The ‘Iron Deuce’ and the Allied Invasion of Sicily

By JIM PURCELL

“Operation Husky” was the codename given to the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Allied Forces were fresh off their victories against Germany and their Axis allies in North Africa during November 1942. So, with inexorable determination, the Allies moved closer to the European Continent with the invasion of the occupied island of Sicily.

   Throughout this campaign, Seventh Army commander Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr. would depend heavily upon the men and machines of the 2^nd Armored Division to gain victory over German and Italian forces holding the island.

BORN TO BE BAD

   The 2nd Armored Division served the United States as one of its premier combat maneuver units between 1940-1995. The division was born at Ft. Benning, Georgia on July 15, 1940. Its first commander was Major General Charles L. Scott, with then-Colonel George S. Patton Jr. in-charge of the “Iron Deuce’s” training. Later, when MG Scott was promoted, Patton was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of the division.

   The core of the 2^nd Armored’s units included: the 41^st Infantry Regiment, 66^th Armored Regiment, 67^th Armored Regiment, 17^th Engineer Battalion and the 142^nd Signal Company. For 55 years, these units were the heart of the 2^nd Armored Division’s combat and maneuver capabilities. In Sicily, these units would be christened in blood and flames against a well-entrenched and determined enemy.

THE LANDINGS AT SICILY

   During the invasion of North Africa, the 2^nd Armored Division did not play a key role. However, that changed substantially in Sicily.

A battle map for the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943

   Operation Husky kicked off on the night of July 9, 1943. After more than a month of hard fighting, the operation would finally end on August 17, with the Allied liberation of the island.

   The invasion began with a large amphibious and airborne operation, which was followed up by a six-week land campaign by American, British, Canadian and Free French Forces.

"Iron Knights" from the 66th Armored Regiment in Sicily

   During theinv asion, the 2^nd Armored Division served as the reserve force for the Western Task Force. The division came ashore on July 10^th in support of the 1^st Infantry Division at the Battle of Gela, so-named for the city of Gela that was nearby along the island’s southern coast.

   The beaches of Gela were defended by the Italian XVIII Coastal Brigade. The town itself was being defended by the Italian 429^th Coastal Battalion. The defenses for Gela included barbed wire, pillboxes and anti-tank weapons. In addition, the beaches on either side of Gela were mined, covered by machineguns and had committed artillery battalions to support the defenders.

LTG George Patton confers with MG Hugh Gaffey

   The first armor to reach the shores of Gela were from the 67th Armored Regiment. However, the regiment’s Sherman tanks became stuck in the soft sand of the beachhead. Like everything that goes ‘sideways,’ the tanks eventually freed themselves to join the fight against German armored units that descended on the battlefield. The 2^nd Armored, working closely with the 1^st Infantry Division, held off a massive German counter-attack on July 11 and, on July 12, with the battle won, next went into action on July 21 in support of Allied landings at Licata, Sicily.

   At Licata, the 2^nd Armored Division supported the 3^rd Infantry “Rock of the Marne” Division, as it came ashore. Licata is situated between Agrigento and Gela on the island, which made Licata a strategic point in the campaign.

  Sadly, due to the intense firefights throughout the area, the town of Licata was left heavily damaged. With the war damage, combined with Sulphur industry declines, many of Licata’s resident population permanently left their town for mainland Italy after the war.

TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE NAZIS

   With both landings secured, it was time for the 2^nd Armored to take its show on the road, fighting through to the Sicilian capitol of Palermo. Throughout the inland campaign, the 2^nd Armored, commanded by Major General Hugh J. Gaffey, worked closely with paratroopers from the 82^nd Airborne Division.

   The two divisions knotted quick results. One of the perennial problems plaguing airborne infantry units was that they lacked the punch of armored units. Meanwhile, armored units, at that time, moved far slower than airborne units could. As a consequence of their cooperation, the 2^nd Armored and 82^nd Airborne were among those units that liberated Palermo on August 17^th, which also marked the end of the operation.

AFTER THE CAMPAIGN

G. Kisters

   Along the way, the Iron Deuce took thousands of Italian prisoners of war. During the campaign, the 2^nd Armored also gained its first Medal of Honor recipient, Sergeant Gerry H. Kisters, a Utah resident who was assigned to the 91^st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. At the time SGT Kisters was serving in Sicily, his unit was attached to the division.

