Assoro

The countryside was growing more forbidding. Hills were now giving way to mountains; in the distance the troops could for the first time see Etna, the majestic, snow-capped volcano, forty miles to the northeast. None of these footsore Canadians could know that seventeen days of bitter fighting lay ahead.¹

Post-war view of Assoro. Ken Scott Photo.
 

On the afternoon of the 19th, the commander of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division set the next objectives: Leonforte and Assoro. Assoro was the highest point for miles in any direction, and Leonforte sat astride Route 121, the main east-west highway on the island linking Palermo and Catania. The 1st Brigade was tasked with Assoro while the 2nd Brigade was ordered to take Leonforte. The two attacks began at midnight and into the early hours of 20 Jul.

A large battle ensued as the 1st Brigade attempted to cross the Dittaino River. The river itself was dry, but the dry river bed was an obstacle to vehicles, and the river valley was under observation from Germans on the heights opposite. "The First Brigade soon encountered trouble which culminated in its biggest battle to date." The 48th Highlanders managed to secure a crossing, but when the Royal Canadian Regiment passed through with Sherman tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment, nine vehicles were lost to mines, and accurate fire from the heights of Assoro four miles away stopped the advance cold. "In these circumstances, movement during daylight was impossible."²

Defences

The bulk of Panzergrenadier Regiment 104, under Oberstleutnant Ens, held Leonforte, with a small detachment at Assoro numbering about 100 men of a company-sized detachment, supported by 5 tanks.³

The Attack

Like the Seaforths at Leonforte, casualties to the battalion headquarters group of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment were suffered on the 20th. In the case of the "Hasty P's", it was the Commanding Officer and the Intelligence Officer who were killed by a shell as they studied Assoro from a slit trench too small for them.

Brigadier Howard Graham's assessment of the terrain had been unfavourable; a cliff 1000 feet high with an ancient castle overlooked the countryside, with the only road to the town (founded in 1000 BC and clinging to the western slopes of the hill, below the summit) rising in hairpin turns; the loss of nine tanks to mines suggested the road would not be an inviting route. Instead, Graham planned to try a cliff on the southeast face of the hill Assoro was situated on.

(Major) Alex Campbell was ordered to form a special assault force, a volunteer unit, consisting of one platoon from each of the regular rifle companies. The men in this special group were stripped of all their gear except for essential arms and ammunition, for it was to be their task to lead the Regiment; to scale the cliffs, and before dawn broke clearly, to occupy the mountain crest.

The approach march began at dusk and it was the most difficult forced march the Regiment ever attempted, in training or in war. The going was foul; through a maze of sheer-sided gullys, knife-edge ridges and boulder-strewn water courses. There was the constant expectation of discovery, for it seemed certain that the enemy would at least have listening posts on his open flank. Absolute silence was each man's hope of survival - but silence on that nightmare march was almost impossible to maintain...

There was a desperate urgency in that march for there were long miles to go, and at the end, the cliff to scale before the dawn light could reveal the Regiment to the enemy above. A donkey, laden with a wireless set, was literally dragged forward by its escort until it collapsed and died. The men went on.

By 0400 hours the assault company had scaled the last preliminary ridge and was appalled to find that the base of the mountain, looming through the pre-dawn greyness, was still separated from it by a gully a hundred feet deep, and nearly as sheer as an ancient moat. It was too late to turn back. Men scrambled down into the great natural ditch, crossed the bottom, and paused to draw breath. First light was just an hour away. Under the soldiers' hands were the cliff rocks towering a thousand feet into the dark skies.

Each man who made that climb performed his own private miracle. From ledge to ledge the dark figures made their way, hauling each other up, passing along their weapons and ammunition from hand to hand. A signaller made that climb with a heavy wireless set strapped to his back - a thing that in daylight was seen to be impossible. Yet no man slipped, no man dropped so much as a clip of ammunition. It was just as well, for any sound by one would have been fatal to all.⁴

The battalion was divided into two groups; the assault company and one rifle company were to scale the left shoulder of the hill, and the new Commanding Officer Lord Tweedsmuir (son of the former Governor-General) took the remainder of the battalion to the north-east - finding a goat track and passage to the top.

