204 - After a Victory at Kursk, The Soviets Attack Everywhere - WW2 - July 23, 1943
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2022
- The Allied invasion of Italy powers on and puts the future of a key axis power at play. In the USSR, the Soviets have learnt to deal with German offensives, as the Wehrmacht struggles to make a dent.
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Battle of Mubo finishes last week and Mount Tambu starts this one in and around Salamaua, New Guinea, this week. An Australian company hold off a Japanese battalion strength attack on Mubo at night in one of the great defensive efforts of the New Guinea campaign (14 Aussies KiA vs approx 350)
The Australians are then reinforced and attack Mt Tambu but the majority of the Australian battalion are relieved by fresh American battalion after they are exhausted after a week of attacking the hill.
This is part of the plan to lure down Japanese units from Lae so the Allies can land there against minimal opposition in September.
.
As well, with New Georgia land campaign is the naval side of things beside the battles of Kolombagara and Kula Gulf last week. This week, the Japanese went for a push of sorts with CruDiv 7 (Kumano and Suzuya), 8th Fleet flagship Chokai, DesRon 3 flagship Sendai and 4 destroyers looking for trouble and coming down the slot escorting the troop reinforcement run. At night on the 20th, radar equipped, Marine Avenger torpedo planes flying at mast height drop 2000lb bombs which is basically unheard of for a single engine plane at this stage of the war. One near misses Kumano and put a 5m hole aft, while destroyer Yugure is hit and breaks in 2. Rescue destroyer Kiyonami is later hit by Army planes and she sinks as well (All hands are lost from 2 experienced destroyer crews).
At the same time, after the battle of Kolombagara, the Allies had no cruisers left to defend against any Japanese cruisers if they should decided to deploy any. Australia's last light cruiser Hobart is diverted to replace NZ Leander and help Halsey's South Pacific command, but Hobart is torpedoed by I-11 near Espirito Santo on 20 July. So the Americans have to adapt/change their plans to be based around destroyers and their divisions for the rest of the Solomons campaign.
More importantly, for the Solomons campaign, seaplane carrier Nisshin is sunk on 22 July by SBD dive bombers. Nisshin had huge internal space, like today's amphibious landing ships, and could carry a big load. At Midway, she carried 12 midget subs for if the battlelines met up for a fight, the midget subs might have been able to distract the US battleships.
At Guadalcanal, she did 2 or 3 runs to drop howitzers and field guns off, the most famous occasion was the Battle of Cape Esperance where CruDiv 6 (RAdm Goto) thought this force was firing on his cruisers.
But back to 22 July, Nisshin was carrying 22 light tanks, artillery, 630 troops and a load of food and gasoline to the Japanese to Shortlands in preparation for their transfer to New Georgia. This sinking was a big help to future operations on New Georgia.
Nisshin loss, is a disaster for IJN as she was such a useful very quick transport which could do so many roles within the navy. No other navy had a ship like that.
All up, these 2 missions (CruDiv 7 and Nisshin) ended all future Japanese aggressive efforts for the Solomons as the Japanese send nothing anything bigger than a destroyer south of Rabaul, and left the campaign as a defensive, reactionary one.
I thought this might helpful to you guys and the audience about the complex South Pacific operations on New Guinea and New Georgia 😇
Imagine Adolf Hitler's frustration at the Wehrmacht's severe underestimate of Soviet troops prior to Barbarossa. It's pretty clear to me that he had reason to be angry at his Generals.
"All we need do is throw open the door and the whole structure will collapse." --Adolf Hitler
Germany invades Russia, anticipating an easy victory. Germans catch millions of Soviet troops that surrender. Even with those millions no longer available to the USSR, the Soviet Army is still able to prevent Moscow's capture in 1941. Hitler, anticipating Soviet troop numbers to be near the bottom of the barrel, meets surprisingly stiff resistance at Stalingrad.
Just imagine, when Hitler is dictating his "will" in the bunker in Berlin in 1945, which was simply rant against his Wehrmacht Generals (according to his personal secretary). It seems apparent the whole USSR troop number estimate was so wrong. If I were Hitler, I'd be furious at the useless estimate.
Is the instagram project dead?
Will saying about in videos françois ingold, robert de Roux, jacques arthuys, lorenzo Vivalda, Giovanni Batista oxilia, paolo berardi, Jan kruszewsky, zdislaw Wincenty przyjalkowsky, henry Louis gabriel michaud, wladyslaw langner, colonel wehrmacht georg alexander hansen, lieutenant hams von Blumenthal ? Add to videos in ww2 please
this was really very well done.
I try always to comment since comments likes shares and subscribes drive traffic.
“Hey Kesselring? What’s with that Panzer Grenadiers division sitting in Italy?”
*”Its a surprise tool that’s gonna help me later”*
"We're taking you to a clam bake."
It's a smoothie
My favorite part was when General Patton said "it's Pattin time", truly one of the moments in history
And then he Pattined all over the Italians
And who could forget the Monty Tea Party instead of taking Caen.
Patton down the hatches
Man I love that part
Patton and trump sort of look alike… and Payton’s real voice DOES sound similar to trumps too lol! That cracks me up
guys....I'm starting to think Italy might not restore the Roman empire.
Whoa! Hold on there!! il Duce will lead us home!!
You just missed their speedrun, currently they are already at "being invaded from Africa and deposed by Germans" (again).
@@markreetz1001 Steiner will help out. I think he's in Northern Italy now; something about Operation Alaric...
Pizza time… is coming to an end
I think you’re missing that Il Duce has the incredible plan to lure the allies into a true sense of security.
I had no idea the Italian casualties and prisoners' taken this week were so bad even though my Grandfather on my Dad's side was one of the 53,000 Italian prisoners' taken this week. My Grandfather on my Mom's side of my family is also fighting in Sicily this week in the US 1st Infantry division. For those wanting to ask, no they were never near each other during the fighting. My Dad's Dad was in Western Italy captured in his home town of Siculiana Sicily by the US 3rd Infantry division troops while the 1st Infantry division fought more in the center East of Sicily.
Very interesting
Did they ever meet after the war?
My grandfather from mother's side was defending the beach in siciliy and was captures during the beginning of the invasion. My grandfather from father's side was called as reservist in Cagliari but the situation was so bad (no equipment, especially shoes) he went back on foot home in central Sardinia with few of his friends, walking the way up circa 150 km. This shows you how in Italy a good part of the population didn't want to fight.
My grandma’s brother in law was captured by the British in El Alamein, he was conscripted by the Italians
My cousin's great grandfather was an Italian pow held in Norfolk where he met my aunt's mum. Children from outside of marriage ended up in orphanages or adopted which she was. She eventually tracked down her father's roots in Sicily, my cousin looks very Italian
Italy is the ultimate proof that its soldiers can be brave, but if their logistics are bad, if your technology lags behind your enemies, if your leaders do not know how to recognize your limitations in the war effort: your nation will be an eternal joke in military historiography
And yet for every Italian war joke being made there are a 100 ones about the French. And they only sucked for a month and a half.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 and I believe most of those jokes came around in early 2000s when the French refused to support the USA in you-know-what.
@@proCaylak You mean 'that thing' that looks suspiciously similar to 'that thing' Putin is currently doing? 😉
and rightly so. War is a logistical effort.
You mean like those Afgh...
The battle of Kursk, and the Russian counter-offensives that followed during the next 60 days, killed tens of thousands of Germany's most experienced and irreplaceable officers and men. Paraphrasing Alan Clark in Barbarossa: "The best divisions of the German Army attacked shoulder-to-shoulder, concentrated on narrow fronts, and were defeated." The result was comparable to the Battle of Gettysburg fought exactly 80 years before: A numerically inferior army in decline, hoping to force a quick end to a war of attrition it was ill-suited to win, attacked a numerically superior force entrenched along interior lines in a salient defending its home turf --- and was broken.
Wacky that Gettysburg was as long ago to people fighting in ww2 as ww2 is to us
@@XxthetanklordxX Also REALLY wacky that 80 years after the gigantic battles of WWII in Ukraine, they are fighting over the same territory again, except this time it is Russia invading Ukraine, instead of Germany.
@@alansewell7810 Let's not talk about politics in the modern world. The reasons for the special operation in Ukraine are deeper than it may seem. They begin in 1917, continued in 1991, escalated in 2014, and 2022 was just an excuse.
@@user-ol2dv2ou4b what are the reasons?
@@madfifaskillz8078 Historical. 1. Donbass and the South of Ukraine with Crimea never belonged to it until 1922 and 1954. 2. The borders of Ukraine were cut by the Bolsheviks in 1922, 1939, 1945 and 1954. Political. Ukraine emerged in 1917, after the overthrow of the emperor by the liberals, as an autonomous republic within Russia. After the October coup, the UPR declared its independence. At that time, the UPR and Galicia were two states. In 1918 there were 3 Ukrainians - the Ukrainian SSR, UNR and ZUNR (Western Ukrainian People's Republic or Galicia in another way). In 1991, after the failure of the State Emergency Committee of the Ukrainian SSR declared its independence, explaining that a coup d'etat had taken place in Moscow. In 2014, Crimea and Donbass declared their independence because a coup took place in Kiev. We can talk about this for a long time.
Another rather unusual thing that also happened this week near the Florida Straits on July 18 1943 is that the *United States Army blimp K-74* drops depth charges on the German U-boat U-134, in the only battle between an airship and a submarine during the war. U-134 fired its 20mm cannons at the blimp in response, which downed the blimp. However its crew was able to be rescued the next day with only one fatality, Isadore Stessel, who was attacked by a shark before he could be rescued. Similarly, no one was also hurt on U-134. United States Navy doctrine required blimps to stay out of range of submarines that surfaced, and to guide aircraft or ships to attack it, but the blimp’s pilot disregarded this doctrine, hence leading to this unusual battle.
@Dickson Phua wow, that must have been quite the spectacle! Where did it happen?
@@WorldWarTwo According to sources I could find, this unusual event took place somewhere around east of the Straits of Florida in the Bahamas, as part of a patrol under Blimp Squadron ZP-21. This could also partly explain why the crew was able to be rescued relatively easily here.
@Dickson Phua Thanks for the info!
@@WorldWarTwo Time Ghost army people are so cool.
@@manuelapollo7988 In the movie Patton says he went west on his own. Here it says he was ordered. Bradley later says he would have fired Patton for that.
It says a lot when Patton is the more restrained one in this situation.
You have to understand many Bradley included heard the Allied HQ/Press were trying promote Monty, Clark even ran into this in Italy,where Monty didn't move before getting recalled
eh, I think he liked it because he was like sweet, we can do whatever we want now. Bradley wanted it to be more by the book
Der Fuhrer is pacing the floor
How could a genius be losing this war?
Kursk has been lost
At exorbitant cost
And the Italians are eying the door!
Another great episode. Bravo!
Italians eyeing the door, what an image like Mussolini is like “hey did anybody hear that? Ima just go check it out”
Sabaton's lyrics are finally getting better
@@MikeJones-qn1gz
he dropped the dime
on the germans.
Thank you Wayne
It's saddening to see Slavyansk and Barvinkove on the map and knowing that they are ravaged by war again 80 years later.
Interesting to see my old town, Krymskaya, on the Kuban map. Growing up there, the forests around it were chuck full of old rusted ordnance, forgotten dugouts & trenches and all the things one would expect to find in them - and when the fields got ploughed in spring masses of old shrapnel, spent bullets/ casings and bits of equipment would come up.
Still have an old Nazi spoon (stainless steel, surgical grade) that I dug up one day. It serves me well. Up yours, Hitler.
Any stories you can tell me about your town during the war?
