Chick talks about the invasion of Sicily in July of 1943 and how going after water turned into a beer run in Messina. Filmed 2007 at the studios of WILL, University of Illinois as part of the “WWII Central Illinois Stories” series
Your Son, ‘Chick’
August 17, 1943 – Tuesday
Messian
The infantry is in the outskirts of Messina so we will probably move up today. The city of Messina fell at 1:00 P.M. today. The 3rd Div. beat the English in by 3 hours. I went in at about 4 PM. The city is nothing but a mass of ruins. There is not one building that was not bombed. You could look across the straights and see the mainland of Italy. I took a few pictures while I was there. We found a brewery and it was the first time in my life that I ever went swimming in beer. The beer on the floor was knee deep. We brought back about 100 gal. of it. They were shelling us from the mainland of Italy. Four shells hit not far from us. I was wringing-wet with beer so I had to take bath.
August 16, 1943 – Monday
Well we had a rest today. The whole company was in. All we did was lay around, play cards, read, write letters, and sleep. The first platoon had to go out and work. Went to bed early. They have been bombing Messina continuously all day. You need stop and go signals up there.
Letter home – August 15, 1943
Dear Mother & Dad;
Here is another Sunday and the days are still the same. You have a hard time trying to keep up with the day’s. We had a mail call last night and I received a letter from you, Gee, and a harmonica from Mrs. Fleshner. I don’t know when I will have time to learn to play it but someday we will get a rest and then maybe I will get a chance. The Germans are very good demolition man, but there is nothing that they blow up that we can’t fix. You have probably read in the papers by the time you get this letter of the part the engineers played in the campaign. They have taken many news reel pictures of the boys and there are always newspaper men around When there’s a job to do. I know I am a little slow in writing but I will do the best I can. There is little we can say anyway. I thought I had better let you know that I am all right and in good health. I hope you two are the same. Goodbye and please don’t worry, and I love you both very much.
Your son “Chick”
August 15, 1943 – Sunday
I laid around all morning and so I wrote letters after dinner. We are moving again. Boy that bridge sure slowed us up. The front is about 25 miles from us. The people along the way seem a lot different than other people. They stand along the streets and cheer as we go by. We are about 20 miles from Messina now and are racing the British. I read a little and listen to the radio and went to bed. I am on guard from 3 to 6 am.
A ‘Bridge to the Sky’
Chick talks about the invasion of Sicily in July of 1943 and how the 10th Engineers built a ‘Bridge to the Sky’ at Point Calava, Sicily that was reported on by Ernie Pyle. Filmed 2007 at the studios of WILL, University of Illinois as part of the “WWII Central Illinois Stories” series
Posted in 1943, In his words
1 Comment
Bridge at Point Calava, Sicily
The following excerpts have been taken from different references sources about the Bridge that was built by the 10th Engineers.
…… While no direct enemy fire was received when the 30th approached Cape Calava, the advance was halted abruptly where a section of the highway was blown off the face of a cliff directly above the Tyrrheian Sea and at a point where Highway 113 cut through a tunnel on the tip of the cape.
….. while the 10th Engineer Battalion began the task of restoring the highway, one of the most notable feats of engineering performed during World War II.
Stripped to the waist in heat that almost un-bearable, the engineers worked without rest literally to “hang a bridge from the sky,” as the late Ernie Pyle described the job in his book ‘Brave Men’.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
SOMEWHERE IN SICILY – Described by Pyle
It was an hour after daylight when I returned to the German-blown highway crater which our Third Division engineers had been working on all night.
It really didn’t look as if they had accomplished much, but an engineer’s eye would have seen that the groundwork was all laid. They had drilled and blasted two holes far down the jagged slope. Theses were to set upright timbers into so they wouldn’t slide down hill whne weight was applied.
The far side of the crater had been blasted out and leveled off so it formed a road across about one-third of the hole. Small ledges had been jack-hammered at each end of the crater and timbers bolted into them, forming abutments of the bridge that was to come.
Steel hooks had been imbedded deep into the rock to hold wire cables. At the tunnel mouth lay great timbers, two feet square, and other long pieces of timber bolted together in the middle to make them long enough to span the hole.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Jeep traffic crossed the gap eighteen hours after the engineers started the job and within twenty-four hours the larger trucks were moving over the ledge in perfect safety.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Read more about this amazing task at the bottom of this page The Engineers’ War, by Ernie Pyle: Third Division 10th Engineers at Point Calava, Sicily 1943
You can also read more from our friends at World War II Today.
August 14, 1943 – Saturday
I went out to work with the Company today. The Jerries did a beautiful job of demolition at the end of the tunnel. We had to put in a trestle bridge and it was sure a job as you couldn’t get any footing for the beams. We fixed it by noon so jeeps could get across and by 5:00pm we had it braced so that all traffic could go across. The General said it was a good job that we had a company we could be proud of. Read the paper in the evening and listened to the radio.
August 13, 1943 – Friday
We moved up to a new area this morning as we have the Jerries on the run. We camped in a cane forest and then just waited. We cooked our own meal. We will be more like bums when we get out. We moved to a new area after supper. The front is just a little ways ahead of us. I took a bath, listened to the radio and went to bed.
August 12, 1943 – Thursday
We moved again to to Cape d’Orlando. Stayed there a while and then took off for the front. Boy what a mess, dead men sprawled everywhere. We came back to our area and went to bed. Airplanes came over and dropped a few bombs not far from us.
