The Price of Blood, Pride and Wine. November, 1942
On the late evening of November 1st, the commanding officer of our company - captain Kazlauskas - a hardened veteran, former commander of a dragoon squad back in Lithuania, has returned from a long meeting with battalion and regiment commanders, and called squad leaders, including me, to his tent. When we heard the main news - "the British are coming", all of us were overjoyed, only the captains face was hard to read.
Finally! I felt much relieved, I also knew that my men would be too, and I did not care much about the politics of the higher command. The Tommies were really welcome to the fight, we already had our share of blood, both lost and spilled, in this land.
Apparently, a naval group with three new shiny battleships - HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Anson has arrived more than a week ago into the Mediterranean, and a great naval battle was fought in the straits of Messina two days later, when all three remaining Italian heavy cruisers were caught south-east of Messina. Italians tried to flee through the strait after a wing of naval bombers engaged the Royal Navy in an attempt to distract, but only RM Pola (barely) survived the combined steel and fire hurricane unleashed from 14-inch guns of the battleships.
HMS Prince of Wales, one of three sister-ships, has scored all the killing hits in the battle of Messina strait. November, 1942
After the main potential threat was removed, 76000 troops - more than 4/5 of the troops assigned to the Middle-Eastern Command, including its all armoured and mobile units, has boarded the ships in Alexandria and docked on the morning of November 2 at the harbour of Catania.
3 Tank divisions with most modern Cromwell A27m tanks were among the invasion forces. November 2, 1942
As I could understand, the British High command has thought our progress to be too slow, and the command of the whole operation 'Husky' was given to the commander of 3 Army Group of Middle East Command, Gen. Gough, while British invasion forces themselves were under the direct command of Lt.Gen. Floyer-Acland, a not overly experienced mediocre commander of the 7th Army. As a secondary target, the airfields around Catania were to be fully secured and prepared for extensive use by Allied aircraft in preparation for the invasion of Italy.
Our order from the commander of Lithuanian Liberation Army Gen. Liatukas was to stand down, secure our positions, and wait until the British bring their tanks and guns over the mountains to the front line, in order to avoid any unnecessary casualties, now that our numerical superiority on the island reached almost 3:1 against the Italians.
Troops from 42nd 'East Lancashire' Division just after landing in Catania harbour. November 2, 1942
The tanks did not take long to show up in Messina, though. Just after a routine attempt by Italians to cross the strait was repelled, 6th Armoured Division, led by Maj.Gen. Ebbens, took the fight to the Italian side of the strait.
The British are greeted by the citizens of San Giovanni after crossing the 5 kilometre-wide strait. November 8, 1942
8th Armoured Div of Maj.Gen.Arkwright-Hore-Ruthven reached our positions in Bagheria on the 9th of November, and without resting headed straight for the suburbs of Palermo, defended by entrenched Mot. Division 'Pasubio', led by the commander of 7th Italian Army - Lt.Gen.Grossi.
There were some heated discussions later in the barracks, whether this attack was British general's folly or an ego-driven attempt to capture Palermo and become a hero all over the Western press as the man that has successfully ended the siege of Sicily.
Priest 105mm self-propelled guns in action outside Palermo. November 9, 1942
Our division did not receive any order until the morning of the 10th, when British Command has asked Gen.Rastikis to assist the Brits, since they did not seem to be able to break the Italians anymore, after several of the tanks were lost to hard-fighting Italians, blocking main road to the city from the east, and delaying any prospects of British advance.
The day started with our artillery hitting Italian position for several hours, potentially shocking the defenders, and our division went forward for an assault with a task of blitzing them, until they had a chance to recover.
The troops of my squad scramble over rubble in a devastated street in Palermo. November 12, 1942
We were not that lucky, however. During the night of the 12th, the defences were bolstered by the 7th Alpini Div., and our attack became a broad assault by the morning of the 13th.
On the 14th of November, we were joined by our 4th Div. 'Vilnius', which made a surprise attack on the harbour Palermo, trying to cut the possible retreat of Italian forces, and the 5th British Inf. Division was promised to attack soon from Sciacca.
We were able to achieve breakthrough in several spots along the front line at the middle of the night of November 15, 1942
That morning was not one to remember or be proud of. The Brits have just refused to attack any more, citing fuel and ammo shortages for their tanks as the main reason, and even the plans to send the 5th Inf. division were called off.
We were lost. Was this a betrayal by our Allies, which stood by us during those two long years of war? Or was this a power struggle between the commanders - Lt.Gen. Rastikis and Lt.Gen. Floyer-Acland, who has just arrived to Sicily a day ago for the name of a conquering hero? What should we do now?
Whatever the case may be, this was resolved by our Army commander Gen.Liatukas. With support of 2 volunteer divisions he hit from Sciacca, and it was all over by the midday of the 18th. Perhaps the hint of a conflict could be the absence of the men from Lt.Gen. Rastikis' HQ in our final assault..
Guys from 2nd Volunteer Div. 'For Homeland ' were there when we needed them. November 17, 1942
The taste of the victory was a bitter-sweet one. Almost 50000 Italians were taken as prisoners of war, while their losses reached 10000, and we managed to defeat them with 9000 killed or wounded. But those were men, most of which will never come back home, even if we manage to free it one day.
And the Brits.. True, their armoured divisions showed some fighting spirit against disheartened Italians, but the bulk of their forces - like battle-untested greenhorns from the 32nd 'Welsh' division, were still sitting around Catania or Messina, three weeks after the landing. Well, they had the whole Italy to prove themselves ahead of them still.
Chasing local girls and drinking wine - favourite pastime of every soldier. November, 1942.
