Pantelleria: Operation Corkscrew

this episode of the history guy brought to you by call of war [Applause] in january of 1943 u.s president franklin roosevelt and british prime minister winston churchill met in the moroccan port city of casablanca top of the agenda was to decide the next phase in the allied plan to retake europe was a contentious discussion but at the end they agreed that the next allied attack after north africa would be the island of sicily the beginning of a campaign against what churchill called europe's soft underbelly but between the allies and sicily lie the tiny italian island of pantelaria bristling with fortified gun emplacements and equipped with the newest radar before the allies could invade sicily they had to deal with the island that was called italy's gibraltar operation corkscrew the 1943 allied invasion of pantelaria deserves to be remembered the mediterranean campaign in operation corkscrew represent one of the many complex and difficult decisions facing the allies in 1943 that to consider where and when to attack choose their weapons leverage their alliances and try to out-think their enemy the free-to-play online strategy game call of war lets you make those decisions yourself in your own fight for world domination in the era of the second world war contend with up to 100 other players and massive real-time games that can take weeks to complete choose your units and secret weapons and build your army forge alliances declare war on your neighbors dominate the world i really love the complex interplay that includes economics trade diplomacy and of course battle strategy as well as the accurate renditions of historic units and buildings you can even play with the same account on pc and mobile and fans of the history guy get an exclusive offer a free starter pack of 13 000 in-game gold and a one-month free premium subscription but that offer is only good for 30 days so sign up with the link in the description the casablanca conference was held in the port city in french morocco in january 1943. the conference was attended by franklin roosevelt in winston churchill but not joseph stalin who was preoccupied with the ongoing battle of stalingrad the conference dealt with many issues and resulted in the casablanca declaration which most notably demanded unconditional surrender by the axis much of the conference was dedicated to practical military issues for example dealing with the ongoing u-boat campaign and planning strategic bombing operations in europe among the most immediate decisions was to plan the next step in allied operations as the campaign for north africa was drawing to a close historian andrew bertel of the us army center for military history wrote in that pamphlet published as part of a series on us army campaigns of world war ii that with the north african campaign moving towards a successful conclusion the leaders of the two nations debated where to launch their next blow after several days of negotiation they agreed to make sicily their next target while there was clearly disagreement over the choice brutal rights american strategist led by army chief of staff general george c marshall argued that the allies should focus their energies upon a direct thrust at nazi germany and not waste their time nibbling at peripheral axis outposts like sicily at casablanca winston churchill rather than george marshall had his way a memorandum from the combined military chiefs of staff at the conference listed the invasion of sicily first among their recommendations for the conduct of the war in 1943 to be presented to roosevelt and churchill the three objectives listed were making the mediterranean line of communications more secure diverting german pressure from the russian front and intensifying the pressure on italy bertle explains roosevelt and churchill wanted to do something further to divert germany's attention from the war against russia the two allied leaders were also anxious to exploit the momentum of their impending victory in north africa and the mass abandoned material that would be available in the mediterranean at the conclusion of the north african campaign made additional operations in the theater attractive after studying a variety of options including operations in greece the balkans crete and sardinia the casablanca conferees decided sicily is the most appropriate sequel to the tunisian campaign retired u.s air force colonel jeff patton wrote in world war ii magazine the two allies agreed that sicily offered the best invasion option due to its short distance from their forces in north africa the element of surprise and the ability to provide air cover from existing bases in north africa among the further decisions was that u.s general dwight eisenhower commander-in-chief of the allied expeditionary force in north africa would be given supreme command for the planning of the invasion codenamed operation husky with british general harold alexander as deputy commander-in-chief quite a lot of planning would have to be done for operation husky in a short period of time the group suggested that the operation should occur in 1943 with the target date being the period of the favorable july moon but there was a problem three small italian-held islands the largest of which was pantelaria satisfied the sea lanes that the allies would need to invade sicily patton explains before the allies could invade axis occupied europe pantelaria the five by nine mile bone in the throat of the sicily channel would have to be dealt with some 60 miles or 100 kilometers from sicily and just 37 miles off the tunisian coast pantelaria is a volcanic island with a strategic location in the strait of sicily patton right since its occupation by the carthaginians in the 7th century bc the island had been used as a military outpost by a succession of conquerors carthaginians romans arabs aragonese turks the kingdom of sicily and finally the kingdom of italy britain had in fact made a plan for occupying pantaloria in 1940 but the plan had been abandoned when the germans moved dive bombers to bases in sicily which would have threatened any planned landing in 1943 however the imperative was different retired u.s air force lieutenant