appendix to seaforth war diary, july 43 company narratives

8/13/2019 Appendix to Seaforth War Diary, July 43 Company Narratives

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1Apeendix to Seatorth War Diary, July, 194,. (Company Narratives)

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B COlo B Coy, commanded by Capt. F. Middleton, landed on Sicily as reservecompany t the battalion on July 10th, the landing was unopposed andthere were no casualt ies. The Coy m o v e d ~ e d i a t e l y to the battalionRV and then prooeeded as l e t t torward coy t bn to the objective. I twas on th is object ve that the coy t i r s t caJIle under heavy t ire} no caeual t ies . On the night t D 1 the coy moved ot t with the bni the toll-oving days were spent moving forward on toot, and at te r a long march t in-ally took up a position near PIAZZA ARMERINA on July 18th. The bnmoved ot t the , tollowing morning, -and when A and 0 coys came under enemyt i re B coy was ordered to make encircling movement; however, no contact wae made with the enemy, and the remainder t the day was S P ~ D tinreet .Jul 19 Moved of t at 2100 hrs; proceeded torward unti l 0500 hrs.

Jul 20 Enemy sighted and B coy ordered to dig in on tace t hil l . Ooy sub-jected to t i re t mortar and 88 mm. Oasulaties, 2 killed, 2 \lC)unded.RemUned there tor day and moved ot t at night towards LeOntorte.

Jul 21 Occupied hi l l tacing LEONFORTE and la id amoke and gave covering f i reto cover withdrawal t D Ooy trom outskir ts t town. At 1500 hra. thecoy sent out patrol . t 22 men to draw enemy t i re whUe remainder t bnassault .d the town. Patrol caJlle under heavy cross t i r e and were pinneddown t i l l dusk. when they ~ t h d r e w under an art i l lery and MG barrage.Castor th is patrol were 4 kil led a nd \lC)unded. The patrol returnedon the morning of July 22nd, carrying their \lC)unded. At 1500 hrs 21July the remainder t B coy was tormed up t r aaaault on town, but caJIleunder intense t i re and the assault was postponed. Oas 2 ki l led , 9\lC)unded. 2 died t wunds la te r . In the evening B coy, plus some volunteers trom other coys, was sent out on patrol under Major Bell-Irving.The coy had di t f icul ty locatin their recce party arid t inal ly reformedwith 2 pls and pushed on towards the town. No 11 Pl was separated tromthe remainder and attempted to proceed alone. They ran into heavy f i retrom 4 MMGs and t inal ly retu,rned on the morning o t July 22 after suffering cas of 2 ki l led, 2 \lC unded and 1 mieeing. In the meantime the remainder o f the patrol had attempted to enciDcle the town but ran intosome enemy tanks, tp t and were pinned down t i l l morning. Started to moveback just betore dawn and took 5 prisoners on the way. Ran into 1 enemypl but finally returned to Bn at 1700 hrs on July 22.

Jul 2 Held positon fbr counter attack24 Moved into S ~ R O t r 48 hrs reet .Jul 26 Received reints and moved o t with bn at 1900 hrS} p,aaaed throughNI,SSORIA AN D PUSHED ON.Jul 27 Kept moving and t inal ly took up sposition with A coy. Oas 1 kil led.ordered to clean out enemy trom next hi l l in afternoon, but found noenemy there. At 1800 hrs 'B coy rushed up on carr iers to support A.coyon hi l l weet t AGIRA. OaJlle under heavy f i re in orchard. Oaa 4 \lC)unded.Pinned down by mortar f i re in evening and had dif t icul ty crossing thecountry.Jul 28 Joined A coy on hi l l and went into rest . (NS Some of these dates areecrewy)


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Appendix to Seaf WD. July. 194, (Ooy narratives - 2)Aug B coy, now under command of Oapt. W Harrie. moved off with bn on tp t .5 On deb.aeing they moved behind 0 coy towards objective, which waa in the

hi l ly country just north of SALSO R. The coy came under f i re during thenight, but by dawn had reached the obj. They were, however, ordered backand af ter withdrawing spent the remainder of the morning and aft. in res t .At 1800 hrs B opy was ordered to capture hi l l jus t east of TORINA R. Thisassault was oarried out successfully with the 1 0 8 8 o f 1 ki l led an 1 ~ u n d e d

