despirited and ill-equipped Italian coastal units was negligible, and by the end of the first day the 8th Army was on its way to Augusta, having taken Syracuse easily. Resitance in the US sector was not much stronger. The next two days saw resistance stiffen as Guzzoni committed Hermann Göring Division, but by the 13th the 8th Army had still advanced as far as Vizzini in the wwest and Augusta in the east. There, progress slowed down due to a combination of difficult terrain and the arrival of the 1st Parachute division.

The 1st parachute Division, under the command of general Major Richard Heidrich, was formed from the 7th Flieger Division in May 1943. From the end of May it was stationed in Flers near Avignon.France, coming under the command of XI Flieger Corps, Army Group D. On 11 July the division was ordered to prepare for a move to Sicily, and the next day the first units were airlifted to Rome. These units were the 1st and the 3rd battalions of the 3rd Parachute Regiment, the 4th parachute Regiment and the division´s machine gun battalion. Once they arrived in Rome, the 4th Parachute regiment and the machine gun battalion were loaded onto gliders and Ju 52 air craft and dropped around Syracuse and Catania. It would be two days before the 3rd parachute Regiment was desptached to the island, while the 1sr Parachute Regiment was sent to a holding area near Naples to await further orders.

On Sicily, the German paratroopers set about preparing defensive positions. the machine-gun battalion, backed up by Fallschirmjäger antitank and artillery elements, dug in around Primasole Bridge over the river Simeto in the east of the island.The bridge was an important objective for both sides, highlighted by the fact that several hours after the German paratroopers arrived their adversaries in the British 1st Parachute Brigade ( under the command of brigadier C. W. Lathbury and consisting of the 1st,2nd,3rd Battalions and 21st Independent Company-Pathfinders )jumped in on 13 July. A savage battle began, in which the British paras were forced to retreat with some loss.
Fallschirmjäger of the 3rd Parachute Regiment jumped onto Catania airfield on 14 July, which at the time was under fire from allied aircraft and naval artillery. Meanwhile, the men of the Fallschirmjäger machine-gun battalion, expecting relief, mistook British paras for their own side, and in the confusion the British captured Primasole bridge. However, the machine-gun battalion and the newly arrived 3rd Parachut Regiment mounted a counterattack a few hours later which retook the bridge. The Germans crossed the river to the East, and under attack from thre directions the remnants of the 1st Parachute Brigade were forced to withdraw into a small perimeter to the south.

THE LOSS OF PRIMASOLE BRIDGE

During the night of 14/15 July the two fallschirmjäger engineer companies jumped onto Catania airfield.They marched to Primasole bridge and took up positions on the south side of the bridge. During the morning the British, with the support of tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade, attacked the bridge again. Again they were flung back by a combination of antitank, machine-gun and mortar fire. The paras came back again, this time reinforced by troops of the Durham Light infantry, but gain they were beaten off by the Germans. The latter had brought up an 88 mm gun, but this was subsequently destroyed by intensive allied artillery fire.The engineers on the south side of the bridge were badly mauled, and by the afternoon Fallschirmjäger casualties had reached a point whereby further defence of the bridge was untenable.Another British attack finally wrested the bridge from the paras. Two days later the Fallschirmjäger retook Primasole bridge, before finally losing it on the 18th.

As the remnants of the two engineer companies amalgated with the 4th parachute regiment and retreated, the 3rd Parachute Regiment was cut off and embroiled in fighting around the town of Carlenini. Breaking through the British encirclement, the unit managed to reach the realtive safety of german lines. But now time was beginning to run out for the Germans in Sicily.By 24 July the US seventh Army was in control of the entire western half of the island. Most Italian units were showing little inclination to fight, and even less so when the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was deposed on 25 July and replaced by Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

Though fighting continued in Sicily, de facto Italian participation ended. Those Axis forces still fighting had decided to make a stand in the island´s rugged northeast corner, around the strongpoints along the so-called Etna line, and Guzzoni still talked of putting up resistance.But his units were disintegrating, and Berlin made the decision to withdraw from the island.From this point general Hans Hube, commander of the newly formed XIV Panzer Corps, led axis units in Sicily. He began tu pull his forces back to evacuate them across the strait of Messina
to the Italian mainland. The paratroopers were detailed to plug any gaps in the Axis line as the evacuation commenced. Elements of the 1st parachute Regiment were evacuated on 11 August, while all other Fallschirmjäger units had left the island by the 17th, only hours before the first allied units entered Messina.
With the relatively easy victory in Sicily, Allied planners began to look at an invasion of the Italian mainland. Eisenhower authorised a landing by the Eighth army, codenamed "Baytown", on 16th August.The assault would take place across the Strait of Messina between 1 and 4 September to tie down enemy units that might interfere with US landings farther north. The latter, operation "Avalanche", would take place on 9 September when the US Fifth Army went ashore in the Salerno area. Both armies were grouped under the Allied Fifteenth Army Group, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.



[ 04. January 2003, 11:09 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

10th - Invasion of Sicily: Operation 'Husky'

The Americans still want to concentrate on the cross-Channel invasion of France, but at the Casablanca Conference somewhat reluctantly agree to go ahead with the Sicily landings. Amongst the benefits will be the opening of the Mediterranean to Allied shipping. The final plan is approved in mid-May and not much more than a month later the first US troop convoys are heading across the Atlantic for an operation even greater than the French North African landings the previous November.