colonel robert mckinnery wrote in world war ii magazine that the idea came from the u.s army chief of staff while conducting the operational planning for husky in february 1943 george c marshall informed allied forces commander lieutenant general dwight eisenhower that the u.s navy could not provide auxiliary aircraft carriers for air cover for an assault on sicily marshall then suggests that the allies could seize the italian island of panteleria for its airfield which could be used by allied fighters to support the sicilian invasion but seizing the island was not straightforward hermanus volk a senior historian for the united states air force wrote in air force magazine that eisenhower's planners however concluded that attacking pantelaria would be too tough and advise the commander not to take the chance in addition to its strategic location pantelaria was well suited for defense in his autobiography at ease stories i tell friends eisenhower wrote a tiny island in the mediterranean halfway between tunisia and the islands of sicily pantelaria was heavily garrisoned by italians popularly it was said to be the gibraltar of the central mediterranean the coastline was rocky with no beaches and the only approach was by sea to a narrow harbor perhaps 300 yards wide its capture would be a difficult feat of arms if the place was garrisoned by good sturdy troops the defenses were significant patton explains the island was defended by coastal artillery placed in open revetments protected by rocks and concrete 12 schneider encelada 152 millimeter guns with a 10 mile range were complemented by 13 120 millimeter guns with an effective range of eight miles anti-aircraft protection was provided by 75 76 millimeter dual purpose guns as well as 18 20 millimeter rapid fire guns and more than 500 eight millimeter machine guns moreover eisenhower noted it was almost out of the question to attack by airborne method descending soldiers blown up against stone walls but their veiling winds would be almost 100 casualties in these circumstances eisenhower wrote some thought the island was unassailable and that we would be foolish to try to take it but eisenhower considered the significance of the island's airfield poses the threat to any invasion of sicily and is an asset to such an invasion in allied hands in addition the island was equipped with german freya early warning radar patton rights with its radar station observation and listing post and its ability to host reconnaissance aircraft the island could easily monitor allied air and see activities and eliminate any chance of achieving surprise in an assault on sicily eisenhower also questioned the morale of the italian defenders with the theory that morale is the telling factor at war suspecting the italian morale was at a low ebb thus eisenhower wrote i insisted on attempting the island's capture there was an attempt to use small british commando raids to capture italian prisoners and test eisenhower's theory about italian morale but the rough seas made landing almost impossible and they were unable to acquire any captives facing questions especially from the british allies about potential casualties volk explains that eisenhower considered another option and decided the allies would take the island without a heavy investment in ground power he wrote to george marshall i want to make the capture of pantelaria sort of laboratory to determine the effect of concentrated heavy bombing on a defended coastline when the time comes we're going to concentrate everything we have to see whether damage to material personnel and morale cannot be made so serious as to make a landing a rather simple affair unlike 1940 in 1943 the allies had an overwhelming air power advantage in north africa and eisenhower was anxious to see if the planes of general karl spatz's northwest african air forces could reduce fixed defenses this might not only limit allied casualties taking the island but also provide valuable information regarding air power that would be useful in allied operations to come patton notes he remembered the effect of morale the heavy shelling of the defenders of corregidor the previous year wanted to see whether the air can do the same thing allied planners planned the operation for june 12th which give the maximum time to apply the power of the air force and still leave enough time to repair the airfield so it could be used to support operation husky spats had significant forces available for eisenhower's laboratory the allies have more than a thousand aircraft of all types including heavy medium and light reconnaissance bombers as well as more than 300 fighter aircraft but in addition to the air defenses on the island the axis had an estimated 300 fighter aircraft able to defend at pentalleria and given the extent of the defenses even the massive amount of aircraft might be insufficient spatz decided to leverage the expertise of a south african zoologist who was pioneering a new field of study called operations research which attempts to apply mathematical concepts to determine optimal plans of actions professor sully zuckerman produced a detailed bombing plant while his analysis didn't think that the bombing campaign could silence all of pantelaria's batteries patton explains that zuckerman reasoned that if as little as 30 percent of the guns could be rendered not effective a two out of a six gun battery the remainder of the guns would be silenced for secondary reasons in addition to the air forces additional bombardment would be done from the sea by a task force including cruisers destroyers and motor torpedo boats and the allies would make an effort to block attempts to supply the island bombing began in earnest on may 18th and slowly intensified mchenry notes that from may 18th to may 29th over 1500 sorties were flown against the island with 1300 tons of bombs dropped the website of the 320th bomb group right set they began by wrecking the airfield destroying numerous aircraft on the ground then they sank the ships in the harbor this done they attacked the gun emplacements one by one complete air blockade against supply and reinforcement was accomplished the bombing slowly intensified bulk rights by june 6 