Mediterranean Algiers Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 17, 1943, Algiers, Algiers                                Saturday july 17, ims the stabs and stripes weekly Pac sour men report sicilian invasion ship to Shore account of the Island landings bus soft. Ralph o. Martin Start and stripes staff writer d Day from our ship just of Fofe Dawn today. It was a single plane flying High in a hurry and before anybody spotted it it was gone. The ship is parked several Miles from the beaches of Gela. We can to get too close because several of the enemy s heavier artillery have been splattering shells in the sea All around us. The town itself is ringed in with a thick rim of smoke where All the fighting is. We be had some air raids but mostly sneak stuff certainly not As much As we expected to get. Our warships tile big babies have been parading up and Down the coastline letting Loose with the terrific Quot who oms of their eight inches focusing on the enemy artillery several Miles from the beaches. All Day Long we be been hearing War noises. Some of the boys have been getting a Little super sensitive and confusing the ship sounds and sea sounds with guns and planes. Everybody sleeps with their clothes on now. You never know when to expect the Long shrill ring Mac sgt. James Macloughlin and i of the general alarm. The ring is a a a a v d minus 2 its the did army game of Quot hurry up and wait a but this time no body gripes everybody under stands. This is the big show and the boys know How Many ears and eyes Jerry a got. That s Why our list has been sailing from one african port to another sometimes staying in one place for a week sometimes Only for a Day. Except for women and chaise lounges this has really been a Mediterranean cruise up to a few Days ago. Ifs been a lot of sunbathing Reading record concerts some hot poker games and swimming off the starboard Side several times a Day. But then things changed. The Higgins boats took Bunches of the boys ashore every morning for Long hikes along the waterfront. That Wasny to so bad either because they combined the hiking with some sightseeing. Today so a scuttlebutt Quot Navy latrine Rumor reports that we re finally shoving off tomorrow. The Captain confirmed it when he told me that we  use the ships radio for news monitoring anymore. So d plus 2 we started for Gela just before Dawn with our necks craned upwards for Jerry. But this time All we saw was a perfect cover of spitfires All Over the place. It was Beautiful. Gela itself did t look like much a a slightly overgrown Hafsa without the arabs. Some of the streets were skinnier than any in Medina. The jetty was blown up in the Middle the wires were Down but none of the roads were busted and Only a few of the houses had been badly hit by bombs or shells. All the people looked at us As we drove in but there was no cheering no Quot Vive la  these people had relatives and friends fighting us Only a few Miles away. Still some were glad to see us. A a we have starved too much a one of them said. Everywhere you saw soldiers handing out their rations and cigarettes to poorly dressed Skinny Little kids and ragged men. Lines of prisoners were marched through town All Day Long. They were dark wiry looking Guys showing up Small against our big my s. Naval barrage continued from Page i paratroopers continued from Page i a sgt. Phil Stern with the eth army i put to bed the last edition of Quot stars and stripes at sea Quot and then ate the remaining crumbs of the birthday cake that the ships Cook made for us when the paper was one week old. Mac used to do the publicity for the St. Louis Browns. D minus i tills morning As far at i could see and wherever i looked there were ships All kinds. Smallest of them All were Thelcie a which looked like submarines every time they hit a big wave. All of us kept hoping for some quiet Calm because the troops on Thelcie a were due to make the first punch of tile invasion and nobody can fight on a seasick stomach. Our much rumoured air umbrella boiled Down to an occasional group at spitfires. Somebody Wise cracked that our umbrella was like the naked emperors new clothes a Quot Only the Good people can see  but an officer explained the setup. It was t a matter of air cover it was air control. And the truth is that we never did see a Jerry plane until we hit Sicily. I guess too that the biggest solid piece of morale the boys had each morning was to see the mass flight of about too bombers and fighters heading out on a bombing Mission. At a naval rendezvous in the afternoon our fat Convoy swelled even fatter. With a Strong skirt of sub chasers and destroyers and an outer fringe of larger ships the boys stopped worrying about torpedoes. We were briefed today. They told us where we were going what we expected to find lined up against us. That spiked the rumours which had us headed for everywhere from Havana to Yankee stadium. A hour came at 2 45 am and shortly after that we 6aw the first flashes from the first fire of the big coastal guns. Five bombs thudded too Yards a sgt. Ralph g. Martin with the rangers nerve jingling even to the Guys who spent months in Tunisia. They All agreed with pvt. John Griggs of Newark n. J., who said a a tile main reason i get a Little jittery on these ships is that they make me feel like a Clay Duck in a shooting gallery in Coney  another morning raid this time by three planes who criss crossed a pattern of six bombs