"The Forgotten Army, Italy 1943-1945" Topic
3 Posts
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Tango01 | 23 Mar 2020 10:38 p.m. PST |
"I have used the above heading as something that was used to describe the fighting that was going on in Italy during WW2; after the launch of the D-Day Landing on the Normandy Coast in 1944. There were two armies fighting in Italy at that time, predominantly the United States (US) 5th and the British 8th. The only reporting has been about the US 5th Army on the Mediterranean side of Italy by the Snow family on BBC television. There seems to have been no mention of the fighting on at the Adriatic side. I am going to try to correct that situation by covering the landing into Taranto on the toe of Italy, through to Trieste at the northern end of the Adriatic coast. The invasion of mainland Italy started with the British 8th Army landing at Taranto on 3rd September 1943 and an operation named "Baytown". As a matter of interest, the US 5th Army landed on the 9th September 1943 against heavy German resistance at Salerno in operation "Avalanche". The 8th Army were able to make relatively easy progress for a while up the eastern coast, capturing the Port of Brindisi, Bari, as well as airfields around Foggia, which provided a base from which US bombers were able to exploit the opportunity to bomb oil fields in Romania and various places in northern Germany. There was an interesting episode by the American Air Force who rescued 500 POW's after landing in Yugoslavia with the assistance of the Italian Partisans. What has never been reported is the raid by German bombers on the port of Bari on the evening of 2nd December 1943. A small number of planes succeeded in destroying 17 Allied merchant ships and killing well over 1000 military personnel, merchant seamen and many local civilians. The Commonwealth Cemetery in Bari contains 2128 graves. It is reported that every available docking space was occupied, with ships anchored out beyond the jetties jutting out into the Adriatic. The dockyards had become such a beehive of activity that unloading was carried out during the night under the glare of lights. The German bombers had a perfect target – it was described as a "cake walk". The ships already in the harbour contained a great store of ammunition, along with trucks, bales of clothing and hundreds of canvas mail bags for the troops. Alongside them was a US Navy tanker with half million gallons of high-octane gasoline on board. One ship, "John Harvey", carried as part of its cargo, 100 tons of mustard gas bombs. It was thought that Germany were going to use mustard gas in attacks during the campaigns in Italy, they did not!…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
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Fitzovich | 24 Mar 2020 5:01 a.m. PST |
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Tango01 | 24 Mar 2020 11:55 a.m. PST |
No mention my friend!. (smile) Amicalement Armand
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