Italian Armoured Death Ride - Sicily 1943

[Music] in the history of world war ii italy has been consistently portrayed as a substandard military power even as a joke if you believe that you are continuing to spout allied propaganda of the period the italians were more than capable of fighting bravely and effectively their problem was not a lack of martial talent it was rather their substandard often antiquated equipment and the often low morale of rank-and-file soldiers who couldn't fathom why mussolini had thrust them into a world war completely unprepared and as an ally of nazi germany it's easy to forget that 25 years before during world war 1 italy had proudly fought as an allied nation alongside britain and france but when push came to shove the royal italian army did manage to inflict several defeats on allied forces and on many occasions made assaults that boarded on the suicidal none more so than the subject of this video the italian tank assault during the battle of jayla during the allied invasion of sicily on the 10th of july 1943 when with inferior equipment brave italian troops took on elite u.s soldiers and gave them a real run for their money the allied return to the continent of europe began on the island of sicily in july 1943 the stepping stone to italy and a planned advance all the way to austria and germany originally a british plan the americans were persuaded of its merits after the german and italian forces in north africa had been defeated two allied task forces would land on sicily in an operation codenamed husky one british and one american the eastern task force commanded by general sir bernard montgomery consisted of his famed eighth army that had defeated ervin rummel in the western desert and also included a canadian infantry division and airborne troops the western task force was under the flamboyant general george s patton and consisted of the us seventh army in overall command of the operation was british general sir harold alexander who was answerable to the supreme allied commander for north africa and the mediterranean general dwight d eisenhower in total the allied force initially numbered 160 000 men and 600 tanks but this would later be massively reinforced to almost half a million men the two task forces would move quickly to seize sicilian airfields and ports defending sicily was the italian sixth army under general alfredo gutsoni he had two hundred thousand italian troops plus thirty two thousand german ground troops and panzers plus thirty thousand luftwaffe personnel many of the italian units were low quality static defense divisions manning coastal positions but some italian units would nonetheless fight with great bravery and iran the us seventh army landed in the gulf of jayla in south central sicily the 82nd airborne division dropping behind the italian defenses while the british eighth army landed in southeastern sicily from cape pacero to avola for weeks before the italian defenses were bombed heavily as well as axis airfields in naples messina palermo and cagliari 250 allied aircraft being lost on these operations the invasion of sicily commenced on the 9th to 10th of july 1943 with the airborne operations but strong winds badly scattered the 82nd airborne and the gliders of the british first air landing brigade suffered two 69 out of 147 crashing into the sea on the landing beaches italian resistance was patchy some units fought stubbornly while others gave up virtually without a fight at jailer the americans expected a tough fight as the italians would launch strong counter-attacks to try and retake the town and the landing beaches beyond jayla is a fishing town on an elevated plateau with a beach and a 900-foot pier landing closest to the town was the first and fourth rangers elite american troops near niseimi behind jayla was the italian fourth mountain infantry division livorno supported by a tank unit joined soon after by 9 000 german troops the town itself was defended by a coastal battalion with pillboxes and anti-tank guns the invasion of jailer commenced at 0-2-45 on the 10th of july with the rangers landing either side of jayla pier with more u.s divisions coming ashore on the long beaches either side of the town axis air force units struck back at 0-4-28 the destroyer uss maddox was sunk by an italian stuka dive bomber killing 212 of her crew by zero 800 the rangers had captured jayla taking 200 prisoners landing operations continued under italian artillery fire and minefields handicapped vehicle unloadings [Music] because of these problems hardly any allied artillery was landed before noon and none of the 10 sherman tanks assigned to the infantry as support the italians therefore decided to launch a swift counter-attack while the americans were disorganized and lacking hopefully armor mobile group e under the command of lieutenant colonel davide conte was ordered to make the assault at 0-540 during the initial landings conti's tanks had moved out from nisemi the attack began around 0-730 mobile group e consisted of 12 r35 tanks the first company 101st tank battalion plus a motorized anti-tank company a motorized machine gun company and an artillery battery of eight 75 millimeter howitzers plus a section of truck-mounted anti-aircraft machine guns captain giuseppe granieri's three tank platoons consisted of a total of 12 