@@dezbiggs6363 Well, there weren’t a lot of people left in Krymskaya (Krymsk, today) after the liberation. There were some 35K inhabitants before the war, and only some 4K were left after, so not all that many to tell tales lived into my time. But piecing some stories together, things looked roughly like this: once the Germans occupied the town, they set up “filtration camps” and ran nearly all inhabitants through them. Filtration took days, so the assembled crowds were packed tightly into small areas with no right to leave; some (especially older folks) died there. Once the Germans “filtered” everyone, they shot those they deemed undesirable, carted off those they deemed valuable to their war effort to the Reich, and made the rest work for the troops stationed in town. Town itself had areas where Russians weren’t allowed and would be shot on sight if caught in. When the Soviets were about to retake it, all civilians unable to hide were assembled into columns and marched away towards Kerch, loaded onto barges, then taken first to Crimea and then into Ukraine to work on fortifications. Some old timers claimed this was done to shield retreating German columns from Soviet air attacks - whether that was so I can’t say. Predictably, not a whole lot of those taken came back home in ‘44 - ‘45.
One old timer used to tell tales of massive air battles happening over the town around March or April of ‘43, said hundreds of planes swirled about on some days and the hills surrounding the town were full of smoke columns from downed ones.
A lot of the war veterans I met had plenty of sories to tell, but just about all of the pre-war locals were conscripted before the town was occupied and so fought elsewhere, while many others were simply born elsewhere and didn’t settle in Krymsk until after the war.
I met no one who could recall what went on specifically during the battles to retake it, but judging by photos taken right after and especially by the amount of war debris strewn all over even into my days, it must’ve been one intense fight.
Funny fact: a field close to where I lived had a whole lot of Minie lead bullets of several calibres that would come up after every ploughing, but I’m pretty sure they predated WW2 by quite a bit and were leftover from the time Krymskaya was a Cossack frontier fort in the mid-1800s.
I mean, after everything the nazis took from the people there, it is only fair they gave something back in return, and be it only a spoon.
*German Wermacht Officer:* "Jeez. I wish we could make a tactical withdrawal, but Hitler just will not give his permission."
*Walter Model 🧐:* "I just don't ask for permission."
*German Wermacht Officer:* "Is that what we have been doing wrong this whole time?!"
-Walter Model being a boss since 1891
Unlike many of the people in the comments always praising Mainstien, Rommel and Guderian I would say Model was the best German General from the start of the war until the end. Unlike many other German Generals he never gets replaced and is the guy Hitler always goes to when there is a disaster happening, there is a reason he gets his nickname. And more honorably then many of the other German General war criminals who after the war would just blame what they did on "orders" Model left records with his staff of everything he did, was ordered to do, refused to do and complied with and then killed himself at the end of the war to die with his troops. Much better then Manstien and Guderian who used their fame after the war to write books with false history to make money for themselves.
Model was the only competent general who could keep Hitler happy and at the same time disobey his orders … kind of unique … on one spectrum we had Manstein and Guderian who did what they wanted ( and later got sacked ) and on the other hand we had the likes of Ernst Busch and Keitl who was well … wasn’t so competent but followed Hitlers orders more obediently . But what’s more puzzling is that most of the Wehrmacht commanders notably Mellenthin and Herman Balck ( and others ) did not not have a high opinion of Model … they disliked him …. It makes you wonder…
@@PhillyPhanVinny is he? There were plenty of officers who ate a bullet not bc they wanna die with their troops. He knew the soviets wanted him hung. I don’t blame them. If Model Was so great he would of seen through Hitlers bs and shot the bastard. So sorry I can respect your opinion but I don’t see it that way. I could be wrong hell at least we can talk about it like rationale men. Have a great day
It's always easier to do something and explain it than to get permission. I've used this tactic at work for well over a decade and as long as you are competent, no one complains.
@@edwingeorge5433 Model was disliked by many of his peers and the people who worked under him. He had an abrasive personality and was dictatorial. That of course does not take away from his effectiveness and ability.
In 1941-42, attrition of German panzers was offset by the Germans holding the battle field and able to pull damaged tanks back to repair depots to get them battle worthy again. Now at Kursk, they have failed operationally and stand to lose damaged tanks if they don't get them back to the depots quickly. They've always had leisure to get this job done in the past. 60% attrition of tanks is not so bad if they can be recovered/repaired. This time it looks like the Soviets will be able to recover/repair their tanks, not the Germans. If the Soviets have a major counterstroke in the works, it seems likely they will overrun those German repair facilities. It will be interesting to see what happens.
That is what happened in WW2. The moment the Germans lost control of the battlefield after the battle was when their panzer divisions started to decline and never reached full strength again. And why the Allies were able to sustain and recover from their armored losses as they did.
I like your name mate!
@@stephenbarrett8861 : ) the feeling is mutual.
Spoiler alert… Yes, Soviet captured repair depot at Barisovo with 20-30 Tiger tanks and about 75 Panther. Pictures of those tanks sitting in mud and waiting to be shipped to Germany or to be repaired is spectacular.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 The Americans built more M4 Sherman tanks than the total of all German tanks built prior to 1945…
THE FALL OF MUSSOLINI
For three successive war years when summer came, it had been the Germans who had launched the great offensives on the continent of Europe. Now in 1943 the tables turned.
With the capture in early May of that year of the Axis forces in Tunisia, all that remained of a once mighty army in North Africa, it was obvious that General Eisenhower’s Anglo-American armies would next turn on Italy itself. This was the kind of nightmare which had haunted Mussolini in September of 1939 and which had made him delay Italy’s entry into the war until neighboring France had been conquered by the Germans and the British Expeditionary Force driven across the Channel. The nightmare now returned, but this time it was rapidly turning into reality.
Mussolini himself was ill and disillusioned; and he was frightened. Defeatism was rife among his people and in the armed forces. There had been mass strikes in the industrial cities of Milan and Turin, where the hungry workers had demonstrated for ”bread, peace and freedom.” The discredited and corrupt Fascist regime itself was fast crumbling, and when Count Ciano at the beginning of the year was relieved as Foreign Minister and sent to the Vatican as ambassador the Germans suspected that he had gone there to try to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies, as Antonescu, the Rumanian dictator, was already urging.
For several months Mussolini had been bombarding Hitler with appeals to make peace with Stalin, so that his armies could be withdrawn to the West to make a common defense with the Italians against the growing threat of the Anglo-American forces in the Mediterranean and of those which he believed were assembling in England for a cross-Channel invasion. The time had come again, Hitler realized, for a meeting with Mussolini in order to buck up his sagging partner and to put him straight. This was arranged for April 7, 1943, at Salzburg, and though the Duce arrived determined to have his way - or at least his say - at last, he once more succumbed to the Fuehrer’s torrents of words. Hitler later described his success to Goebbels, who jotted it down in his diary.
"By putting every ounce of energy into the effort, he succeeded in pushing Mussolini back on the rails . . . The Duce underwent a complete change . . . When he got out of the train on his arrival, the Fuehrer thought, he looked like a broken old man; when he left [after four days] he was in high fettle, ready for any deed."
But in point of fact Mussolini was not ready for the events which now followed in quick succession. The Allied conquest of Tunisia in May was followed by the successful Anglo-American landings in Sicily on July 10. The Italians had little stomach for battle in their own homeland. Reports soon reached Hitler that the Italian Army was ”in a state of collapse,” as he put it to his advisers at OKW.
"Only barbaric measures [Hitler told a war council on July 17] like those applied by Stalin in 1941 or by the French in 1917 can help to save the nation. A sort of tribunal or court-martial should be set up in Italy to remove undesirable elements."
Once again he summoned Mussolini to discuss the matter, the meeting taking place on July 19 at Feltre in northern Italy. This, incidentally, was the thirteenth conference of the two dictators and it followed the pattern of the most recent ones. Hitler did all the talking, Mussolini all the listening - for three hours before lunch and for two hours after it. Without much success the fanatical German leader tried to rekindle the sunken spirits of his ailing friend and ally. (Hitler's quote) "They must continue the fight on all fronts". Their tasks could not be left ”to another generation.” The ”voice of history” was still beckoning them ! Sicily and Italy proper could be held if the Italians fought. There would be more German reinforcements to help them. A new U-boat would soon be in operation and would deal the British a ”Stalingrad.”
Despite Hitler’s promises and boasts the atmosphere, Dr. Schmidt found, was most depressing. Mussolini was so overwrought that he could no longer follow his friend’s tirades and at the end asked Schmidt to furnish him with his notes. The Duce’s despair worsened when during the meeting reports came in of the first heavy daylight Allied air attack on Rome.
Benito Mussolini, tired and senile though he was only going on sixty, he who had strutted so arrogantly across Europe’s stage for two decades, was at the end of his rope. When he returned to Rome he found much worse than the aftermath of the first heavy bombing. He faced revolt from some of his closest henchmen in the Fascist Party hierarchy, even from his son-in-law, Ciano. And behind it there was a plot among a wider circle that reached to the King to overthrow him.
The Rise and Fall of Third Reich - William Shrier
Interesting that the Germans were already making contingency plans for Italy trying to leave the war. Perhaps because it was increasingly clear that it was the smart move for Italy.
Great write up
Still the gold standard by which histories of World War 2 should be measured. Over a thousand pages and still never gave me a reason to skip a sentence, much less a page.
Hey, I'm reading that book.
With the Germans going on the defensive in Russia, no better commander for that type of warfare than the "Fuehrer's fireman" himself, Model. Great stuff like always Indy!
Model can be so good but Guderian's suggestion to Hitler was never adopted and he was mostly ignored until to the very end of the war. We could have seen the Ukraine style of defense during WW2 but Hitler is ignorant and that is good.
Thanks for watching as always, Alex
This week in French politics,
Nothing. Yes, it’s strange. Of course, there is planning, refitting, and training for the campaign of mainland Italy in the end of the year. But nothing much more. (Well the Niemen-Normandie Squadron fight in Kursk. This is 15 french pilots + 45 mecanicians who volunteered for a cooperation with the soviets. This is the only all occidental unit to fight with the soviet during WW2)
@Lematth88 Thanks for your updates, even on quieter weeks!
As Carlo D'Este mentioned in "Bittler Victory" Route 120 issue in Sicily campaign is actually much more complex and controversial. Once Eighth Army was checked at north of Simeto river bridgehead by (that is five miles south of Catania , one of five major ports in Sicily , of others two of them Syracuse and Agusta were captured by Montgomery's troops during first three days of invasion between 10-12 July ,only Catania in eastern shore and Palermo and Messina remained Axis hands at northern coast) by 1st German Parachute Division that was hurriedly sent to Sicily as reinforcements and able to use Mount Etna slopes (one of few active volcanos in the world along with Vesvizius in Italy which is also at the path of next incoming Allied invasion at Salerno two months later !) as perfect defensive positions and able to block 13th Corps at eastern coastal road , especily after battle of Primosole Bridge (which I will detail) , then on 16th July Montgomery requested the use of Route 120 for advance of 1st Canadian Division to outflank German defences at Mount Etna and eastern coastal road.
A fine plan in theory but unfortunetely Germans massed all their remaining reinforcements (Hermann Goering Panzer Grenadier Division , 15th Panzer Granedier Division and incoming vanguard of 26th Panzergranedier Division ) and existing units around Mount Etna (latter dubbed Etna Line) also and gradually began to stall advance of 30th Corps at left flank too. German panzer general Hans Hube was appointed in general defence of Sicily with four German divisions and he could read the map. Eighth Army in south was closing on Catania and Messina and if Allies captured Messina it would be game over for all German forces in Sicily since they would be cut off from reinforcements , supplies and retreat route and foprced to surrender like Tunisia. Therefore Germans were committed to defend northeastern Sicily based on Mount Etna against British and Canadian advance as long as possible and gradually retreat , give ground , shorten their lines and denying Catania and Messina to Allies as long as possible.
