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Chapter 4 – Winter and Spring

With the Adriatic front gripped by winter, Allied High Command proceeded with plans on the other side of Italy. Preparations were made for a landing at Anzio, 30 miles south of Rome, in conjunction with a drive up the Pontine Marshes along the Tyrrhenian Sea. For this operation, Fifth Army was strengthened at the expense of Eighth Army, and certain formations took the roads to the west. Eighth Army in turn drew from other theatres. Early in January a new but very well-known divisional flash appeared in the Adriatic sector. Fourth Indian Division had arrived from Egypt and had moved up to enter the line near Orsogna.

This veteran formation, the victors of Sidi Barrani, Keren, and a score of battles in Western Desert and Tunisia, had earned world fame. In four years the Red Eagle Division had suffered 25,000 casualties, had taken over 100,000 prisoners, and had travelled more than 10,000 miles. Certain of the older units had disappeared, but it was pleasing to note on arrival in Italy that 11th Indian Infantry Brigade, which had been destroyed at Tobruk, had been reconstituted and that the long-standing association with British gunners remained unchanged. The battle order of the Division was as follows:

G.O.C. Major-General F. S. Tuker, C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E.

5th Indian Infantry Brigade,

(Brigadier D. R. Bateman, D.S.O., O.B.E.)

1/4th Essex Regiment

1/6 Rajputana Rifles

1/9 Gurkha Rifles

7th Indian Infantry Brigade

(Brigadier Q. de T. Lovett, D.S.O.)

1st Royal Sussex

4/16 Punjab Regiment

1/2 Gurkha Rifles

11th Indian Infantry Brigade

(Brigadier V. C. Griffin)

2nd Cameron Highlanders

4/6 Rajputana Rifles

2/7 Gurkha Rifles

Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment

Central India Horse

Machine Gun Battalion

5th Machine Gun Battalion Rajputana Rifles

Artillery

1st Field Regiment R.A.

11th Field Regiment R.A.

31st Field Regiment R.A.

149th Anti-Tank Regiment R.A.

57th Light A.A. Regiment R.A.

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Engineers

4th, 12th and 21st Field Companies (Sappers and Miners)

11th Field Park Company

5th Bridging Platoon

Medical Services

17th, 26th and 32nd Field Ambulances

15th Indian Field Hygiene Section

The Orsogna battlefield, where Fourth Division relieved the New Zealanders between January 15th and 17th, had yielded little gains after months of heavy fighting. Orsogna stood on a high ridge above the river Moro, with the main road from Central Italy to the Adriatic running along the crest. The town had been fortified to fortress strength, and had thwarted the utmost efforts of the New Zealanders to secure it. When Fourth Indian Division faced this formidable position, it was in anticipation of a stern struggle. High Command however willed otherwise. After a fortnight’s seasoning in the forward positions, during which 4/16 Punjabis of 7th Brigade showed that they had lost nothing of their old art of worrying the enemy, Fourth Division was relieved and warned for transfer to Fifth Army.

Eighth Indian Division, which had had little more than a glimpse of its famous comrades, continued to man a two-brigade sector in the centre of Eighth Army. The front was static, but the monotonous B.B.C. announcement, “Little to report from the Adriatic sector. Patrolling continues – often did less than justice to the situation. Nearly every night fighting flared up, as patrols clashed or raiding parties overran outposts.” The following despatch from an Indian Army Observer describes routine conditions:

“Most of our front-line troops – British, Indian and Gurkhas – live in farmhouses on the hillsides. When dusk comes, patrols go out to investigate houses opposite, where movement has been seen during the day. Many small bitter encounters occur in the darkness when our men surround suspected enemy strongholds, sometimes only a few hundred yards from our line. A number of prisoners have been taken in this nerve-racking business. The operations are reminiscent of the ‘No Man’s Land’ patrols of the last war in Flanders. Since the enemy operates in much the same manner as ourselves, houses on our side of the line are constantly guarded against German ‘rustlers’, who swoop out of the darkness to snatch prisoners. Several such ‘cutting-out’ parties have been beaten off with loss.

“Two of the stealthiest peoples in the world – both expert woodsmen and trackers – roam nightly in No Man’s Land, giving the Germans the jitters. They are Gurkhas and North American Indians from the Canadian Rockies. The other night two patrols went out together. The Gurkha hillmen carried tommy guns and their dreaded kukris.

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The Canadian scout patrol, consisting of four trappers, two cowpunchers and two North-American Indians, were armed with automatic weapons and hunting knives. One of the North-American Indians – who looked very like a Gurkha himself except that he was taller – said to me in a broad Canadian accent: ‘This is the first time that we have seen the Gurkhas, and boy, are they good? I thought I knew a bit about tracking, but I can’t teach those boys anything. I’m mighty proud to be associated with them.’