Aug 6 B coy was kept in reserve while A and 0 coys took final obj. The coy thWithdrew with the bn for 5 days res t .Supp Ooy

While on the highseas speoulation was r i fe within the coy as to ourdestination. This was not made known to us unt i l we were appx. 2 weeksout at s ~ a From then on, while on board ship the t roops were' br1e led nevery possible way as to the landing beash i t se l f ; aleo pos.it ions andest strength of the enemy; also general plan of at tack, giving us int'm reour own forces. The in i t ia l landing of the coy was very dif f icul t owningto a sandbar which was at our part icular beach. THe LOI could not get. inclose enough to ensure a quick landing, the result being that the men hadto swim ashore with the aid of a rope which wae stretched from the LOI toshore. Great difficulty was further entailed in t rying to unload , . Msand bombs. The unloading was f inal ly completed and with the aid o f handtrucks ( ) and mules whi:ch were requisit ioned the coy moved up t bde. tothe bde veh pk. The Mor PI did not come into an aotual engagement withthe enemy unti l they mached LEONFORTE -nere they engaged the enemy usingsmoke and HE with good effect knocking out one OP add ~ MG poets. Durth is engagement 1 man was kil led due to MG f i re . That same night the MorPl using 6 guns put up , heavy barrage on the town, using 800 bombl HESand oausing very heavy damage to the enemy, and having a devastat ingeffect on their morale. From there on the Mor PI had very l i t t l e to do due t the fact that their mor range in comparison to the German s was quia handidap.

The A/tk pl , under similar considtions to the Mor PL, were landed on thbeach and RV'd at area COUGAR. They followed bn from area COUGAR to PIAZZAARMERINA where the , . were joined by their l ight scale. From there the,ycontinued along the axis of advance, being used mainly as protection forBHQ. .1 gun and t r u c ~ were put out of commission on a hi l l midway betweenVALQUmfIRA and LEONFORTE. From there 5 guns weme moved up to LOON whereunder mor f i re they had their f i r s t cas. They continued their advance toAGIRA behind the fwd coy. 2000 yds on the outskirts 0 f AGIRA the bn waeconsolidated on a hi l l . I t was here that SGT Sweeney a t a range of 1700yds f ired 6 rounds HE a t a KG post which was in a oave, and was la te r credwith knooking out the post. The next day Sgt. Ley fired one AP a t a bldgoccupied by the Germans, haying a direct hi t , causing th is partioular grouof enemy t re t i re . The guns as a whole were able t enage enemy targetsfrom th is hi l l with quite good resul te . Sgt. Smith was ~ u n d e d at t h i s eamarea by ebemy mOr f ire; also pte. Tupper. The Pl Oomd, Oapt Money was takeprisoner a few days l a t e r , having advanced too far on his m/c into enemyte r r i tory .

Pion PL. m e n landed with each of 2 leading o ~ s - A and 0 - and cleathe beacl) for them. m n aleo landed with eaoh of Band D ooys. Pte Par


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Appendix to Seaf W, July, 194, (Ooy narratives - )with 0 coy was wounded in the landing. The pl comd, Lt. Budd, was theUW. The remainder of the pl, 5 men, landed at 0800 hrs and the truckcarrying their stores was lost due to submersion in the landing. The menwith the coys acted as riflemen and blew up enemy stores, guns, ammo. etc.for the f irs t , daye when they returned to BEQ. The remainder under Lt.Budd moved up in a captured Ital ian truck and rejoined the pl outsidePIAAZA ARMERINA, w h ~ c h had been taken by a night patrol, 50 of whichwere pion pl persallel. P'rom then on, the pl moved with BHQ, doing BHQprotection. At LEONFCRTE the Pl comd, Lt. B u d ~ was killed. P'rom AGIRAon the pl travlled with the leading coy as mine clelll ers, tank huntere,and also went into action as info with 0 coy, returning later to BEQ asprotection again.The Oarrier pl. This was used mainly to transport troops up to thefront, when epped wae essential. They were also used as ammo carriers forthe coys, and in some cases to take up rations and ~ t e r to f ~ d coys. Theif irs t engagement with tabe enemy on the hil l outside LEONFORTE whereusing dismounted action they engaged the enemy with 9 brens and SA f i re.This hill was brought under very heavy mor f i re from the enemy, and thepI suffered 7 cas; the pI offr was one of them. As a ' result of this engagement 2 of the wounded. later died. Thla wae the eame hil l where themor pl had their f irs t eng and f i rs t cas. Previous to this the pl comd.,Lt. Hall, was wounded and had to go down t ~ e l ine which lef t the pl. with