That made the road open for Patton to advance on north towards Palermo though. Patton's advance to Palermo was not planned before nor it was supposed to happen. Bradley , as Patton's subordinate was actually to sever the island by advancing way more east by getting closer to Messina. However , all German divisions committed to hold Eighth Army at Etna Line at east , the front of Seventh US Army were all open except weakly deployed , disorganised and badly led Italian defences that could be outflanked or smashed through..which Patton had intended to do. On 17th July 1943 Patton actually took permission from Alexander by going to 18th Army Group HQ and asking an attack on nothern coast and Alexander gave him an idea to make a "recon in force" , Patton interpeted that as permission for to advance north as he pleased. Then next day he visited Montgomery's HQ at Syrecuse. Montgomery not only agreed with Patton but actually admitted his own previous mistake of taking Route 120 all for his army's use (instead when Seventh US Army could make this vertical road to advance central Sicily in first week on landings) and concentrated British 30th Corps battles further east at outflanking Etna Line and getting away from from route of Patton's march (Patton though a little bit paranoid and turned the whole thing a childish ego match while Montgomery at least for now was geniunely supporting for Seventh Army to march northern coast and divert Germans attention there while his own Eighth Army struggled before Etna Line. Montgomery said Patton once in this meeting : "George , ignore whatever Alexander orders or says. I always do". According to Patton , his over suspicious attitute in Monty's HQ , might have been due to fact that no one offered him a lunch ! as he wrote in Patton Papers ) Thus when Patton started his advanced over central Sicily (without informing Bradley his immediate subordinate , who also got angry to Patton as well as Alexander previously) with 2nd US Corps and Provisional Corps , he smashed or turned over weak Italian resistance points and lines easly and captured Palermo on 22nd (third big port of Sicily which would ease Allied logistics further)
Later US Official Military History summarised Patton's quick march to Palermo as a "publicity stunt" by Old Blood And Guts. And it is mostly true. There were no Germans in north , northwest of Sicily and Italian coastal garrisons and units on western Sicily were low combat value and almost a liability for Axis. While Bradley previously fumed to Alexander for giving all access to Route 120 to Montgomery , he also got angry on Patton's north , north western march towards Palermo , away from Germans who were solidfying and consolidating on Etna Line at eastern section of island. However Patton's march to Palermo was actually quite necessary from another aspect. Not only another harbour was captured to ease Allied logistics , it was absolutely vital for Patton to exploit that kind of weakness at Axis defence due to bad Axis organisation (German generals Hube , Von Senger and Kesselring and Italian general Guzzoni were still in disagreement about defence of Sicily) and German concentration at eastern sector of Sicily in order to check Montgomery's advance on Catania for his Seventh US Army to capture Palermo , a major city to boost up and raise morale of Allies. Most post war historians do not realise how much morale counted back then when regular troops at front or people at homefront , all lacking hindsight , needed good news to motivate them further. Ever since Kasserine Pass defeat at Tunisian Campaign , morale and self confidence of US Army not to mention public morale (those were damaged badly in Tunisian Campaign) needed boosters like quick capture of Palerno and overrunning western Sicily to build up their self respect and keep them committed. On top of that the stock of US Army rose quite considerably in the eyes of their British allies who mostly dismissed them as gifted amateurs in war so far. Field Marshal Alexander , previously , had been quite a bit skeptic of US Army capabilities , was the first one to congragulate Patton on 23rd July when the latter captured Palermo. Sometimes in war , you need publicity stunts lke that.
Thank you merdiolu81. Great context as always
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you.
@@WorldWarTwo Well Monty wasn't following the script either.Taking both Palermo and Messina Patton indeed "threw down the gauntlet"
*Masters and Commanders by Andrew Robertsp.149* Air Chief Marshall Portal reminisced to Chester Wilmot "the Americans had tremendous confidence in their own troops and by and large the confidence was justified for they did learn very quickly once they got into action-far more quickly than our lads did and once they got experience fought extremely well."
I started watching the channel when my PhD began in 2018/1939. I have watched every single episode since then, week by week, as my thesis very slowly and very painfully took shape. Back in December 2021/1942, with the Allied counter-attack in the Soviet Union and on Guadalcanal, I submitted. Now, finally, Episode 204, July 2022/1943 is the first I'm watching with the title of Dr. Thanks for your enormous endurance, WW2 team, I know how it feels!
Congratulations Dr.Grief.
Well done, sir.
Isaac CONGRATULATIONS Doctor. Thank you for your loyal support, and good luck on all your future endeavors. Take care and stay tuned
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you very much indeed, I shall be sure to stay with you, and a big thank you to my fellow followers too!
There is a historical novel about the Battle of Kursk -- "Last Citadel" by David L. Robbins -- which has, as its climax, a tank battle between USSR troops and the Germans. I wish I could find my copy so I could give more information, but my Russian-born wife (may G_D keep her close) confirmed much of what was described in the novel. She grew up in the region so it was local history to her. One thing that stood out to everyone engaged the battle: it took place in a beautiful field of sunflowers. Sunflowers filled the field and were so tall that, when both sides charged each other, tanks would pass within a few feet of each other and not see each other -- the sunflowers were that tall and that thick. Tanks on both sides were charging and taking whatever shots they could until they realized they had reached the other side of the field, and turned around to rejoin the fray.
In the end, the Soviets won and the Germans retreated, leaving behind a field of twisted metal; a field of the dead, dying, and wounded; and a field where every single sunflower had been torn up. Per my wife, to this day, nothing will grow on that field.
53.000 Italians surrendering just for 200 American casualities shows how low Italian morale was at this point.
Or smart.
Very unusual use of colour here, but I like it a lot, especially when paired with the slightly toned-down green shirt. Bold choice, but Indy (naturally) pulls it off. 4.5/5
Thanks Gianni. Your relentless Tienthusiasm fills this intern's heart with joy.
@@WorldWarTwo Always happy to make someone else happy!
When I heard that an allied commander had changed his plans without informing command I assumed it was Patton because you know it’s Patton but then I hear that it was actually Montgomery who did it and was surprised. Though that being said they have now giving Patton an excuse to do what Patton will do and Patton will do as Patton always does so I hope they’re ready for those consequences lol
What's good for the goose is good for the gander! 😃
Both Patton and Monty were shit. Main difference in terms of effectiveness was that Patton had the more competent people around him, and one of the reasons we know more about Patton going off the rails is that Bradley described his bullshit in exhaustive detail in his own memoirs. Another of course was that Patton got a Hollywood movie with a Hollywood budget, and since the amount of money available in the british film industry at that point was basically "whatever we can find behind the couch cushions"...:P
@@GaldirEonai One has to respect the likes of Eisenhower and Alexander, just because they has to manage those two egos.
Not at all surprising for Monty. His arrogance knew no bounds and he regarded himself as smarter than everyone else - including his superiors. More than once Monty talked to Ike like he was his subordinate, not his boss.
The only allied commander more contemptible than Monty was Mark Clark.
Can only imagine was Mussolini was thinking while Hitler was monologing for two hours
Mussolini understood German but not very well. Out of vanity, though, he did not have an interpreter. It is likely that he did not fully understand what Hitler was saying, especially when the latter was in full flow.
He took a German lesson every day but sometime in 1944, as an expression of frustration with his ally, he gave up the practice.
The next 2 months are really interesting in Italy. Its simultaneously a major victory for the Allies and yet also a lost opportunity.
Stay tuned for it, Alex.
My paternal grandfather was a messenger for general Patton he used to talk about how some parts of Sicily would instantly welcome them because of the mob connections from New York but he also talked about other parts of Sicily where the fighting was brutal he had nothing nice to say about Montgomery
Few people have anything nice to say about Montgomery, even here in the UK where he's regarded as having been a competent commander who knew how to win a war, but rather spoilt it by being an awful little man with far too much ego. We like our heroes to be modest and understated.
@@Kevin-mx1vi my grandfather said the British soldiers deserved much better than him
@@Kevin-mx1vi Montgomery competent? Let's review that ... in ... say D-Day when he say's he'll be in Caen by noon, or when he slacks on the his side of Falise, or when he calls Market-Garden "successful".
@@robertkras5162 You talk shite. Go away.
Thanks for sharing about him.
It looks that the american advance in the west of Sicily was much faster than the english advance in the east because the americans got a deal with the sicilian Mafia using Lucky Luciano as an intermediary. Most of the italian coastal divisions in Sicily were made of local sicilian troops and basically those facing the americans quickly surrendered because mafia bosses told them to do so. It would be great if you guys may do your own research and tell us if the mafia had really a great impact or not. I read some of this stuff in "Sicily '43" by James Holland.
Interesting..the FBI recruited Luciano to police the NYC docks..the idea was to have the Mafia keep German saboteurs from setting off bombs at the docks. What really happened was that the NYC Mafia stole hundreds of millions in food and supplies. This was called "Operation Underworld"-and it became a major scandal-a USN Admiral was sacked because of this.
Montgomery was much more of a maverick than Patton. The Patton movie makes Monty out to be the loyal commander who always did what he was supposed to do, with Patton as the individualist genius, but that was just... wrong.
I think that has a ton to do with Omar Bradley being very heavily involved in the making of that movie. He was giving his impressions of the 2 men from how he saw them after the war. Later in the war Bradley and Montgomery are Army Group commanders sitting much further in the back with Eisenhower dealing more with logistics than anything else. While at the end of the war Patton is still a Army commander constantly asking to do more then his Army Group Commander (Bradley) wants him to.
A example would be during/after Operation Cobra when Patton breaks out of the German Normandy defensive line and gets a chance to surround the German army and all their Western panzer divisions. Bradley tells Patton to stop where he was ordered to (Patton does) and let Montgomery meet up with him on the other side. This allows much of the German army in the Falaise pocket to escape (though mostly without their heavy equipment). If Patton had his own way he would have pushed that little bit further forward to complete the encirclement.
@@coling3957 You'd think there would be a convenient antagonist in a World War II movie...
@@Valdagast you mean maybe Germans?
@@danielharnden516 umm... yes.
@@PhillyPhanVinny good post,if not for the slappings who knows when the war ends,sooner IMHO
Also, Soviet tanks were left on soviet controlled territory and could be repaired, while Germans lacked enough movers to evacuate their damaged vehicles, and left them for soviets to capture or scuttled them
Yes exactly the opposite of 1941 and 1942 when the Germans controlled the battlefield and were able to retrieve and repair damaged tanks.
In 1941 and most of 1942 it was the other way around, with the Axis controlling the battlefield and able to salvage their own tanks and abandoned or damaged Soviet ones.
Another fine job Indy. Thank you.
It is simply amazing how well your videos are put together week after week. Indy's narrations are no small part, but the research and writing put everything in such a neat package. I think the visuals are just icing on the cake, although the maps really add to my understanding of the events. Well done, World War Two.
Thank you for your loyal support and your incredibly gracious words. Yours is a name I always enjoy seeing in the comments, and the whole team appreciates your kindness for their hard work. Stay tuned my friend
Thanks for the video.
I would strongly recommend Prit Buttar Retribution The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine 1943 which goes into great detail on the fighting along the Mius at Izyum and Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev and the recapture of Karkhov and the further successful offensives in Ukraine in 1943.
Thank you for the recommendation
Excellent book. Very readable, but also extremely scholarly. Definitely not a pop history (for better and for worse).
For those of you (like myself) with a smutty mind, if you find Feltre on a map of Italy, you may note that a few miles south west is a place called Arsie.
😂
Can't believe it's been 8 years since I started to follow the Great War channel...time sure flies.