renault r35 light tanks his men knew that their tanks would be no match for any american tanks and anti-tank weapons but determined to attack anyway originally designed in 1933 the renault r-35 was designed for the french army to be an infantry support tank it was not designed to fight other tanks entering french service in 1936 it was relatively well armored for its time but was slow having a maximum speed of just 12 miles per hour it weighed 10.6 tons and had a crew of two armament consisted of a turret mounted short 37 millimeter gun and a single coaxial 7.5 millimeter mach 31 machine gun the r-35 was the most numerous french tank of world war ii and many were subsequently used by the germans during their occupation of france and also was used to create a tank destroyer armed with a 47 millimeter gun that served on the russian front in france the netherlands and the only piece of britain occupied by the germans the channel islands in fact redundant r-35 tank turrets were also used by the germans to create two brooks small concrete defensive positions like this one mounted on a fort in jersey in the channel islands the royal italian army had 124 of these r35s these had been captured from the french by the germans and then given by hitler to mussolini as a gift they were deployed to the island of sicily to try and beef up the defenses in the face of the imminent allied invasion on the 10th of july 1943 on sicily the accompanying artillery battery with mobile group e deployed in a reveted ditch position to cover highway 117 the road that the tanks would use to charge into jailer at 0-730 the guns opened up hitting some surprised us 105 millimeter gun crews that had not yet set up at the same time the italian motorized machine gun company bumped into u.s infantry and were then subjected to u.s naval gunfire from the warships offshore the italian anti-tank company advanced too far forward and was struck by u.s mortar and artillery fire from among some houses two of the guns being knocked out and their crews killed colonel conte now ordered captain graniere's 12 tanks to attack three of the r35s withdrew immediately as they were short of fuel but the nine others pushed on down the 117. when u.s spotter planes noticed the tanks naval gunfire was called in charging ford at their top speed of 12 miles per hour the r35s were subjected to intense shelling one tank was completely demolished by a hit from a five-inch shell another disabled by a near-miss captain graniere's tank broke down but five italian tanks emerged from the smoke and chaos and bore down on us defensive positions causing panic and consternation many americans thinking that dozens more access tanks must be following behind this vanguard as the italian tanks moved along the town streets u.s rangers flung grenades and satchel charges at them from windows and balconies another r35 broke down and was abandoned while another retreated when out of ammunition the remaining three tanks under the command of sub-lieutenant anjolino navarri pressed on navarri an experienced combat officer who had fought in north africa one of the three tanks was hit by bazooka fire and rifle grenades and disabled the americans engaged the tanks with direct mortar fire in an effort to stop them the americans managed to bring up a single 37 millimeter anti-tank gun from the beach and this went straight into action but the last two r35s kept advancing pushing back or bypassing defensive us infantry one of the tanks engaged the 37 millimeter anti-tank gun his two cannon shots hitting a house behind the gun before the 37 millimeter slammed around into its turret then another into the hull the tank caught fire now only sub-lieutenant navari's tank remained powering through a hail of machine gun bullets and bursting grenades the r-35s stalled near the jailer to victoria railway line the driver got out under heavy fire and restarted it with the crank handle but was killed as he attempted to climb back into the tank nevari took over the driving position and pushed forward approaching jayla's main square only 320 yards from the beach at this point rangers hit the tank with 37 millimeter anti-tank gun and bazooka fire immobilizing it as sub-lieutenant navari raised his head to climb out of the driver's hatch he was shot dead it was 10 30 hours so ended the mobile group e counter attack on jayla navarri was posthumously awarded the silver medal for military valor that the little r-35s had survived for so long against the americans was incredible and that they had managed to penetrate deep into jailer even more so this story must stand as an excellent example of the fighting ability of italian soldiers it was fortunate in this instance that the italians had not been equipped with bigger and better armed tanks as it would have been likely that jailer would have been recaptured badly disrupting the allied invasion of sicily thanks for watching please subscribe and share and visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 874,093

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Italian Army, Invasion of Sicily, Italy, Renault tank

Id: k71newAIQkw

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dookmaster77]

It’s all about the men, not the equipment.

[u/Jodie842]

Even the worst tank is infinitely better than no tank.

[u/Dudxdvdx]

Great yt channel