right off our starboard Side. We re in the Axis backyard now and they be been hire Wing All kinds of planes at us All Day Long. They Only come in Small formations but they come often from All sides. So far we Haven t captured any airfields yet and so our fighter plane cover has to come All the ways from Africa. On the other hand the it mess and tile Macchi s Are Only a few flying minutes away from us. One of the favorite Axis tricks something they be done doyens of times today is to Send a single plane tearing out from Inland sweeping across the beaches on a fast strafing Job. Or else they Send out a couple of dive bombers barely skimming above the docked ships. Sometimes when the spits Are around you see a fast movie thriller Chase. Twice we saw those concentrated crinkly Black puffs of flak hit smack on their target and both times the mess crashed. Sgt. Jack Foisie with the airborne infantry the prisoners walked past building marked up with encouraging printed words signed by their Duce. Some of the women on the sidelines were bawling but one of them yelled out in italian to one of t he prisoners she recognized Quot you re All right now you re All right now a she said. Charge. He was joking All the time. Gags like Quot Well boys you la be having Ravioli in a couple cd  it was very Light then about 0630. The Waves were about ten feet High near the Shore. The boat grounded and we All hopped out. The water came up to my Waist. It Felt swell after All the sweating wed gone through. It made me feel relaxed like a kid in Viding. But i had to worry about my camera. I held it above my head like the others held their rifles. A lot of Guys had already reached the Beach. A lot of vehicles not amphibious vehicles but the regular land Type were grinding through the Sand. There was wonderful visibility. Everybody kept looking up waiting for those German planes to appear. Sand was flying All Over the Beach As the Guys dug Foxholes. The amazing thing was that the planes never did come Over. When the civilians and soldiers saw our trucks on the roads the roads were shiny White and they glistened in the Sun the people were amazed. Quot there afe no roads from North Africa How did you get Here a they asked. Latin from Brooklyn As we made our Way Inland the Sand suddenly disappeared and the ground became hard and firm. The first thing civilized we saw were grape Bushes. I saw a Farmer and As he was not packing a gun i went up to him and said in my Best Brooklyn italian Quot Bon  what did he say in return he said. Quot Hiya kid a it turned out his name was Tom Adams and he had lived in Hackensack n. J., for 18 years. He pressed women a dresses there and he still has Sisters living in Hackensack. He was very Happy that the americans had come. Quot Damn right a he said Quot fascist no a Cpd. No movies Here. In America every Comer i see movies. Ii a amp treated Okay in  Tom was determined to treat americans Okay also. He gave me finally like everything else our nerves got dulled to it. Still when a flock of Jerry bombers Are passing immediately overhead not too High in a tight formation and its Light enough for them to see you very plainly its Tough for anybody to appear disinterested. I never saw such a flak freckled sky. Every ship in the Harbor threw up everything they had. But the bombers weren to interested. They were going somewhere else. Too much Jerry air stopped us from Landing several times in the afternoon. But after Midnight immediately after some fireworks we loaded the vehicles and troops onto barges and landed in Sicily  d plus 3 hitched a ride with a Provost marshal maj. Thomas Lancer who was with tile n. Y. State constabulary for 14 years. Maj. Lancer was tile officer in charge of keeping Gela in order a a we did no to have any trouble with tile people As soon As they knew they Weer licked. We were too Many for them Quot said Lancer. Biggest Job was the evacuation of prisoners. Thousands of them streamed in from everywhere All sections of the front. There was no sniping. Quot these italians done to go in for that Quot he said. Met up with the rangers and saw some old friends. The Ranger boys Are fighting in the Hilly country about six Miles Northwest of town and they were having a heavy concentration of enemy infantry pouring in on them. The two lulls they took look like two Little knobs placed dose together but the re important they command the nearby roads most of the Fields around town Are still littered with Axis tanks that were blasted by our forces. It was the artillery big gun Duel that burned Down so Many of the nearby wheat Fields. Things Are finally settling Down into a highly schemed order of things. The italian speaking yanks and there were plenty of them were telling the people that we were going to help them not Hurt them. One of them a sgt. Frank Sclafani of the Bronx n.y., went around quoting Tom Puhi in italian. Something about Quot we fight not to enslave but to out a country free and make room upon the Earth for honest men to live was introduced to the whole family. I gave them some chewing gum and sugar. The american boys of italian descent were really in their heyday. They could ask questions and answer questions and there were plenty of both. One old Guy named Sam Cheli who had sharpened knives in new York before returning to Sicily had this to say Quot of course we Are Happy to see you americans but you should have come three years ago. Fascist propaganda said