MESSINA to ITALY
The assault across the Straits of Messina was to be by assault craft from Sicily, covered by a barrage of 25 pounder guns and this eventually took place in September and we were to land on the right. The information we had was sketchy, but from the photographs it was possible that mines were laid on the beaches and these were covered by fire from pillboxes etc. We then prepared mine-gapping and for attacking these pillboxes. We had collected some German mine detectors which were of excellent quality and we kept them with us for a long time. We found them infinitely better than our own.
[ It was later found that many of the German mines were coated with a mildly radioactive paint (Tarnsand) and the German mine detectors incorporated a Geiger counter]
During the night crossing of the Straits of Messina, the tide carried the boats all ways and we eventually landed with quite a number of the 1st Canadian on our right and some of our chaps landed where the Canadians were supposed to have landed. Luckily we landed somewhere near the point we were supposed to and went ashore with very little opposition. The first tasks were road clearance and reconnaissance and this we did. The first gap was where the road had been blown away and the Division went into the railway tunnel and cleared a way through there back onto the road. By this time our reconnaissance parties were back in harbour and we got the message back that there was a 120 foot gap. The main body of the Unit with equipment were pushed through the bridge through a diversion which had been made on another blown bridge which 245 Fd. Coy. were building and on to Bagnara and arrived there about 7 p.m. by which time reconnaissance by DW and CGT had been made and as soon as the area was covered by our Infantry the beginning was made on this bridge. Originally the road had run under the bridge, round the cliff, then back over itself and so the enemy had blown it and it had dropped on the road below, completely blocking it and there was the gap about a 100 ft. above the main road. We ramped off the road and eventually got into the continuation of the main road until it led us to the edge of the gap and here we could go no further and it was beyond our knowledge or capabilities at that time to launch a bailey bridge in a restricted space uphill. Fortunately a small path was found running through the back of the village and after we had put the bulldozers through it, knocking down quite a few houses, we were able to pull the Bailey Bridge lorries, individually, through this gap with the bulldozer and up on the enemy side of the bridge, where we were then able to construct it and launch it downhill. Work was knocked off at midnight and started again at six the following morning. Torrential rain had fallen all night and it speaks highly of the men that by 2 o'clock the next day, the bridge was complete, being the first bailey bridge we built on the mainland of Europe. (A most impressive sight it was as you can see from the camera photograph above).
From a letter written by S/Sgt Bill Chalmers we have the following. �This was the first Bailey Bridge in Mainland Europe. In fact, it was the first Bailey we had built or seen, chord jacks and chord bolts were foreign words to us at that time. We were working from pamphlets, etc.- trial and error mostly. It was classified as Class 24-30, Double-single- span 120-140 feet. Having completed the bridge, orders came to increase Class to Class 40. We started to construct Double-Double adding panels, working out towards the enemy, starting at the home bank.
The amount of sag in the centre of the bridge was too great for the chord jack to bring together. We tried various methods, such as removing centre stringers from bridge, etc. We found out later the correct way was to build out from the centre- Success! Then we laid a skin decking on top of the chesses white timber t & G 4ft x 4 � x ��. Later on- we found that each side of the bridge was heavily mined- no casualties! From there on 38 were building bridges almost every day up towards Anzio, crossing the Garigliano en-route to the fall of Rome.�
From here onwards it was road clearance, road building, bridge building and diversions. We passed through ? where the Malta Brigade had landed and had quite a tough time and then we took off again only to hear that all the Divisional RE by this time were under the command of C.R.E. who was doing a reconnaissance, in a spotter Plane and bringing back the information of the number of bridges there were ahead and who would build which and approximate timings of Bailey equipment. The CRE was hurtling around and we would build a bridge, have a rest, then move on to the next job; there was not a great deal of fighting and the next trouble was the lack of equipment and the Division was finally slowed down at a place called Sapri. Here we heard the other assault landing at Salerno was going very badly and we had to rush on to relieve them as quickly as possible. A section of three Platoon went forward with the reconnaissance Regiment and within 48 hrs. they had made a junction with the Americans and had lifted some American mines and German mines which had been laid around the American perimeter.
