Chapter 55
Mediterranean Theater
April 1942
The day before Torch started, a gigantic air operation, mobilizing all the available Allied units, started. At Rethymnon and Rhodes, 50 Avro Lancasters took off in order to go bomb the Ploiesti installations. Caught off-guard, the Creditul Minier refineries were bombed with near-impunity by the RAF. Due south, Bulgarian railway junctions at Sofia and Plovdiv were bombed, just like Alexandroupoli and Skopje, with more German opposition. German airfields were targeted as far as Sofia, all in order to perfect the diversion.
In Italy, Sardinia was hard hit as well. Cagliari, Decimomannu and Villacidro were hit by bombers, who were then succeeded by fighter sweeps. Sicily was targeted, but with less intensity: Comiso and Trapani were the most badly hit, with the installations of X Fliegerkorps present in Sicily being severely shaken and dozens of aircraft being lost on the ground [1]. Operations would continue into the night, with the bombing of Enna and several key positions in Sicily. It was also during the night of April 18th to 19th that Torch started in earnest.
Elements of the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the 1st Parachute Brigade landed near Syracuse, while elements of the 1st Belgian Parachute Battalion landed near Comiso, where a fierce battle raged for control of the airfield, which would soon come to host the Spitfires of the RAF and Hurricanes of the SAAF. Likewise, French paras of the 1st RCP isolated the Western landing beaches, paving the way for the Allied landings. SAS and commandos would also land as reconnaissance, taking over lighthouses and key crossing points. This completely disorganized the command of General Alfredo Guzzoni, who was now flooded with reports of an airborne assault in progress over Sicily. Dispatching the 1st Infantry
Superga, he attempted to restore order…until the shock came.
At forty past five in the morning, General Bernard Law Montgomery’s 1st British Army landed on the shores of Sicily, with the 2nd NZ Division in the lead, closely followed by the 2nd South African Division and the 6th British Infantry Division. The Belgians and French landed a few minutes later, under scattered opposition, which is dispatched thanks to the big guns supporting the landings from offshore. This does not say that the Italians did not react, but with the confusion of the airborne landings, and the air support of the P-40s and brand-new P-51 Mustangs of the French Air Force, which saw their baptism of fire in the skies over Sicily, it is hell [2]. The ground units cannot move without being subjected to hell from above, and the Italian high command was itself confused as no reconnaissance could be carried out. And X Fliegerkorps took time to respond, as its installations had been bombed out and most of its forces still laid in Continental Italy. On the ground, the 1st Fallschirmjager Division was just as confused as its Italian partners, and the reports that arrive in Berlin were contradictory at best [3].
But the time to clarify the situation and transfer air assets to Cosenza, the damage had been done. The Allies had gained a massive foothold on the Italian island, with the British (well, South Africans…) having taken Syracuse and now in the process of moving towards Augusta. Comiso had been taken by the Belgians of the 2nd Infantry Division, while the French had already started to land the first elements of the Franco-Belgian Armored Group, with their S-50 “Arcole” and S-55 “Turenne” in the lead. General Juin’s 2nd French Army had come to Italy with a vengeance!
These tanks would see action during the second day of operations, helping to secure Niscemi and the roads towards Caltagirone, thus opening the road to Enna and General Guzzoni’s headquarters. The Italians having nothing to counter the behemoths, the French push was more hampered by the geography, with the hills being the main obstacles for the French vehicles, who were joined by the Belgian M3s. The Allies had managed to spread out, with the British encountering the resistance of the German paratroopers on the approach to Augusta. The French had for their part committed the 13th DBLE which reached Porto Empedocle, while the Poles inserted themselves between the Belgians and the British, hoping to seek contact with the German paratroopers.
That very day, without waiting for a reaction from X Fliegerkorps, which was still concentrating in Cosenza, the Regia Aeronautica struck. In an attempt to sink the invasion fleet, it committed everything it had to attacking the ships on the British side, off Syracuse. However, by now, the British and French had learned from their lessons in Greece. Fighter Directors immediately launched aircraft from the fleet carriers, allowing to intercept the Italians before they could do much damage. Despite a true sense of courage and sacrifice by the Italian crews, this attempt was doomed. Poorly escorted and facing off against an experienced enemy, no ships were sunk by the Italians, who lost nearly 90 aircraft for the loss of 20 Allied fighters. Only the old HMS
Hawkins was severely damaged and sent back to Alexandria for repairs, with the U.S Navy also experiencing a brush with disaster, with the cruiser USS
Augusta seeing a bomb hit, thankfully without too much damage but with casualties, while their aviators, too excited, bore the brunt of the casualties that day.