Ooy

no offra, as i t stands at the present moment. Oarrier secs were also usedas advanced gds for the fwd coys while travelling along roads. The pl unfortunately oould not be 'used in their t rue role, as i t is definitely (not?carrier country, and ~ o u l d ave Qeen suicidal to t ry to UBe them on crosscountry work. The coy ae a whole has shown great rNul t s for their previothree years training. and the courage and spi r i t of the men has been mag'nificent throughout the entire campaign. and they are at the present momenas i s the rest fo the bn ' enjoying a well-earned rest in the srea.

Jul 10 0 coy assault scale entered their LOAs at midnight leaving the HMTOIROASSIA T ~ o hrs in a very rough sea. They landed at 0245 brs, zerobr, but slightly off the mark from SUG R MBER to the le t t . Webshod landinin .a , f't runnel 50 yd. from smre. No 15 PL was fired upon by a singlemortar which created 5 cae, all but 1 walk wounded. Each pl carried out thnonnal bangalore and wire dril l , 15 PL crossing by rabbit netting. The, coy proceeded west along the sand hills and vineyards as lef t fwd coy ~ t hA coy on the right. Very l i t t l e opposition met; 16 PW taken by the timethe coy reached PANTINO LONGARINI; here contact was made with. the SS bde.The coy them proceeded to COUGAR, the second objective, rising ground NWof PANT LONG; t h h was reached in the early afternoon. All pls .at oncedug'in; by 1800 hrs the WBB appeared, just as the enemy opened up with himortar, but with l i t t l e success. At 2100 Ms the coy moved off across tothe NW and great display of ac ac f i re from the beach could be seen behindus. After a difficult night of marching across country the coy reached i taobj BAlDER by dawn of 11 July, where i t again dug in two PW being takenhere.Jul 11 In the afternoon the ooy received orders to move by truck to the coasttolCl of POZZALO to take over occupation, duties. The people were found .to bstarving, Genaan ac ac had just lef t ; a search was made for food, arms andequipment, radio installations; much booty was found ae well as 250 PW , p


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Appendix to Seaf W, July, 9 4 ~ (Ooy narratives -4)10 o:ff'rs, and these were houaed in the town hall . Snipers gave sometrouble.

Jul 12 The granary was broken into today, and grain distributed to the civi l -ians; bread and maccaroni queues were a t once started. The local postmastand a pr ies t proved some coneiderable h ~ l p ; the fasicst . : ~ and corporat ion had fled; the civi l ians real ly need food. General p.ftpCe, the corpscommander, arrived and seemed well pleased with the arrangements made.Soon af ter dawn, many people were out and formed into queues askingfor bread; the bakery was reopened, and fUrther arrangement was made todistribute bread. A new mayor was chosen; al l prisoners taken for a swim,and la ter on were taken away by LOI.

Jul 14 Left RZZAW at midnight, and arrived with the bn, which was north ofMODIOA. Oapt Parker was l e f t at area i /c ~ h e coys W8s.Jul 15 The coy as advanced guard to the bn marohed across country t i l l picsedup by the transport ahort ofOhiramonteJulJul

16 R e s ~ day, moving bn t rp t in the evening.17 Coy e advanced guard through VALGUARNmU ; 2 hr halt , then A coy as

Jul 18Jul 19

Jul 20Jul 2122 Jul2 , JulJul 24

advanced coy, f i r s t real contact with enemy f ire .Oontinued advance; patrol sent out a t night under Sgt. Mottl; n. t Fpt .tAt night 0 coy advanced guard to outskir ts of L :INP'ORTS. Hell broke lClat f i rs t l ight . 0 cot, as advanced coy, took the brunt o f the f i re fromthe town. Some cas i n our own art i l lery barrage. That night patrolf i l tered back to coy deployed on high ground south of town. Volunteersformed an attacking force on town tha t night.Rest day on high ground south o f town.No 14 Pl to Bde as defence pl; same rest ing.Ooy moved of f in the morning to ASOORO; took up position on hi l l alongsA ooy.Ooy rel 'ted; reinfs , 5 in number, arrived.No 14 PI rejoined bn.throughout the night. Moved of f to NISBORIA thie eveing. Ooy marched

Jul 25 Ooy pinned down a t dawn by enemy f ire . No 1 , PI did r ight flankingmovement and drove out c r e n of three Mg poats. No 15 Pl sent foward PlATfie attaCk tank, but. tank retreated. Ooy continued in reall or bn ~ . La:tercoy did r ight flanking movement to hi l ly featurEs overlooking AGIRA. No.15 PL acted as covering pi on the l e f t flank of 0 coy. No 1 , Pio n the higshort of GRIZZLY. 14 pl to lC)rk round to r ight and storm posit ion.

