The fall of Monterosso Almo and Licodia Eubea

Monterosso Almo as it looks today

In the morning of 13 July 1943, Colonel Anckorn sent Colonel Murphy’s 1st Battalion towards Monterosso Almo.

Monterosso Almo was garrisoned by the 75th Infantry Regiment’s recruit battalion, green soldiers commanded by Major Rosario Catanzaro. Catanzaro had been first ordered to reach the regimental command in Solarino, and later to join the battered remnants of the 146th Coastal Regiment that were defending Vizzini Scalo, but the battalion did not move. In the report he later wrote, General Giulio Cesare Gotti Porcinari, commander of the 54th Infantry Division “Napoli”, wrote that “the recruit battalion in Monterosso Almo was unable to move to Solarino due to lack of vehicles and ammunition. The latter were sent by the divisional command just in time for it to be deployed in defense around the town, as two patrols had already come into contact with enemy forces near the Giarratana crossroads. The subsequent actions prevented its transfer”. (The 146th Coastal Regiment, commanded by Colonel Felice Bartimmo Cancellara, had sustained heavy losses in the fighting in the Gulf of Noto and had now withdrew to Vizzini Scalo, where they had taken defensive position along with a German machine gun unit).

In the evening of 12 July, some troops from the recruit battalion had fought a brief skirmish against a scouting platoon from the Canadian 1st Brigade, deployed near Giarratana. A Canadian soldier had been killed, some others had been wounded, and the Canadian platoon had withdrawn. The Canadians were replaced by a tactical group fromed from Colonel Anckorn’s 157th Regiment; coming from Chiaramonte, this group had sent the 1st Battalion towards Monterosso and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions towards Licodia Eubea.

Monterosso Almo fell without fighting. The Americans entered the town around noon on 13 July; Major Catanzaro and his 800 demoralized rectuits surrendered without resistance. The only casualty was apparently an unfortunate Italian soldier, whose futile death is thus remembered by local Santo Canzoniero, then a young boy: “Near the mill in Contrada Acquasanta, a little out of the town, there was an ammunition depot. A young northern soldier had been left guarding it; when the first American soldiers approached, a group of elderly women shouted to him in their dialect “Surrender, drop your rifle, the Americans are here”. The poor soldier, who being from the north probably did not understand their Sicilian dialect, held on to his Carcano mod. 91 rifle, confused and hesitant. A burst of rifle fire killed him at his post”.

After seizing the town, the 1st Battalion advanced a further five kilometres along the road to Vizzini, until they ran into a German combat group commanded by Captain Robert Rebholz.

Meanwhile, the 2nd and 3rd Battalion, moving from Chiaramonte Gulfi, headed towards Licodia Eubea. This town, located on top of a 630-metre hill, was defended by a German rearguard from Rebholz’s group, well armed with machine guns, submachine guns and flamethrowers, and supported by artillery. Behind them, to the north-east, were Vizzini Scalo and the remains of the 146th Coastal Regiment.

The battle for Licodia Eubea was brief but bitter; by the evening of 13 July, the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Infantry Regiment had taken the town, for the loss of 20 men killed and 40 wounded. Angered by their losses, the Americans shot seven Germans that had been taken prisoner. Then they advanced towards Vizzini, where they were engaged by the 146th Coastal Regiment and by more German troops.

(Source: “La battaglia degli Iblei”, by Domenico Anfora)