Diary: Landing in Sicily and on to Italy
80th LCM Mark 3 Flotilla by Ed Corbett
Mainland: Sicily to Italy Shuttle; Motor vehicles and infantry landing
Photo by Ed Corbett - St. Nazaire to Singapore, Vol.1 - Pg. 192
The following are excerpts from a diary that contains entries from July 1 to September 9, 1943:
July 1: Arrived in Alexandria from Suez. Went aboard G.R. Clarke (Liberty ship). Our boats are aboard for trip. Went ashore in Alex. Had a good time.
July 2: Troops came aboard today. We went ashore again.
July 3: Set sail today. Going on an invasion. Don't know where....
Allied assault troops board American invasion craft in North Africa
while, in the background, fully loaded landing craft set sail for Sicily
Photo Credit - WW2 Today
July 5: Received instructions for landing. Our objectives are Cassibile, and Syracuse in Sicily. Date of landing July 10. 0245, 0445 - all quiet today.
July 6: One ship torpedoed off our port bow. Sighted sub. Crew were taken off. Over 100 depth charges dropped....
July 8: Joined convoy of LCT (at 1700 hours). 2300 hours. Two explosions dead ahead.
July 9: Joined some of the assault force today. Getting boats ready to go over the side. Everyone's nerves are on edge. Heavy seas coming up.
Saturday, July 10: Boat broke loose. Had one helluva time to stop from losing her. Lots of fireworks at zero hour. Battleships shelling the shore. Put the boats over the side and made our first trip in. See wrecks of gliders. Ships and a few dead bodies lying around. Had air raid at 1600 hours. Straddled us with a stick of bombs. One ship hit. Three planes shot down. We fired off our Lewis guns but they were too high for us.
July 11: Hospital ship bombed and sunk last night. Had quite a few raids after midnight. Dropped flares. Another air raid after midnight. Two ships hit. One forward of us. Don't mind the big fellows but the "Stuka dive bomber." Everything going fine. Another raid. Two Gerries shot down in flames.
July 12: Finished unloading several ships. We picked up several bits of shrapnel in a raid early this morning. We are living on the beach now. It is really hell now when he machine guns the beach. Have had very little to eat but received a tot of rum so it fixed us up. An officer killed about twenty feet from us this morning. Went inland to the west and picked grapes. One man killed. Three injured by land mines. The thing that makes you hate the Italians is when you see your chums knocked off in front of you....
July 18: Several raids last night. We nearly got ours last night.... One of them whizzed down so close that it nearly blew us off our boat....
July 20: Not bad night last night. Started to get some grub.... They play the bagpipes on Green Beach every night for the fellows we have lost since we came on the raid....
July 23: More raids last night.... on an LCM there isn't much cover.... Several fellows have gone bomb-wacky.... How much longer can the boys hold up?....
July 28: Bad raids last night. Sleeping up off the beach in my hammock. Moved in a hurry when one of the fellows was hit by shrapnel. Bombs hit petrol dump a short distance from our camp....
August 4: Leaving for Malta shortly.
August 5: Closing our beach today. Received a good recommendation for keeping our boats all running and the good work we had done....
August 8: Arrived at Malta 1530. Moved into a rest camp for a few days. Got a five pound casual. Went into Valletta. Malta sure has taken a beating....
August 15: Went to an RN barracks. They are going to fix up our boats for another raid.
August 16: Moved aboard an LST. We are going on a raid. Think it is on Greece or Crete.
August 17: Working 14 hrs a day on boats in dry dock....
August 27: Left Malta 0530 bound for Sicily. Arrived Noto (Sicily) 1100 hrs....
Wednesday, September 1: Moving out today. One of the greatest collection of ships anyone ever saw. We are landing in Italy and are to take to Reggio Calabria 926 guns, also naval guns.
September 2: Landed at St. Teresa, Italy in night. Zero hour 0430. Loaded our boats and started for Italy taking Canadian soldiers....
September 9: Going on another raid in Italy. Salerno.
"First Lunch on Mainland Italy." Men of the 80th LCM Flotilla
Photo by Ed Corbett - St. Nazaire to Singapore, Vol. 1, Pg. 192
Please link to Short Story re Sicily, "Billy Lindsay's Diary"
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