From Sapri the division then struck inland to Lagonegro, Pennarone, Brienza, Potanzo, Altamura to Bari. Throughout the whole of this road, we dealt with diversions and bridging problems. We were ably assisted during this period by a Canadian Mechequip Section attached to the Unit. They were most colourful people and work was a joy to them and they revelled on it; never let up for a moment during some magnificent jobs. With this section, we did a lot of improvised work, as the equipment was not coming up to us as the main port had been switched from the South to Taranto and to Naples. This was very good training and luckily most of it was done with little interference. From Bari we moved to Foggia and a place called Lucera where the division went into rest and the sappers only were used. We opened up the roads to Castle Nuovo? and Castle Vechio- on W coast? The Canadians had taken over the advance and had moved on towards Campo Basso. The 38th Fd. Co. were called up from there to build a bridge on the Main Lateral from Campo Basso to Trevellio where the Assault Landing had taken place. We moved up with great ease having been told the road was clear beyond Campo Basso where we were supposed to turn right on the Main Lateral. Before we arrived at Campa Basso it was quite obvious that the road was not clear as the Canadians had not yet taken the town. Eventually, though, they did take the town and we went through and turned right at the upper road that had been cleared by the concentratement and went into Bidwac, a small village outside Campa Basso. Here we built one of the largest bridges we had yet tackled - 140 ft. double-double Bailey for the main lateral. Mines were suspected on either side of the blown bridge and a diversion had been made by the Canadians. It was only on the completion of the job that we found in actual fact, that there was a mine field stretching from this road right up to the bridge around on the other side, but luckily we had no casualties from this incident. The point about this job was the communications between ourselves and the Divisional Headquarters were excellent; although it was 150 miles away we used a long aerial and the skywave and we were getting strength five through regularly. The Division came up later and took over from the Canadians and our route was through Cantalupo, Isernia, Pontes a Tolo, Alfredino and down to the River Barroa? and this was the furthest point that the Division advanced.
After that time and during this phase the unit built about five bailey bridges and 7/8 improvised bridges of various sorts. These were mostly suspended as an early winter had come and already on the hills the snow was lying extremely deep. The division spent a short time here and all that we were involved in was improving communications and occasional trips with infantry and recce parties to see what the lie of the land was like ahead. At short notice we were moved over to Lanciano in Montiene ? when the Canadians on the coast were trying to take Altono and the New Zealanders were trying to take Orsono. Our task was to fill in the gap between them and enable them to concentrate their strength on these two towns. Shortly after arrival there we were given the job of advancing to Cheiti along the old Roman Road. Unfortunately, this was marked on the maps but on the actual ground was nothing but green fields and on either side of what must have been the old Roman Road were two hedges. These led down to the river Moto? across which was a ford and the valley on either side was fairly steep and despite my report, no one would believe that the division could not advance along this line. Eventually, the Chief Engineer Army came down and did a personal reconnaissance with me to ensure that the information I gave was correct. Needless to say, the division did not advance on this road. We spent our Christmas in Lanchiano and some excellent improvised Christmas lunches were held. One platoon having billeted in an empty house, had found in a cellar : table ware, silver, glasses etc., and made themselves a sumptuous dinner, much to the consternation of the owners who returned a few days later.
GARIGLIANO - MonteCassino
Shortly after Christmas 1943 we were relieved by the Airborne Brigade and moved from the Adriatic front to the Naples area. Great was the excitement as we thought we were going home - but this was not to be!
From Naples we moved up to Mondragone where we were informed that 5th Division would be a part of the River Garigliano crossing with our 17th Brigade on the left flank, from the river mouth up stream to the main road and railway bridges, which had been blown and were adjacent to the old amphitheatre near Minturno.
Our main tasks were:
1. Clearance of mined tracks down to the river bank for use of bridging equipment and infantry/anti-tank guns etc.
2. Clearance of tracks for infantry as it had been ascertained that the area was heavily sown with anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.
3. Construction of ferry cables across the fast flowing river to facilitate raft and assault craft crossing.
4. Assisting infantry with their assault boats and their return.
5. Construction of two folding boat rafts and landing piers or suitable ramps for shore landing.
6. Making access points through the flood banks.
7. The construction of a 50/60 Bailey pontoon raft on the second night.
Apart from the normal engineering equipment, we requested three amphibious jeeps to take the heavy cables across the river, which due to heavy rains and opening of sluices upstream, was running very strongly. We had seen the amphibious Jeeps, by the score, being used by the Americans (mainly for pleasure) - but none were available for the British. This nearly caused me to be sacked, as I pushed its necessity too strongly. Eventually an old and battered one was produced but unfortunately it was sunk by near misses on its first crossing!
We cleared a track down to the river using sharpened steel prodders owing to the use of non-metallic mines especially shu-mines. This was closely followed up by normal mine-detectors for anti-tank mines. Some of this work was done beforehand but as the area was closely overlooked by the enemy not a great deal was achieved. As soon as possible metal track (Sommerfelt) was laid and we got the first anti-tank gun over, but further ferrying was halted as the infantry made little progress owing to very heavy shell and mortar fire. Our own rafts were used to ferry the wounded back - On one occasion an R.S.F. soldier, minus a leg, was lying on the raft and the corporal in charge who was commiserating with him, was told in no mistaken language "that he wouldn�t have his job for all the .... tea in China. The Corporal, also a Scot, said he wouldn�t have his job either, etc etc, but this showed the high regard each unit had for the other and typifies the wonderful divisional spirit!!.
Most of the equipment was damaged and it was not until the next day when smoke was used to cover all the crossing that the situation improved and work was continued throughout the following night. This included the building of the 50/60 Bailey Pontoon raft, but owing to the lack of success by the infantry and very heavy shelling and mortar fire our services were not in great demand except for assisting the infantry in mine lifting and laying. We found that despite the care we had taken originally, shu and Teller mines were still underneath the damaged metal road/track. However, no one was blown up as long as they kept to the track! Assistance was also given to the infantry in laying defensive mines and booby traps.
