The Sicilian Landings - WWII

[Angus Mac Kinnon]

A wartime photograph retrieved from near-disposal during clearance of archives.

The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign and ended with the Armistice signing in Cassibile on 3rd September 1943

Husky began on the night of 9–10 July 1943, and ended 17 August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. The Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island; the Mediterranean's sea lanes were opened and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was toppled from power. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy.

The photograph shows the landing at Cassibile, the opening stages of the invasion of Sicily which carried the Allied forces over a large area of the Island. Enemy near-misses can be seen as the Landing Craft disembark troops and materials.

[Brianh]

the larger craft in the picture are LCL(L) - landing craft infantry (large) which were all built in the USA based on a British outline design and sailed across the pond. Disembarkation was by means of gangways on either side of the bow which wsa ok in calm weather but was tricky otherwise as some of the pictures taken on D Day showed. As they were Lend Lease all but one of the many used by the RN were returned to US control at the end of the war.

[Angus Mac Kinnon]

Not really related to the War At Sea but, in addition to their heavy involvement in equipping Royal Navy and Merchant Navy vessels, my old Company, Weir of Glasgow, were also involved in many other aspects of the war effort and one of these was the manufacture, on quite a large scale, of 15 lb and 25 lb field guns and carriages. The following photographs, again retrieved from being dumped during clearance, show this armament under construction and awaiting despatch from the gun shops of G & J Weir at their Cathcart factory.

The last (bottom) photograph shows one of the 25 pounders in action in the North Africa campaign, during the first British offensive in Libya, in this case firing on enemy positions outside Tobruk

(Site playing up again and keeps logging me out so the addditonal postings lost ... so it's goodnight from him ....)

[Angus Mac Kinnon]

Trying again to upload the images that would not upload previously