Round One!
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THREE – Part Three
Operation Barclay – The Execution
The early morning hours of May 15, 1941 found the eastern portion of Sicily awoken to the unmistakable sounds of incoming naval artillery fire. The overnight hours had been a precursor of what was to be expected as the sea horizon had been filled with thunderous flashes of orange light as
Capitano di vascello Mimbelli’s
Flotilla di Sicilia ran afoul the vanguard of the Royal Navy’s invasion fleet.
Having anticipated the probability of a small craft engagement, one that the larger warships of the Mediterranean Fleet would be disadvantaged to counter, Admiral Cunningham ordered his Expeditionary Force Naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay, to make the necessary preparations to counter such a threat. Ramsay, one of the leading contributors to the field of amphibious warfare within the Royal Navy and key participant in nearly every amphibious assault conducting by the Empire in the war, took the threat as seriously as Cunningham and sent out a vanguard force toward Sicily consisting of four squadrons of MTBs and MGBs and ten corvettes and six destroyers to sweep the area.
Almost as planned the two forces came into contact with each other in the Ionian Sea near the Gulf of Noto, Mimbelli’s MAS boats running into a squadron of their British counterparts at 0418 local time. In the ensuing wild melee, which quickly escalated as both sides called in their positions and for reinforcements, the Italians successfully broke through the first screen of MGBs leaving one of their own afire and drifting astern along with three British boats. As the rest of
Flotilla di Sicilia raced toward the sound of battle, clearly thinking that they had encountered the main force of the British invasion, Ramsay’s vanguard, commanded by Commodore R.E.D. Ryder, also moved forward in an enveloping maneuver designed to catch the Italians in dangerous crossfire and thereby quickly eliminate the threat.
While a fine plan, as in all things dealing with combat, it failed contact with the enemy and the initial melee continued to grow in size as the two forces collided with other, and in a rare occasion for the Royal Navy, lost cohesion which resulted in a breakdown of organized operation. For nearly a full hour the MAS boats and their British counterparts dueled across the waves while the British corvettes and destroyers engaged the
Spica and
Pallade, ships careening through the waters attempting to close with the enemy while dodging torpedoes and incoming shell fire. The superiority in numbers actually proved to be a detriment to the Royal Navy, especially when Ryder lost command and control of his flotilla thanks to a stray shell from
Pallade taking out the radio aerial aboard his ship, HMS
Grenade, and the more numerous MGB and MTBS frequently blundered into each other’s way. Thanks to the initial wildness of the melee, Mimbelli’s forces were quick to score another handful of successes, sinking three MTBs, damaging four more and torpedoing the
Flower-class corvette HMS
Arabis, while
Spica and
Pallade suffered superficial damages and only two MAS boats were lost. The training and experience of the ratings and officers of Ryder’s command slowly allowed some semblance of command and control to be reasserted and the tide turned against
Flotilla di Sicilia. The beginning of the end started when the
Spica became caught in the crossfire of the
W-class destroyers HMS
Wessex and
Vendetta and was quickly reduced to a blazing hulk,
Pallade following shortly thereafter after coming under the guns of the
B-class destroyer HMS
Basilisk and the corvettes HMS
Dunvegan, HMS
Levis and HMS
Napanee. With ammunition for their deck guns quickly being running low and having fired their torpedoes, the surviving MAS boats had no choice but to either take the drastic measure of attempting to ram the British destroyers and corvettes or make a run for Sicily to hopefully re-arm and then re-engage. Several of the Italian craft took the former option, successfully causing significant damage to the
I-class destroyer HMS
Isis and the corvette HMS
Chilliwack and heavy loss of life among the Italian seamen, while the majority attempted the latter option. At the same time that the Italians attempted to break contact and return to Sicily, Ryder was able to resume full command and control of his flotilla and the Italian attempt became doomed as the fleeing MAS boats were hunted down, the last one, MAS 198, being sunk by the guns of MGBs 81 and 27 while they themselves were fired upon by the coastal batteries outside the port of Syracuse. As the two MGBs wheeled about to move out of range, the first phase of
Barclay was concluded and the way was clear for the Royal Marines to be landed.
Unlike earlier Imperial amphibious assaults, the Royal Marines involved in
Barclay were provided with fire support thanks to two new tactics devised from experiences gained thus far in the war. The first was the use of aerial spotter aircraft, which while aerial surveillance was far from new, the application as undertaken in Operation
Barclay was a first in the use of transport launched aircraft to undertake that role. Determining that Operation
Waterfall (
Barclay’s deception operation) would be assisted if his two carriers, HMS
Courageous and
Glorious, were conducting operations along the Italian mainland instead of the actual landings, Admiral Cunningham sought and received several CAM (Catapult Armed Merchantman) ships from the Admiralty. These CAM ships were cargo ships equipped with a catapult for launching an aircraft but without facilities to recover them, thus if the aircraft were not in range of a land base, pilots were forced to bail out and be picked up by the ship. Intended for use in convoy protection, and loaded with a single modified Sea Hurricane (informally known as “Hurricats”); the CAM ships became a sort of special operations vessel with the nullification of the submarine threat along the European coasts. To Admiral Cunningham and his staffers, the Hurricats of the CAM ships would be ideal for both assisting the landing forces with limited air cover, providing aerial reconnaissance of the invasion beaches and most importantly providing additional cargo tonnage for the invasion forces. In the end the Admiralty dispatched all ten CAM ships to participate in Operation
Barclay.
