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ITALY — THE BACKGROUND

In anticipation of the Allies next invading Italy, Rommel was told by Hitler to set up a Headquarters in Austria. This was to camouflage his real activities, which were of General in charge of the secret ‘Operation Axis’. This was, that when the Italians who were expected to go over to the Allies did so, Hitler would signal the secret code word ‘AXIS’ to Rommel - who had already got his armies in place in northern Italy - Rommel would then pounce on the Italian Armies, round them up and disarm them, sending them as prisoners of war to Germany. This he did at the appropriate time.
After much going to and fro the Italians signed an armistice with the Allies at Cassibile on the 3rd September. On the 4th September the Canadian division of the 8th army under General Montgomerie crossed the Straits of Messina and landed on the toe of Italy, in the area of Reggio di Calabria; and also on the 4th September, the 5th division landed at Bagnara on the north eastern tip. The 1st Airborne Division was landed by sea at the naval port of Taranto on the 9th September, holding it until the arrival of the Canadians some days later. These operations were code named ‘Baytown’.
A scheme was in hand to capture the airfields around Rome with the airborne divisions and units of the Italian army. An American Brigadier, General-Taylor went by torpedo boat to Rome to weigh up the situation but sent back word that it was not feasible, and with the airborne troops all ready to go it was cancelled at the last minute.
Rommel expected the Allies to land well up the leg of Italy; but Kesselring who was in charge of the German armies in the south wanted to hold on there and so deny the Foggia group of airfields to the Allies, who would be able to use them to bomb southern Germany.
Meanwhile, operation ‘Avalanche’ the invasion at Salerno began at 0345 hours on the morning of the 9th September. The first objective was the capture of the one and only airfield in that area, namely Monte Corvino. This was achieved early on, but could not be used, as enemy guns in the surrounding hills dominated the area and the beach-head generally.
Between the 12th and 13th September the German Panzer Tank Divisions mounted a serious counter attack and fierce fighting took place especially round the rail junction of Battipaglia. The situation became critical for the Allies when the beach-head was nearly cut in two; but with the help of a naval and aerial bombardment, by the 15th September the Germans were repulsed. The paratroops that had been intended for Rome also played an important part and the 7th Armoured Division was now ashore, with the 8th Army joining up from the south. Kesselring was now heavily out-numbered and began a fighting withdrawal demolishing road and rail communications as he went to form a winter line along the northern banks of the Garigliano and Sangro rivers, but later was pushed back by the 5th and 8th Armies, the eventual winter line running from Gaeta in the east to Ortana in the west, taking in the near impregnable fortress of Monte Cassino Monastery.

SICILY - THE BACKGROUND

The Allies having defeated the Axis Armies in Tunisia in May 1943 now turned their attention to the next planned operation; the invasion of ‘The soft underbelly in Europe,’ to quote Churchill when he was selling the idea to Roosevelt and Stalin and they were not yet ready to open a second front in France. This was the invasion of Sicily under the code name Husky.
The 8th Army landed on the south east coast of Sicily in the Gulf of Noto, at 4 a.m. on the 10thJuly 1943, landing their supplies over the open beaches. Their priorities firstly to secure airfields to provide fighter air cover and secondly to gain ports to allow a rapid build up of men and material.
Servicing Commando 3201 went in early that day and were able to service Spitfires the next day, other S.C.U.s operated on the American 7th Army sector near Gela to the south-west of the island from the Ponte Olivo group of airfields, but first they helped fend off a counter attack by the Herman Goring Division of the Luftwaffe.
By the 13thJuly, 244 Wing were able to operate from Sicily and by the 16th July more squadrons were operating from Comiso Group. The Germans and Italians had approximately 30 airfields between them in the early days in Sicily but they did not co-operate much with each other and their airfields were under constant attack from the allied air forces. Their bombers were more interested in sinking troop ships and merchant vessels, with the all important supplies, in the early stages, to try to prevent the build up on the beach-heads. By the 12thJuly the British Army held a bridge-head on a line from Ragusa in the south, to Augusta in the east. The German General Hube held on with his Army in the Catania area as the 8th Army closed in around them, until early August. See map of Sicily.
The American 7th Army charged on up round the western part of the island taking Palermo on the north-east coast on the 22nd July.
On the 25th July the Italian grand Council removed Mussolini from power. He was arrested on the authority of the King, Marshall Badoglio taking over the reins, and whilst negotiations for an armistice took place with the Allies, he hoped to fool the Germans by stating that the war would continue, but the Intelligence Services of the latter were already aware of what was about to happen. The one thing Mussolini had done for Sicily during his time in power had been to round up and intern the Mafia. This was allegedly undone by the American Intelligence Services honouring their deals with the Mafia earlier on in the war when they were recruited to eliminate the sabotage and spying in some American ports. In Sicily they now released them and used them to help govern the island.
The 17th August saw the end of the Germans in Sicily, they having carried out an orderly retreat across the Straits of Messina fending off the Allied air forces to a great extent by the use of many batteries of anti-aircraft guns, but certainly not without losses.