Shortly afterwards 17th Brigade was withdrawn and replaced by 201 Guards Brigade and 38 were left in support of them. Their main requirement was a protective mine belt on their front which could only be done under cover of darkness - it was not an easy task! Luckily they were given further objectives, prominent positions overlooking the area, then all they wanted was for the sappers to go first and clear the mines! When the time factor was explained it was realised it was impractical and they achieved their objectives in a typical Guards manner - completely nonchalantly and with great courage.
That night we were ordered to rejoin 5 Div and thought we would be having a rest, only to be told that in a few days we were off to Anzio to relieve 56th Div.
ANZIO
A memorable journey in an American Landing ship-tank took place in which the Captain frightened the life out of everyone by telling us of the hell we were going to, whereas in actual fact we sailed up to Anzio Harbour, a beautiful sunny day, without any sign or sight of war. We landed with none of the horrors we had been told to expect and we moved out to the station which was our area for the next few hours until our guides picked us up and we moved out to the Company area, here the situation was static and typical of the 1914-18 war, the reserve areas were all dug in owing to enemy night bombing, which was frequent and in some cases extremely heavy and all the forward positions were trenches with the usual dugouts and one of our first tasks was a long communication trench across some open "no man's land" behind our front line.
Our main tasks at Anzio were water supply, mine fields, roads and preparation for the break-out which could always take place at any moment. Some of our tasks included the inspection of the "one man" torpedoes, construction of divisional brigade, [
Touring? Dugouts, ? charging dumps, communication trench, manufacture of anti-personal, anti-tank mines and placing of same in conjunction with infantry working parties, wiring, camouflage and to keep our lines in, we used to lend the gunners who occupied the same areas as ourselves a hand to fill their guns so that we got a little of our own back. During this period, we had two platoons on night work and one on days and our time was fully occupied.
We moved into our area just south of the main road and did the usual reconnaissance forward to find out what was next. We had the aerial photographs of the river to work on and our Brigade, the 7th Brigade, was attacking across the widest portion of the mouth of the river and our task was the construction of the Assault Rafts and Ferries to get the brigade equipment over on the first night and on the second night to get the Divisional Equipment such as tanks over and we were going to construct a class 50/60 tank route on that night. We carried out the necessary training on the Volturno and on the night of the crossing, moved up to the bank of the river which we know to be mined. We cleared away down to the river through the Mine Field and laid our track, constructed the necessary ferries and got the first lot of vehicles up out of the river. Unfortunately, things did not turn out quite as good as they should have done and further ferrying was stopped except for the people who were wounded. We had made a great hustle in obtaining amphibious jeeps and eventually obtained rather a dilapidated one which helped us over with our fast ferrying cables. Unfortunately, it was sunk by several near misses on the journey over but did help us - a little bit more would have been great value. On the second night we brought our class 50/60 raft out which
It was the second one we built on the main land view of the 56th Division further up the river and used it that night. Ours was built but unfortunately never used. The section of 1/2 was over on the far bank of the river and was used for carrying wings, but we were not able to work much headway there as the enemy held the heights beyond the shelled area, and the infantry did not advance to any great degree at that moment. We spent some considerable time here in making tracks and crossings over the river, maintaining the road and proving for mines the roads forward and seeing that they were kept in good repairs and we did this including the construction of Mine Fields, until the division was withdrawn and we were left with the Guards' Brigade who immediately gave us the impossible task of putting a mine field to cover the whole of that gained front, luckily we withdrew a few nights later and did not have to do this rather difficult task. When the division was withdrawn, we thought we were going for a period of rest, but we were only withdrawn to the village of Cuaglionli, where we were once more told we were going to Anzio to relieve the 56th Division who were suffering heavy casualties,
Two points that loomed very large in our minds was the fact that the General on two occasions hauled us up for not saluting; on each occasion a terrific stonk had taken place, the men had just picked themselves up off the ground. Wisbery�s jeep? complained bitterly because it had not been saluted, but apart from this the unit was in very good form and did excellent work to support the battalion of the Brigade.
The final job before the breakout was the sealing of a gully with mines so that one of our forward positions could be withdrawn; this we had practically completed when the working party was heavily mortared and they suffered severe causalities. We were extremely lucky whilst at Anzio where our casualties only numbered 10. Despite the immense amount of work in the exposed positions which had been undertaken by the Unit, we had been joined by two south African Officers. Lieuts. Darling and Hopkins, both of whom had a fine record of service behind them and one of them was a trained engineer. They were excellent additions to the unit as they were so much more trained than the usual reinforcement, who was only a boy straight from school. In the breakout from Anzio we constructed two bailey bridges and had cleared a lot of mines on our route out which led up via the coast to the Lido of Rome, though the job as usual was road clearance and diversions and mine clearance which was especially heavy in the Lido of Rome. We also did a reconnaissance down to the Tiber and then as Rome had fallen, we made our way rapidly into the town so as we would at least help with the celebrations