The Catapult Armed Merchantman Empire Tide,
built for Ministry of War Transport and operated by the Royal Mail Line, seen in Malta in a few days before settling sail for Sicily. The aircraft mounted on the catapult rail is a Sea Hurricane Mk. Ib.
The second tactic employed called for the use of clandestine FIST (Fire Support Team) elements. These small units, comprised artillery forward observers, radio operators and a small security detail, were landed by submarine a day before the invasion and infiltrated the known Italian defenses in order to more accurately pinpoint those defenses for destruction by the Fleet’s bombardment group. A total of six groups were landed in the dark hours of May 13/14 by the
Grampus-class submarines HMS
Narwhal and HMS
Rorqual near the mouths of the Gela, Irmino and Asinaro Rivers (for easy access to the defenses near the towns of Gela, Scoglitti, Ragusa and Nota) to the north and south of the city of Syracuse, and at Cape Passero. Once ashore the six teams were to scout out suspected targets and once having found them were to go into hiding until the time of the two hours prior to the landings when there were to radio to the Fleet and coordinate naval gunfire to maximize the inflicted damages.
As the water geysers caused by the shore battery fire upon the fleeing MGBs 81 and 27 fell back into the sea the Italians manning the coastal defenses were granted the sight of the stately arrival of a portion Admiral Ramsay’s bombardment group as they took up positions and their great guns began to swivel outboard and prepare to fire upon Sicily. Consisting of the
Queen Elizabeth-class battleships
Valiant,
Malaya and
Barham and the lead ship of the
Revenge-class of battleships HMS
Revenge, (the rest of the Mediterranean Fleet’s capital ships either steaming toward the Gulf of Taranto or conducting shore bombardment missions in other parts of Italy as part of, Operation
Waterfall), the
Arethusa-class light cruiser flagship HMS
Arethusa, the
C-class light cruiser HMS
Coventry, the
Danae-class light cruisers HMS
Delhi and
Despatch and a dozen destroyers. Splitting his bombardment ships into two groups of two battleships, two light cruisers and six destroyers apiece, Ramsay ordered his ships closer inshore that was normal and proceeded to open fire. After a relatively short thirty minute bombardment the transports began to disgorge their Royal Marines into landing craft and the CAM ships launched their Hurricats.
As the landing craft darted forward, the destroyers of the bombardment group raced in with them to provide direct fire rather than indirect fire support as well as providing suppressing fire upon the shore batteries not yet knocked out. Taking a great deal of punishment from the Italian shore batteries as they raced inshore with guns blazing the destroyers were credited with creating such a havoc among the Italians that only a handful of landing craft even came under fire, with the Australian crewed HMS
Vampire taking so many hits to the hull that her captain ran her aground to keep her from foundering and in so doing allowed her guns to remain on station until well after the Royal Marines were firmly established ashore.
The E
-class destroyer HMS Escapade
under fire from shore batteries as she charges close ashore near Cape Campolato in support of the landings. While not as heavily damaged as HMS Vampire, Escapade
suffered significant damage and would spend nine months in the repair yards following the conclusion of Operation Barclay.
Under the steady bombardment of the battleships and the close in support of the destroyers, the landing craft surged forward with the first wave striking the beach at 0608 local time on May 15 amid the crashing waves of very rough surf. Thanks in large part the successful coordination of the clandestine FIST elements and the aerial spotting provided by the CAM launched Sea Hurricanes, the sea bombardment severely weakened the Italian defenses along the beaches and allowed for nearly unopposed landings of the first two waves of Royal Marines.
Quickly establishing a secure beachhead from which supplies could begin to be unloaded, the individual regiment commanders began sending out their battalions to striking toward their objectives. The Royal Australian Marines were the first of General Laycock’s regiments to secure their objective, marching into the towns of Pachino and Granelli less than one hour after hitting the beaches, and moving against little to no resistance began the march toward the town of Rosolini. In the north, after landing near the village of Porto di Milocca, the King’s Own Rangoon Marines marched unopposed into Syracuse and was able to secure the docks and the large aerodrome just outside the city. The securing of the city, the harbour and the aerodrome would prove to be most beneficial as not only would Admiral Ramsay’s transports be able to move into the harbour and unload the Royal Marines’ supplies in a more efficient manner but the Sea Hurricanes flying overhead would be provided a safe haven from which to continue their support of the assault. In the Gulf of Gela the Royal Halifax Marines and the King’s Auckland Marines quickly moved inland, the Royal Halifax Marines securing the towns of Gela, Licata and Niscemi by noon with the King’s Auckland Marines overrunning Scoglitti within a half-hour of the landings and having the towns of Vittoria and Comiso under control by mid-afternoon.
