The landing in Salerno

salerno REmembers

Annelise Capaccio, Sophia Scalera, Ginevra Gallo e Marialucia Sibonaclasse 3ªA-scuola "A. Pirro"

The code name of the Allied landing operation in Salerno was "Operation Avalanche" because the military operations had to be fast and sudden... the Salerno saying "the avalanche comes from the sea" is well known

The Allied invasion started on 3 September 1943 with minor landings in the toe of Italy, with the intention to divert the Germans from the main invasion area near Salerno. On 9 September, the Allied main force landed at Salerno (Operation Avalanche). The invasion force, under command of General Mark Clark, comprised of the U.S. 5th Army, the 82nd Airborne Division and the British X Corps. Prior to the landing no preparatory bombardment was executed in order to secure the element of surprise.

The Allied landing at Salerno on 9 September 1943 coincided with the proclamation of the Cassibile armistice of the Kingdom of Italy and marked the beginning of the liberation campaign of the Italian mainland. It failed to enforce a quick advance to Rome and gave way to the bloody operations centred around Monte Cassino.

the landing in salerno

Operation Avalanche

The landing took place in a land arc of about 40 km that included the present-day towns of Pontecagnano, Battipaglia, Capaccio, Paestum and Eboli.

Before the landing, no preparatory bombing was carried out, to add the element of surprise. In vain, because the Germans already had defensive troops in the area. Despite this setback, the Allies managed to land and secure a 35-mile coastline. In the northern sector, the British commandos and the US rangers led by Lieutenant Colonel William Darby, managed to take the enemy defenses by surprise and seized the heights near Maiori. On 12 September the German Tenth Army counterattacked the bridgehead, which was held at I'm struggling. The German counterattack caused many casualties and, in some places, reached the beaches. Ultimately, the German counterattack failed because Hitler refused Field Marshal Kesselring's request to commit more troops. For the Allies, Operation Avalanche did not lead to the rapid advance up Italy as hoped. They had to stop along the Gustav Line, which revolved around Monte Cassino. Rome itself was not reached until June 4, 1944. Despite flaws in the planning, General Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his courageous conduct. Clark was frequently seen in the lead positions encouraging his troops.

In 1915 Mark Wayne Clark graduated from West Point Military Academy, together with his classmate Dwight D. Eisenhower. During the First World War Clark was a 22-year old captain in France. The Second World War accelerated his career. He was put in command of the U.S. 5th Army, which landed in Salerno on 9 September 1943, as part of the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula. The invasion, after a good start, was nearly defeated in the following days by the German counterattacks. In spite of this, Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. During the Italian campaign Clark eluded death twice. On 28 January 1944 a torpedo boat carrying him to the Anzio beachhead was mistakenly fired on by American naval vessels, causing several deaths and injuries. Six months later he escaped death again while flying over Civitavecchia when his pilot overlooked the cable of a barrage balloon. Clark’s behaviour during the Italian campaign aroused much controversy. His attempt to break through the German Gustav Line by crossing the Gari river in January 1944 resulted in heavy casualties and no gains. The operation was called ‘’one of the most colossal and murderous blunders of the Second World War.” Six months later his decision to capture Rome instead of pursuing the retreating German 10th Army was heavily criticized by his superiors. Despite these setbacks in March 1945, 48 years old, he became a General, which made him the youngest four-star General in the U.S. Army. Mark Clark died in 1984 at the age of 87.

Mark Clark

21 June 1943, on the day of San Luigi, the bombings began and to hit the pre-established objectives, the station, the barracks, the pasta factories, the gasometer, the entire city was razed to the carpet; the buildings crumbled and collapsed along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Via Diaz and further up to the sports field and the Sanatorium. The frightened men began to run away in bathing suits in search of shelter, offered by the wooden cabins of the bathing establishments.

THE FIRST AIR ATTACK - The first real bombing – that of the following day, 21 June 1943 – came absolutely unexpectedly. It's a hot Monday, the first day of summer, and the people of Salerno, in large numbers, are still on the beach when the air raid alarm sounds. No one believes that it is anything different from the usual, useless alarms; only a few seek shelter in the precarious anti-aircraft shelters; most remain, unaware, to swim in the sea on the beach of Santa Teresa. It's a tragic mistake. At 1.15pm and then at 1am the following day, two different waves of bombings sow terror and death in the city. Various buildings are hit in the city and in the suburb of Pastena, with a few hundred killed and perhaps two hundred injured.

Salerno, until June 1943, had not experienced the bombings. The Salernitans almost confidentially call a reconnaissance plane that flies over them every evening, "Ciccio 'o railwayman" who systematically mapped the territory. In the late evening of June 20th, just after 10pm, Ciccio 'o railwayman, throws some incendiary shots, kills one person and injures four others. This fact does not detract from the calm of the city.

bombings in salerno

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And the displacement begins for the people of Salerno; everyone takes refuge in the countryside, in nearby towns. The city is half-empty during the day; commercial activities are reduced to the bare minimum. This semblance of life disappears completely after the furious bombings of 21 and 23 July and 19, 22, 23, 27 and 31 August, which add further mourning and destruction to the already tormented city. Almost two thirds of the homes are damaged, mostly in the new area, the historic center, strangely, is almost untouched and for this reason it is nicknamed "the Vatican City" by the people. Since the end of August Salerno has been completely abandoned by everyone, including the civil authorities and the only ones who remain in their place are the priests.

