Mediterranean Algiers Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 14, 1943, Algiers, Algiers                                Saturday August 14, 1943the stars and stripes weekly rage 5 men in White to not too Many Miles behind fast advancing american troops in Sicily this group of doctors and nurses lost very Little time in caring for casualties. They Are shown performing an operation in an improvised operating room. A army pictorial St Nice troop Carrier command army transports move Battlefield wounded by sgt. George Dorsey stars and stripes staff writer a North african air base like in a few minutes on the a Low Over the Haze shrouded is ground the wounded men were Cilian mountains then skimming gently loaded on the c-47 by Cpl. The sparkling Mediterranean Steppe and five other men who mercy planes of the troop Carrier though stripped to the Waist were command Are transporting wound sweating profusely in the sicilian of men daily from the Battle zones heat. Each litter was clamped on to big base hospitals in North of a removable steel Cradle and when Roca the loading was finished there just one of the Manv jobs of were triple decks of patients on the commands pilots they carry each Side of the ship with a Nar paratroops the mails freight Row aisle Down the Middle this flying medical service saves they Are not spectacular things Many a life that would be lost in what the attendant nurses and in Long hours of slow land and sea listed men do for these patients transportation. Within two to they bring cups of water attend three hours from the time they Are to the sick menus body functions picked up from Sicily by big c-47 a administer stimulants or sedatives patients Are resting comfortably in when necessary Light Cigar ets for Semi permanent african hospitals those who Are unable to strike a no u j match. But there is no calculating Ufa hands How much these acts mean to the the troop Carrier command a helplessly wounded. I could see ranges tile transport of patients profound gratitude in their Pale through its medical air evacuation smiles of acknowledgement transport Squadron which is com Jas the plane roared away it. Posed of administrative personnel Schramske was calmly taking the and the nurses and medical sol pulse of a Man who had a very Diers who accompany each plane serious head wound. When the Load of wounded men. Their com transport began climbing Over the manding officer is maj. Frederick mountains of inner Sicily patients r. Guilford of Columbus Ohio who had been suffering from the members of the Squadron have heat a few minutes before had to accompanied thousands of wounded be covered with blankets As the from Forward medical installations air quickly cooled. Untried in Battle but canadians Are deadly during the tunisian and sicilian campaigns but Only one Man has died while under their care. Both an artillery lieutenant his left leg in a cast told me that the old saying that a a you wrong to hear when by a sgt. Ralph Martin with the first Canadian division in northeastern Sicily Back Home these Guys ived upstairs in the big room on the top floor of North America. Slow in Sicily the canadians have ome downstairs to fight kill die with us Side by Side. Forming the Center wedge in the Allied push with the British on heir right and the americans on their left the 1st Canadian division has been fighting Small scale Sitter stuff chewing up the nazi fied Hills one at a time. Its been slow going because the thickly grouped Hills stick out Sharp and ugh and the germans Are parked in the peaks their big guns looking Down ready to a a Zero in As soon As anything shows itself. So the canadians have put aside their Blitz tactics in favor of the heavy artillery barrage with the infantry envelopment. Mountain warfare that show they took the High ground on the East Side of regal-3uto. That show they took agora Missoria Leonforte. But not As Soro. They took Assort by climbing and on hand up both sides of a 2,500 foot precipice. Starting at Light units from the Hastings and Prince Edward regiment stripped their equipment Down to guns and bullets and reached the top at 5 am. There was a Jerry of of 20 Nen sitting quietly on the Hilltop who got the final Shock of their lives. For doing things like that the 1st division canadians have earned the title of Quot red Patch  in the first weeks the germans did no to know that the Square red Patch was just a Canadian divisional insignia. So when some captured Heinie were asked what they thought of Canadian soldiers As fighters they said a a of the canadians Are All right but those red Patch devils you can to Stop  Canadian artillery they  Stop them at Nis Soria where the canadians focused 90 25-Pounders on the few Hills and really let Loose each gun firing 370 rounds. Later when the infantry walked in they found dazed Jerries still vomiting still Shell shocked. One machine gun Crew on the Side of the Road hidden by a Beautiful ambush could have done a terrific amount of damage. Instead they All walked out hands up nerves shattered. This All happened 500 Yards behind the town. There had been no fight for the town itself. Leonforte was a different Story. Stars and stripes staff writer the germans tried to make a stand within the town fighting from Street to Street with mortars and machine guns. It reached a i Climax right on main Street when a Canadian tank knocked out a Jerry tank. A Tiger Welch i several hours before a unit of engineers had been Busy repairing a blasted Bridge while some mortars on the Hill lobbed shells All around them and a machine gun nest off the Road just up ahead kept them ducking with a steady splatter of bullets. Still they were getting along Fine until three Jerry tanks came Down the Road towards them. Hastily organizing some of their men into a fighting platoon the others continued to work on the Bridge. Just then maj. George Quot Tiger Welsh came up to size up the situation. Welch who flew with the rec in the last War likes to Tell everybody that he was a postmaster in a Small town in Ontario. Welch saw what the score was and brought up a few anti tank guns placing i one on the High ground to the left and the other on the Road itself. The one on the Road knocked out a tank and chased the other two away. The one on the High ground landed a Lovely shot on the machine gun nest and hushed up the mortars. The engineers repaired the Bridge. These