It was the landings of the Royal Trincomalee Marines and the Royal County Cork marines in the Gulf of Noto which were not only harshly contested but also most successfully contested by the Italians. The small city of Avola was quickly captured by the Trincomalee Marines as were the coastal villages of Calabernardo and Noto Marina by the County Cork Marines, however, as the battalions of both regiments moved inland and into the hills opposition began to stiffen significantly. Struggling through the rough terrain, Trincomalee moving generally northward and County Cork to the northwest toward Noto, both regiments they encountered large formations of General Porcinari’s
Guardia di Sicilia which had been on the move from Ragusa toward the coastal highway leading toward Syracuse when the initial landings had begun.
A scene showing the mixed elements of Porcinari’s Guardia di Sicilia,
this particular unit preparing to launch a counter attack against 3 Battalion, Royal Trincomalee Marines, sometime during the early afternoon of May 15.
Thanks in large part to harsh terrain, which lent a great deal of assistance to the defending Italians and made attacking a very difficult proposition, the forward movement both regiments’ battalions were brutally contested and heavy casualties were taken by the Royal Marines. Despite the assistance of the Royal Navy’s big guns just off shore and the Sea Hurricanes flying overhead, and even though the town of Noto was captured by noon, fierce counterattacks slowed the advance of the two regiments. The slowing of the forward movement just inland of the landing beaches created an unsecured bridge along the coast that served as a link to the southern flank of the King’s Own Rangoon Marines in Syracuse and could prove to be disastrous to the landings if the Italians not only had sufficient troops to put into the counterattacks but elected to undertake the counterattack.
A Royal Marine sniper, Private J.E. McPhee of A Company, 2 Battalion, Royal County Cork Marine Regiment, scouting an Italian strongpoint outside the town of Noto.
Reviewing the reports coming to his headquarters on the beach just outside Noto Marina, General Laycock was provided with the confirmed intelligence that despite the Italians successfully stalling the momentum of his Royal Marines moving out from the Gulf of Noto, General Porcinari was doing so to the detriment of his defenses in other areas of Sicily for he had no reserves and the only troops he had were the ones attempting to tie up the Royal County Cork and the Royal Trincomalee Marines in the Hyblaean Mountains. Promptly discerning the flaw in Porcinari’s counterattack, yet understanding the Italian general truly had no other defensive option, Laycock reacted with alacrity, quickly amending the operational orders for his regiments. Pulling the battalions of the Royal County Cork and the Royal Trincomalee Marines back to form a hard line just inland of the beaches, “tidying the line” as it was called, he then ordered the Royal Australian, the King’s Auckland and Royal Halifax Marines to tie their flanks and attack the Italians on their right flank and in the rear. The attacks would, Laycock and his staff determined, either driving the
Guardia di Sicilia out of the hills or boxing them in to be overwhelmed.
Royal Marines of 6 Battalion, Royal Halifax Marine Regiment, marching out of Niscemi on their way further into the Hyblaean Mountains.
Off shore, as supplies continued to be unloaded both upon the landing beaches and in captured Syracuse, Admiral Ramsay operated with one eye upon the clock and one eye upon the progress of the Royal Marines. The timetables for Operation
Barclay were very specific and the transports needed to quickly set sail back for Malta in order for the second wave of the operation to be conducted. Yet the Admiral was not willing to adhere to the timetables to the detriment of the men on the beaches. Of the opinion that it would be far better to be available for an evacuation if one were needed and disrupt a landing not yet started then allow troops already engaged to be left for elimination, Ramsay had promised to hold his fleet’s position until the critical hours of the landings had passed. With the counterattacks of the
Guardia di Sicilia halting the Royal Marine advance, Ramsay repositioned his transports among his combat vessels and signaled Laycock that if the need arose, the fleet was ready to evacuate the troops.
Laycock’s reply, signaled in the clear on both the tactical and long range frequencies of both the Third RMEU and the Fleet, done purposely by Laycock and picked up by Italian and British radio operators in Malta, Messina and Naples.
“Retreat? Hell, Admiral, this party has not yet even begun! You do what you need to do for by this time tomorrow I’ll have the enemy fixed upon my men’s bayonets!”
Upon the rugged Hyblaean Mountains, terrain that had witnessed the wars of man since the dawn of history, the two combatants faced each other as the day lengthened into evening. With heightened morale the Royal Marines ashore never gave a second look to the transports, that only hours earlier had carried them to Sicily, slowly sailed toward the horizon and instead strove to force their enemy to his knees many freely expressing the opinion that their General’s words would be found to be only to true. The Italian soldiers above the beaches, busy avoiding bursts of gunfire from the Royal Marine lines and cringing from the rain of naval artillery being launched from the battleships Malaya and Valiant and their handful of attending destroyers, wondered imploringly if the defense that they were conducting was something that was truly in the best interest of Italy. The mountains themselves, quite confident that they would last for far longer than any of the men struggling across the landscape, voiced no opinion at all but if asked would point to the disparity in force composition and say that both sides would be found to be correct.
**
Up Next: On for the mainland!
Stay tuned!!