During the night of June 21st, the sound of sirens shortly after midnight breaks the silence. The city is illuminated like day by thousands of flares and English bombers which, for about an hour, rage over the central eastern part of the city, destroying the Umberto I barracks, the Scaramella pasta factory and civilian homes. The sad toll is high: 6oo deaths. The defense was strengthened with batteries of 75/49 "Vickers" placed in Vietri sul Mare, Brignano, Villa Tisi and a fourth in Battipaglia; the command was placed at the Umberto I orphanage in Salerno. At the same time as Salerno, on 21 June 1943, Battipaglia and its railway station were also bombed; 117 civilian victims were recorded. In the subsequent bombings, Battipaglia was completely razed to the ground, earning Norman Lewis the nickname "Italian Guernica".

Salerno and the devastation

120 Italian soldiers die, some under the rubble of the barracks, others, while returning from an exercise, machine-gunned at low altitude on the road in the "Red mulberry" area.

Today, where the Umberto I barracks once stood... an elderly man explains the historical events of the past thanks to Virtual and Augmented reality through Coblocks, (the language of code blocks)

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"I don't know how many wounded there were [...] overall 117 deaths among soldiers and civilians [...] buried [he means in the rubble] we don't even know now [he wrote five days after the events]. I only know that since then we have been working to extract corpses from the rubble and bury them, we don't know who many of them are, we take photographs and bury them".

General Gonzaga's testimony told his sister that, having gone out into the street at the end of the incursion, he realized that many buildings had suffered collapses and extensive damage; the population was in a panic, shouting for help from the rubble.

One of the objectives was the Umberto I barracks on Corso Garibaldi, but fortunately the building was empty, since the Officer Cadet School, which was once housed there, had been moved to Fossano (Cuneo) in March due to the interest of the Prince of Piedmont.

Umberto I barraks

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The battle of Salerno, in particular, fought from 9 September to 1 October (the date on which the Americans occupied Naples), if, on the one hand, demonstrated the clear Allied superiority in terms of forces and armaments fielded, on the another confirmed the undisputed tactical value of the German forces who were able to effectively counter, with very little air cover, the Anglo-American advance and were forced to retreat only in the face of an imposing barrage of air-naval fire which devastated their defense and supply lines . And it was precisely in the battle of Salerno that phosphorus ammunition was used for the first time during the conflict, which wreaked havoc on the defenders.

And instead, the battle of Salerno can be considered as the first of a long series of bloody defensive battles won by the Germans on the soil of our country which will end only in April 1945 and which will have its peaks in the bloody fighting on the Gustav Line and on the Gothic Line.

So defined by Hugh Pond, World War II veteran; the operation was to be, according to the Allied plans of General Alexander, a rapid operation, the beginning of a rapid advance towards Northern Italy, taking advantage of the disbandment following the Italian armistice and the German reorganization phase, aimed at reoccupying the positions left undefended by the Italian armed forces, in disarray if not on the run.

"An Avalanche of Mistakes"

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At Salerno the decision had been taken to assault without previous naval or aerial bombardment, in order to secure surprise. Tactical surprise was not achieved, as the naval commanders had predicted. As the first wave approached the shore at Paestum a loudspeaker from the landing area proclaimed in English, "Come on in and give up. We have you covered." The troops attacked nonetheless.

Approximately 200,000 men, both English and Americans, took part in this amphibious operation, the most impressive carried out up to that point, which saw the participation of the air force, navy and army. The naval units employed, including warships and transports, were 150, over 6 aircraft carriers, 200 landing craft, around a hundred PT Boats (fast motorboats), DUKW (amphibious craft suitable for transporting men and supplies from ships to combat posts) and LCM (small landing craft).

On September 3, Archbishop Nicola Monterisi reunites the clergy, ordering them to remain in place to guard places of worship and houses, which, abandoned by parishioners, are at the mercy of thieves and looters; this must be done even at the cost of one's life; to demonstrate these words, the parish priest of the Sacred Heart, near the station where almost all the homes were destroyed and the inhabitants displaced, also abandoned the parish, but was quickly removed from office. But this constant presence of the clergy in the most exposed positions involves the sacrifice of many: Don Vito De Nicola, parish priest of S. Maria delle Grazie in Mercato S. Severino, Canon Bonavoglia of Eboli and, finally, Don Felice Ventura, parish priest of S. Margherita di Pastena, with two of her parishioners Matteo Rufolo and Michele Greco, perish under the rubble of their churches

The action of the church

The Germans had established artillery and machine-gun posts and scattered tanks through the landing zones which made progress difficult, but the beach areas were successfully taken. Around 07:00 a concerted counterattack was made by the 16th Panzer division. It caused heavy casualties, but was beaten off with naval gunfire support. Both the British and the Americans made slow progress, and still had a 10-mile gap between them at the end of day one. They linked up by the end of day two and occupied 35–45 miles of coast line to a depth of six or seven miles.

The extent of the devastation of the war is symbolized by a humble woman from Cave, Lucia Apicella, known as "Mamma Lucia", who since 1947 dedicated years of her life to collecting the bodies of many dead and unburied soldiers throughout the Salerno area, despite the inconveniences, fatigue and risks associated with the multiple unexploded ordnance scattered across the battlefield. At the end of her work, "Mamma Lucia" collected the remains of 809 Germanic soldiers, placing the miserable remains in zinc boxes, bought at her expense and kept in the small church of San Giacomo in Cava de' Tirreni, before they were moved in the ossuary specially built in the cemetery of the small village

Mum Lucia