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Operation Ladbroke

Operation Ladbroke was a glider landing by British airborne troops during the Second World War near Syracuse, Sicily, that began on 9 July 1943 as part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. The first Allied mission using large numbers of the aircraft, the operation was carried out from Tunisia by glider infantry of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Philip Hicks, with a force of 136 Hadrians and eight Airspeed Horsas. The objective was to establish a large invasion force on the ground near the town of Syracuse, secure the Ponte Grande Bridge and ultimately take control of the city itself with its strategically vital docks, as a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Sicily.

En route to Sicily, sixty-five gliders released too early by the American towing aircraft crashed into the sea, drowning approximately 252 men. Of the remainder, only eighty-seven men arrived at the Pont Grande Bridge, although they successfully captured the bridge and held it beyond the time they were to be relieved. Finally, with their ammunition expended and only fifteen soldiers remaining unwounded, the Allied troops surrendered to Italian forces. The Italians, having gained control of the bridge, sought to destroy the structure, but were frustrated by troopers of the 1st Airlanding Brigade who had removed the previously attached explosive charges. Other troops from the brigade, who had landed elsewhere in Sicily, aided further by destroying communications links and capturing gun batteries.

Background
By December 1942, with Allied forces advancing through Tunisia after landing there the month before in Operation Torch, the North African Campaign was coming to a close; with victory there imminent, discussions began among the Allies regarding the nature of their next objective. Many Americans argued for an immediate invasion of Northern France, while the British, as well as then-Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, argued that the island of Sardinia was the best subsequent target of the Allied forces. In January 1943 the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt settled at the Casablanca Conference on the island of Sicily, whose invasion and occupation could potentially provide the Allies with Mediterranean shipping routes and airfields nearer to mainland Italy and Germany. The codename Operation Husky was decided upon for the Allied invasion of Sicily, and planning for Husky began in February. Initially the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, were to land on the south-eastern corner of the island and advance north to the port of Syracuse. Two days later the U.S. Seventh Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, would land on the western corner of the island and move towards the port of Palermo.

In March it was decided that the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, and the British 1st Airborne Division, under Major-General George F. Hopkinson, would be dropped by parachute and glider just prior to the amphibious landings; they would land a few miles behind the beaches and neutralize their defenders, thereby aiding the landing of the Allied ground forces. However, in early May these directives were radically changed at the insistence of the Eighth Army commander, General Montgomery; he argued that with Allied forces landing separately at either end of the island, the defending Axis forces would have the opportunity to defeat each Allied army in turn before both could unite. Instead, the plans were altered to land both the Eighth and Seventh Armies simultaneously along a 100 mi stretch of coastline on Sicily's south-eastern corner. At the same time, the plans for the two airborne divisions, the British 1st and U.S. 82nd, were also adjusted; Montgomery believed that the airborne troops should be landed near Syracuse, so that they could seize the valuable port. The commander of the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery, Brigadier General Maxwell D. Taylor, further asserted that dropping behind the island's beaches and overcoming its defences was not a suitable mission for the airborne troops, as they were only lightly armed and vulnerable to the 'friendly fire' of the planned Allied naval bombardment. In the revised blueprint for the airborne divisions, a reinforced regimental combat team (the 505th Parachute Infantry, under Colonel James M. Gavin, with the 3rd Battalion of the 504th PIR and numerous other units attached) from Major General Ridgway's U.S. 82nd Airborne Division would be dropped by parachute north-east of the port of Gela to block the movement of Axis reserves towards the Allied beachheads. Major General Hopkinson's British 1st Airborne Division was now to conduct three brigade-size airborne operations: the Ponte Grande road bridge south of Syracuse was to be captured by the 1st Airlanding Brigade, under Brigadier Philip Hicks, the port of Augusta was to be seized by Brigadier Ernest Down's 2nd Parachute Brigade, and finally the Primasole Bridge over the River Simeto was to be taken and secured by Brigadier Gerald Lathbury's 1st Parachute Brigade.