SERVICING COMMANDOS

The Mediterranean area saw the first use made of the R.A.F. Servicing Commandos. They received their baptism of fire during the landings in North West Africa in November 1942. Later they were engaged in the invasion of Sicily and from there when the time came, they moved in to Italy.
The task for which they were formed originally in the United Kingdom and subsequently in the Middle East was a most important one in any quickly moving warfare. Their task in essential, was to act as highly mobile ground staff for servicing aircraft operating from enemy air fields as soon after their capture as possible and before the arrival of the normal squadron ground crews.
This work they were able to do in the Mediterranean area, was only to a limited extent, as the fighter squadrons had their own system of A and B parties to take care of moving to another airfield and the system had worked smoothly since 1941 through the desert and Tunisian campaigns. Once the initial landing had been successfully accomplished in North West Africa, in Sicily and in Italy there was little need for shock tactic that would give the Servicing Commandos the opportunities for which they had been trained, nevertheless, although they were not always employed exclusively in the way they had anticipated or always on the work for which they had been trained, they did extremely valuable work, often under conditions of great difficulty.

The Creation of the Units

Before dealing with the part they played in the three campaigns, however, it may be of interest to look back to the time when the S.C.U.s came into being in 1942. Each unit, it was decided should consist of two officers - one Engineer and one Armament - and 151 other ranks. It was obvious that the chosen personnel would be called upon to perform difficult and dangerous work under severe conditions likely to be met during the early days of an assault landing and that they should know how to defend themselves as well as how to service aircraft, an essential point, therefore that these fighting tradesmen should be tough and should be trained on commando lines and up to commando standards of fitness.
It was felt that the best men would be volunteers and those were called for through the medium of a Records Office Memorandum. The number of men who came forward, however, was insufficient to form more than a small nucleus. Accordingly, from early in 1943 airmen were posted to the Servicing Commandos as they would be to any other unit.
This action at first caused a good deal of uneasiness in the minds of the men posted mainly due to the misapprehension of the function of the newly conceived units to which they were going. As was to be expected, men who were mostly skilled technicians could not imagine themselves turning into black-faced Commandos and storming the beaches or enemy airfields.
Once they had settled down, however, to the extensive training programme and as soon as realisation dawned that they were not becoming shock troops, but were destined for a highly important technical job, with a dash of danger thrown in, all personnel began to take a keen interest.

Versatility the Keynote

The original training programme, which was used as a basis when other S.C.U.s were formed in the Middle East, were designed to make every man as versatile as possible so that he would not be at a loss in any emergency that might arise. The training went beyond mechanical knowledge. Not only did every man have to know how to service aircraft; he had also to be capable of driving an M.T. vehicle and reading a map, know at least the elementary points of bomb disposal, be able to apply first—aid and even to know how to cook for himself under the most uncompromising conditions.
Above all, every man had to be fit, and the Commando personnel were toughened up with regular physical exercise, route marches and swimming. The last is essential for any Combined Operations personnel and all Commando airmen had to be able to swim twenty-five yards in equipment.
Eight weeks was the time allowed for training, the programme being divided into three parts. In the first period of five weeks the Commando airmen were taught how to tackle the jobs that would be expected of them.
In the next period of a week they were attached to an operational station, where, by double banking on squadron ground crews, the Commando personnel could brush up their technical knowledge and learn any tricks known by the squadron personnel.
The final period consisted of a fortnight course at a Combined Operations training centre, where the naval and military aspects were explained and illustrated, beach landings studied and instructions given in loading and off loading from assault craft.

First Use in North Africa

The Servicing Commandos, as already mentioned, saw their first action in the North African landings in November 1942, where the cycle of events at first followed closely the basic ideas so often envisaged during training.
The Commandos made a dawn landing in assault craft near Algiers, followed by a twelve mile march in full marching order to Maison Blanche airfield. There they settled down, as far as visits by hostile aircraft would allow them, to the reception and servicing of fighters. Perhaps the most gruelling part of their work was turning out during the night to run an M.T. shuttle service to the docks at Algiers to collect fuel and ammunition, the airmen often finishing in time to see the dawn patrol off.
The subsequent push from Algiers area towards Tunis and Bizerta saw the Servicing Commandos operating under enemy air attack.

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