51st Highland Division in Sicily

When re-visiting the battlefields of Sicily recently, I set about following the campaign of my wife’s grandfather who commanded 152 Brigade, part of 51st Highland Division. I had been given his copy of the ‘History of the 51st Highland Division 1939-1945’, R B Salmon (1953) and the chapter entitled ‘TheThirty-Nine Days’ covered the campaign in the detail I needed. It included the image of the Divisional Memorial at Sferro, which I was to locate. I knew 51st Highland Division to be a Territorial Division that had been reconstituted after Dunkirk, before being sent to North Africa where it played a decisive role in 8th Army’s victories. Limited training time was available to prepare for the amphibious operations and the fighting that would take place over the very different terrain of Sicily, but they were commanded by Major General Douglas Wimberley who had the reputation as a fearless leader and a superb motivator of men. For good reasons Brigadier Gordon MacMillan did not take command of 152 Brigade until 19 days before the landings and so had to rely, to a large degree, on the preparations that had already been put in place.

The Division landed on the morning of the 10th July 1943 on the left of the 8th Army at the southernmost tip of Sicily, near Pachino, as the 51st Highland Division map in Battlefield Maps shows. 153 and 154 Brigades were in the first wave with 152 Brigade and Divisional HQ in the second wave. The Division also included 23rd Armoured Brigade equipped with Sherman tanks. 152 Brigade consisted of 2nd and 5th Battalions of the Seaforth Highlanders and 5th Bn Cameron Highlanders, with artillery support from 128 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. Only light Italian opposition was encountered for the first few days and it was not until 13th July when the Brigade met elements of the 2nd Panzergrenadier Regiment from the Herman Goering Division at Francofonte that any serious fighting took place. 5th Seaforths as the leading battalion, with tank support from 23rd Armoured Brigade, encountered determined resistance during the day and was forced to occupy a defensive position on the edge of the village at nightfall. Private Cormack was taken prisoner during the battle but managed to escape later. Following his debriefing his CO (Lt Col Walford) said:

“he was able to give information concerning the strength of the enemy, their probable date of departure from Sicily, the source of supply from which their food and ammunition came, the state of their transport, their reaction to our bombing and shelling, and their state of mind generally. His alertness of mind was commendable.”

On the 14th following an artillery barrage, 2nd Seaforths passed through 5th Seaforths and became involved in hand to hand fighting. The Germans had fortified specific houses with the consequence that it was decided to mount a deliberate night attack, however the attack went in unopposed as the enemy had withdrawn under cover of darkness.

Following the Francofonte battle, the Division continued advancing north and on 17th July 154 Brigade fought a ferocious battle to seize the village of Gerbini, with its aerodrome, barracks and railway station. This action turned out to be a bloody battle in which 7th Argylls bore the brunt of the fighting with 18 officers and 160 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. Included amongst the dead was the CO, Lt Col Mathieson. Shortly after the Gerbini battle on the 21st July Douglas Wimberley was visited by Montgomery, who explained that he now wanted the 51st Highland Division to adopt a defensive posture as he intended to move the 8th Army’s main effort to the west where theCanadian Division would attack. Wimberley, aware that termination of offensive operations after such heavy losses might be misinterpreted by his soldiers, asked for the order to be given in writing. Montgomery wrote there and then in pencil:

“My dear Douglas,

I have decided to make the right flank of the Army Front a defensive front, and to pull in to the best positions – ready for offensive action at a suitable moment later on. Meanwhile I am pushing the offensive hard on the left, where the resistance is not so strong. In ten days we have captured practically the whole of Sicily, and the enemy is now hemmed in at the north-east corner –rather like the Cap Bon Peninsula. Please tell all your soldiers that I think they have done magnificently. They have marched and fought over a very long distance in great heat, well up to the best standards of the Highland Division. I am sending you 50,000 cigarettes as a present to the Division.

Yours ever,

(Signed)B.L.Montgomery”

Montgomery’s suitable moment came soon enough and on the night of 31st July the Division mounted a deliberate attack to clear the Germans from the Sferro Hills to the immediate east of the Dittiano River, enabling the crossing of the Simeto River and the capture of Paterno. 152 Brigade attacked on the right of the Division with 5th Camerons leading the assault, 5th Seaforths in support and 2nd Seaforths in reserve. The attack went in northwest along the line of the hills and encountered determined German resistance. In capturing the Iazzovechio and Angelico farm complexes and adjacent olive groves, significant casualties were taken and 5th Seaforths sent forward two companies to support the attack. The following morning a determined German counter-attack was fought off and although fighting continued throughout the 1st August, nightfall saw the Germans pull back across the Simeto River as they continued their delaying actions to the north of Mount Etna and towards Messina. Standing at the Memorial 76 years later I was struck by the rough and rocky terrain that would have tested rugged, acclimatised Highland soldiers to their limits in the mid-summer heat of the Catanian Plain.

The battle for the Sferro Hills concluded the Division’s campaign in Italy and it was warned to return to Scotland in order to prepare for the Normandy landings. The Division had suffered some 7,000 casualties during 1943 and yet despite all the battle casualty replacements it received, 81% of the officers and 72% of the soldiers in the Division at the conclusion of the Sicilian Campaign were Scotsmen. For Maj Gen Wimberley, whose nickname was Tartan Tam, it was critical that the identity of the Division was maintained to maximise its fighting quality. It did not depart Sicily without leaving its mark on the island and on the 4th November representatives gathered close to the point of the fiercest fighting and unveiled a stone Celtic Cross as a memorial to those men who had fallen in Sicily. On return to Scotland Brig MacMillan heard the news that he had received the DSO for his part in the campaign and was promoted to command 15th (Scottish) Division. He was to return to command 51st Highland Division in March 1945.

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