daily sorties increased to 200 or more the number doubled or tripled over the next five days similarly bomb tonnage greatly increased 231 tons being dropped on june 5th and june 6th and intensifying with 600 tons on june 7th mchenry writes all this bombing reduced the developed areas of pantelaria to destruction and chaos damage to the port roads housing and phone lines was extreme the electricity production facilities were knocked out and several the shore batteries were destroyed while there was some resistance from axis aircraft they were mostly held at bay by the american fighters and nearly 60 axis aircraft were shot down the allied fighters also engaged in bombing and strifing runs on june 8th eisenhower joined admiral andrew cunningham to observe the effects of a naval bombardment the result from the island was so weak that eisenhower said andrew if you and i got into a small boat we could capture the place ourselves after the naval action the allies gave the garrison its first chance to surrender dropping a surrender message and thousands of leaflets but received no response then on june 10th according to the official history of the us army air forces wave after wave of bombers swept over former tunisian battlefields and out across the mediterranean more than 1700 sorties dropped more than 1500 tons of bombs in the day before the landings were supposed to occur the only respite was a three-hour lull which the allies again offered the garrison the ability to surrender but again receive no response the invasion force the british first division had already embarked and by morning were eight miles off the coast of the island final attack by b-17 heavy bombers was so powerful that the official u.s army air force history said suddenly the whole harbor appeared to rise and hang in midair while smoke and dust billowed high dwarfing montagna grande the pantelleria's tallest peak the german air force made a last-ditch attempt to forestall the invasion with a large attack by dive bombers the same threat that it canceled the invasion of the island in 1940 but they were met by usp 38 fighters army air force lieutenant colonel r.s garman told the associated press as soon as the 50 or 60 planes we jumped felt the lead whistling around them they lost interest in the attack and dropped what bombs they had and turned tail for home i didn't see a single one of their bombs hit a landing party or one of the ships the italians had had enough eisenhower wrote when the attack on the place was put on a schedule the men and the landing ships had not even completed getting into their landing craft when white flags began to appear all over the island the headline of the baltimore sun read that pantelaria was occupied in 22 minutes the single casualty of the day was a very unfortunate corporal sanderson of the 2nd battalion of the sherwood foresters who was fatally kicked in the head by a local mule in fact the italian commander had been seeking permission from authorities in rome to surrender since the night before the permission eventually came but he had already given the surrender order of his own violation the garrisons of two smaller islands in the strait also surrendered the website of the 320th bomb group notes this air offensive against pandaria was the heaviest concentrated bombing both in weight of explosives and number of sorties delivered against a single axis target up to that time the capitulation represented the first time a fortified garrison had been defeated by application of air power alone without a supporting ground attack major general james doolittle commander of the northwest african strategic air forces told the associated press that the island surrender is definitely a landmark in the history of military aviation despite the severity of the bombing there were very few civilian casualties the first bombs had landed on the military airfield and the civilian population had relocated to the island's interior the airfield was fairly quickly repaired and played an important role in operation husky one of the fighter groups involved was the 99th fighter squadron was the first combat experience for the first group of pilots from what was called the tuskegee experiment the first black pilots the famed tuskegee airmen the area commander said of them you have met the challenge of the enemy and have come out of your initial christening into battle stronger qualified than ever but the success of the operation was deceptive boy by the result general spats went so far as to claim that the application of air power available to us can reduce to the point of surrender any first-class nation now in existence within six months from the time that pressure is applied but spats turned out to be overly optimistic in a way that would affect future allied planning and casualties despite the severity of the bombing the losses among the italian garrison of pantelaria were relatively light only around 100 killed and 200 wounded given the size of the garrison that's indicative of the fact that the surrender wasn't just because of the application of air power but also because the garrison had simply lost the will to fight on behalf of mussolini the allies would learn hard lessons at places like monte casino and normandy where more determined defenders were able to mount stout defenses despite hundreds of air sorties the mistaken optimism that came as a result of operation corkscrew came to be known among the allies as the pantelaria curse enjoy call of war a free online pvp strategy game that takes place during world war ii choose your own strategy engage in epic battles and take over the world don't forget that exclusive gift click on the link in the description to get 13 000 gold and one month of premium subscription for free the offer is only available for 30 days so don't dally i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history got check out our community on thehistoryguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on cameo and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 91,323

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, wwii

Id: D6XGF9C2XOE

Length: 17min 26sec (1046 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 23 2022