D-Day in Salerno
September 1943. The Allies have conquered Sicily. Montgomery landed against only light German resistance in the south of the Italian peninsula on 2 September. The only German regiment which stood at Reggio at this time has retired to the mountains. Calabria was conquered by the XIII. British Corps within three days. In Taranto allied ships came in as if on a fleet visit and soon afterwards Brindisi as well as Bari were freed under similar circumstances.
This period also marked the end of the Mussolini era. The Italians were war-weary and started with surrender negotiations. General Giuseppe Castellano, planning officer of the Comando Supremo under Marshal Badoglio, signed the surrender document in the presence of General Eisenhower already on 3 September at 15.15 hrs. This was announced on 8 September, since Eisenhower planned to take Rome in a surprise coup by the 82. U.S. Airborn Division. The operation was called off, however, because of the strength of the German troops detected in and around Rome. The Germans had long suspected an Italian capitulation but were not aware of the details and the early surrender. General Field Marshal Kesselring, Supreme Commander of Italy, nevertheless had ordered swift measures to disarm the Italian defence forces in case of emergency.
Under Kesselring’s ironically named codeword “axis”, the disarming started on 9 September. The soldiers of almost eighty Italian divisions became prisoners. An enormous list of confiscated material provided the German Wehrmacht a material breather. 1.2 million rifles, 38,383 machine-guns, 9,988 guns, 970 tanks, 4,553 aeroplanes, 287,502 tons of ammunition, 15,500 lorries, 67,700 horses, 3,400 tons of mercury, 196,000 tons of iron ore and much more was acquired by the Wehrmacht. General Colonel Alfred Jodl remarked on this:" The abundance of materiel continued to come to the German army for some time. This was the only service which Italy has ever made to us ".
That was the state of affairs on the evening before the Allied invasion in Salerno. In the official reports is always talk of the 5.US Army. However, it is fact that U.S. General Mark Wayne Clark commanded only 69.000 Americans but 100.000 British soldiers. The attack formation was disposed in the X. British Corps on the left wing and the 36th U.S. division on the right wing. The task was to carry out a pan-shot on Naples, conquer the town, connect with Montgomerys 8. Army and establish a common front up to the Adriatic Sea.
The Germans had anticipated such an operation and taken certain measures.
Kesselring estimated an Allied landing in the bay of Naples was not possible since German artillery could catch the attacking forces under a tremendous crossfire round the huge semicircular bay. Salerno, however, was far more open and, thanks to the more southern geographic position, also offered the advantage of Allied air cover from their airfields on Sicily. Kesselring therefore decided to cover the threat by moving 16 Panzer Division to the Salerno area.
The atmosphere among the Allies was relaxed. After the announcement the night before of the Italian surrender, a swift success was expected. 1943 The invasion began during the night of 8-9 September. In order to achieve surprise, General Ernest J. Dawley decided to land his VI. Corps on the beach of Paestum without any previous artillery preparation. The first GIs went ashore at 3.30a.m. A loudspeaker voice with a strong German accent tore the silence: "You are covered! Come on in and give yourselves up." At the same time headlights bathed the beach in bright light and fire was opened. The Americans however did not let themselves be intimidated and assaulted the German defence positions head on. The ancient tower of Paestum, turned into a machine gun nest, heldout longest. Other defending German units abandoned the beach area rather quickly. German artillery, however, caused much destruction and confusion on beach landing sectors Blue and Yellow so that second wave landings had to be diverted to other sectors. Not withstanding, the Americans had gained a bridgehead five kilometres depth in a short time.
The British were only partly successful on the left flank. Their commando units landed at Vietri, west of Salerno. Their mission was to seize and hold the coast road to Salerno and the Cava-Nocera pass. The three US Ranger battalions which represented the northernmost head of the British landing landed at Maiori, some 10 km west of Salerno. They succeeded in occupying and securing the pass height of Chiunzi. From their positions these Rangers of Colonel William O'Darby could see Pompei and Vesuvius. They held these positions against furious German counter attacks until the unification of the two bridgeheads. The attacks east of Salerno, however, were not crowned with fast success.
For three days Clark’s British and Americans forces had to fight extremely hard for their successes. Clark brought ashore the 45. U.S.Division as reserve and proceeded on to Ponte Sele. The British took Altavilla and fought hard around Salerno, Battipaglia and Montecorvino.
Paestum was secured. This ancient place, spared from destruction from the fighting that surrounded it, now formed a home for staff companies. The 480th Battalion, an “all negro”unit exclusively manned by coloured persons, took the Neptune Temple (also known as the PoseidonTemple) as their staff HQ. The linkup with Montgomery army seemed imminent.