“So near to one another are the German and Indian troops in this sector that they have taken to conversations. The other evening a German called out, ‘Hallo, Indians! Why don’t you go home?’ An enraged V.C.O., who spoke English, shouted back, ‘I did not come all the way from El Alamein to go home. It is you who will go!’ The Germans went next day, driven back by this Subedar and his men.”

Upon the departure of Fourth Indian Division, Fifth Canadian Armoured Division assumed control of the Orsogna front. This contact developed into one of the warmest associations of the war. For months to come Canadian armour served with Indian Infantry, until the sepoys boasted of Canadian tank regiments with as great pride as they showed in their own battalions. Language imposed no handicap. A lingua franca of which Italian was the base was supplemented by English and Hindustani phrases. Joint training familiarized tank men and infantrymen with each other’s problems, and such knowledge evoked the warmest admiration for each other’s craft and courage. Co-operation became so close that on one occasion, when supplied with other armour, a Mahratta battalion complained. “Why can we not have our own tanks?” they asked. When a questionnaire requested Indian units to choose British regiments for post-war affiliation, a Punjabi battalion voted unanimously for the 14th (Calgary) Armoured Regiment. Nor was this admiration one-sided. A young Canadian tank officer, decorated for courage and resource in action, summed up the feeling of his men when he said: “When they tell us we are going to be fighting with the Indians we are happy as hell. I hope they feel the same way about us.”

Early in February, Eighth Indian Division side-slipped to the left and spread out over a front of nearly twenty miles between Orsogna and the Maiella mountains. The line ran nearly due north and south; its southern flank, which rested against the high spurs of the range, was open. 6th Lancers, the Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment, was made flank guard and given patrol and intelligence responsibilities over the gaps in the line. The first of the Italian partisan detachments to serve under Divisional Command arrived, and made themselves very useful in bushwhacking expeditions across the wild and broken mountain sides. During the next two months the Lancers and Mahratta Anti-tank Gunners embarked on a number of similar

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expeditions. Observation posts and local guards were shot up, prisoners snatched and communications interrupted. The Indians made such nuisances of themselves that the German Commander in this sector issued a series of exhortations in routine orders. He besought his men to be more alert, to be more offensive-minded, to frustrate the pestiferous Indians at all costs. It seems probable that he made representations further afield, for in March a new German formation, the Three Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Division, entered this sector. The new troops were highly aggressive and thereafter the sepoys had it less their own way. During March a series of grim scuffles occurred, in which both sides took punishment. In one or two ambitious attempts to isolate Indian detachments, as much as a company of the enemy was employed. On one occasion, near the village of Fallascose, a clash led to a fire-fight which lasted for eight hours. In a fierce night encounter, 1/5 Mahrattas taught a German force a sharp lesson with no losses to themselves.

In spite of foul weather and frequently interrupted communications, all divisional services continued to function admirably. Perhaps the most noteworthy if unspectacular achievement was that of the Indian Medical Services. Troops who had never known extreme cold now fought in frozen foxholes, patrolled in a slush and sleet, waded icy rivers, slept in snowdrifts, bivouacked in blizzards. Yet such hardihood had been achieved through adaptability and training that serious illnesses fell to vanishing point, and the general health of the sepoys was so good that an Indian ADMS was able to boast, “If the general health of India was equal to that of our men in Italy, we should be the mightiest nation in the world”.

The long tour of Eighth Indian Division on the Adriatic drew to a close. On the night of April 18, Fourth Indian Division returned from Central Italy and relieved their comrades between Orsogna and the Maiellas. Next day, German artillery fired broadsheets into Fourth Division’s lines, which read, “It wasn’t much of a rest you had, was it? You need not think you will be allowed to complete your rest in this sector, although you may have been told that it was quiet here.” This rapid identification illustrates the difficulty of maintaining field security in a countryside lately liberated from the enemy.

Three Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Division continued to be cocky. On Hitler’s birthday (April 20th) they dressed Orsogna with flags and bunting, and displayed arrogant notice-boards which invited the Indians to participate in the celebration. As if further to mark the day, ten Focke-Wulfes bombed an Indian dressing station in Lanciano, causing 180 casualties. It is hoped that a reprisal shoot on Orsogna interfered to some degree with the celebration. A more potent response to the enemy challenge was the arrival (also on Hitler’s birthday), of a new Indian formation, which began to relieve the Canadians in

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the coastal sector. Tenth Indian Division had landed in Italy late in March with the following battle order:

G.O.C. Major-General Denys Reid, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.

10th Indian Infantry Brigade

(Brigadier T. N. Smith, O.B.E.)

1/2 Punjabis

4/10 Baluch Regiment

2/4 Gurkha Rifles

20th Indian Infantry Brigade,

(Brigadier J. B. McDonald, O.B.E.)