engineers were the same Guys who busted Bridges at Spitz Bergen. The Spitsbergen show happened Way Back in september 1941, when an Engineer Section and la single company of the second brigade made the first successful commando raid. The nazis were using this Small Island off the coast of Norway As a Coal source and a sub refuelling base before the canadians swept in on their ten Day cleanup Job. When they left they even took several Hundred norwegians Back with them. The whole action was quite bloodless but for these Guys it was their first Chance to go somewhere and do something since dec. 17, 1939, the Day they landed in England. Overseas in june 40, the 1st infantry brigade was shipped to France. But it was too close to Dunkirk time and the brigade was recalled before they could do anything. The balance of the division had embarked but never sailed. Otherwise outside of a lot of combined operations training the Only things that the Canadian 1st division boys picked up during their three and a half year stay in England was the Quot Tea habits and 3,000 wives. They had waited a Long time for Sicily for a Day. For these boys there was no North african Stopover. They came straight from England to the appointed place on the appointed a hour. With the Royal Canadian regiment As the assault wave the troops came in near the Southeastern tip of the Island. Within a week they had pushed up 70 Miles captured 8,000 prisoners. Now the canadians Are facing Large groups of Mussolini a handpicked Blac shirts and the Battle i Wise remnants of the Hermann Goering Panzer outfit and some nazi paratroopers some of whom actually spit at the Soldier who captures him. Quot but we spit Back a said pvt. Harvey Bonner. Bonner lives near the River thames in London Ontario and used to spend his weekends in Detroit. Cowboys and coca cola Quot put a Canadian in an american uniform or vice versa and you  Tell the difference a said pvt. Harry Bonner. Quot we got the same tastes the same likes and dislikes a he explained. Quot we like coca cola Cowboy pictures Cool Beer and warm women a he said. The canadians Are also Hotshot poker players prefer american cigarettes and speak without the faintest Trace of accent. Except the French canadians the Quot by Gary boys who came out of the last War with a terrific reputation As Tough fighters. When these French canadians talk fast it sounds Nice but nobody can understand a word they re saying except other French canadians. The Canadian division Here represents All nine Canadian prov a inces with some outfits filled with boys from a specific Section. They All eat British rations Wear the British uniform and come under British regulations. Each division is broken Down into brigades equivalent to three of our battalions. The Canadian commanding general in Sicily is maj. Gen. Guy Simonds who always goes where the action is even though he was once pinned Down by mortar fire for seven hours. From their general Down the Canadian 1st division is a Tough Bunch. Eighth army commander Gen. Montgomery summed them up Well. He said Quot they came to Sicily untried in Battle fighting on our outer Circle in pitiful terrible terrain always pushing Forward. Its amazing How much they be done quite  men and nurses of the outfit have the one that gets you is pure had Many close escapes from bunk. He distinctly heard the death but there have been no whine of the Shell that put him casualties in the Squadron. Out of the fight. The lieutenant in Sicily the work of evacuating was one of the most cheerful men the wounded by air began just two on the plane and seemed utterly Days after the capture of  a dismayed at his misfortune. His the men and nurses who made leg was badly smashed the first trip were set Down Only 12 Miles from the front lines and w funded Uon t try were subjected to three heavy air most of these Guys had All Tho raids before they could get their guts in the world. During the patients out of there. 1 whole trip there Wasny to a whimper sturdy dependable c-47�?Ts can out of any of them though they carry up to 18 litter patients and were All badly hit. There s plenty As Many walking wounded. The transports Are skilfully flown at Low altitudes by their pilots to avoid detection by the enemy. This week i made a round trip to Sicily in a c-47 to see just How the flying medics operate. The planets nickname was Quot ersatz and the Crew that was to bring it unerringly to a silk smooth Landing at a Field Quot somewhere in North Africa included 1st it. Kermit t. Hanson of Howard s. D., the Pilot flight officer Cecil h. Dawkins of Memphis the co Pilot and 2nd it. Herman r. Peery Las Animas colo., the navigator. Loading the wounded soon after our transport had come to a Stop at a Field in Northern Sicily five ambulances slowly rolled out Over the rough unpaved Field. One by one they disgorged their loads of heavily bandaged men until 17 Lay quietly on litters placed in the Shade of the c-47�?Ts Broad wings by sweating bearers. In the group of quiet wounded were 13 american soldiers two american sailors one German and one italian prisoner. These were the first of 230 patients to be evacuated this Day from this Field alone. At the last minutes because the inside of the plane becomes oven of truth in the statement Quot the wounded done to  Many of the men exhausted after hard fighting and loss of blood slept peacefully during most of the flight. Among those who were asleep nearly All the Way was a fighter Pilot who came in All shot up after. A Mission from a Field near the Clearing station where we picked up our patients. Our Axis prisoners involuntarily caused a Little unpleasantness during the trip. The 20-year-old italian was the Only person aboard to become air sick and he did so without calling for a bucket the German was badly smashed through the hips and legs. Gangrene had already set in and there was a putrid odor about him that sickened even hardened opt Steppe when he attended the Man. When the big c-47 came in to make a perfect three Point Landing at a North african Field ambulances were lined up ready to take off the patients. Red Cross workers were on hand to Servo sandwiches doughnuts and cold lemonade and pass out copies of the stars and stripes. In a Short time the ambulances were moving off the Field and 17 badly Hurt but uncomplaining men were headed for scientific treatment in new surroundings of quiet