Operation leonardo carte.., p.26
Operation Leonardo (Carter's Commandos Book 5), page 26
The apparent ease with which the Operation Husky landings were carried out must be attributed, in part, to the success of an earlier disinformation operation, Operation Mincemeat (see the historical notes for Book 2 of the series, Operation Tightrope). That operation persuaded Hitler that the landings in Sicily would be a feint, with the real objectives being Sardinia and Greece. Despite the reservations of the German High Command, Hitler ordered troops and aircraft to be moved out of Sicily to meet what he believed to be the genuine threat. Even on July 10th, the day of the landings, German aircraft were withdrawn from Sicily and sent to Sardinia. Two German panzer divisions and seven infantry divisions were withdrawn from Russia and sent to the Balkans to counter a non-existent threat to Greece.
3 Cdo carried out an attack on Torre Cuba, but I have no first-hand account of the attack and so I have had to invent my own. But a group of British airborne soldiers from a crashed glider was rescued and one of them was killed during the attack, possibly by ‘friendly fire’.
Ponte Bridge (Ponte is the Italian word for bridge) is actually Malati Bridge, which crosses the River Leonardo (hence my choice of title for the book) a few miles north of the town of Lentini. There is a new bridge there now, but the old one still stands, complete with its World War II pillbox and a stone in the parapet dedicating the bridge to 3 Cdo, the only honour accorded for the operation. The action doesn’t appear among those listed on the Commandos’ Standard with their other battle honours. This omission is probably a consequence of the failure of the commando to hold the bridge.
The pillbox built into the parapet of the bridge is still present. For some reason the German tanks didn’t target it. Four men remained inside the pillbox, keeping their heads down, until they were taken prisoner when the Germans finally crossed.
The majority of incidents and actions I have described and attributed to Carter and his men really did take place, though they involved several different participants. The description of Carter drinking lemon juice to quench his thirst was real, as told to me by my father and in other contemporary accounts. The incident with the Italians and their lunch also happened.
Carter’s capture is partly imaginary, but much of his adventure, including his escape, is based on that of the real-life Lt (later Major) John Erskine. He was an Australian serving with 3 Cdo who was threatened with death under the Kommandobefehl, was saved by a German paratroop officer and then escaped when someone left the door to his prison unlocked and unguarded. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, we will never know but Erskine believed it was deliberate.
Like Carter, Erskine was forced to leave a wounded officer, Lt W F Pienaar, behind. It is true that Erskine was more worried about meeting Montgomery in an unshaven state than he was about anything else. The conversation between Carter and Montgomery is a product of my imagination, as are all the other words uttered by Carter. For a full account of John Erskine’s time in Sicily, visit http://www.commandoveterans.org/sites/www.commandoveterans.org/files/Erskine_J%203%20Commando%20Sicily.pdf
Major Peter Young of 3 Cdo did gather a group of men around him intending to carry out ambushes along the road to Lentini, but he decided to take a nap while he waited for darkness. He did have sentries deployed who stayed awake (unlike Carter) but by the time he woke up the advance units of 50th Div had reached him, so he didn’t get the opportunity to create the chaos he had hoped.
The story of Carter’s encounter with the three Tiger tanks during his escape is entirely fictional, but the presence of tanks at the bridge was the reason for 3 Cdo’s withdrawal.
A stick of British paratroops were dropped into the Agnone area by mistake and were given directions to Primasole Bridge by 3 Cdo’s CO. It is likely that the pilot of their aircraft had seen the German paratroops being dropped and thought they were British, decided he was over the British drop zone and made the decision to get rid of his passengers so that he could turn for home. He wasn’t the only pilot to miss the correct drop zone, but he was probably the most inaccurate. It isn’t known if the men ever made it to their objective.