   With the campaign in Sicily won, the 2^nd Armored Division was ordered to England, where it would prepare and train for the next Allied action, the Normandy Invasion of German-Occupied France. Though the division had sustained casualties during Operation Husky, it had proven itself as an invaluable asset to Allied plans for victory in Europe.

   Going forward in the war, the 2nd Armored Division would be a major force for Allied victory. The division would live up to its motto of "Hell on Wheels" against German Forces throughout mainland Europe. 

Simon Served In Northern Germany During the 1980s

By JIM PURCELL

John Simon is an Army veteran who served on active duty during the Cold War, from 1985 to 1988. He was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts but raised in Worcester, Massachusetts.

 

The M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle

  Like a lot of young people, John joined the Army right after high school. So, after he collected his diploma at Doherty Memorial High School, he went straight to the Army recruiter’s office.

   “I wanted to join the Army since I was kid,” John said.

   John’s first step in becoming a soldier brought him to the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he trained to be an infantryman and Bradley crewman. The Bradley was still new to soldiers, with the M2 and M3 entering service in 1981.

   Named for the late General Omar Bradley, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle included a crew of three: a commander, driver and gunner. Its weaponry included an M242, 25mm chain gun, a TOW anti-tank weapon and a 7.62mm, M240 machine gun. In addition, the Bradley could carry six fully equipped soldiers.

Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, in Garlstedt, FRG

   The Bradley replaced the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, which was basically an aluminum-armored rolling box equipped with an M2, .50-caliber machine gun. While the APC was replaced by the Bradley in infantry line units, they were still used by support units.

   “What I liked most about my job was driving the Bradley,” John said.

   He got a chance to join a unit that was equipped relatively early with the Bradley when he arrived to his first duty station, Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, in Garlstedt, Federal Republic of Germany; the home of the 2^nd Armored Division (Forward). Once there, he was assigned to Alpha Company, 4^th Battalion, 41^st Infantry Regiment.

41st Infantry Regiment Crest

   Clay Kaserne was named for the former European Commander Gen. Lucius D. Clay (1898-1978). Clay had served during World War II in Europe and stayed on after the German surrender, in 1945, to serve as deputy governor of Germany during the Allied Military Government that was in place immediately following the end of the war. 

   At the time, the Division (Forward) was comprised of three maneuver battalions: the 1^st Battalion, 41^st Infantry; the 4^th Battalion, 41^st Infantry; and the 2^nd Battalion, 66^th Armored Regiment, equipped with the still relatively new M1 tanks. Rounding out the Division (Forward) was the 4^th Battalion, 3^rd Field Artillery Regiment and a support battalion.

   The 2^nd Armored Division (Forward) was situated in Northern Germany, so when PFC Simon joined his unit in January, 1986 he got the opportunity to experience icy blasts off the North Sea firsthand.

   “I think the things the Army taught me were to trust your brothers and, if need be, be ready to kick ass,” John said.

Army Overseas Service Ribbon

   The battalion was in the field regularly, whether it was cold weather training in Denmark; gunnery or training evaluations in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels, in Southern Germany; or taking part in REFORGER (Return Forces to Germany) exercises. Still, John made the time to enjoy Northern Germany’s night-life some, frequently clubbing in Bremerhaven. In fact, it was there that John met his future wife.

   During May, 1988, John’s battalion was rotated back to Fort Hood, in Texas, where it was placed in the 2^nd (St. Lo) Brigade of the 2^nd Armored Division (Main). The 4^th Battalion, 41^st Infantry Regiment was replaced in Garlstedt by the 3^rd Battalion, 66^th Armored Regiment.

   By the time he left the active Army, in October, 1988, John had earned a promotion to the rank of specialist and went on to serve an additional three years in the U.S. Army Reserve.

   Today, he recalls his time in the Army fondly and enjoys his memories of serving with the Iron Deuce in Europe and the United States.