Another great episode with great analysis and narrative and illustrations. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Terrific episode of a great turning point of this war on all fronts.
Another amazing episode, this channel and even the great war one is truly amazing
Thank you!
If anyone has ever been to Catania, you will understand why that city is worth defending. It is one of the most beautiful, amazing, and *totally underrated* cities in Europe.
As for the Canadians in the field this week, on July 18th troops from the 1st Canadian Division encounter heavy resistance from elements of the 15th Panzer Grenadiers outside the town of Valguarnera. The Germans hold Valguarnera in force, so the Canadians will have to take it. First Division regroup and the Hasty P's (Hastings and Prince Edward Regmt.) are ordered to make a nighttime advance across rugged, mountainous terrain to attack from the heights above the town. The 48th Highlanders of Toronto will attack from the hills to the south. The RCR attacks from along the main road. After a day of heavy fighting the Canadians push the Germans from Valguarnera, taking 145 casualties. The Germans take over 200 killed or wounded and 280 are captured. Albert Kesselring reports to Berlin that elite mountain troops are operating in Sicily "They are called Mountain Boys and are most certainly from the First Canadian Division".
Yes, this simply reflects the paucity of Canadian WW2 history available even today. Previous historians had zero interest in finding out what the Canadian army, air force and navy accomplished during the war and lazily lumped them into the "British" forces. This is a true disgrace to those historians of that generation and they shall have to live with the legacy of their lack of intellect and initiative. In the last 20 years, as more and more previously classified documents are unsealed from the British Archives at Kew, even what they did write is being proved to be inaccurate and virtually everything written in the 1990s and earlier is coming into disrepute. 🤔🤨🤷♂
Thanks Nick. Great context.
@@WorldWarTwo Do you intend to report more on the Canadian army sector in your updates on Sicily?
From the mountains of Toronto lol
Loving the time ghost army sponsors. The only sponsor that I never skip
Operation Alaric is maybe one of the most fitting names as operation names go (Germans taking over Italy)
It's terrible OPSEC though. If some German general slips up and mentions the name it's pretty clear what the intent of the operation would be.....
ROFL🤣...
Operation Theodoric would be a better one.
Great vid !
Enjoyed your video and so I gave it a Thumbs Up
great video 👍
Around 12:49 the infographic states 29,000 Italian losses, while the audio indicates 2,900.
Thank you Timeghost team
Thank you!
With the way the Kuban is being fought, you'd think Luigi Cardonas ghost has been possessing the Soviet commanders.
The past half year has really made me wonder if the AXIS had read Sun Tzu's Art of War, for there are several quotes that are in direct conflict with the AXIS strategies, from Stalingrad to Kursk, and from Midway to the Solomons/Operation Cartwheel
There is another quote - don't start a war with the rest of the world. Not a good strategy.
By this time in the war the Axis is at the point where they're reacting to the Allies' strategy most of the time instead of being free to write their own.
An interesting thing that happened this week on July 19 1943 is that the United States Navy will initiate Project Gorgon, which was a series of experimental remote-controlled missiles that could be used through air-to-air, air-to-surface or surface-to-surface. The missiles would be successfully test flown in March 1945, but guidance system limitations would mean that ultimately it would only become a purely technology demonstrator rather than any actual combat use.
@@jackdoyle7453 Oh yes, I heard of that, along with the bat bomb too, which I actually had put up a comment on a couple of weeks or months back in a previous episode. Pretty wacky things to come out of the war sometimes...
Regarding guided munitions, Germany was ahead, first operational deployment of Fritz X, a radio guided glide bomb, was in July 1943. The Henchel Hs 239, another radio guided glide bomb, was first used in August 1943.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 Yes, you are correct on this. Germany was ahead on this and actually even used this in combat against enemy ships as well.
@@gunman47 AFAIK they never got past the experimental stage on stuff like anti-ship missiles or homing torpedos for aircraft. With a bit more foresight prior to the war beginning, knowing they might have to make a cross-channel assault someday, they could have developed an aircraft-based anti-ship capability that would have driven the British Navy out of the Channel and made an invasion of Britain feasable. One of the biggest 'what ifs' of the war.
@@Raskolnikov70 Interesting, thank you for the context and additional information.
BATTLE OF PRIMOSOLE BRIDGE (1)
TO THE EAST, MONTGOMERY’S PLAN to make a bridgehead across the Simeto River at the Primosole Bridge was launched, with the objective of capturing the bridge by the evening of 14 July. The Malati Bridge which carried the road from Lentini to Primosole was to be captured by No 3 Commando which would land from the sea, while Primosole Bridge would be secured by 1st British Parachute Brigade parachuting in. Both operations would be carried out during the night 13-14 July. Within a few hours 50th British Division was to arrive at the respective bridges and to continue to drive northwards.
The enemy managed to frustrate the operation, not through having any plan to deal with the possibility that it might happen, but rather by chance and through the competence of the German commanders on the ground. Colonel Schmalz with his battle group from the Hermann Göring Division had established delaying positions on Mount Pancali just south of Carlentini on 11 July, which, as has been seen, slowed 50th Division’s movement northwards. The following day German reinforcements began to arrive at the Catania airfields, in the shape of 1st Parachute Division.
As soon as news of the Allied landings in Sicily had been received in Berlin, the 30,000 airborne troops of Fliegerkorps XI were placed on alert to reinforce the Axis forces on the island. Lieutenant General Richard Heidrich, commander of 1st German Parachute Division was ordered to Rome from his headquarters near Avignon in France by Kesselring, who told him that his formation was destined for Sicily; the following day Heidrich received an order from Göring himself to dispatch a parachute regiment to reinforce the Hermann Göring Panzrgrenadier Division ; as may be imagined from the division’s title, Göring had an interest in its wellbeing.
Colonel Heilmann’s 3rd Grman Parachute Regiment spearheaded the division’s move to Sicily. Having flown into Catania on 12 July to carry out his reconnaissance, he selected an area south of the city between the Simeto and Gornalunga Rivers for his regiment’s drop zone. No sooner had the details been transmitted back to Avignon, than 3rd Parachute Regiment took off in their Junker 52 aircraft. During their flight, they came under attack from about twenty P-38 Lightnings as they passed over the Straits of Messina - but the incident was short-lived as the American pilots were low on fuel and had to break off to return to their bases in North Africa. The transports were extremely vulnerable - not least because the flight was carried out in daylight hours - but fortune was on the Germans’ side. At 1815 hours the paratroops made a textbook drop.
Waiting for them was transport organized by one of Heilmann’s officers, who had flown out on the morning’s reconnaissance. 3rd Germsn Parachute Regiment was quickly on its way to Lentini to reinforce Schmalz. The 2nd Battalion was destined for Francofonte, and the remainder of the regiment was to defend the area between Carlentini and the sea. The next day, 13 July, the 1st Parachute Machinegun Battalion’s aircraft landed at Catania airfield. The battalion moved south, crossing the Primosole Bridge and took up positions about a mile south of the Simeto River, to the west of Highway 114. On the edge of an orange grove and hidden from the air, the paratroops were well-placed to interfere with any attempt to capture the bridge from the south.
Meanwhile the British 50th Division was working its way northwards on the inland road on the same day. 6th DLI (Durham Light Infantry), with a troop of tanks and artillery support, completed the capture of those enemy troops that had held positions astride the Solarino-Palazzolo road. The enemy were well dug in and the British had to mount a deliberate attack, which - as it turned out - was against greater numbers than expected. Resistance was not very determined, however, although considerable fighting took place and it was estimated that 100 to 150 Italians were killed and 400 more captured. Amongst the latter was the commander of the Napoli Division, General Gotti-Porcinari, and his staff, who were duly driven off into captivity on a Bren carrier. Amongst the equipment captured, much of it burnt out or destroyed by artillery fire, were fifteen much-needed lorries which were pressed into service. Of less immediate use were six R35 tanks and an assortment of artillery and anti-tank guns all abandoned by Italians.
As 69th Brigade continued its advance the opposition gradually became stiffer, and shortly before nightfall Brigadier Cooke-Collis reported back that the situation was no longer as promising as it had been when Montgomery had issued his orders. The leading troops from the brigade were about three miles south of Carlentini, facing a strong enemy rearguard which was bringing machine-gun fire on them from two features, one astride the main road and the second on Mount Pancali, which lay a little further on, and to the left of the road. Both of these positions overlooked the road for some distance. It seemed clear to both General Kirkman and Brigadier Cooke-Collis that capturing Lentini that night was very unlikely.
Unlikely it may have been, but at this late hour it was too late to propose a postponement of the plan. As happens so often in war, events assume a momentum of their own, and although the armchair historian can ponder at ease the ways in which things might have been done better, for those heavily involved in preparing for action at the time, things are rarely so cut and dried. Although the radio links from brigade, through corps and to Eighth Army Headquarters via HMS Bulolo were working, which would have allowed him to request that the operation be delayed, General Kirkman ordered 69th Brigade to continue working forward through the night. The artillery support for this advance could not be as effective as hoped, because the Gunner regiments had only just come into action and the enemy locations were only broadly known. Nevertheless, it was felt that if the brigade was facing Italians (and there was some evidence that this was the case) then the arrival of shells amongst them might be sufficient to scare them away.
During the night the 6th Battalion, The Green Howards pushed on and took the first of the enemy-held features, capturing a dozen German soldiers despite the expectation that the enemy rearguard was at least partly Italian. Any further movement was held up by the enemy on Mount Pancali, but on the positive side, word was received that No 3 Commando had landed without difficulty as part of the plan to capture the bridge over the Leonardo River.
The 7th Battalion, The Green Howards was ordered to attack Mount Pancali at 0700 hours, but the operation was delayed for an hour and a half after communications difficulties with one of the supporting Gunner units, 124 Field Regiment. As the infantry was about to set off a number of enemy tanks mounted their own attack, succeeding in knocking out a machine gun. They withdrew under artillery fire and the Green Howards moved off, clearing the objective by 1000 hours. Pancali had been held by about two hundred Germans, half of whom were killed in the battle , the rest captured. Twenty-nine German machine guns were captured on the mountain, many of which had been kept in action until the end.
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
I guess a guy named IAN would blow Monty's horn.Specially when Alexander yielded the prefered paved Highway 124 to Monty in the GIs sector when Patton went almost around the the 2/3 of the Island and took Palermo and Messina
Will you be covering Operation Safari, a German military operation to intern the remaining Danish armed forces on the 29th of August 1943? An event that would se the army interned, and the majority of the Danish fleet scuttled. Thank you in advance.
We'll cover it, Mr Kissinger.
@@WorldWarTwo it's DOCTOR Kissinger! hehehe
Love your vids. Peace from Berkshire
great video
Thank you Lewis
Superb series.
Thanks!
HI Indy
Another interesting episode.
So allies finally tightening noose on axis.
Awating for next week.
Thanks for the episode.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ya what he said
Thank you too!
Thank you for watching as always, see you next week.
Another great episode
Thank you for watching as always. Stay tuned for even more
This was a nice video. 1943 was sure an exceedingly interesting year of WWII.
Thoroughly enjoy your narratives.
Thank you Ed. Stay tuned for more every week
Timeghost, today is my birthday, I've been following you guys since Pearl Harbor and I'm a Patreon member, say congrats pls!! I love you people!!
Happy Birthday, and many more!
@@kirbyculp3449 Thanks man!
It's crazy how long the Germans were deluded that they could still win despite having no endgame whatsoever, pretty much since Stalingrad.
They always seem to think that they could reach an armistice with the Western Allies, and resume the crusade against "Judeo-Bolshevism". That was the strategy behind Operation Herbstnebel[Autumn Fog](a.k.a. the Battle of the Bulge ).