Primasole Bridge was captured by the 1st Parachute Brigade (Operation Fustian). Like 3 Cdo, they were unable to hold the bridge against superior armoured and parachute forces and were pushed off. However, as they were in Brigade strength and had some light artillery with them, they were able to continue to defend themselves and when 50th Division arrived the paratroops led the attack to recapture the bridge. The Germans had tried to blow the bridge up by rolling lorries loaded with explosives down the road onto the bridge but failed to do any significant damage.
To give a measure of some of the guts and determination of commando officers, here’s what happened to the nine that were taken prisoner at Malati Bridge. Lt W F Pienaar, a South African, died of his wounds. As well as Erskine, three other officers escaped while still in Sicily. Roy Westley, Michael Woyodvodsky and Charles Buswell broke out of a train carrying them through the Brenner Pass (the border crossing between Austria and Italy) and made their way six hundred miles back through German occupied territory to re-join the commando in Italy. Peter Long broke out of his prison camp in the middle of Germany and made his way back to Britain through Germany, occupied France, the Pyrenees, Spain and, eventually, Gibraltar. He was back with 3 Cdo in time to take part in the D Day landings.
While no one could anticipate the arrival of German paratroops in Sicily, there can be no doubt that the planners for the operation against Malati Bridge got several things wrong, particularly the presence of armoured units near the bridge. Somehow the presence of the entire Hermann Goering Panzer Division on the island was overlooked, though by the time of the attack on Malati bridge their presence was known, as several British and American units had suffered at their hand. The planners also seriously underestimated the time that both the paratroops at Primasole Bridge and the commandos would have to hold out until the relief force arrived. Whether this was a consequence of hasty planning, a lack of adequate intelligence or just reckless risk taking, we will never know.
A commemorative stone is positioned in the parapet of Malati Bridge, dedicating it to 3 Commando, placed there on the orders of General Montgomery. The action does not appear on the standard that bears the battle honours of the commandos, which is ‘laid up’ in St Paul’s Cathedral.
It is the mark of a great commander that they learn from their mistakes, but Montgomery was to repeat the mistakes of Malati Bridge in Italy (a story to be told in the next episode of Carter’s adventures), then on a much bigger scale in The Netherlands in 1944, with Operation Market-Garden, the plan to capture Arnhem Bridge. If anyone ever suggests that Montgomery was a great leader, you can remind them of his failure to learn from his mistakes.
* * *
The Army commandos were established in June 1940 on the direct orders of Winston Churchill. The original concept, a force that could raid across the channel into occupied France, was the brainchild of Col (later Brigadier) Dudley Clarke, a Royal Artillery officer who was a genius at devising deception operations. His suggestion found its way to Churchill’s ear and he was taken by it.
It was Churchill who recognised that to maintain the war effort until victory could be achieved, he needed to maintain the morale of the British people following the disaster that had been the evacuation from Dunkirk. The skilful use of propaganda had turned that defeat into a sort of victory, but genuine victories, however small, would be needed if he was to convince the British people that the war could be won.
It would be the commandos that would provide those small victories. Often the targets of their raids were insignificant in military terms but, on occasions, they had a far greater impact than could ever have been imagined. For example, following successive raids on Norway, Adolf Hitler became convinced that they were the prelude to an invasion of that country as a stepping stone for invading Denmark and then Germany itself. No such plan existed, but Hitler ordered 300,000 additional troops to be sent to Norway, where they remained for the rest of the war, along with additional Luftwaffe and naval units. The fact that the invasion of Norway never came about was proof to Hitler that his counter-strategy had worked. Had those troops been available at Stalingrad, El Alamein or in Normandy in 1944, who knows how the outcomes of those battles might have been affected.
15 Commando is a fictitious unit. The Army commandos were numbered 1 to 14 (excluding 13). 50, 51 and 52 commandos were formed in North Africa.
The parachute regiment were formed from No 2 Commando, who had originally been set up to take on the role of paratroops. Even after the establishment of the Parachute Regiment in 1942, the commandos still trained some of their troops in parachuting, though there is no record of them ever having undertaken that role.