The assault company crested the hill and managed to take the summit from unsuspecting sentries without losing a single man. Commanding high ground above the town, the Germans were placed in an untenable position, with Canadian fire also knocking out eight vehicles of an approaching Axis convoy. German artillery fire lifted from Leonforte to drop on Assoro.

Unlike the case in other actions, radio communication managed to hold, and accurate artillery support (aided by a former artilleryman among the Hasty P's as well as a captured 20-power German scissors binocular) was played against German batteries.

For several hours thereafter the Hastings, clinging to their exposed position on the mountain top, the rocky nature of which prevented the digging of effective slit trenches, were subjected to intermittent mortar and artillery fire. Enemy snipers in Assoro were also a constant hazard; nevertheless, casualties were surprisingly light.⁵

An enemy counterattack from the town in the late afternoon advanced almost to the top of the hill, but was beaten back with accurate artillery fire. The Canadians received their first exposure to fire from the German Nebelwerfer, a rocket launcher whose projectiles made such a demoralizing shriek while in flight that they were known as "Moaning Minnies".

The regiment held on during the night, but no food other than emergency rations had been brought up. An emergency carrying party of 100 men from the Royal Canadian Regiment brought food and supplies on the morning of 22 Jul. The regiment's support weapons were another story, and "F" Echelon vehicles of the Hasty P's had been ambushed in the early morning of 21 Jul when both they and the Germans realized they had stopped for the night in too close to each other for comfort.

As the RCR carrying party brought logistic relief to the Hasty P's on the morning of 22 Jul, the 48th Highlanders brought tactical relief by attacking from the west of Assoro, driving the enemy from the south-western approach to the town and allowing the 1st Field Company, RCE (and 100 POWs) to fill craters and allow the passage of tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment. A link-up between the Highlanders and Hasty P's was effected by noon of Jul 22.

Canadian War Museum painting of troops entering Assoro after the battle

Aftermath

No decorations were awarded for Assoro, but the Canadians earned praise from friend and foe alike. An often quoted German after action report praised the Canadians for their fieldcraft.

Good soldier material. English and Canadians harder in the attack than the Americans. In general fair ways of fighting. In fieldcraft (Indianerkrieg) superior to our own troops. Very mobile at night, surprise break-ins, clever infiltrations at night with small groups between our strong points.

The entire report is available in the German After Action Reports - Sicily article.

While the battle is often described in superlative terms by Canadian historians; Farley Mowat's assessment in his history of the Hasty P's seems the most balanced.

While it was no great victory in terms of casualties inflicted on the enemy, Assoro was nevertheless a spectacular triumph of endurance and initiative, and the spirit of the men, subdued temporarily by their first baptism of heavy shell-fire, now rose to unprecedented heights.⁶

The next objectives for the Division lay 20 miles to the east, on the Salso River, however, the RCR were bloodily stopped at Nissoria just 5 miles from Assoro, along with the loss of several supporting tanks. The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment was thrown in next without tank or artillery support; the cover of darkness did not make up for the lack of reconnaissance and this attack was also stopped. The Hasty P's left the field with 69 dead and wounded inflicted on them. A third attack by the 48th Highlanders did no better, and it was not until a co-ordinated attack by the 2nd Brigade with artillery support was launched that Nissoria fell.

Battle Honours

The following Canadian units were awarded the Battle Honour "Assoro" for participation in these actions:

1st Canadian Infantry Brigade

• The 48th Highlanders of Canada

• The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment

Notes

1. Dancocks, Daniel G. D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy 1943-1945 (McClelland & Stewart Inc., Toronto, ON, 1991) ISBN 0771025440 pp.60-61

2. Ibid, p.61

3. Mitcham, Samuel and Friedrich von Stauffenberg The Battle of Sicily: How the Allies Lost Their Chance for Total Victory (Orion Books, New York, NY, 1991), p.192

4. Mowat, Farley. The Regiment (McClelland & Stewart Inc., Toronto, ON, 1955) ISBN 0771066945 p.116-117 (paperback edition)

5. Nicholson, Gerald. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Volume II: The Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945 (Queen's Printer, Ottawa, ON, 1957) p.105

6. Mowat, Ibid, p.125