Bingo. No endgame, no exit strategy, no nada
Still can't believe that there is a front line near the city of Sloviansk across the Seversky Donec river at this moment too.
Yup, depressing. You'd hope we'd have learnt by now.
@Retired Bore Don river is in Russia. If you are trying to make a point about Donbass region, it didn't had much to do with WWII. There was not much of an industry there back then. It was a coal mining region but mines were devastated during Soviet retreat in 1941. No great battles there either.
@@Shleemaa A quick internet search 'Donbas 1942', would suggest you have no idea what you're talking about. Actually, your own statement, 'It was a coal mining region' rather undermines your statement that 'it didn't had much to do with WWII'. Think resources, logistics etc.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 Sure, I was only born there, but you are the person who is gonna teach me about the history of my homeland with one Google search.
Great photo of the B-36 without the 4 "burnin".
BATTLE OF PRIMOSOLE BRIDGE (3)
Little option remained for the commandos but to make their escape before they were all wiped out, but they had, at least, removed the demolition charges which had been laid on the bridge. Falling back to the hillsides to the west of the bridge, from which they hoped to be able to dominate it and hinder German activity in the area, they were pursued by shells from the Tiger which had crossed the bridge, and it became obvious that they could not stay. Splitting up into small parties, the surviving commandos made their way back towards the Agnone-Lentini road through the remainder of the day and following night. A number were taken prisoner, most of whom eventually returned to the unit in one way or another, some being freed when the Allied advance overran the locations in which they were being held. Casualties numbered twenty-eight killed, sixty-six wounded, and fifty-nine missing.
No 3 Commando had not managed to hold the bridge until the arrival of 50th Division, but its activities had distracted German forces from delaying that formation, and the bridge had not been blown. Two hours later the bridge fell to Germans it was recaptured back by British intact since all demolition charges were dismantled by commandos previously. At 1700 5th Battalion of East Yorks , 69th Brigade dispatched the German defenders around it and became the first British infantrymen to recapture Malati bridge which hastily retreating Germans had no time to destroy. That night 13th Corps commander General Dempsey remarked "The men of No: 3 Commando are the finest body of soldiers I have ever seen" Some while later, Montgomery ordered Durnford Slater to find a stonemason and have the inscription ‘3 Commando Bridge’ cut into a stone, to be built into the bridge. It is still there, as are some of the pillboxes.
By dusk a troop of tanks from 4th British Armored Brigade were a mile south of Primosole Bridge and along with 9th Durham Light Infantry , would soon join forces with whats was left of 1st British Parachute Brigade.
At the Primosole Bridge, the intention of 1st British Parachute Brigade was to land two platoons of the 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment and 1st Field Squadron Royal Engineers as close to the bridge as possible, and seize it by coup de main. Five minutes later, two platoons from the 3rd Battalion would land to capture the anti-aircraft battery which was situated nearby. The remainder of the 1st Battalion would then organize themselves in positions to defend the bridge, while 3rd Battalion would take up positions about a thousand yards north of Primosole, in a loop in the River Simeto. The 2nd Battalion was to take the high ground south of the river and capture three hills, codenamed Johnny I, II and III. Four DZs were to be used, two to the north and two south of the Simeto; a landing zone close to the southern end of the bridge was to be used by three gliders.
The parachute elements of 1st British Airborne Division (as compared to the glider-carried Airportable Brigade which was involved in the Ponte Grande operation on D Day) had been waiting in North Africa for their call to action. A proposed drop by 2 Parachute Brigade near Augusta had been cancelled once it had become clear that it was unnecessary, but eighteen hours later 1 Brigade was warned off for the Primosole operation, code-named FUSTIAN.
At sunset 105 Dakota aircraft of the American 51st Troop Carrier Wing and eleven Albemarles of No 296 Squadron RAF, carrying paratroops, took off from six airfields between Kairouan and Sousse, with Halifaxes and Stirlings towing gliders with the Royal Artillery’s anti-tank guns and their crews. Six aircraft, three of paratroops and three pulling gliders, failed to make the trip because of mechanical problems, but the remainder flew to Sicily by way of Malta. The next leg of the journey was northwards, five miles off the coast of Sicily, to the mouth of the Simeto River, where the aircraft turned inland to the DZs. As was now fast becoming a habit, the aircraft experienced trouble, being fired upon by Allied vessels. Fifty-five aircraft reported being shot at, and twenty-six aircraft had to return to base without dropping their loads because of damage from anti-aircraft shells and other causes. Eleven aircraft were shot down, and three more came down for other reasons. As pilots sought to avoid the flak, navigational mistakes were made, and some went adrift - thirty aircraft dropped their loads on the DZs, nine dropped near them, and forty-eight dropped their paratroops off-target by between half a mile and over twenty miles from the DZs. Only four of the gliders landed accurately, and another seven without undue damage but off the LZs. The strength on the ground, from the 1,856 men and twelve anti-tank guns that set out, was twelve officers, 283 men and three anti-tank guns.
Among those whose jump was disrupted was Brigadier Lathbury, whose pilot dropped his passengers at a height of only 200 feet onto high ground three miles south of the DZ. Fortunately for Lathbury, he landed on ploughed soil which cushioned his fall, and he set off with his batman - the only other paratrooper in sight - for the bridge10. Arriving at his intended DZ Lathbury found his brigade major and a depleted number of his staff, with few wireless sets. With the area illuminated by the fires of burning haystacks, the brigadier and his small party made their way to a ditch about 500 yards away from the bridge. After a few minutes Lieutenant Colonel Frost, limping from a twisted ankle which he had suffered on landing, appeared at the head of some fifty men of the 2nd Battalion, on their way to the high ground which they were to occupy to the south. They were amongst the comparatively small number of men who had landed on their intended DZ, but they were few in number. Frost went on his way, and more men began to arrive until Lathbury was able to form four groups, each of ten to twelve men. Three of these were briefed to rush the southern end of the bridge while the fourth was to provide covering fire.
As the party approached the bridge, which lay silently in the moonlight, a paratrooper emerged from the darkness to inform Lathbury that the 1st Battalion had already captured it. When a British glider crashed to the bridgespan in the dark , Italian security detachment guarding it , panicked and fled. A small group of Lieutenant Colonel Pearson’s men had stormed it from the northern side, but they evidently had not cleared it of the enemy, for as Lathbury moved across it, a lorry towing an 88mm gun - which the brigadier assumed had been captured - burst into life as its driver started throwing grenades at the paratroops before hurried away driving north. One of these grenades wounded Lathbury in the back and both thighs. He received some cursory first aid, which included a large tot of whisky, and was able to carry on, albeit rather more slowly than hitherto, to the north bank. Here he found about 150 men, including some Royal Airborne sappers who had removed the demolition charges from the bridge.
By daybreak the bridge was being defended by some 250 men from the 1st and 3rd British Airborne Battalions, supported by three anti-tank guns manned by three sergeants of the 1st Airlanding Anti-tank Battery, Royal Artillery, aided by some glider pilots. The defenders also had two 3-inch mortars and a Vickers machine gun. During night and dawn they ambushed several German truck and motorised convoys on the bridge or approaching to bridge , destroying several vehicles and inflicting a number of casaulties to Germans who were unaware of their presence and drove blindly into bridge only to be gunned down. In a farmhouse half a mile southeast of the bridge, a surgical team from 16th Parachute Field Ambulance had set themselves up. They were to carry out seventy-two operations during their time there, unhindered by patrols of German paratroops. A number of casualties were carried under fire to the main dressing station from the forward aid station in a mule-drawn cart, led by Staff Sergeant Stevens, RAMC.
To add to the confusion, groups of Italian soldiers were wandering about the battlefield looking for the opportunity to surrender. A solitary British sergeant had been approached by an Italian commando captain, who pleaded with him to accept the surrender of himself and his sixty men. The sergeant told them to get lost, which they did. The War Diary of the 3rd Battalion recorded that at 0700 hours Italians were emerging from all over the place, with their baggage in hand, and waving white rags. In the 2nd Battalion positions, over 130 had surrendered, and were proving to be an embarrassment, for the paratroops had more important things to worry about than crowds of docile prisoners. They were herded into a farmyard and left, unguarded. Eventually their numbers swelled to more than 500.
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
Great post! Thanks for adding to the narrative.
Best Documentary EVER!
Thank you! Best Gremlin ever
Thanks!
Thank you Robert
July 21st the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment ascends Assoro 2800 feet of near sheer cliff face to fight the Germans not a single man or piece of equipment dropped. Before the FSSF would do the same at La Defensa the Hasty Ps did it at Assoro
Like how Lepidus invades Sicily, except that this time it is the forces from the mainland under the other Triumvir giving up to him rather than the other way around.
the video at 6:43 shows old WWI and newer WWII stahlhelms in the same unit (first and second hemets differ) For a moment I thought I was watching a video about the Great War
Interesting to see how the battle west of Catania is developing with the Hermann Goring Division deployed near Misterbianco and where Naval Air Station Sigonella is now located. I’ve traveled all over southern Sicily while deployed to Sigonella and find this fascinating!
Thanks Todd! Stay tuned for more every week
Spoilers: the B36 will not see service in WW2. They also didn't see use in offensive combat operations in Korea either -- being used for reconnaissance instead -- since the Soviet MiG-15 fighter had rendered them obsolete.
In my best George C. Scott voice in the role of General George S. Patton: 'We're going to take Palermo!"
Patton somewhat more restrained. Not a description I would have expected to hear about Patton.
The Plot to Overthrow Mussolini's Fascism...well by Fascists
On the night of 10 July the Allies landed in Sicily. Despite expecting the invasion, the Italian forces were overwhelmed after initial resistance, and similar to Augusta (the island's most fortified stronghold), they collapsed without fighting. Within days, it became apparent that Sicily was going to be lost. On 16 July, Italian Foreign Minister Bastianini went to Palazzo Venezia (the Duce's seat) to show Mussolini a telegram to be sent to Hitler where he reproached the Germans for not sending reinforcements. After the Duce's approval, the undersecretary asked for authorization to establish contacts with the Allies. Mussolini agreed, under the condition of not being directly involved. The secret emissary was the Vatican banker, Giovanni Fummi, who was supposed to reach London via Madrid or Lisbon. On the same evening, Bastianini crossed the Tiber to meet Cardinal Maglione, Vatican Secretary of State, who received a document explaining the Italian position about a possible unilateral exit from the war.
After the fall of Tunis and Pantelleria, the majority of Italy believed that the war had been lost. The landing in Sicily accelerated the crisis, and the lack of resistance shocked the Fascists, who questioned why the Duce was not reacting. Those who looked to the King or Mussolini were at a standstill, and it was time for Italy to find an institution that was suitable to take political action.
Among the four existing state institutions, the Party, the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations, the Senate and the Grand Council, only the last two were suitable for action: the Senate because there were still quite a few anti- or pre-Fascist members, and the Grand Council since several members were against the Duce. A motion by 61 senators, on 22 July, asking to convene the Senate was blocked by Mussolini, and only Mussolini had the power to summon the Grand Council and determine its agenda. The only gerarca (except Roberto Farinacci, who started from opposite premises) with a clear plan to exit from the impasse was Dino Grandi. His idea was to depose Mussolini, let the King make a government without Fascists, and at the same time attack the German army in Italy. This could provide a chance that the declaration of Casablanca could be mitigated in the case of Italy. The new Party Secretary, Carlo Scorza, also developed his own plan. Like Farinacci, he thought the only solution was the political "embalming" of Mussolini and the pursuit of a total war. Farinacci acted in close cooperation with the Germans, but Scorza thought that the power should be assumed directly by the Party, which had been largely discredited in the previous few years. On 13 and 16 July, several Fascists led by Farinacci met in the main seat of the Party in Piazza Colonna and decided to go to Mussolini in Palazzo Venezia to ask for the convocation of the Grand Council. At the end of the meeting, Mussolini consented to convoke the supreme assembly of Fascism.
