Salerno Landings

Discussion in 'Italy' started by Gebirgsjaeger, Jun 3, 2012.

  1. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    Hi all,

    my Grandfather took part at the defending of Salerno against the US invasion at there. He served with the 1st Parachute Division and was captured at the 9th or 10th of September by US troops, propably by the 36th Division. He managed to escape at the 13th September after he was beaten heavily by some of the US soldiers which had horrible losses at his sector of the front. He never told me details of those days. After years i´ve found a member of his unit at Cologne and asked him for more information. He told me that they have been at the southern end of the landing area near to a swampy region and had very hard fights. He was hit by a bullet in his knee after he crossed a small road in the moment as he tried to jump over a small wall. He told me that he will write up all his memories, but sadly he passed away a few weeks later.

    My question is, does anybody have a military map or a sketch where the positions of the German troops are to see and/or does anyone can provide me some reports to the struggles at there?

    Any help is appreciated!
     
  2. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  3. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    Thank you much stolpi! They were mentioned in the book "Salerno to Cassino" at page 97 : Attached to the Hermann Göring Division with two Battailons of the 1st Parachute Division.

    Have to read more.
     
  4. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Thank you much stolpi! They were mentioned in the book "Salerno to Cassino" at page 97 : Attached to the Hermann Göring Division with two Battailons of the 1st Parachute Division.

    Have to read more.




    If your father's outfit was with the HG Div at Salerno, then he was north of the Sele River, around the Salerno-Maiori area. Most of the troops opposing the HG Div were from the British X Corps, specifically 46th (North Midlands and Yorkshire) Division and a British Commando force. However, in the Chiunzi Pass between Maiori and Nocera the HG faced a mixed American force that eventually included US Rangers and elements of both the 82nd Airborne and 36th Infantry Division. If your father was captured by men of the 36th, then it was most likely around Chiunzi Pass.

    This is the second time Chiunzi Pass has come up in my military internet experience. Several years ago, I discovered an old Life Magazine picture that showed the fighting there. To my utter astonishment, one of the US soldiers was a Ranger great-uncle of one of my online friends. He was killed in the area, and for years the family had been trying to learn just what had happened to him. It is possible that your father and my friend's great-uncle fought one another.
     
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  5. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    Interesting is that the HG Division was at the northern sector of the beachhead and that would mean that they had seen action against the US Rangers instead of the 36th Division??? Can it be that both of them had a wrong memory of the place where they´ve been?

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    If your father's outfit was with the HG Div at Salerno, then he was north of the Sele River, around the Salerno-Maiori area. Most of the troops opposing the HG Div were from the British X Corps, specifically 46th (North Midlands and Yorkshire) Division and a British Commando force. However, in the Chiunzi Pass between Maiori and Nocera the HG faced a mixed American force that eventually included US Rangers and elements of both the 82nd Airborne and 36th Infantry Division. If your father was captured by men of the 36th, then it was most likely around Chiunzi Pass.

    This is the second time Chiunzi Pass has come up in my military internet experience. Several years ago, I discovered an old Life Magazine picture that showed the fighting there. To my utter astonishment, one of the US soldiers was a Ranger great-uncle of one of my online friends. He was killed in the area, and for years the family had been trying to learn just what had happened to him. It is possible that your father and my friend's great-uncle fought one another.

    Ooops, sorry your post popped up after i´ve sent mine.
     
  7. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    TTH, it is possible that they or more their units fought against each other. The Vet i mentioned said that the fightings at there have been very hard and they were sent to close a gap at there. Both sides had heavy losses.
     
  8. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    Forgot to ask, do you have his story? Would be interesting to read how the "other side" have seen it.
     
  9. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Ulrich, I have sent a message to my friend. I will reply as soon as I hear more from him.

    And yes, the fighting around Chiunzi Pass was very tough. The Rangers and 82nd Airborne were among the finest troops in the US Army, every bit as good as 1st Parachute--which is saying a lot. After reading your grandfather's story, I am amazed that he survived so much combat. Not many in the 1st Parachute did.
     
  10. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Ulrich, here is the photograph I was talking about: http://i75.servimg.com/u/f75/12/45/46/69/1k8zyc10.jpg

    My friend's relative is in the lower right of the picture, the seated,dark-haired soldier without a helmet. This is one of a sequence of shots that Robert Capa took while visiting a US headquarters at Chiunzi Pass. The fighting was going on just yards away from the building.

    Robert Capa, who took the photos, was one of the greatest combat photographers of all time, a Hungarian Jewish refugee who became a citizen of both the US and France. He hated Fascism and Nazism, and he was an extremely brave man.
     
