The capture of Noto

British troops enter Noto, photo by Phil Stern

Noto, a Baroque town of 26,000 inhabitants a few miles inland from Avola (halfway between Syracuse and Pachino), was the seat of the headquarters of both the 146th Coastal Regiment and the 437th Coastal Battalion. The garrison consisted of the fourth company of the 437th Coastal Battalion (another company from the same battalion was stationed in Marzamemi, a third one was defending plants in the area, and another one was garrisoning fortifications in the Noto-Tellaro area), as well as a platoon of bicycle infantry and an anti-tank unit. Colonel Felice Bartimmo Cancellara, commander of the 146th Coastal Regiment, sent the bicycle platoon on the road that connected Noto to Piano della Pace, so that the link between the regimental command and the 374th Battalion in Avola would be mantained; the rest of the troops, supported by three self-propelled guns, prepared to defend Noto from the advancing troops of the 151st British Brigade (50th Infantry Division), which had landed between Capo Negro and Calabernardo, and of the 231st “Malta” Brigade, that had landed in Marzamemi.

Noto city centre with the baroque Cathedral

That afternoon, the situation looked dire for Cancellara’s troops: British forces, continuously reinforced by newly landed men and weapons, were isolating the coastal strongpoints; the 430th Battalion had ceased all communications with the regiment at 13:00, nearly all of the coastal batteries had ceased fire, and only a few isolated strongpoints remained of the 374th Battalion. British troops were encircling Noto, and the only roads left open were the San Corrado and Villa Oliva roads, that led to Palazzolo Acreide. The road to Rosolini had been closed off following the withdrawal of the 447th Anti-Paratrooper Squad. By 15:00, all communication with the command of the 206th Coastal Division and the 122nd Coastal Regiment had ceased, and swarms of fleeing soldiers, sailors and airmen coming from Syracuse were spreading news that that town had already fallen. Hospitals were overflowing with wounded soldiers and civilians; all medical officers of the 146th Coastal Regiments, as well as its chaplain, were busy attending to the four hundred injured soldiers and civilians that filled the hospitals in Noto and Avola, where they had been evacuated from Palazzolo Acreide, a nearby town that had suffered two heavy bombing raids on 9 and 10 July.

Colonel Cancellara sent two dispatch-riders on motorcycles towards Modica and Palazzolo: the former was tasked with making contact with the divisional command, but was forced to go back after finding that the road to Rosolini was already in Allied hands; the latter came back with the news that the 75th Infantry Regiment would launch a counterattack towards Floridia, and that the 146th could expect no reinforcements.

Modern-day panoramic view of Noto

The Allied attack on  Noto began at 14:00. The outposts on the roads to Avola and Calabernardo were attacked by British troops supported by tanks, and the Italian troops were forced to retreat towards the outkirts of the town and the town hall. Villa Petrosa was taken; sergeants Carlo Montesi (23 years old, from Agugliano in the Marche) and Arturo Natoli (33 years old, a Lombard from Varese), privates Vittorio Bonatti (20 years old, from Moglia in Lombardy) and Anselmo Ricò (34 years old, from Ramiseto in Emilia) and two tank troopers were killed, and the bicycle platoon lost half its men killed, wounded, or captured. The fourth company of the 437th Coastal Battalion then launched a counterattack, led by 45-year-old Captain Michele Valzani (from San Pietro Vernotico, Apulia) and 54-year-old Captain Lino Angelotti (from Palermo); at the cost of two men killed and five wounded, the company managed to recapture Villa Petrosa, restoring the original frontline. (Valzani and Angelotti were later awarded the Bronze Medal for Military Valor for this feat). At 18:30, however, British troops started to enter Noto, driving once again the defenders from Villa Petrosa; the Italian garrison retreated to the town hall. At the same time British columns, guided by some locals, marched up the San Giovanni valley and moved towards San Corrado, to the rear of Cancellara’s regiment. Cancellara concluded that his position was compromised, and decided to retreat under the cover of darkness. Around 22:00 on that evening, the Italian defenders withdrew to Noto Alta (upper Noto) and the contrada of San Giovanni, and at midnight a column formed by the fourth company of the 437th Battalion, by the command of the 224th Artillery Group, by the 233rd Self-Propelled Artillery Group and by Engineering troops, led by Cancellara, started its march towards San Corrado, with the aim of reaching Palazzolo Acreide and linking up there with the 75th Infantry Regiments. Despite British shelling, the column manage to cross the Castagna mined bridge and to reach Villa Vela, a few kilometres from Noto.

The 146th Coastal Regiment had left behind over one hundred men killed and another hundred seriously wounded in Noto, and equal numbers in Avola. The 430th Coastal Battalion had suffered the heaviest losses, especially in Ognina, La Villa, Fontane Bianche and at the mouth of the Cassibile.

Italian POWs in a temporary enclosure near Noto

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