The group was divided: Farinacci and Scorza were for a totalitarian solution together with Germany, the others were in favor of giving the emergency war powers back to the King. Farinacci was isolated, and none of the moderate gerarchi had sufficient political clout to take the lead in such a situation. On 15 July, the King met Badoglio - who had declared to friends that he would organize a putsch with or without the King - and informed him that he would be the new head of government. Victor Emmanuel said that he was against a political government, and Badoglio should not seek an armistice in the first phase.
"Patton was somewhat more restrained" is not a phrase that I expect we'll hear often. 😆
Axis: *[get involved in a land war in Asia]*
Allies: *[go in against a Sicilian when Death is on the line]*
Love the running joke with the working telephones.
Excellent video 📹
The events in Rome changes every thing.
Wait for next week.
Thank you Beach Boy. See you next time
I didn't realise the B36 Peacemaker was ordered in 1943. Interesting note...
14:16 Guy at the window: " What are those morons up to now"
BATTLE OF PRIMOSOLE BRIDGE (2)
Off to the east 4th Armoured Brigade, under command of 5th British Division, was advancing on the coastal road towards Lentini, where the two northbound roads converged. In front of them, they encountered ten German tanks and some 88mm guns, which they drove off after inflicting losses of one tank and two guns on the enemy. 69th Brigade was by now extremely tired, and the troops were slow in regrouping after their exertions. In front of them German tanks and guns were identified south of Carlentini and brought under artillery fire, as 151st Brigade prepared to pass through and to take up the lead once Lentini fell. During the early afternoon both Carlentini and Lentini fell into the hands of 69th Brigade, and the weary soldiers were welcomed with scenes of celebration from the inhabitants. Behind them, along the road that they had advanced up from Sortino, burnt-out and burning vehicles were littered, blocking the way in several places. Enemy aircraft had managed to carry out a number of attacks during the afternoon, causing several casualties. On the 4th Armoured Brigade front, the first demolition of the campaign was encountered: a bridge had been blown near Carlentini. By 1700 hours, however, the tanks had succeeded in by-passing the obstacle and were moving through Lentini. At nightfall 4th Armoured Brigade and 9th DLI were a mile south of Primosole Bridge. It is now time to take a look at events there.
Malati Bridge and Primsole Bridge
Montgomery’s plan to leapfrog forward across the bridges at Malati and Primosole bears uncomfortable similarities to his attempt to do much the same thing, albeit on a grander scale, the following year in Holland - Operation MARKET GARDEN. On both occasions the objective was to capture bridges by special forces (in Sicily’s case, commandos and paratroops; in Holland, paratroops) to secure a route forward for the slower-moving earth-bound armoured and infantry formations before the enemy could stiffen up their defences. The broad planning concept apart, there were other similarities, for 1st Parachute Brigade under Brigadier Gerald Lathbury was tasked with capturing the bridges at both Primosole and Arnhem.
On 13 July Lieutenant Colonel Durnford Slater, CO No 3 Commando, was summonsed to Syracuse to be briefed on the operation by Generals Montgomery and Dempsey, and Admiral McGrigor. On the bomb-damaged quay, he was told that 3 Commando was to land from the sea at 2200 hours that evening, ten miles behind enemy lines. The unit would then march seven miles inland and seize the Malati Bridge which crossed the Leonardo River two miles north of Lentini. 50th British Division would relieve the commandos and cross the bridge on the road which continued north to Catania. Dempsey advised Durnford Slater to leave the bridge and hide up, should the division not appear by dawn the following morning. Durnford Slater had little time to brief and prepare his men. Commando landing ship HMS Prince Albert sailed immediately he returned aboard, and there were only two or three hours in which to plan and get organized.
The trip to their landing site, in the bay of Agnone, was not without incident. An E-boat emerged from the darkness and fired two torpedoes at the Prince Albert, which fortunately failed to hit the ship because of the quick-wittedness of her captain, who steered his vessel out of danger. On arriving at the disembarkation point, the commandos had to be put ashore in two waves, for the landing craft available could not take the whole unit ashore in a single run. As the assault boats were being loaded, the commandos could see Catania being bombed, along the coast to the north, and above them was the sound of the aircraft bringing the airborne brigade to the Primosole Bridge DZs.
Intelligence had indicated that the operation might be opposed by Italian troops on the coast, but thereafter it should be a clear run to the bridge. The opposition bit they got right, for the landing craft came under machine-gun fire from several pillboxes as they came ashore, after which the commandos were subjected to showers of grenades - a different affair from the unit’s landing on D Day. Durnford Slater was the first ashore, and was to be alone there for a while for the officer who was next in line to land, and who was carrying a Bangalore torpedo, managed to jam his load across the exit from the landing craft, preventing anyone else from leaving it until he had disentangled himself. The CO was exposed to the fire from four pillboxes while he waited for his men to catch up, but he was not unsupported, for the commandos were firing as their craft neared the shore. Having pushed their way through barbed wire entanglements as the troop commanders sounded their rallying calls with a hunting horn and whistles, the commandos proceeded to make their way inland. Durnford Slater was soon presented with a prisoner taken by his men. He was in German uniform, which went some way towards explaining the strength of the resistance that had been put up earlier. A series of what Durnford Slater called ‘violent little battles’ occurred over the next mile as the Commando advanced through the village of Agnone. German machinegun posts were well distributed in the area, and it was apparent that intelligence had not got the whole picture.
Once through the village progress became easier as the enemy outposts thinned out. Making their way inland along a railway line, the 160 officers and men from the first wave that had made it through the coastal defences (thirty had been left behind on the beach) continued towards their destination in the dark. On their way, they came across paratroops who had been dropped away from their DZs for the Primosole Bridge; these men declined an invitation to join the commandos, and made off to rejoin their airborne comrades. Leaving the railway the commandos progressed across country through low hills strewn with rocks and thorny bushes until they reached the river a mile or so below the bridge. Wading through the river to the north bank, so as to approach the bridge from the unexpected direction, they found it to be protected by four pillboxes. Within a few minutes these had been cleared of the enemy, Italian troops, the commandos attacking with grenades. They were now astride the main supply route for the Germans who were facing 50th British Division.
Having established a defensive perimeter around northern end of the bridge, Durnford Slater’s men settled down for the remainder of the night to await the arrival of 50th Division from the direction of Lentini. The next arrivals at the bridge were not British, but Germans, however. One troop of commandos was sent off to re-cross the river to the southwest of the bridge, but it was soon held up by heavy enemy opposition. The Germans to the south of the river began working their way around the left flank of the Commando. For the next hour or so until dawn broke, the Germans increased the pressure.
The defenders of the bridge were subjected to a mortar bombardment which lasted for some hours. By now their strength had risen to about 350 men as the second landing wave arrived, far too many to cram into the pillboxes for shelter. With the ground too stony to dig trenches, the exposed commandos began to suffer casualties. To add to their problems, a Tiger tank emerged from a group of trees south of the river and proceeded to add its weight to the bombardment. Despite the battle going on around the bridge, German lorries continued to approach it from the north, only to run into a troop of commandos which Durnford Slater had positioned a hundred yards up the road. The ammunition exploding in the burning vehicles added to the noise and chaos of the fighting. A young officer dispatched a lorry with his PIAT, at too close a range, for the ensuing explosion killed him as well as the enemy soldiers aboard it. Captain Bill Lloyd, with both legs broken by the mortar bomb which had landed at his feet, continued to fight, supported on a bicycle by two of his men until he was killed leading an attack on a German machinegun post5. With casualty numbers steadily mounting, Durnford Slater took the decision to order an attack on the Tiger tank. A troop of men moved into a house flanking it, under enemy fire; but the tank was beyond the effective range of their PIAT and the attempt failed.
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
Hey Indy! Your tie today is cool! Do you have to buy all your ties in bulk? Or do you just have these laying around?
They emerge one-by-one from the wardrobe and greet Indy with whimsy before each episode taping.
IIRC, it has been previously noted that the bulk of the ties are second-hand. Indy lives in Europe now. He was raised in Houston. An astronomical potentional for collection, on the scale of an army, is possible. I have a theory about the origins of the ties and believe that a good will effort has helped to secure the supply.
A wonderful Introducing & Wonderful Logic Questions introducing about Foes Armies on occupied USSR Territories ....Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching as always. See you next time
History never felt so good.
Hey guys. At some point during the Italian campaign, could you do a piece on Audie Murphy?
@William Henderson he certainly had quite a career but that is not really the type of topic we cover. We try to steer clear of celebrating the combat prowess of soldiers
Excellent video guys! A special video on the coup to overthrow Mussolini would be amazing
Thank you Chris. Every episode is a great investment of research, time, and money. We do our best to cover the action of this war every single week and to bring you special episodes regularly, but we can't do it without your support! Join the TimeGhost Army today and help us make more of those specials! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@WorldWarTwo I'm a member 😉
I will likely be visiting Dachau concentration camp, alone, when tomorrow’s WAH video is uploaded. Since I was little, I have taken very serious interest in the history of the Second World War.
When I was 16, two years ago, I discovered timeghost and this channel, and since have watched nearly every single video. While even as a child I could spill information related to the subject, the past two years have given me a much greater level of maturity for various reasons (covid, growing up, other personal reasons, etc.). But With that I have also gained a far more sober appreciation of what this history means to me. It is no longer the obsession of a younger me, it is the passion which I find of the utmost importance In the world we live in today.
If any others in a similar situation may read this, I hope you feel the same. It’s no longer a far away tale which symbolizes good versus evil. Through your work, TimeGhost, I have opened my eyes to the reality of the world and how decisive we must be to protect it. Your work has made me become more emotional, more aware and in tune with how the consequences of our past affect our present and future, but also how the lessons of the past MUST be heeded.
I know tomorrow will be exceeding difficult. I know I will cry. This content you make, after excruciating hours of work, research and writing is one of the most important things to me, in my life. It has changed me and my view of the world that I would hope you would appreciate. Thank you timeghost. Never forget.
Thank you Ben. I appreciate you taking the time going to the camp, and thank you for watching & helping us remember the victims of this war. Never forget.
Thank you for remembering history with us, no matter how challenging or painful. I hope your trip was enlightening.
0:47 I’d know I’d be throwing hands if someone messed up that bad.
BATTLE OF PRIMOSOLE BRIDGE (4)
The German response was not long in coming. Firstly a group of Messerschmitts strafed the bridge, without causing much damage, and then an attack was launched, not from the north as expected, but from the south. The German paratroops (Fallschirmjäger), supported by mortar fire, kept up pressure from that direction throughout the day, and were only held off with difficulty. Their presence in the area, it will be remembered, was as a result of the move of elements of 1st Parachute Division from France; those attacking the bridge from the south were from 1st Parachute Machine gun Battalion, which had only arrived in the area the previous day.
To the north of the river, news of the British landing had been taken to Catania by a German motorcycle despatch rider who had approached the bridge at about 1030 hours, only to come under a hail of fire. He reported back to Captain Stangenberg, one of the officers who had arrived on the reconnaissance, who went to look for himself. Having confirmed the report, Stangenberg gathered twenty men together and returned to the bridge, only to be seen off by the defenders. Not content to let matters rest there, he assembled the only available troops, a company of signallers from the 1st Parachute Communications Battalion, commanded by Captain Erich Fassl. With these and a collection of clerks, cooks and headquarters personnel, some 350 men in all, he set off to mount a counterattack at Primosole. To support this, he arranged for a heavy anti-aircraft battery (comprising one 88mm gun and an old 5cm artillery piece) to provide artillery cover. With his motley headquarters collection advancing down the road leading from Catania and the signals company ordered to cross the river to the east of the bridge and to turn the British right flank, Stangenberg opened his attack shortly after 1300 hours. It was repelled with little difficulty, but the Germans were soon able to augment their artillery with a self-propelled 88mm gun and some anti-tank guns, with which they pounded the British positions.