No 10 (Inter Allied) Commando was made up of members of the armed forces from occupied countries in Europe who had escaped. There were two French troops, one Norwegian, one Dutch, one Belgian, one Polish, one Yugoslavian and a troop of German speakers, many of whom were Jewish and had escaped from Germany and Austria. They often accompanied other commandos on raids to act as guides and interpreters, as well as carrying out raids of their own.
Achnacarry House is the ancestral home of Clan Cameron and it was taken over by the War Office to become the Commando Training Centre. The original occupants of the house moved into cottages in the grounds. During the course of World War II over 25,000 commandos were trained there, plus some of their American counterparts, the Rangers, who were modelled on the commandos. Originally each commando was responsible for providing their own training, before the first training centres were set up at Inveraray and Lochailort, in late 1940, before moving to Achnacarry.
The first Royal Marine commandos didn’t come into being until 19th February 1942. 40 (RM) Cdo was, like the army commandos, made up of volunteers, but subsequent units (41- 48) were RM battalions who were ordered to convert. For this reason the army commandos tended to look down on their RM counterparts. However, the RM commandos fought bravely and in all theatres of the war. They carried the commando legacy onwards at the end of the war and continue to do so to this day.
If you wish to find out more about the Army commandos there are a number of books on the subject, including my own, which details my father’s wartime service; it’s called “A Commando’s Story”. I have provided the titles of some of these books at the end of these notes. These also provided the sources for much of my research for this book.
In the fictional world, Lieutenant Carter and Cpl Green, LCpl Glass and Tpr O’Driscoll have been reunited with 15 Commando, but they are destined, like my father, to have many more adventures before the war comes to an end.
Further Reading.
For first hand accounts of Commando operations and training at Achnacarry, try the following:
Cubitt, Robert; A Commando’s Story; Ex-L-Ence Publishing; 2018.
Durnford-Slater, John, Brigadier: Commando: Memoirs of a Fighting Commando in World War II; Greenhill Books; new edition 2002.
Gilchrist, Donald; Castle Commando; The Highland Council; 3rd revised edition, 1993.
Scott, Stan; Fighting With The Commandos; Pen and Sword Military; 2008.
Young, Peter, Brigadier; Storm from the Sea; Greenhill Books; new edition 2002.
For a more general overview of the commandos and their operations:
Saunders, Hilary St George; The Green Beret; YBS The Book Service Ltd; new edition 1972.
Preview – Operation Terminus
1 – Messina
July drifted into a hot Sicilian August and 15 Cdo settled into a training routine, attempting to get the few available replacements properly bedded into the commando and up to the high standard expected of the men.
Without any idea of what the next operation might bring, the training concentrated on the generics of all operations: armed and unarmed combat, map reading and navigation, radio procedures, cross country marches and sea landings. Catania eventually fell, followed quickly by Messina as the enemy evacuated the last of their troops from the island. The roads became clogged with long crocodiles of German and Italian prisoners who had been cut off or failed to make it onto the last Axis boats off the island. They were marched south, away from where the Allies were massing their forces ready to make the short jump across the sea to Italy.
News of Mussolini’s resignation1 came through, which cheered everyone up, then Catania fell. Everyone knew that the Germans would have to evacuate the island through Messina. It was the shortest crossing to the mainland; only five miles wide in parts. The opposite coast could be seen clearly. The Allies concentrated their efforts on making their departure as difficult as possible.
The commando was told it would move north to Messina to prepare for the invasion of the mainland, just as soon as the Germans were gone. But for the time being they remained in Lo Bello, just outside Syracuse, which might have been a Butlins holiday camp as far as the commando was concerned.
Carter stopped outside the HQ tent and wiped his face with his neck cloth. It was still hot even in the late afternoon and the route march that he had led his troop on had drained him of all his energy. But the CO’s clerk, Ecclestone, had told him that the CO wanted him as a matter of urgency and he shouldn’t even stop to take a shower.
