Sicily with Monty

9/18/2016

Elgins Left Old Syracuse
In Big Hurry on the Night
of Their Sicilian Landing

Reminiscence in St. Thomas Times Journal January 26, 1946

by Major Wilfred D. King
Commanding “A” Squadron, Elgin Regiment

The Elgins – or some of the Elgins – first got into action in Sicily. There are incidents – highlights and lowlights – connected with that campaign that I am sure few of the boys will ever forget. Time has a tendency to make them amusing but there weren’t so funny when they occurred. We left the British Isles on June 25, 1943 and finally reached Algiers – and still we didn’t know where we were going. Then the invasion was on and we were taken down near the island of Pantellaria. Every morning, for three mornings, we’d wake up and see some island out in front of us.

We seemed to be going around in circles. The next thing we knew we were in Malta, and sat there for a day. Then on the night of July 15 we started for Syracuse and were going to land. We knew where we were going then.

The 18-day and night trip on the old Cameronia, which had been torpedoed the previous trip with the crew decidedly jittery, wasn’t especially funny, with none of us knowing just where we were going, but we were on our way. The night landing off Syracuse is something that do doubt will be remembered long and vividly. Soldiers usually are anxious to get into a town, but I never saw a gang so anxious to get out of a town as that night of July 15, 1943 when we hit the beach and sort of

spewed out of that landing-craft into Sicily with Heinie doing his darnedest to knock us and everybody else out of existence. The bombers really were laying it on that night. One of the crew on the landing craft said: ”You’re a nice bunch of fellows, but get the hell out of here!” And we got. It was sort of a case of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Every man was carrying two kit bags and the night was dark, except for the illumination when the bombs and our guns let go.

Fat Lost Ten Pounds!

I don’t think any of us ever walked so fast before in our live as we did that night getting out of Syracuse. I remember Fat Campbell, of Dutton, puffing along. I figure he must have lost about ten pounds in that walk. I didn’t see him until two hours after we arrived at our camp, A lad named Whaley from Union went two miles past the camp, he was walking so fast.

We had no idea where we were to camp until some chap struck a pistol in my ribs and wanted to know who we were. I told him we were Canadians and he said we could camp in the field nearby, as his bunch was moving out. I leaned against a picket fence the rest of the night directing stragglers into that field. Nineteen of our outfit came along the next morning travelling in an Italian cart, drawn by a puffing donkey, which they had borrowed. That camp in reality was only about four miles from Syracuse, but it seemed like 100 miles that night.

We weren’t called the Elgins in Sicily. We weren’t designated as a squadron of the Elgins. We were the T.D.S., No. 1 Tank Delivery Squadron.

In their Bare Feet

We got another taste of Jerry’s bombers near Scordia a couple of nights. There was an advance landing strip for Spitfires there and a bunch of the boys, Driver Johnson, Sergeant Vidamour, Frank Chatten, Sergeant Pat Harris and others, decided to watch the German bombers work on that strip one night. We didn’t have any slit trenches, but believe me, we had them the next night. And the next night Jerry bombed the knoll instead of the airstrip. You should have seen those Elgins take off through the tall cactus plants – in their bare feet. A lad named Funnell was well in the lead, but Sergeant Pat Harris wasn’t far behind. There were some sore feet in camp the next day from encounters with those cactus plants.

Truck me out to the Ball Game

Another thing I don’t think the boys will ever forget is the ancient Italian truck they commandeered to go to baseball games. There were no axles on that truck; each wheel was independent of the other, and the truck was equipped with hard rubber tires. That didn’t discourage the boys. They’d pile on that truck, even on the top and the sides – 40 or more of them – and go rattling and banging to the ball games. Just about everybody took a turn at driving that truck – even Sergeant Major Phillips from Aylmer and Quartermaster Sergeant George Gale.

Woe to Fruit Eaters

The fruit in Sicily was tempting, especially the grapes, but woe betide the person who ate it. Dysentery followed – and how! Just ask some of the boys who were with the No. 1 Tank Delivery Squadron if they remember those eight pills every four hours, for 48 hours, they had to take for dysentery – pills like oversized aspirin tablets. And that was just part of the dope we had to take to guard ourselves against malaria and other sickness.

War Diary Squadron B, 25th Canadian Armoured Regiment serving with British 8th Army in Italy. The entry is by Wilf King "WK" whose descriptions in the Times Journal were a little more colourful! This entry was written at Scordia in Sicily July 30, 1943

lives lived