Around the bridge British spirits were high, and rose still further when some casks of wine were discovered in a pillbox. At about 0930 hours one of the wireless sets had displayed a brief spell of life and permitted contact with Eighth Army, giving the information that 4th Armoured Brigade was fighting its way towards the bridge against stiff opposition. The wireless then gave up the ghost and died. The hours passed, but the brigade did not arrive. German Fallschirmjäger attacks continued, and were repelled with increasing difficulty. In their slit trenches and the captured pillboxes, the British paratroops held on, but it was becoming apparent that it was only a matter of time before they were driven off. By 1700 hours the situation was such that it was necessary to withdraw the defenders from the north end of the bridge to support those at the south, who were under continuous and increasing fire. The Fallschirmjäger had also crossed the river lower down and were trying to turn the defenders’ flank.
An hour later the Germans brought up an 88mm gun with which they shelled the two pillboxes at the southern end of the bridge, on which the defence was based. With their positions becoming untenable, casualties mounting and ammunition decreasing, and as yet no sign of 4th Armoured Brigade, it was readily apparent that the time was fast approaching to leave. From the south, where Frost’s 2nd Battalion was supposed to be holding the high ground of Johnny I, II and III, there was no sound. Lathbury determined to pull back to these positions to join Frost - or if he should prove not to be there, to the positions that he was to have taken. Here the remaining paratroopers would make a last stand, hoping to hold out until relieved from the south. With German tanks beginning to make their appearance on the battlefield, there was no alternative. In small groups the survivors of 1 Parachute Brigade slipped away, but the field ambulance fell into enemy hands. On Johnny I, men from the 2nd Battalion held a defensive perimeter throughout the day. It had been captured, together with 130 Italians, by an officer and twenty-five paratroops, but the message that they had sent advertising this fact had not got through. By 0215 hours, Frost and his group which had passed Lathbury earlier, now enlarged with A Company, were making preparations to attack the position. Fortunately the state of affairs became clear at about 0530 hours, and a ‘friendly fire’ situation was avoided. Johnny I was secure, but Frost’s battalion had no heavy weapons, and could not retaliate when the enemy began to fire on them from Johnny II, which the paratroops had not been able to capture.
The battalion, such as it was, came under attack by Fallschirmjäger from three directions. A patrol sent out to deal with enemy machine guns was badly mauled by three armoured cars, and the decision was taken to withdraw the forward troops. Under pressure, subjected to sniping and hindered, as has already been noted, by Italian prisoners milling around, some relief came when Captain Vere Hodge, RA, the forward observation officer, succeeded in contacting HMS Newfoundland, a six-inch cruiser, which brought down heavy fire on the advancing Germans and repelling them for good.
The British paratroops and German Fallschirmjäger continued to battle it out until about 1930, when the first Sherman of 4th Armoured Brigade appeared south of Johnny I. Two hours later the first infantry arrived, a company of 6th DLI (Durham Light Infantry). They had covered some twenty miles on foot, marching through the heat of the day which had reached ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and were in poor shape for continuing the fight. With the Shermans of 44th Royal Tank Regiment on the scene, the Germans on the south of the Simeto withdrew to the area of the bridge. Although the opportunity to keep the momentum of the advance going by pushing quickly ahead might have taken the Primosole Bridge, the troops were in no condition to carry out such an operation, and the British settled down for the night.
The tanks leagured on the heights overlooking the Catania Plain, at the far side of which was the city of Catania, about twelve miles away and just visible in the evening light. Beyond it rose Etna, the sight of which drew a number of spectators, who were shortly driven away by shells from a German tank below, the occupants of which were evidently unhappy with the British presence.
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
Crossing the Simeto
At first light on 15 July A and B Squadrons of 44th RTR (Royal Tank Regiment) moved down the slopes towards the Primosole Bridge, which was strewn with the debris of the previous day’s fighting, particularly around the south end where a subsidiary road joined the highway. Here the destroyed pillboxes stood among felled telegraph poles and wire, and the dead bodies of seven or eight mules from an Italian pack train. In the heat, the smell was unbearable and the place was soon dubbed ‘Dead Horse Corner’. The 400-foot long bridge lay in the middle of a horseshoe loop in the Simeto River, the open end of which was to the north, and at this point the water was about thirty yards wide with a muddy bottom and banks, on which grew patches of tall weeds. At that time of year the river, slow-moving, was about waist deep, although in places hollows in its bed brought the water over a man’s head. At a distance of 700 yards to the west of the bridge the Gornalunga River joined the Simeto from the south. It was embanked, and canal-like. To the east of the bridge the Simeto wound its way to the sea, about a mile and a half away, through marshy flats with little cover. For a distance of a thousand yards to the east and somewhat more to the west of the bridge, the north bank had a belt of vines, fruit trees and olives which extended about 500 yards northwards. At the far side of this vegetation, running parallel to the river, was a track which in places was sunken and which contained the occasional farm building. The ground is described in the Official History as ‘a hole-and-corner area’ full of ‘lurking-places’.
Still further north of the river lay the Catania Plain, which was comparatively bare but across which ran a number of drainage ditches, the biggest being the Fosso Bottaceto, a dry irrigation channel ten feet deep on the southern outskirts of the Catania airfield defences. Highway 114 ran northwards from Primosole to Catania over this flatland.
The German forces around Primosole were strengthened during the night of 14-15 July. After the appearance of British armour the initial response of Grman paratroopers had been to pull back to the Catania defences, but Captain Stangenberg managed to get this plan reversed, and to persuade the powers that be that the Simeto crossing should be held. At last light on the 14th more aircraft appeared over Catania airfield to drop three companies of the 1st Fallschirm-Pionier Battailon, the parachute engineers, onto Sicilian soil. These 450 men were immediately sent south to the bridge. Two companies were deployed south, the third north, of the river. The machine gun battalion that had fought throughout the 14th took up positions to the west, on the north bank of the river, and Fassl’s company from 1st Parachute Communications Battalion was positioned along the sunken road. In addition, there were the scratch force of headquarters personnel, part of a parachute artillery battery armed with 7.5mm guns, at least two 88mm anti-aircraft guns, and a couple of Italian battalions. Schmalz’s group and a battalion of 3rd German Parachute Regiment had fallen back to the Catania area, having disengaged themselves from the front further west, and to add to the German strength building against 50th British Division, various other reinforcements were beginning to arrive.
With A Squadron to the right of the road and B to the left, 44 RTR advanced with 9th DLI (Durham Light Infantry) as the battalion mounted its attack on the bridge at 0730 hours. 24th and 98th Field Regiments RA provided artillery support. The infantry moved forward in open formation across the open ground, as heavy machine-gun fire was brought down on them from the vineyards on the other bank of the river. Casualties were heavy and only the odd platoon was able to cross the Simeto. Once there, they engaged the Germans in hand-to-hand fighting, but to no avail. Forced to turn back, the survivors dug in on the south bank, from which position they were able to stop the enemy from laying demolition charges on the bridge by accurate small arms fire. It was all they could do under the circumstances - casualties numbered over one hundred men, including eleven officers. Any attempt by infantry or armour to cross the bridge was met by fire from mortars and 88mm guns. The Shermans suffered losses as well: several were knocked out by 88mm fire and one went up on a minefield that had been laid to the right of the road.
As 9th DLI (Durham Light Infantry) advanced to attack, their sister battalion, 8th DLI, moved to the area around Dead Horse Corner, followed by 6th DLI. General Kirkman arrived at Brigade Headquarters at about 1000 hours, and it was decided to renew the attack at 1630, with 8th DLI. The battalion would get even heavier artillery support than before. However, this intention was put into abeyance after General Dempsey appeared just before noon, with a wider plan. 50th British Division was still to cross the Simeto, but in concert with troops from 17th Brigade and two Royal Marine Commandos which were to attack Catania from the sea during the night of 16/17 July. Once the bridge had been captured, 5th Division was to pass through. Kirkman therefore decided that 151st Brigade should renew its attack by moonlight in the early hours of the 16th. More artillery would be available by that time - two field regiments and one medium battery would join the Gunner units already present.
Towards evening though the tables turned in favour of British partially. Due to some misunderstood orders (German communications could be as bad as British sometimes) German paratroop engineer company , defending the southern end of Primosole bridge suddenly evacuated its defensive positions and retreated across the bridge back to northern end of Simeto river and 9th DLI troops captured their positions at southern end of bridge. After that 6th DLI with supportt of 4th Armored Brigade began clearing and mopping up 1st German Machine Gun Battalion positions isolated south of Simeto river which was complated by evening. Meanwhile, the infantry and tanks continued to exchange fire with the enemy both sides of river. Accurate sniping made even the most basic of functions difficult, and the RTR history records that at one stage a troop commander was conferring with one of the DLI battalion commanders in the shelter of a tank, when a hand emerged from the flap above the co-driver’s position bearing a used shell-case. The case was tipped, to discharge a steady stream of yellow liquid onto the colonel’s steel helmet, a christening which was unappreciated and which led to a temporary cooling of infantry-tank cooperation. (which was always problematic in British Army)
Blackwell, Ian. Battle for Sicily: Stepping Stone to Victory .
With 9th DLI engaged on the riverbank and 6th DLI stationed two miles to the rear to cover the brigade’s open flank, it fell to 8th DLI to mount the assault. Two companies were to wade the river half a mile west of the bridge, swing right and outflank the bridge defences from the northern bank. The rest of the battalion would then cross the bridge, to extend the penetration a thousand yards northwards. At 0230 hours on 16 July A and D Companies forded the river and established a foothold. Their route had been identified with the assistance of Lieutenant Colonel Alistair Pearson, CO of 1st Parachute Battalion, who had appeared - unshaven, dirty, tired, with no badges of rank and in plimsolls - at 8th DLI’s headquarters when the Durham’s CO, Lieutenant Colonel Lidwell, was outlining his plan. The reconnaissance Lidwell had carried out had been unpromising, for he had failed to find a suitable place to ford the river. A direct assault on the bridge appeared suicidal, for the enemy had their weapons concentrated to stop any such attempt, but Pearson had found a possible way across further upstream and was prepared to lead the Durhams to the place despite having already spent more than twenty-four hours in battle.
For an hour and twenty minutes before the infantry attack, the artillery laid down a barrage in the area of the bridge and the vineyards immediately north of the river, extending for 500 yards left of the bridge. The last ten minutes of this concentration were on the bridge, and was supported by fire from a squadron of tanks and machine-gun fire from a platoon of the Cheshire Regiment stationed on high ground overlooking the bridge. On such a narrow front, the noise was deafening. Led by their commanding officer, the two companies waded into the water at points about fifty yards apart. They crossed without serious difficulty or opposition, although several men temporarily disappeared into holes in the river bed. Both of the companies’ wireless sets ‘drowned’ in the crossing, presenting the CO with the problem of communication back to the troops on the southern bank.
Gathered on the far bank, the two companies proceeded to work their way eastwards towards the bridge. Pushing their way through the vineyards would have been a difficult enough task in daylight, and was more so in the darkness. Contact had to be maintained by soldiers calling out their section and platoon numbers to each other as they advanced. Fortunately for them, the Germans had pulled back some three or four hundred yards northwards. Although a certain amount of machine-gun fire was directed at the Durhams from the enemy positions, the fact that tracer was being used made it simpler to avoid the streams of bullets which were being fired ‘blind’.
