Ridgway, 48, was an intense man, described as “hard as flint” Time magazine claimed he could “out-hike 90% of his men.” ![]() A 1917 graduate of West Point, Major General Matthew B. Since well before the invasion, the 504th’s planned follow-up jump had gnawed at the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. Landing before dawn, British and American troops established a beachhead and pushed inland. Although high winds and navigational errors scattered the paratroopers, they caused confusion among the German and Italian defenders. The 505th dropped behind enemy lines shortly after midnight. The invasion took place on July 10, as planned. Allied commanders had high hopes for the paratroopers, but airborne operations were still in their infancy, and Husky would be the Allies’ most ambitious use of parachute infantry to date. The 504th was on call, scheduled to jump any night thereafter, depending on how the campaign progressed. The plan, named Operation Husky, called for the 82nd Airborne Division’s 505th Regimental Combat Team to jump behind enemy lines at midnight on July 10, 1943, followed by infantry landings on Sicily’s southern coast at 2:45 a.m. Its capture would solidify Allied control of the Mediterranean and provide a launching pad for attacks on the Italian mainland. (US Air Force/Getty Images)ĪFTER THE ALLIED INVASION of North Africa in 1942, the next stop was Sicily, the island at the foot of Italy. To their dismay, a seemingly simple mission had inexplicably turned into a friendly-fire nightmare-one of the bloodiest such incidents of the war-and startled commanders soon realized they had a lot to learn about modern warfare.Įn route to Sicily, paratroopers of the 504th Regimental Combat Team appear relaxed, anticipating a relatively problem-free flight as they move in to reinforce another unit that had jumped the night before. The paratroopers and aircrews immediately realized that it wasn’t the enemy sending up this deadly wall of fire. Planes caught fire and “tumbled out of the air like burning crosses,” one paratrooper recalled. Bullets and shrapnel ripped through wings, fuselages, and flesh. Tracers lit the sky and antiaircraft shells rocked the low-flying transports. As the planes neared the Sicilian coast, the paratroopers’ “highest hope for a safe crossing seemed justified,” one of them recalled. The flight would be entirely over Allied-controlled water and land, and the men would jump onto an airfield already in American hands. Now, the 504th was en route to reinforce that beachhead. Less than two days prior, American and British troops had landed on the southern coast of Sicily and established a beachhead. The smell of lacquer and gasoline filled their C-47 transport planes. Some men dozed and others craned their necks to glimpse at the Mediterranean’s whitecapped waves below them. ![]() The night sky was clear and moonlit as the paratroopers made the three-hour flight from Tunisia to Sicily. IT LOOKED LIKE a milk run for the 82nd Airborne Division’s 504th Regimental Combat Team. An annual competition the Monsignor Geno Baroni Competititon, is given each year for the best history article printed in the journal one piece of creative writing published in the journal is annually designated the Salvator and Margaret Bonomo Memorial Competition winner.How a Friendly Fire Tragedy in Sicily Transformed Airborne Warfare | HistoryNet Closeĭuring 1943’s Operation Husky, fire from ship and shore killed dozens of Americans-and provided the Allies with a costly lesson. Award-winning authors, such as Salvatore LaPuma and Mary Caponegro (who received an honorable mention in the Best Short Stories of 1998 for work published in Italian Americana) have published stories and Jay Parini, Sandra Gilbert, and Lewis Turco have published their poems in the journal. Articles have ranged from topics on the paintings of Ralph Fasanella and the fiction and theatre of Don DeLillo, to Horatio Alger’s Italian Phil the Fiddler, the Sicilian latifondia, Italians and the Lawrence strike of 1912, and Protestant Italian Americans, among others. Succeeding Dana Gioia, who was poetry editor from 1994-2003, is the current editor, Michael Palma. John Paul Russo is co-editor and review editor and Christine Palamidessi Moore is the senior editor and the supplementary website editor (The journal contains historical articles, literary and cultural criticism, fiction, memoirs, poems, and reviews as well as an occasional report on dissertations having to do with Italian Americans. It was founded by Richard Gambino in 1974. Italian Americana is the first and only historical and cultural journal about the Italian experience in America.
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