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| Paratroopers of the 184th Division "Nembo" in 1943 |
The average quality of the
Italian troops stationed in Sicily at the time of the Allied invasion was,
admittedly, pretty low. The ill-armed, ill-trained and even ill-clothed
soldiers of the Coastal Divisions, that made up the majority of the troops of
the Sixth Army, were essentially third-rate troops, whose combat value was not
much greater than that of a “Dad’s Army” or a local militia. The four infantry
divisions were somewhat better, but lacked any combat experience and were
severely short of vehicles and adequate weaponry. The Italian Army of summer
1943 had long lost its best units; all armoured divisions had been destroyed in
Africa (though two were being reformed), half of the Alpini divisions had been
lost in Russia, and the same fate had befallen on most motorized divisions and
on those infantry divisions that had managed to gain enough combat experience
so as to make them effective units.
Nevertheless, even at that
stage, the Regio Esercito still possessed a precious few elite units. One of
these was the 184th Paratrooper Division “Nembo”, “sister-division” of the
legendary “Folgore” that a few months earlier had sacrificed itself at El
Alamein; its paratroopers could be considered among the best trained and motivated
soldiers in the Italian Army.
In June 1943, most of the
“Nembo” had been shipped to Sardinia, in order to defend that island against a
possible Allied invasion. Only the 185th Paratrooper Regiment had remained on
the mainland, stationed near Florence; in early July the Regiment was
transferred to Apulia, and a few weeks later it crossed the strait of Messina
and landed it Sicily, where its use was planned agains the advancing Allies.
Instead, for reasons left unexplained, this elite regiment was held for a
couple of weeks near Messina, without coming into contact with Allied forces
(save for the air force, that bombed it without respite), and was then
withdrawn to the mainland without having fired a shot. It was paratroopers from
this regiment, in early September 1943, that fought the last engagement of the
Royal Italian Army against the Allies before the Armistice of Cassibile, when
they clashed with the advancing Canadian troops on the Aspromonte Massif, in
Calabria.
The strange story of the
185th Regiment’s abortive involvement in the Sicilian campaign is narrated
first hand by Paolo Lucifora, who was then a Second Lieutenant in command of
the machine gun platoon attached to the Command Company of the 8th Battalion,
185th Paratrooper Regiment.
“After the fall of the Fascist regime, the 185ht Paratrooper Regiment of
the “Nembo” Division was ordered to move from Apulia (where it had been
transferred from Florence in early July) to Sicily. After getting there,
[the regiment] was deployed in the
surroundings of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto: the 8th and 11th Battalions in the
countryside south-east of Castroreale, the 3rd in Acquaficara. The positions
held by the Regiment were supposed to be the last bulwark for the defense of
Messina, threatened by the American troops advancing from Palermo. The
soldiers’ morale was high, especially after receiving news that in a few days
the units would have been sent to the frontline north-east of Patti, ready to
receive their baptism of fire. The events, however, would take a different
turn, among other things because the enemy air forces knew well the positions
held by the 185ht, that soon began to be bombed.
On 2 August the area were the 8th and 11th
Battalions were camped was hit, wounding some paratroopers and killing Sergeant
Giuseppe Vinci. On the following day, an attack by Spitfires near Acquaficara
surprised a column of the regimental anti-tank company coming from Milazzo,
where, in between the bombing raids, they had stocked up ammunition and
provisions. In the heroic attempt to isolate a truck that had caught fire
Captain Ugo Malavasi, the company commander, and Sergeant Severino Del Balzo
were killed by strafing, and other paratroopers were wounded.
Meanwhile, the situation in Sicily was
deteriorating. The Germans were sending towards Messina their battle-worn
units, with the intent of transferring them to Calabria; everything seemed to
point to the [185th] Regiment ending its story on the Peloritani
mountains. However, contrarily to what had been expected, on 10 August, when
the high command [in Sicily] had
passed into German hands, the 185th also received the order of transfer to the
continent. The 3rd Battalion was the first to depart. The other two, instead,
had to wait till the morning of 12 August, when the vehicles used for the
transport of the 3rd Battalion came back. Unfortunately, after passing Rometta
Marea the vehicles were stopped by a German roadblock and redirected, despite
the protests of the regimental commander, to the roat to Saponara, which was a
dead-end road. The paratroopers had only one choice: wait there to be taken
prisoner, or abandon the vehicles and anti-tank guns and try to climb the
Peloritani mountains in order to reach Messina. The latter solution prevailed;
each soldier was given individual ammunition first, and then the ammunition of
the sub-machine guns was distributed as well – on average, each paratrooper had
to carry a weight of ten kilos. Then, at sunset, the march towards Messina
began, along the arduous paths that led to Mount Dinnammare (1129 meters above
sea level), towering above Messina.
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| Mount Dinnammare |
The paras reached the mountain ridge late
in the night, then began climbing down the other side of the mountain; near
dawn, the units – without having lost a single man or bullet – made a brief
stop in the Camaro Fiumara, behind the first houses of the nearby village
[in the outskirts of Messina]. From
there, walking through the rubble-filled streets [of Messina], the soldiers reached the Maritime Station. A
sudden tragedy, however, struck the boys of the 11th Battalion: the far end of
a machine gun’s tripod, while the machine gun was being put down on the ground,
hit a small bomb and caused its explosion, killing four paratroopers and badly
wounding another twelve.
For lack of embarkation craft, the units were
forced to spend the night in the railway tunnel below Montepiselli, and in the
morning of August 14 they were again ready for embarkation, when another
tragedy struck the paratroopers of the same battalion. Someone [according to Lucifora himself, probably a
disgruntled paratrooper] fired some shots
against Second Lieutenant Bottino, hitting him and causing the explosion of the
hand grenades in his vest, killing him and Captain Caforio, the company
commander, as well as four soldiers, and wounding another fifteen men,
including Colonel Parodi, the regimental commander.
Finally, in the late morning of 14 August, the
units embarked on motor barges, under fire from enemy aircraft, to which they
replied with their own submachine guns in addition to the barges’ anti-aircraft
machine guns. After landing in Calabria, the units were deployed betwen Santa
Cristina d’Aspromonte and Soneria Mannelli (3rd and 11th Battalions) and in
Bagaladi (8th Battalion). The latter remained camped there till the morning of
September 4, as mobile reserve for coastal defense”.
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| Paolo Lucifora |
(Source: Archivio Storico
Messinese 84/85, Società Messinese di Storia Patria)
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