Pulling back the tent flap, Carter stepped inside. “CO’s with the 2IC, Sir.” Ecclestone informed him. “Won’t be more than a minute or so, I ‘spect.”
The tent was dark, but not any cooler than the outside. In fact the lack of air made the interior feel more oppressive. Carter could hear the voices of the 2IC and the CO, screened behind a wall of canvass, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Probably plotting the next operation, which suggested a reason for Carter having been summoned. Perhaps he was to lead it, or maybe go along with the 2IC as his second in command. The lack of any other officers assembling suggested that whatever it was, it wouldn’t involve the whole commando.
There was a rustle of canvass and the 2IC appeared from the back of the tent. Even in the gloom Carter could see that he had a broad grin on his face. “Afternoon, Steven.” He said as he passed him. Carter could have been mistaken, but he was sure the 2IC had winked at him. Surely not. The 2IC had many quirks in his personality but winking at a subordinate was a new one on Carter.
“Is Captain Carter here yet, Ecclestone?” The CO’s voice called from behind the canvas.
“I’m right here, Sir.” Carter replied.
“Come on through.” Doing as he was bid, he pushed the canvass screen to one side then let it drop behind him again.
“Take a pew, old chap.” Vernon acknowledge Carter’s salute with a nod.
Carter sat himself on the camp stool that was the only furniture available other than the trestle table that served as a desk and the camp chair on which the CO himself was sitting. The only adornment to the trestle table was a field telephone sitting in its canvas carrying case. Its cable trailed off the table and disappeared under the side of the tent. Part of the new organisation for the commando was a signals section, made up of commandos who had attended special training while they had still been in Egypt. Their pride and joy was a tiny telephone exchange which had four extensions, one of which sat on the CO’s desk. A single telephone line connected it to 8th Army HQ, which was now located in Catania. For the first time in its three year history, the commando was no longer dependent on radios or dispatch riders for its communications with higher authority.
“I’ve some good news and some bad news, Steven. Which would you like first?”
Whatever the bad news is, get it out of the way first, Carter thought. “The bad news, I think, Sir.”
“I thought you might say that. The bad news is that I’m to leave the commando, effective from this evening.”
Vernon was right, that was bad news. To most of the men, the CO was the commando, its beating heart and intelligent brain. “I’m sorry to hear that, Sir. Where are you going?”
“Monty wants me to take command of both 15 and 49 commandos. I’ll also have an outfit called the Special Raiding Squadron2 under my wing. It’s effectively a Brigade, but it can’t be called that, because I’m not a Brigadier. Even Monty hasn’t the authority to promote me to that level. He’s made me acting Colonel though, which is nice.”
“We’ll miss you, Sir.”
“Don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily. Wherever you are, you can be sure I won’t be far away.”
“I take it that the reason that the 2IC was grinning like a Cheshire cat is that he is to replace you.”
“Yes, he is. Which brings me to the good news. You are to take over as 2IC, with the acting rank of Major.”
“Me … but … surely the QM …” As a substantive major the Quarter Master would be the natural choice to take over as 2IC.
“The QM is coming with me as my Chief of Staff. My only staff in fact, for the moment. So I’ve had to go looking for the new 2IC amongst the Troop Commanders. You are the natural choice. You have an established reputation and the men think highly of you. I can think of no one better for the job.”
“But Angus Fraser, Sir. He has more seniority than …”
The CO cut him off. “Promotion in the commandos isn’t about seniority, it’s about suitability and I think you are more suitable. Besides, I want Angus to take over as QM. He seems to have a natural talent as a scrounger.”
That was true. Fraser seemed to be able to get his hands on many scarce items and when asked where they came from, the answer was always began “A bloke I know over in …” and then some other unit would be named. Scrounging was an essential skill for a commando quarter master. The commandos had always been at the tail end of any queue for equipment and sometimes it was only the QM’s skills that allowed the men to get anything at all, including essential items of uniform.
