Once the landing was over, the occupation of the western
part of Sicily was up to the American 7th Army, under General George Patton’s
orders; the priority strategic task was to protect the flank of Montgomery’s
8th Army, which had the aim of reaching as soon as possible the port of Messina,
from which he could cut supplies to the Italian-German troops, blocking their
escape. The landing in the west was carried out by the Third Infantry Division
of General Truscott in the early hours of 10 July, on the beaches around
Licata, which was occupied in that morning. After fierce fighting, especially
in the area of Campobello di Licata, the Italian counter-offensive of July 11
was repelled and the American troops conquered Palma di Montechiaro, capturing
two battalions of the 177th Regiment of Colonel Venturi. The front line in the
province was broken in two. On the front along the coast in the direction of
Agrigento, from the town of Naro to the mouth of the river of the same name, the
10th Bersaglieri Regiment was deployed along with smaller units of the 177th;
these forces were supported by the artillery of the 12th group of Colonel
Corrado Ravaioli. It was at this point clear to Patton that it was possible to
focus on the conquest of the city of Agrigento, that would open the way to
Palermo. But it was during the days of July 12 and 13 that the feathered
soldiers of the 35th Bersaglieri Battalion, led by Major Guido Moccia, fought
valiantly and managed at a high price – more than 200 killed and wounded – to
block the Americans, causing them serious losses. The Italian commander was
later decorated with the gold medal for military valor, but these actions had cost
him the loss of an arm. Patton was not discouraged, however, and he managed to obtain
authorization by his superiors for an attack which was to be carried out by the
7th Infantry Regiment reinforced by the 3rd Ranger Battalion as well as
armoured and artillery units. The final action for the conquest of the City of
the Temples started in the evening of 15 July. An episode that remained rather
obscure, clarified only in recent days by Giuseppe Todaro, a researcher from
Porto Empedocle who, starting from the testimony of Salvatore Navarra – a
pastor in on whose land, between Villaggio Mosè and St. Leo, there was a
coastal battery commanded by artillery Captain Nicola Sapio –, was able to discover
a text that was almost completely unknown, written by Captain Sapio at age 90,
shortly before his death. The author cited, among other things, the death in
combat of his friend and Bersaglieri Captain, Ludovico Ricciardelli. "It
was possible to shed light on the mystery of this heroic officer – said
Giuseppe Todaro – thanks to collaboration with the Roll of Honour Office of the
Defense Ministry, which has provided us with the information contained in the
documents in its possession. In fact not only nobody knew anything about this
fallen, never mentioned before in other publications, but it was not even know
that one company of the 525th Bersaglieri Battalion had participated in the
battle of Agrigento: it was thought that this battalion had been entirely
destroyed on the day of the landing, near Palma di Montechiaro." In
particular, a statement of Lieutenant Corrado Di Maio was found; the statement,
given to the police only on December 2, 1957, thus recounted those distant
events: "On the night between 15 and 16 July 1943, the Americans had penetrated
from the sea to the interior and, after overwhelming one of our platoons, stationed
downline of the Serra Sale position, attacked our position. In the fighting
that followed and lasted about an hour, the captain died on the field, according
to what some fellow captives told me, having been struck by a hand grenade in
the throat during the assault. I personally heard him shout "Avanti Savoia"
during the last phase of the fighting". But the surprises were just
beginning. In fact, in the hope of being able to find other details about the
history of Ricciardelli, Todaro managed to track down his son in Florence, Pier
Nicola Ricciardelli, who was appalled to hear someone who after seventy years
old had discovered the story of his parent, for the simple reason that the family
had not been notified of his death in action, but had been told that he was
missing. "I could not believe my ears – said Mr. Ricciardelli – when this
Agrigento researcher told me, word by word, how things went on the night when
my father died. His body in fact, was never identified, probably because of a
carelessness of my mother. In fact before leaving for the front, my mom gave
him a wholly golden plate with his personal data. For this reason it is likely
that when my father's body remained on the field, someone stole his identity plate
and for this reason his body was not identified. We only knew that he had become
missing in action during the fighting in Sicily." Now Mr. Ricciardelli is
considering the possibility to ask for an award at the Defense Ministry in
honor of his fallen father. The Battle of Agrigento ended at 20 the next day,
July 16, 1943, after a week of desperate resistance.
(from an article of
“La Repubblica”)
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