At the north end of the bridge, the few German defenders that had not already withdrawn or that had not become casualties of the artillery barrage were quickly dispatched with the aid of grenades, bayonets or Tommy-guns. Since demolition charges on bridge span were dismantled and dropped to the river below previously by airborne sappers when they captured the bridge the night before , Primosole bridge was recaptured by 8th DLI. D Company established itself near the bridge, while A Company pushed about 500 yards further along the river bank to the east and dug in a hundred yards north of the Simeto, where it turned sharply left. In the vineyards, thickened by tall grass, shrubs and trees, where visibility was very limited, they were constantly harried by Spandau fire and attempts to infiltrate the position by Fallschirmjäger.
Lidwell now had to summons the rest of his battalion from the south. His wirelesses were dead, the sole 2-inch mortar flare which had been successfully fired - most of the remainder had gone astray in the dark - was not seen by the reinforcements. As a back-up to these methods two officers had been ordered to station themselves at the south end of the bridge in a Bren carrier, but when Lidwell reached it he found that the carrier had suffered a direct hit which had killed one officer, the driver and the wireless operator, seriously wounded the second officer, and rendered the wireless set useless. The only remaining option was to use one of the Sherman tanks to relay a message, but when Lidwell climbed aboard one and tapped the commander on the head to attract his attention, the man disappeared and closed the hatch, refusing to emerge. At this stage, almost surreally, a War Office observer pedalled up on a bicycle. He was immediately sent back to order the rest of 8th DLI forward. All of this delay meant that B and C Companies did not set out until just before dawn. Advancing on either side of the road, they ran into the enemy about 300 yards north of the bridge.
The leading men got to within a few yards of the Spandaus before the Germans opened fire. The forward sections of both companies were cut down, the leading platoon of B Company being practically wiped out. Disappearing into the ditches along the roadside the Durhams returned fire. B Company, to the left, brought their Bren guns into action, while C Company outflanked the Germans on the open country to the right. A handful of men rushed the enemy position and forced the Germans to retire, but the party was shot down almost on top of a machine gun emplacement. B Company then went into the vines after the Fallschirmjäger with bayonets fixed. In the close vegetation, in the shadows, the Germans were waiting, and a deadly game of hide-and-seek developed in which it was hard to tell friend from foe. It was every man for himself, with no quarter asked or given, and within twenty minutes both sides had fought themselves to a standstill. The Germans and the leading half of B Company suffered nearly a hundred percent casualties, and the only men left in the area that had been fought over were the dead or wounded. Some of the Durhams, including the company commander, had reached the sunken road four hundred yards from the river, but after a fierce exchange of bullets all were killed or wounded. One British sergeant reduced to fighting with his fists against his German opponents when he run out of ammunition. One British after action report summarised the whole : "I have never seen such a carnage" German paratroops retained possession of the position though they lost the bridge span intact to British .
The rear part of B Company, about forty men with no knowledge of the existence of the sunken road, attempted to advance to their original objective but in fields just in front of the enemy positions they came under automatic fire and showers of grenades, which forced them into the vineyards. As the breaking dawn improved visibility, the existence of the sunken road became clear - as did the vulnerability of their situation. With difficulty they withdrew to the shelter of an embankment surrounding a farmhouse to the rear.
C Company, to the right, had been whittled down and by first light was without officers. The survivors occupied scattered locations. A Company had a comparatively quiet night, but just before dawn enemy activity ceased - an indication that an attack was to be expected shortly. As soon as it became light the two platoons on the right of the company position came under attack and were overrun. The Fallschirmjäger had worked their way up under cover of the vines, and fierce fighting took place in the section positions. Casualties were high on both sides, and the surviving Durhams were pushed back to the river bank but held their shallow bridgehead with help of British artillery gunfire support from south bank of river that repulsed German counter attack. Some of them swam across to safety but most held their position. The third platoon and A Company Headquarters were forced to retire to the bridge.
At 0600 hours 8th DLI held a salient some 300 yards deep and wide on the north bank. The bridge was under constant enemy fire and could only be crossed by armoured vehicles. The brigade commander, who had gone forward to see conditions for himself, was marooned on the north bank where he had to stay until a Bren carrier became available to carry him back. It was a precarious position, and the battalion had suffered heavily. An attempt to bring two Shermans across the bridge in support came to nothing as they were forced to retreat by an 88mm gun, firing on them from a range of eight hundred yards. At 0630 the Battalion Carrier and Mortar Platoons were ordered forward across the bridge, and provided welcome support - as did the self-propelled artillery pieces named, Priests, stationed to the south. Fire from these destroyed one of the German 88mm guns, but others remained. Two anti-tank guns followed across the river, and a second attempt was made to bring Shermans forward. Three crossed the bridge, two of which were soon knocked out by the 88mm gun.
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
At 1330 hours Generals Montgomery and Dempsey came forward to assess the situation. What they saw convinced them that the planned amphibious operation against Catania had to be postponed until the night of 17/18 July. They also ordered General Kirkman to mount another attack that night, to enlarge the bridgehead.
This time the attack would be a larger-scale affair. With 8th DLI holding the salient on the north bank - however precariously, because the Germans were maintaining their pressure on the bridgehead at short range - the other two battalions in the brigade, 6th and 9th DLI, would make the same river crossing upstream and then advance on the left and right sides, respectively, of Highway 114. Their objective was a line running east-west across the northern end of the loop in the river. The attack would be supported by 3rd City of London Yeomanry, which would exploit the breakthrough with their Shermans, and by an artillery concentration laid down by six artillery regiments - a total of 159 guns. The attack was scheduled for 0100 hours on 17 July.
The Germans were not caught napping. As the two battalions moved across the river and into their attack positions astride the road, they came under heavy machine-gun fire, the tracers criss-crossing the road in the night. The Fallschirmjäger stood their ground until they were shot down, even in positions in the sunken road after the advance had passed through them. The weight of the attack decided the issue, however, and when the Shermans crossed the Primosole Bridge at 0700 hours the end was in sight.
Deployed on both sides of the road, the tanks pressed through the vineyards, shooting at everything before them while Durham infantrymen cleaned out German positions one by one and knocked out last Grman anti tank gun. Under combined tank and infantry attack supported by artillery , German paratrop soldiers began surrendering, white handkerchiefs waving, and by mid-morning mopping-up operations were complete , almost two German paratroop battalions were wiped out at Primosole bridge but its recapture cost heavily for their opponents too. Not all of the Fallschirmjäger surrendered gracefully, however. One German paratrooper, wounded, managed to throw a grenade towards British troops before slashing his own wrists screaming H. Hitler meanwhile. Another, who was camouflaged and in the branches of a tree, was ordered to climb down and surrender. Without ammunition, he nevertheless continued his resistance by spitting at the two soldiers who waited at the foot of the tree. Durham infantrymen shot him. German paratroop engineers battalion commander Captain Paul Adolff tried to blow up the bridge with suicide attack resembling suicide bombers of decades later , by driving a truck full of explosives on it and detonate when the truck was on span. He also failed and was shot fatally on the drivers seat before his truck closed near to the bridge which remained intact.
The performance of the Fallschirmjäger at Primosole Bridge was held in high regard, even by their opponents. The London Times of 27 August 1943 stated:
"They fought superbly. They were troops of the highest quality, experienced veterans of Crete and Russia: cool and skilful, Nazi zealots to a man and fanatically courageous. To fight against them was an education for any soldier."
As he was being led into captivity, the German commander was approached by the CO of 9th DLI, who shook his hand. British intelligence officer Hugh Pond wrote : "Those German paratroopers captured and taken rear for interrogation remained hostile and arrogant in face of all threats and interrogation. Some spat in faces of their captors , others refused to share even their rank and serial number. Brothel tickets found on them indicated as proof to Allied interrogators that the unit had been in Southern France recently" According to Brigadier De Guingand one German paratroop liutenant captured while wearing civilian clothes and informed that according to this breach of Geneva Conventions he was liable to be shot. He replied : "This is quite understood. I took the risk and failed , I deserve it , H. Hitler" During the fighting for the bridge the three battalions of the Durham Light Infantry suffered some 400 casualties killed , wounded and missing total. More than 300 German dead were found in the area. Further 255 German paratroops were captured. Number of German wounded estimated much more.
Surviving German paratroopers retreated to Fosso Bottecato (Germans nicknamed Tank Ditch , a shallow sunked path parallel to coastal road and two miles north of Primosole bridge) and joined with reinforcements incoming in shape of 4th German Parachute Regiment , recently dropped to Catania and Battlegroup Schmalz of 15th Panzergranedier Division and Italian Napoli Division artillery arm all deployed for defending on southern end at outer edges of Etna Line . There they would check the advance of Eighth Army till end of July. Montgomery instead have to take a very toiling and a time consuming outflanking maneuver with his 30th Corps to outflank and cut off Etna Line defences and Catania from further west and north by turning over Mount Etna. The struggle at Primosole Bridge might have ended with a British sucess but time wasted to capture it , stalled 13th Corps advance to Catania and Messina.
Although the fighting for the bridge was over, the Germans continued to interfere with Allied traffic across it, for they shelled it with a heavy gun from some miles away, causing a number of casualties. At the junction of Highway 114 and the sunken road, re-named ‘Stink Alley’ (or variations, all of which reflected the stench of bodies that had to lie there awaiting burial), the Durham Brigade later erected a memorial. The words upon it read:
"This memorial has been erected To keep fresh the memory of the soldiers of 151st Durham Infantry Brigade who gave their lives for their Country and the cause of the Freedom during the Sicilian Campaign 10 July - 17 August 1943 It is placed here because it was during the actions round the Porte Primosole 14 - 17 July 1943 that the Brigade experienced the fiercest fighting in which it took part during the Campaign"
Battle For Sicily - Ian Blackwell
Was there an operational lull in the northern sector? I understand Leningrad was reached late ‘41 but has this area just been on pause? Have troop’s been slowly stripped from this area?
In 1943 there was not a lot of activity in the northern sector. After the fighting in January 1943 Operation Iskra which opened a land route to Leningrad but failed to raise the siege no major offensives were launched until winter1943-1944
You're my favorite presenter of this channel
Since you say both the Germans and Soviets beat the living hell out of each other in this fight. I like to think of Kursk as a boxing match. Its in the later rounds, and the German scores a knockdown on the Soviet fighter, but he beats the count at 5. The Soviet fighter then goes and scores a knockdown on the German, and the German only manages to get up, and beat the count at 8, and is looking really wobbly. The fight likely won't go the distance at this stage.
Walter Model FINALLY grew a pair and just actually took command-something others should have tried earlier! When I have had reluctant superiors in the past, I often took the path of 'it's often wisest to ask forgiveness than permission!'
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What happened to Ww2 day by day on Instagram? It stopped weeks ago and no word about it had been said. I really loved to read it tho 😔
B 36s are so cool. They were never built in WWII. Really like Indie. Hope he finds the Holy Grail and puts it in a museum.
They were planned at the start of WWII though. The US heard about the German plans for an 'Amerikabomber', laughed at the possibility and then thought about it for a minute...
By this point the war is pretty much lost for the axis.
well, we may understand the general situation better, but I have some major concerns about the use of corporal punishment in certain private circumstances
Okay, been watching now for quite some time and I seem to notice a "flag dance" week after week. Is there some reason or "code" maybe an "Easter egg" hidden there?
I am a doctor(sorta) and I approve subscribing to TimeGhost Army!
Thank you Andrei! We have a new tenth doctor
Fine telling.
Thank you Simon