  

  

Military Technology: Not Everything Should Be Automated

By REV. JIM PURCELL

I was never a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, but I was a buck sergeant, and a corporal before that (after going from PV1 to Specialist 4th Class prior). I served as a grunt, 11C Mortarman, then as a 96B Intelligence Analyst (HUMINT) and then an 11B Infantyman. I was in for almost 11 years in all, and, during my time in, I was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division, 7th Infantry Division and the 2nd Armored Division. So, I know a little bit about being a grunt.

With that said, technology is the wellspring of the military services, and this is intractable. However, there are things that should not be replaced. Not being on active duty for more than 20 years, I have stayed up on those things that were in the news about the military, which is hardly a lot but it is something. I have even gone out of my way to stay atop some of the advances coming out from arms manufacturers and places like Boston Dynamics, among others, where they announce Beta-Testing for promising weapons systems. Overall, I think soldiers will be safer and more effective with the enhancement coming down the pipeline.

However, the soldiering trade should not, at its core, be altered -- only enhanced, in my opinion. I was in a low-tech Army of the 1980s and early 90s. In my day, soldiering was much the same as it had been when my father, uncles and cousins served from the 1940s through 1970s. Yes, there were weapon systems upgrades. By the same token, soldiers of my day still used the M16A1 (into the late 1980s), still used bayonets, wore the same clunky LBE that the Army had been wearing since Korea, wore tropical 0G-107 uniforms of the Vietnam Era (along with BDU's -- it was optional on posts like Ft. Bragg) and wore Corcoran jump boots and jungle boots (again, not all posts authorized the jungle boots). I received a steel pot helmet when I initially entered and after a year or so I received the first generation kevlar helmet, while our flak vests were tragically inefficient and were Vietnam vintage. At first, I ate C-Rations in the field, then MRE's (and can still taste both to this day). There were no very significant technological breakthroughs for individual soldiers, just major weapons systems. In my day, the big changes were Bradley M2 vehicles instead of M113s, TOW AT systems and the very first fielding of the M1 Abrams tanks, which replaced the M60A3 Main Battle Tank, as well as MLRS.

Today, the very foundation of what the force will look like in 20 years is being decided. I do not disagree that robotic infantry support and direct support elements are good ideas -- they're awesome. Anything that improves the range, accuracy of fire, ability to maneuver and secure a strip of real-estate is fine by me. Still, I think that the old way of learning map reading: one soldier, one map, one compass is something that should never be changed, nor the regular training of hand-to-hand (inclusive of knife) and bayonet should change either. Meanwhile, I have heard there is a helmet being developed that would allow soldiers to play music on headphones on patrol and would channelize their vision with its wearing -- now, that is nuts. Patrol techniques, individually and as part of teams and squads, is the most fundamental skill a grunt possesses and the old way of doing it (low and slow, quiet and with a head on a swivel) is just the plain old way to do it.

I understand there exists so much technology out there in the Army today that soldiers have almost a brand-new experience over their forerunners. Yet, improving and enhancing should never edit or delete the essential skills of soldiering, which included long field stays over months some time in training. Meanwhile, live-fire trainings, like in Doughboy City, in Berlin, back in the day kept soldiers the kind of sharp they needed. It was told me once that the only way to make a grunt is outside in the rain and cold for a bunch of months, with as much 'pain-in-the-ass' the brass could add. I agree with this, as much as I hated it when I was a young soldier.

I believe in technology, and want the very best for our kids when they have to go to the dance, but not at the sake of training the individual soldier in some of the more traditional pillars of the old school, be they infantry or something else. Soldiering is perhaps the second-oldest profession in the world, and it is experiencing a renaissance, but the core needs to stay strong. The best parts of soldiering are timeless. Add the old with the new and it's a powerful combination. But, keeping some of those core aspects of training should be an enduring priority, which resides right next to adding the best and newest technologies.

In conclusion, I want to applaud all the wonderful guys and gals who are serving our nation in uniform and for their dedication and invaluable service to our country.

A TRUE STORY: The Greatest Generation

There are moments in time that can echo forever, telling new generations about the greatness or the lack of it in the abilities of men and women. This is a true story about a generation’s greatness and an army's humanity.

I was a 21-year-old corporal in 1987, when REFORGER ‘87 was taking place. I was an intelligence analyst serving with the S-2, 4th Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, which belonged to the 2nd Armored Division (Forward). My unit was based in Lucius D. Clay Kaserne in Garlstedt, Federal Republic of Germany (when that still existed).

