6 minute read
Johnstonians do their part in Italian campaign
from August 2020
by Johnston Now
By Benjamin Sanderford | Photo by Johnston County Heritage Center
It was the summer of 1944, and U.S. troops had just liberated Rome. Edward E. Ryan of Wilson’s Mills was among the men who passed through the Eternal City. In a letter to his brother, Hubert, written in August, Ryan described the Italian capital as “a beautiful place” that he had spent “many months of hard fighting” to reach.
He had indeed. The Italian campaign of World War II had already lasted a year and would continue for another. Although overshadowed by the fighting on other fronts, the soldiers deployed to Italy from Johnston County and their partners from all over the world would play a key role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
It began on July 10, 1943, when Allied landing craft sped towards the beaches of southern Sicily.
Allied leaders hoped that a successful invasion of Italian territory would destabilize the regime of Benito Mussolini, thereby robbing the Germans of their chief Axis partner. They had reason to be optimistic.
With his dream of a restored Roman Empire in tatters, Mussolini’s popularity, and that of his Fascist Party, had plummeted.
The Allies advanced steadily through Sicily, overpowering the poorly equipped Italian troops and outnumbered German forces. Sgt. Norwood Dorman of Benson was caught resting next to a World War I memorial in Brolo, west of Messina, by an Army photographer who snapped a picture that would make headlines back home.
Meanwhile, pressure mounted on Italian officials to find a way out. Finally, on July 25, the Fascist Grand Council voted to remove Mussolini from office.
The Germans quickly evacuated Sicily and prepared to defend the mainland unaided. After secret negotiations with the Allies, the new Italian government agreed to switch sides and officially declared war on Germany on Sept. 8.
The Germans reacted before the Italian army was ready, confronting individual units with demands to disarm. Those who resisted were treated with all the brutality reserved for enemies of the Third Reich.
The Allies landed in southern Italy that same month. Wharton reckoned that the main landings at Salerno, south of Naples, encountered more resistance than any other operation in which he took part. The German divisions were stubborn, but, they fell back when secondary Allied forces threatened their flank.
Most Italians had long resented the Germans’ arrogant disdain for them and, therefore, welcomed the Allies. In fact, the people of Naples revolted in late September, forcing the occupiers to hasten their retreat. Many Italian soldiers who escaped captivity joined the fight against the Nazis.
Led by General Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the Germans built a series of fortified lines across the peninsula. Many Allied soldiers died fighting through them, including Lieutenant Ralph S. Stevens, a former member of the Smithfield Board of Commissioners. He died on Dec. 22 and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
By Jan. 1944, the survivors had reached the Gustav Line. Allied commanders decided to outflank it with an amphibious operation at Anzio, 30 miles south of Rome. The U.S. VI Corps made landfall on Jan. 22. Unfortunately, its commander, Major Gen. John P. Lucas, was too timid to exploit his success.
While he hesitated, Kesselring rushed reinforcements to pin down the Americans. Soldiers such as Army engineer Cpl. Thurman Peedin of Princeton and ordnance inspector Delmar V. West of Benson spent the next few months struggling to stop the Germans from sweeping them into the sea.
Nevertheless, the German army was weakening. Polish troops finally seized the ruins of Monte Cassino on May 18, triggering a collapse of the German position. Led by Major General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., who had replaced Lucas, the VI Corps then linked up with the Allied main body.
Many Germans had been killed, wounded or captured, but Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, commander of the U.S. Fifth Army, unwisely broke off the pursuit so that he could have the honor of liberating Rome.
The need to prepare for landings in Provence, on France’s Mediterranean coast, to support the Allied forces in Normandy further complicated the situation. Both the U.S. VI Corps and the French Expeditionary Corps, veterans of many difficult battles, were withdrawn from Italy.
The landings themselves, on Aug. 15, were successful. The Franco-American force sped northwards, forcing German troops in western France to scramble for the German border before their line of retreat was cut off.
Technician 4-G Robert G. Watson of Princeton’s unit, the 561st Engineer Boat Maintenance Company, was awarded the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque for the “outstanding and superior manner in which this company maintained, salvaged and repaired assault landing craft” in Provence and at Anzio.
While Watson and others were hastening the end of the French campaign, their comrades in Italy were trudging slowly up the peninsula. The men of the U.S. 349th Infantry Regiment, including Dewey R. Braswell of Smithfield, faced stiff enemy resistance as they advanced to the Arno River near Florence.
By the winter, the Allies were forced to halt at the Gothic Line, the last German defensive barrier south of the Po Valley. However, they continued to attack from the air.
Second Lt. Leo V. Upchurch of Four Oaks arrived at the 15th Army Air Force’s base as a B-24 Liberator co-pilot in December 1944. Seven combat missions later, he was awarded the Air Medal. In June 1945, after 21 missions, Upchurch became a first lieutenant.
Not all American airmen lived to tell the tale. Lt. Hardy D. Narron of Kenly fell into enemy hands after being shot down over German-occupied Italy. In violation of the rules of war, Narron and four other POWs were tortured and murdered by their captors.
Harassed by a growing resistance movement, German soldiers and collaborators slaughtered thousands of Italian civilians to terrorize them into submission. Predictably, as had happened elsewhere in Europe, these atrocities provoked the opposite reaction.
When spring arrived, the Allies were ready. After a massive artillery bombardment on April 9, the final push began. Bologna was liberated on April 21. The U.S. 10th Mountain Division and the 8th Indian Infantry Division reached the Po River on the following days.
To the west, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force advanced towards Turin while Ernest Atkinson of Smithfield and the 92nd “Buffalo Soldiers” Division marched on Genoa. He was wounded near the end of the month, but the Germans were crumbling.
On April 29, Col. Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff surrendered all Axis forces in Italy to British Field Marshal Harold Alexander, the Supreme Allied Commander.
With Kesselring’s reluctant permission, one million Nazi German and Fascist Italian soldiers laid down their arms on May 2, 1945. The Italian campaign was over.
The survivors had done their duty, but they would never be the same. In his letter to his brother, Ryan described the human misery he witnessed: ragged civilians begging for food and eating out of trash cans.
“I just hope and pray that our American people back home will never know just what war really is,” he wrote. “I think that after seeing so much death and destruction whenever I do get back home I will make a lot better citizen.”