  11. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    Just been looking at the book: Salerno 1943 The Allied Invasion of Italy, Alex Konstam, and found the following:

    p12:
    Meanwhile, the British paratroops had reached Monopoli on the Adriatic coast, having sealed off the 'heel'. The advance of the 1st Airborne Division was temporarily halted at Castellanata, 15 miles form Taranto, where Major General Hopkinson, the divisional commander, was mortally wounded in a n engagement with German paratroopers from the 1st Parachute Division.



    p. 42
    To make up for the lack of armour, two battalions from the 1st Parachute Division were temporarily attached to (the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division) during the Salerno campaign.

    p. 50
    On 11 September the 1st Airborne Division reached Brindisi 50 miles to the east of Taranto, and found it deserted. Another column entered Bari three days later. The German 1st Parachute Division had been ordered north towards Foggia, for fear of further Allied landings behind it on the Adriatic coast. This left the British to continue their advance through Apulia with relatively little interference. By this stage the British were advancing in three primary directions. V Corps and the paratroops were advancing on two roads: northwards up the Adriatic coast, and inland from Taranto towards Potenza. Finally, VII Corps was resuming its advance through Calabria towards Sarpi on the coast road and Sala on Highway 19. However 26th Panzer Division in the west, the 29th Panzergrenadier Division in the centre, and the 1st Parachute Division in the east, had all detached regimental-sized groups to serve as rearguards, charged with blocking each axis of Eighth Army's advance. The bulk of the two armoured divisions were already arriving at Salerno, while the paratroops were left to hold the eastern side of the Italian peninsula around Foggia.

    p. 124
    Like a closing door that used the Herman Goering Division as its hinge, the army would swing across the peninsula and slam shut in the face of the advancing Eighth Army. To the east the German parachute division at Foggia would slowly withdraw from the Foggia plain to the more readily defensible region immediately to the north, after destroying whatever it could of the German airbases scattered around Foggia itself.

    Mark
     
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  12. Chris Lymn

    Chris Lymn Junior Member

    My dad landed at Salerno. He was in the Royal Engineers but never said much about it. He ended up in Naples before demob in August 46. Anyone out there know anything about the RE there?
     
  13. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  14. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Chris.

    In the early stages of the Salerno landings, when X (BR) Corps was trying to push inland, most of the Sapper Coys ended up being used in the infantry role filling holes left by the infantry. The same happened with 36 US Engr Regt in the VI (US) Corps sector.

    I am not surprised that your father said little about it - it was all very horrible, surrounded by Germans who had most of the advantages of defence.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  15. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    TTH,

    many thanks for your efforts and the pic! I really appreciate this. I´m really sure that the struggle between those units was a heavy one! Each one a elite for itself.
     
  16. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    BFBSM, thank you for the quotes from this book! Now i know it for sure where they´ve been.
     
  17. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    You are welcome, Ulrich, I will send more when I can. Do you know which regiment and battalion your grandfather was with in the 1st FJ Div?
     
  18. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Senior Member

    TTH, he was normaly with his unit the Fallschirm-Artillerie-Regiment 1 but i don´t know which Battery and i don´t know if he was with the Artillery or as sometimes usual as a sort of "Fire Brigade" at there.
     
  19. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    TTH, he was normaly with his unit the Fallschirm-Artillerie-Regiment 1 but i don´t know which Battery and i don´t know if he was with the Artillery or as sometimes usual as a sort of "Fire Brigade" at there.

    At least two parachute infantry battalions of 1st FJ Div were sent to Salerno. Normal German practice in such cases was to organize detached forces as all-arms 'battle groups' with appropriate support, so it seems logical that at least a small artillery element would have been sent to Salerno with the infantry units.

    I found an interesting link on the Axis history forum. Axis History Forum • View topic - HG Division at Salerno

    If you look, you will see that it identifies at least III/1 FJ Regt (3rd Bn, 1st Para Regt) as one of the two 1st FJ battalions present at Salerno with the Hermann Goering. There is also a fascinating picture of some German prisoners wearing paratrooper trousers, which I don't think the HG Div would have worn by that point. This implies that the men in the shot were from the 1st Parachute. Who knows, perhaps your grandfather was captured with these men?
     
  20. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    OK, I read further down on that page and learned that by the end of the battle about half of the other battalions of 1st FJ Div had joined III/1 FJ Regt at Salerno, so yes the artillery would certainly have accompanied them too.
     

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