My battalion had been deployed for a few months at this point. I occasionally joked with my friends that we weren’t deployed as much as we were homeless now. The joke even brought out a laugh now and again.

During the deployment, the battalion traveled to unfamiliar ground for us. Normally we were located in Northern Germany, and only came south of Hanover to perform gunnery qualification with the M2 and M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. When the unit traveled south, it usually went to the gunnery range at Grafenwohr, in Eastern Bavaria, and then went on to be evaluated at nearby Hohenfels, which was a training area used by Allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. At Hohenfels, the unit would go through an Army Training and Evaluation Program to demonstrate our efficiency. It was hard soldiering, but the “Iron Deuce” was a great old unit and drew some pretty staunch soldiers.

It was training, though, and the reality of what defending another nation on its own soil really meant had not gotten through for a while.

This REFORGER was different for a lot of us younger soldiers. We traveled through towns and saw the faces of ordinary Germans we were protecting. It was the Cold War in those days, and so many of us believed it might become a shooting war while we were there. No one took the threat of the Soviet Union lightly, and soldiers in the United States Army in Europe respected the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact Allies. We all knew they were a professional and strong army. But, then again, so were we.

Still, as we passed through several towns, driving along German highways and byways in our armored personnel carriers, trucks, and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, it changed how I saw my service there. It made it real to me.

What really brought that sentiment home, though, occurred in Drensteinfurt, in the Northern Rhine-Westphalia region of the country. As normal, the unit pulled in and, in my case, soldiers from the S-2 (the Intelligence and Security Section), parked our M577 Command Post Carrier right next to the S-3 (Operations) and we went about the businesses of unrolling canvasses and making our tactical operations center, which a fire support team from the Field Artillery and an air liaison team from the U.S. Air Force hooked into as well.  This is where our commander, at the time Lieutenant-Colonel John Voessler, and his primary staff officers communicated with and controlled the 700-soldier (or so) task force that was 4/41 Infantry.

Well, it was hot and sweaty work in the middle of August, and everyone who took part in making the TOC, as it was called, was dirty, tired and thirsty. However, the one good thing about operating in towns is that soldiers were occasionally allowed to patronize little cafes in the immediate area, if everything was on schedule, as it was this bright and sunny day.

My good friend, Private Bruce Fogle, and I received permission to go grab ‘some local chow’ and return. Fogle and I were wearing camouflage face paint and I was carrying my M-16 and he the bulky M60 machinegun assigned to him. Our helmets were on and chinstraps firmly in place and our uniforms looked like they are supposed to in the field.

This was a natural thing for us. But, as he and I passed German civilians, I became aware these accessories might very well be disturbing. I put myself in their place. So, I tried to do some smiling as we passed people and Fogle tried the same. I couldn’t imagine how it would have felt seeing foreign soldiers strolling down my hometown street in Howell Township, New Jersey.

Well, this older woman, perhaps in her late 70s or older, was accompanied by her granddaughter (as I came to find out later) down the little cobblestone road where the cafe was located. Upon us approaching, she became visibly shaken and muttered something emotionally to her granddaughter. I thought we must have upset her and tried my broken German to explain we were only having a wargame here and that my unit would be leaving soon.

Yet, her granddaughter explained her grandmother’s reaction: “No sir, that patch you and the other man are wearing is the same as the patch of the men that freed my grandmother from the Nazis in 1945. She wants to thank you soldiers still.” Then the old lady reached out and took Fogle’s dirty, gloved hand and placed it up to her face and said, with her heavy German accent, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Tears immediately rose to my eyes, which I thought was very ‘un-NCO-like’ of me, but Fogle had the waterworks going too.

My Dad was a soldier back then. He fought in the Rhine like so many others. He could have easily been one of the soldiers that helped her back then. It all came around for me -- why we were there, what we are supposed to be about and the very big shoes we were filling.

I asked her granddaughter to translate, because I didn’t want to screw it up. Then I said that there are always going to be evil people in the world. And, it was a privilege to be associated with the men she knew, if only by our patch, and that both my friend and I, and the rest of us, would try and make sure neither she nor her family ever had to go through anything like the Nazis again. This moved me. Right then, I figured out what it was to be an American soldier.