The next few days are not much better for the Italians. The hills formed a good defensive barrier, but it seemed as if the entire world was crumbling, with all of southern Sicily seemingly falling to the Allies. On the evening of April 21st, Augusta capitulated to the 6th British Infantry Division. The next day, a Franco-Belgian effort by the 1st Alpine Division and 5th Belgian Infantry Division managed to make a dent in the lines of the 26th Infantry Division
Assietta, forcing Guzzoni to withdraw them to Caltanissetta, almost in the center of the island, in order to avoid it being encircled and destroyed.
In Berlin, the situation was finally becoming clear. The attacks in Greece had subsided, and elements of X Fliegerkorps could finally be transferred to Cosenza without worrying about a new Allied bombing raid in Greece [4]. Additionally, Hitler assented to sending the 1st Fallschirm-Panzer
Hermann-Goring to Sicily, asking Mussolini for means of transport to get the Armored Division onto the island and drive the Allies into the sea! [5] Something Mussolini was only too happy to accept, considering the alarmist reports he received from Guzzoni. Though by April 22nd, the Italians, with the help of their German allies, had managed to stop the advance of the 1st British Army just short of Catania. But this small victory came at a price, with the Poles of the 3rd Infantry Division blasting through the lines of the 1st Fallschirmjager at Palagonia, thus securing the south-eastern side of the Italian island [6].
The Regia Marina was the next to try its luck, but did not do much better than the Regia Aeronautica. Trying to oppose the fire support groups which had sailed towards Catania, they would lose two destroyers for no losses to a Franco-British group (which included a Greek and an American destroyer). But the Allies would not be getting out scot-free on that day. X Fliegerkorps, having assembled all its aircraft (nearly 200!) around Cosenza and Catanzaro, launched a massive raid aimed at the same invasion fleet the Italian had failed to destroy. Just like a few days ago, the Allies launched their aircraft with good coordination, but these were not the SM.79 or the Re.2002 of Superaero, these were the Ju 87 and Ju 88 of the Luftwaffe! Properly escorted by Bf-109 and by surviving Italian aircraft of the earlier slaughter, this attack submerged the Allies. While the French and British held their own, the Americans, new in this high-intensity fight, lost their footing and some cohesion, leaving their carrier, the USS
Ranger, prone to attacks [7]. Despite the efforts from the French CLAA
Georges Leygues, the U.S carrier group was severely hit. The destroyer USS
Roe was hit by two bombs which quickly sank it, with the carrier USS
Ranger itself being shaken by several bombs and hit by two. While one only perforated the carrier, the other started a huge fire which dropped its speed and made it a prime target for the German bombers. Three smaller bombs would find their mark on the
Ranger, one of which struck one of the engine rooms, forcing the carrier to stop. After two hours of agony, it would finally sink. X Fliegerkorps had succeeded where the Italians had failed: they had taken out a carrier, but it had cost them 80 aircraft, for the loss of only 25 Allied aircraft. Worse, the Americans would accompany the French and British on “vengeance raids” that day against the airfields at Cosenza and Catanzaro. Hit no less than four times, X Fliegerkorps’ offensive strength was annihilated in less than a day with over two thirds of its aircraft destroyed, either in flight or on the ground (about 130 destroyed out of 180 engaged).
In Rome, this news was a disaster, which only served Mussolini to ask for the transfer of the
Hermann-Goring Division to be accelerated, and fast. In addition, he ordered the Regia Marina to give it the best escort it had, with a transfer planned for the night of April 24th to 25th. In Berlin, Hitler was more preoccupied with the operations in the East, and the imminent fall of Sevastopol, but still took time to reassure his ally. The Panzers sent would undoubtedly turn the tide and smash the Allies, sending them tumbling back into the sea. The problem was…the
Hermann-Goring Division paled in comparison to its Eastern Front counterparts, having only been formed recently, and still lacking the number of tanks a proper German Panzer Division should have. As for the losses incurred by X Fliegerkorps, the Fuhrer assented to transfer aircraft from Norway, which was as calm as could be and not in any imminent danger: 80 fighters and bombers were thus immediately transferred to southern Italy. Likewise, units were pulled from Greece in order to bolster aerial forces in Sicily, who were now submerged by the Allied numbers [8].
But Hitler will soon see his hopes dashed. During the night of the 24th to the 25th, the Italo-German set sail from Naples, bound for Palermo, with the bulk of the Fallschirm-Panzer Division. As Mussolini promised, the Regia Marina sent the bulk of what it had left to escort it: the battleship
Giulio Cesare, the heavy cruiser
Trento and the light cruisers
Raimondo Montecuccoli,
Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta and
Giuseppe Garibaldi in the lead, along with several destroyers. The movement of these heavy ships from La Spezia did not go unnoticed by Allied intelligence however, which prepared a welcoming party. Looming in the shadows, a Franco-American squadron supported by the HMS
Barham and
Queen Elizabeth, prepared to intercept.