Ju126 14 pi , despite rough going, succeeded in scaling their obj just a t dawnbringing re l i e f to A coy. The remainder of coy joined 14 Pl . and consolidaon GRIZZLY.Jul 27 Rested, and so also 28, 29. ~ , and ,1. All on GRIZZLY


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Miscellaneous notes for col lat ion of 2 OIB WsPPOLl: July, 4,

PPOLI troopship was HMT LLANGIBBY OASTLE, July Noted weather i s perfect , and eome concel'flOver cases o f sunburn: casesof sunburn requiring medical aid will be classed as SIWs and the necessaryaction aken.4 July All ranks change over to KDs

9 July Diary quotes order of the day from Brig Ohris Vokesl Actions apeak loudethan worda. o in and get the baa1iarda ll Diarht adda: ',The 1fI Drds wer:e typicao f our Brig and a roaring cheer greeted them ll

10 July Notea bn u/c of Lt-col R.A. Lindaay. Serials stoods by in the i r mesadecka t 2,45 hrs, 9 July, and a t approx 0100 hrs f i r s t f l ighta were 10weNd to commenthe rough 7 mUe t r ip to, SUGAR GREEN bt?ach. The landing was made with Band Dcoya in the aasault. Oomplete aurpriae was effected. A certain amount of MGf i r ing on fixed l inea and also some heavy wire. Serials made up from BHQ, A ando coya followed the assault ing tpa and came under heavy f i re from coastal btty8which weNt sU ecned a t 0445 hr s by Navy guna. Due to the tleavy awells eome seri a l s became acattered and a certain amount o f confusion resul ted, as timing wasput out , and some landed a t wrong placea; however the bn was BOon able to reargand pushed fwd from the in i t ia l beachhead position to oocupv the ground plannedas the f i r s t phase o f the invadon. At approx 1000 hra the f i r s t phaae was com-pleted and the bn coneloldated with the coys .. king up the positona previouelyalloted 1n the planning.

12 July The PfaLl entered MODIOI, at least a patrol did, and oame back with theDiY comand and Div HQ of the 54th NAPOLI DIV.14 July Near RAGUSAI today wa. marked by a v:hi t by Gen BL Montgomery: a paradewhich included P P O L ~ SH o f 0, engineers, imd other elementa of the bde gp waaformed up to await his arrival . The car bearing MONTY drove up and on hi I I)rderthe complete parade, doubled forward and gathered around the vehicle. He talked'.'

to the tps in a personal and informal manner welcoming them to the 8th Army,praiaing the Oanadian. fighting t radi t iona and commenting on the excellent healtand spir i t s ot: the men. Wien he mentioned ' that he had met us before, al l remembthe great excer-eiee TIGER in England and cries of TIGER W NT Up.19 July Diarist 8ports tha t af ter pauing t h r o u g ~ VALGUARNERA about 1000 brsto a point abou t mUes beyond the town, we were once more held up aa the Seafhad contacted the enemy but were pinned to the ground by mortaring and shelling.PPOLI were ordered to at tack and occupy the high ground in the vicini ty of 58

Sheet 268. By 2000 hrs a l l eitjs taken with the support o f MGs and tks.20 July Early at tar f i ra t l ight the bde puw.,.i W8a continued and the Edmon Reg.and SlbfO passed through us in that order; as we moved behind the Seaf the twoleading bns came under mortar and arty f i re. PfOLI withdwn to previoua night 'apositions and ordered to attack mount ROSSIi square ~ Sheet 268. This attackwent in and was succeasful. Diarist notesl The regiment's f i r s t contact withthe German.2 July At the close of the bat t le foe LEONFORTE, diar i s t reportsl cost to bno f 6 ki l led and wounded

appendix to seaforth war diary, july 43 company narratives

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