8th Manchester Regiment

3/5 Mahratta Light Infantry

2/3 Gurkha Rifles

25th Indian Infantry Brigade

(Brigadier Eustace Arderne, D.S.O.)

1st King’s Own Regiment

3/1 Punjab Regiment

3/18 Royal Garhwal Rifles

Reconnaissance Regiment

Skinners’ Horse

Machine Gun Battalion

1st Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

Artillery

68th, 97th, and 154th Field Regiments R.A.

13th Anti-Tank Regiment R.A.

30th Light A.A. Regiment R.A.

Engineers

5th, 10th and 61st Field Companies

Sappers and Miners

41st Field Park Company

Medical Services

14th, 21st and 30th Field Ambulances

14th Field Hygiene Section

Major-General Reid, who won three decorations in his ‘teens in the last war, had been a highly regarded commander in the African campaign. From a battalion of Mahrattas in Eritrea, he became Brigadier of the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade in Fifth Indian Division. He commanded the mixed force of Indians and South Africans which captured the Libyan oases of Giarabub and Jalo in 1941. During Rommel’s offensive in 1942, after holding El Adem box and fighting a brilliant delaying action over two hundred miles of desert, he was captured just before reaching safety at El Alamein. He escaped through the German lines near Cassino in November 1943, and thereafter assumed command of Tenth Indian Division. A shrewd Scot of imposing physique, with a keen sense of humour, he had proved to be an aggressive, popular and able leader.

On April 22nd, when the relief of the Canadians had been completed, Fourth and Tenth Indian Divisions held the entire Adriatic front between the sea and the Maiellas, a distance of 30 miles. All six brigades were in the line. The left flank of Fourth Division rested on the haunches of Monte Amore, whose snow-covered summits and even contours gave the mountain the appearance of an inverted pudding

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basin. Here Central India Horse was the chief component of Dawnay Force, a detached group whose mission was to patrol the uplands and to worry the Germans. Dawnay Force entered fully into the spirit of this enterprise, and established itself in the ruins of a number of XVth century robbers’ castles on commanding crests. It sallied out to relieve the countryside in a manner not unlike that of the original owners of these habitations. An incident early in April recalled classical history, when a detachment of German ski troops cut off an Indian patrol on the lip of Monte Fara Gorge. Using their greatcoats as the Romans once used their shields, the Indians tobogganed to safety at the bottom of the canyon.

On Tenth Division’s front it was not until May 4th, nearly a fortnight after coming into the lines, that the German broadsheets of welcome arrived. Either the enemy’s intelligence or his printer had been tardy. General Reid had his own ideas of welcome. He offered a reward of £5 for each prisoner taken. (His A.D.C., a Scots banker in civilian life, was appalled by this commitment, and when £60 had been earned, summarily terminated the offer on the grounds of a technicality.) Although the snow still lingered in the Maiellas, spring had come over the land. With fair weather the Adriatic front wakened from its winter sleep. A correspondent with the forward troops sends an interesting picture of conditions on this thinly-manned front:

“The bleak-looking farmhouses, which dot the countryside, are the scene of many quick, murderous encounters. Both Indian and German detachments live in much the same fashion. Downstairs, in the toolsheds and cattle stalls. the infantry platoons are quartered. The cellar serves as a bolt-hole in emergency. The upper storeys, reached by outside staircases, which give excellent observation, house the machine-gunners, signallers, and other specialists. Everyone moves discreetly during the day to avoid unwelcome attention from enemy guns. When darkness falls, the danger mounts. These farmhouses nearly all have blind walls, behind which a raiding party may approach unseen. Throughout the night, therefore, sentries are stationed on all sides in slit trenches. Alarm wires are strung and likely approaches are mined or booby-trapped. The technique of surprise, like the precautions against it, demand courage and resourcefulness of a high order, as well as skill in battle tactics which are a mixture of gangster and Red Indian practices.”

From May onwards, raids and “cutting-out” parties were features of the day’s work on all sectors of the Indian front. At first the enemy was in the ascendant. During the first week in May, 214 Gurkhas of 10th Brigade were attacked twice. On the second occasion two platoons were overrun. A counter-attack by their neighbours, 12 Punjabis, chased back the enemy. Next night 2/3 Gurkhas on 20th Brigade front, were similarly raided. Stubborn hand-to-hand fighting ensued

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before the Germans withdrew. On Fourth Division’s front, 1/9 Gurkhas and 3/10 Baluchis likewise were attacked. The assault on the Gurkhas was particularly severe, the raiders being estimated at the strength of a half-battalion. At dawn on May 14th a sharp shoot descended on 11th Brigade’s front between Arielli and Orsogna, where the right forward company of 3/12 Frontier Force Regiment was stationed on a neck of land between three convergent valleys. Emerging from these valleys, a substantial German force, supported by tanks, overran the Frontiersmen. A counter-attack by a reserve company failed to eject the enemy, and it was not until evening that the intervention of the 2nd Camerons restored the situation. In this fighting, 11th Brigade suffered 150 casualties.