americans were very vicious and killed people without mercy. Well what a going on Here certainly is different from what they expected. Aris attack Many of the people greeted us with fascist salutes i guess they did no to think there was any other manner of greeting a military Force. Some people raised both hands in surrender. We waved to them in return. We were in com Iso about 45 minutes and then we moved toward Comiso Airport. About five minutes later we got shot at by artillery. We All piled out of the half tracks and hit the gullies. We were shelled for half an hour and then the infantry finally got the gun. We got Back into tile vehicle and came within 200 Yards of the Airport when a jeep dashes out and a Captain told us that the Airport was not ours yet and there was going to be a big attack in about 20 minutes. We pulled right Back Quick. We bivouacked right by a gasoline dump. Then i jumped into an unfinished foxhole about two feet deep. One bomb dropped about 120 feet away. You know what that Means a the ground shakes and the shrapnel sings and you choke in the dust. This was the worst bombing i have Ever been in. I saw myself Back in the Hospital with nurses running around with giant thermometers. Tile bombers missed the dump completely. We took off and came to a group of buildings which had been used by a German cadre. There was the zip zip zip of sniper fire. We pulled out and into the nearest Gulley. Then in a very academic manner we started cleaning them out with .50 calibre machine gun fire. Tracer fire set the place lure and Rifle grenades finished it off. There were weird howls from the snipers As they died. Jump signal. Ironically enough a few were blinded by the fires set earlier in the evening by bombers. These troops were landed some Miles off the target but they were Able to fight their Way through and rejoin the main body. One plane Load could not find tile area and returned to the base. Quot we had stood up and were ready to jump Quot one Quot jumping Jack described Quot but the red Light never came on. Its a hell of a letdown. I Hope we get another  he did. So did others they went in with tile next lift. United states and British airborne commands carried out separate missions although there was very close coordination Between the two. The mommies Rode in american made gliders some of which were piloted by american glider pilots. Twenty were Quot borrowed from the army air corps for the Mission. Heavy flak almost All the Tow planes for the gliders and the transports for the jumpers were from american troops Carrier command. These pilots took their pianos through extremely heavy flak especially after the invasion was on and they could no longer depend upon the element of Surprise. The returning transports standing empty and alone on the Field presented a different picture from tie night of the invasion. Then the planes were surrounded by american paratroopers who were to be Landing amid the enemy even before the hour. On the eve of the Day they had Long awaited the men gathered for the Takeoff. A year of the most concentrated training was behind them. Many of them were to have their first taste of War the toughest kind of War the invasion of Europe. Their Mission was to take enemy Aird Romes to take them and hold them until the seaborne land forces reached and relieved them. Their Mission the paratroopers had wine some pears and peaches. T known for sewn Al Days. They had studied their maps and memorized their orders and completed their coordinated plans but it was not until one morning at reveille that they were told Quot tonight is  getting ready throughout the Day the men checked and packed their gear and equipment each of the Many pockets of their jumping suits were utilized. The Natty jumping boots trademark of the profession were laced with extra tightness. The bivouac atmosphere remained business like and grim. No horseplay no heroics no boasts no doubts. The yanks were ready and confident. The tenseness mounted As the time grew Short. The colonel tallest of them All his lean face More liberally smudged with blackening the darkest of them All spoke his final commands the stowing of equipment no smoking while in flight the appointed rendezvous the time of departure the time of replacing the Quot Mae West with the Chute the time Over the dropping zone. Cloth maps were issued to each Man. The pass word was announced. Quot and you a better get it in a hurry Quot the colonel added Quot for there Are going to be a lot of itchy trigger  Kero hour the briefing was Over. The time for Takeoff would be 2055. The men had a few minutes left for a smoke a drink of water and a Little talk. There were 13 enlisted men going in the Lead plane. No. 13 was 8-sgt. Bob Gillette of Lewiston Ohio who was celebrating his 23rd birthday that Day. Quot Well give him Sicily for a birthday present Quot chuckled some of the others. Besides these 13 men who were jumping with Tho colonel other officers in the Lead plane included it. Col. William t. Ryder the Quot father of american paratroopers Quot who was going along As an observer maj. Benjamin Vandevoort the combat executive officer and cant. A. W. Ireland the adjutant. Tho men Drew their last puff of smoke tightened the Chin straps on their helmet and climbed aboard. One by one they disappeared into the Cabin. Their commander saluted the assembled group and then he too climbed inside. The liberation of Europe had begun