The grand total of 2,590 US and British warships - major and minor are mostly allocated to their own landing sectors, but the Royal Navy total includes the covering force against any interference by the Italian fleet. The main group under Vice-Adm Sir A. U. Willis of Force H includes battleships "Nelson", "Rodney", "Warspite" and "Valiant" and fleet carriers "Formidable" and Indomitable". Seven Royal Navy submarines act as navigation markers off the invasion beaches.
Many of the troops coming from North Africa and Malta make the voyage in landing ships and craft. As they approach Sicily with the other transports late on the 9th in stormy weather, Allied airborne landings take place. Sadly, many of the British gliders crash into the sea, partly because of the weather. However, early next day, on the 10th, the troops go ashore under an umbrella of aircraft. The new amphibious DUKWS (or "Ducks") developed by the Americans play an important part in getting the men and supplies across the beaches

There is little resistance by the Italians and few Germans, and the counter-attacks that are mounted are soon driven off. Syracuse is captured that day and within three days the British Eighth Army has cleared the south east corner of Sicily. The Americans meanwhile push north and northwest and capture Palermo on the 22nd. By then, Eighth Army has been checked south of Catania. Nevertheless, at month's end the Allies hold the entire island except the north-eastern part.

As the capture of Sicily progresses, important political developments take place in Italy. On the 25th Mussolini is arrested and stripped of all his powers. Marshal Badoglio forms a new government, which immediately and in secret seeks ways to end the war. By August the surrender of Italy is being negotiated with the Allied powers.

German and Italian aircraft sink and damage a number of warships and transports in the invasion area including a US destroyer on the 10th. On the 16th carrier "Indomitable" is damaged by Italian torpedo aircraft

Axis submarines have fewer successes than the attacking aircraft in and around Sicily. Two British cruisers are damaged, but in return 12 of their number are lost over the next four weeks into early August:

11th - "FLUTTO" off the southern end of the Strait of Messina in a running battle with MTBs 640, 651 and 670.

12th - "U-561" torpedoed in the Strait of Messina by MTB-81; Italian "BRONZO" captured off Syracuse by minesweepers "Boston", "Cromarty", "Poole" and "Seaham"; "U-409" sunk off Algeria by escorting destroyer "Inconstant" as she attacks a returning empty convoy.

13th - Italian "NEREIDE" is lost off Augusta to destroyers "Echo" and "llex"; and north of the Strait of Messina "ACCIAIO" is torpedoed by patrolling submarine "Unruly".

15th - Transport submarine "REMO" on passage through the Gulf of Taranto during the invasion is lost to submarine "United".

16th - Cruiser "Cleopatra" is torpedoed and badly damaged off Sicily by submarine "Dandolo".

18th - "Remo's" sister-boat "ROMOLO" is sunk off Augusta by the RAF.

23rd - Cruiser "Newfoundland" is damaged off Syracuse by a torpedo from "U-407", and as Italian "ASCIANGHI" attacks a cruiser force off the south coast of Sicily she is sunk by destroyers "Eclipse" and "Laforey".

29th - "PIETRO MICCA" is torpedoed by submarine "Trooper" at the entrance to the Adriatic in the Strait of Otranto.

30th - "U-375" is lost off southern Sicily to an American sub-chaser.

AUGUST 1943

Sicily - As the Germans and Italians prepare to evacuate Sicily across the Strait of Messina, the Allies start the final push - US Seventh Army along the north coast aided by three small amphibious hops and Eighth Army up the east side from Catania with one small landing. Gen Patton's men enter Messina just before Gen Montgomery's on the 17th. Sicily is now in Allied hands but 100,000 Axis troops manage to escape without any serious interference.

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsItaly.htm

[ 31. December 2002, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Just finished the copying of the part on the Fallschirmjäger in Sicily.Take a look on it if interested.

Here´s a map of the Primasole area:



"Of the 1,900 members of the British Parachute Brigade who were despatched to Sicily, only about 200 men and three anti-tank guns reached the Primasole Bridge and seized it. They promptly removed the German demolition charges and set up a perimeter defence, but they constituted a pitifully small force to hold out until the ground forces arrived overland.

By coincidence, the bridge was near the Catania airfield where the regiment of the German 1st Parachute Division - the first contingent of the division to arrive in Sicily - had dropped a few hours earlier as Kesselring had watched. The German paratroopers reacted savagely to the intrusion of the British Paratroopers, and a fierce battle that started at daylight of 14th July lasted all day. At nightfall, having hung on despite heavy losses, the surviving British withdrew from the bridge to a piece of high ground overlooking the structure, and from there they covered the bridge by fire and at least prevented the Germans from damaging it."

From:

http://www.warlinks.com/primasole/

 

Kai :

thanks for the follow up. It gives me more fuel to put before Jack Mahrohl's face so he can tell me where he fought in Sicily. Interesting about the last account of the British and the losing of 25 some tanks. To what....Fallshirm AT battalion of the 1st Fallshirm Division ?

E

 

Yes, I´d think so even though their origin is not that well covered here.

From another site:

"On the night of 12th & 13th July, 2 Kompanies of Fallschirm-Pioneers ( Witzig's Fallschirm-Pioneers ) as well as some Fallschirm Anti-Tank and Artillery units joined the Paras already on the ground."

http://www.hrs.org.nz/3fjr/3rd%20FJR.htm