To these assaults the Indians reacted with characteristic vigour. On Tenth Division’s front, 1/2 Punjabis crossed a stream, and in a wild Donnybrook in the dark, destroyed an enemy post and took prisoners. On the next night, 3/18 Garhwalis raided with equal success. Fighting patrols from the King’s Own and Mahrattas stalked and scuppered enemy outposts on successive evenings. At midnight on May 23rd a company of 2/3 Gurkhas, in a sudden onset at Lone House, depleted the ranks of Two Hundred and Seventy-Eighth German Division by 20 killed and 3 prisoners. 8th Manchesters about the same time bumped an enemy patrol and inflicted casualties.

Under this pummelling the aggressiveness oozed out of the enemy. Intelligence. reports showed German commanders to be jumpy. Wireless intercepts from isolated posts were couched in plaintive key. British and Indian soldiers, in the idiom of the battlefield, told each other that there was a flap on over the way. An officer in an Indian observation post sent this characteristic message:

“A white flag has been seen waving frantically in the area C279134. Later a man began to crawl towards our lines. He has not yet arrived, but tea for fifty had been laid on.”

In view of the possibility of an enemy withdrawal on the Adriatic front, both Indian divisions undertook to pin down their adversaries and to keep them under strict observation. During the last days of May, heavy German transport movements to the north were reported. Attempts to explore enemy positions, however, led to clashes which proved the enemy still to be holding in force. A combined patrol of Manchesters and Central India Horse was cut up on a risky expedition among the foothills of the Maiellas. Royal Sussex, on 7th Brigade’s front, and both Camerons and Frontier Force Regiment on 11th Brigade’s front, ran into trouble when they attempted to probe too intimately.

At the end of May, a regrouping of forces in the. Adriatic sector occurred. The Italian Utili Division arrived to relieve Fourth Indian Division on the Orsogna front. Their advance parties came forward

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with bands playing and with flags flying. The German artillery greeted such advertisement of intentions with a heavy shoot which interfered to some extent with the relief. Fourth Indian Division side-slipped on to the coastal sector, and on June 4th relieved Tenth Indian Division, which left at once for Central Italy. Fourth Divisional Artillery remained behind Orsogna in support of the Italians, while the guns of the Third Carpathian Division covered the Indians on the coast. A few of the old hands still remained who remembered the Carpathian Brigade which served beside them on the drive into Cyrenaica in 1941.

On June 7th a deserter from Two Hundred and Seventy-Eighth German Division revealed an enemy withdrawal to be imminent. At dawn next morning a Baluchi patrol reported Germans to be marching out of their positions carrying full equipment. At 0800 hours pursuit groups on all three brigade fronts advanced on the trail of the enemy. Simultaneously the Italians on the left discovered their sectors to be open and took up the chase.

Except for minefields along the river Arielli, no obstacles were encountered in the first stages of the pursuit. On the outskirts of Polo, 1/2 Gurkhas mopped up an enemy strong point which included the rather unusual defence of dug-in flamethrowers. Next morning the same battalion drew an enemy counter-attack when the hillmen pressed too closely in the chase. The Germans suffered a number of casualties in this futile enterprise. Thereafter the pace of the advance quickened. The partisans were up all over the countryside, and on more than one occasion these avenging irregulars chased Germans into the arms of the Indians. The Utili Division on the left kept edging across into the east, constricting the communications of Fourth Division until something like a bottle-neck resulted. With only two main roads on which to advance, 7th Brigade covered the entire Divisional front, and 11th Brigade were pushed on to the beaches. There amphibious craft awaited them. 2nd Camerons, with detachments of pioneers were ferried up the coast and landed north of Francavilla.

On June 10th, 1/2 Gurkhas entered Chieti, a sizable market town, where they received a delirious welcome. Here 7th Brigade received the news that 11th Brigade, having taken to the water, might claim the exciting prize of Pescara. Two Cameron officers had set off on bicycles in order to add this important seaport to their ‘game book’. 7th Brigade countered by despatching its reconnaissance squadron and a Sherman tank, with instructions to hurry. The result of the race was close, and is still a matter of dispute. Pescara was found to be looted and deserted.

The last of the Indian divisions now prepared to leave the Adriatic front. On June 13th, Third Carpathian Division took over from the Fourth Indian Division, which withdrew to a training area at Campobasso in preparation for transfer to Central Italy.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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