The following battle was the last ride of the Regia Marina. The
Trento was sunk by a volley of shells and torpedoes from the cruiser Montcalm, with the two light cruisers being engaged and destroyed by the U.S cruisers
Augusta, Tuscaloosa and
Brooklyn. The
Giulio Cesare, isolated, did not have a chance against the British battleships and the French old lady
Lorraine. Six Italian destroyers were also lost, for the loss of three Allied ships: the destroyers USS
Livermore and MN
Basque, and the French cruiser
Gloire, sunk by a German submarine as it limped back to Tunis. The sacrifice of the Regia Marina was not in vain though: most of the convoy transferring the
Hermann-Goring Division managed to make it to Sicily. The rest of the division’s equipment would be sent through Messina, in very small doses.
And not a moment too soon, either! The situation was worsening by the day for the Axis troops. In the south, French troops had managed to reach Caltanissetta, threatening Enna, with the British still stuck in front of Catania. The South Africans however had started to envelop the Italian troops around the city, hoping to reach Paterno and the flanks of Mount Etna. The situation became critical enough for the
Hermann-Goring Division to be committed almost immediately. With the fall of Caltanissetta and Enna on April 26th, the Panzer Division was committed for a push on the flanks of Mount Etna, towards the South Africans at Paterno, driving a wedge which could counter-encircle the British in the Catania “cauldron”, an area in which the Panzers could properly move. On April 28th, with the fall of Trapani imminent, General Paul Conrath decided to act before the situation became uncontrollable. With a swift move, he tried to burst through at Sferro, but was hit with the vigorous defence of the Polish 3rd Infantry Division, guarding the flank of the South Africans. With the offensive in progress, the Franco-Belgian Armored Group was immediately called to reinforce the Poles, putting pressure on the German flank while moving to Gerbini.
The fight was fierce, but the
Hermann-Goring was outmatched. The French Arcoles had no problems in dispatching the Panzer IIIs, struggling a little more against the Panzer IVs. The Belgians used their own Crusaders and M3s to similar effect, blunting the German spearhead at Gerbini, forcing Conrath to abandon his attempt. The British had by then began their own flanking maneuver across the Simeto River, seriously threatening the Germans with encirclement. In the only true large armored battle of the Invasion of Sicily, the Allies had come out on top. However, the losses incurred by the Allies required reinforcements, which involved the dispatching of the 13th Armored Regiment, which landed the next day at Gela [9].
With the threat of the German armor gone, Montgomery was free to launch his units towards Paterno and Centuripe, where fierce fighting occurred between the Commonwealth units and the German paras and Italian infantrymen. Further inland, the fall of Enna prompted French and Belgian troops to move towards Termini Imerese, isolating Palermo. The small town was reached on April 30th, with Palermo occupied on the same day. This move effectively isolated the 28th Infantry Division
Aosta, trapped in the hills around Prizzi and Corleone. With the Aosta encircled and the slopes of Mount Etna contested, it seemed that it was now only a matter of time until the fall of Sicily, but the Allies were growing tired after almost two weeks of fighting, and a small pause would be needed for the French at the very least. But General Juin was adamant: he bet Montgomery that he would be in Messina before him, even if he started from Palermo! The race was on [10].
[1] With VIII Fliegerkorps being busy in Crimea, X Fliegerkorps had to cover an area stretching from Sardinia to the Aegean Sea.
[2] The Mustang sees combat early, this will be helpful for the Americans in seeing how their bird performs against the opposition.
[3] The German Paras were also scattered along the eastern coast of Sicily, which certainly did not help communications.
[4] Logically, the Allies could not sustain operations in both Sicily and Greece at high intensity for more than a few days. It did buy them enough time to secure the air over the Italian island, though.
[5] The
Hermann-Goring was reclassified as a Panzer-Division earlier due to the threat of an Allied invasion of Italy early. Of course, bearing the name of the Reichsmarshall (and being its personal guard), it had priority in getting equipment.
[6] It doesn't come as too much surprise that the Poles were extremely motivated to fight against the Germans, and the British were only happy to let them have it.
[7] A mix of inexperience, overconfidence and cockiness ends up costing the U.S. aviators who fought they'd eat the Germans alive. Unfortunately for them, the men of X Fliegerkorps have been fighting here for over a year, and they knew their trade well.
[8] It may seem like this exposes Greece, but it was clear that the Allies would not attack there by this point, and the Luftwaffe command felt confident enough to divert resources from there.
[9] The Americans arrive! Unfortunately, they won't see a lot of action, but enough to gain experience. The
Hermann-Goring is not down yet after all.
[10] General Pire, of the Belgian Army, would have liked to get in on this bet, but his forces will be relegated to clearing the hills for a while...