Planning
As there were insufficient transport aircraft for all three brigades to conduct their operations simultaneously, it was decided that the first operation would be Ladbroke, whose objective was the capture of the Ponte Grande Bridge. The mission, under the command of Brigadier Philip Hicks, was conducted just prior to the amphibious landings, on the night of 9 July, while the remaining two operations took place on successive two nights. The 1st Airlanding Brigade was also given the additional tasks of capturing Syracuse harbour and the urban area that adjoined it, and either destroying or confiscating a coastal artillery battery that was in range of the amphibious landings. When training began for the operation, difficulties immediately arose. The original plan for the airborne operations had called for all three to employ parachutists, but in May Montgomery altered the plan; after determining that airborne troops would be at a considerable distance from Allied ground forces, he believed that the force sent to capture Syracuse would be served best by gliders in order to provide them with the maximum possible amount of firepower. His airborne advisor, Group Captain Cooper of the Royal Air Force, argued that a glider landing conducted at night with inexperienced aircrews was not practical, but the decision was left unchanged.

Montgomery's orders raised several issues, the first with the transport aircraft of the Troop Carrier Wings assigned to the airborne operations. When they had arrived in North Africa, it had been decided that the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing would operate with 1st Airborne Division and its counterpart, the 51st, with 82nd Airborne Division. A few weeks later this arrangement was switched, with the 52nd now operating with 82nd Airborne Division and the 51st with 1st Airborne Division; this seemed a logical decision, as each Wing had operational experience with the division it had been paired with. However, the decision to turn the Syracuse assault into a glider-based one was problematic; the 51st had practically no glider experience, whilst the 52nd had much more but was already training for a parachute-based mission. To switch both was impractical and would have led to a number of problems, which left 1st Airborne Division, and thus 1st Airlanding Brigade, with an inexperienced Troop Carrier Wing.

Glider problems
Further problems were encountered with the gliders to be used in the operation, and the glider pilots themselves. Until a few months prior to the operation, there was a notable shortage of serviceable gliders in North Africa. In late March a small number of Wacos arrived at Accra on the Gold Coast, but pilots sent to ferry them to North Africa found that they were in poor condition. Due to neglect and the deleterious effects of tropical weather, the pilots were able to assemble only a small number of Wacos and fly them back on 22 April. On 23 April, a larger number of the American gliders began to arrive in North African ports, but were not immediately available for use as the crates holding them were unloaded haphazardly, instructions were often found to be missing, and those men assigned to assemble the gliders were often inexperienced. However, when the decision was made to conduct a glider-borne assault with 1st Airlanding Brigade, assembly was improved, and by 12 June 346 gliders had been put together and delivered to the Troop Carrier Wings. A small number of Horsa gliders were transported to North Africa for use by the brigade. Thirty took off from England and undertook a trip of approximately 1,500 mi in Operation Turkey Buzzard. After attacks from Luftwaffe fighter patrols and experiencing often turbulent weather, a total of 27 Horsas were delivered to North Africa in time for the operation.

When sufficient gliders had arrived in North Africa, however, they were not all usable even in training; on 16 June, most of the gliders were grounded for repairs, and on 30 June, large numbers of them had developed weaknesses in their tail-wiring, necessitating another grounding period of three days. Given these problems and delays, 51st Troop Carrier Wing was not able to conduct a large-scale glider exercise until mid-June. On 14 June, fifty-four Wacos were flown over 70 mi and then released to land at an airfield, and a larger exercise was conducted on 20 June; but even these limited exercises were unrealistic, as they were conducted in broad daylight. The British glider pilots themselves also caused difficulties; although there were a sufficient number of them to conduct the operation, they were highly inexperienced. Detached from the Glider Pilot Regiment for the operation, they had no experience with the Waco gliders and night operations involving them, as British doctrine had deemed such operations impossible. On average, the pilots had eight hours of flight experience in gliders. Few were rated as being 'operationally ready' and none had combat experience. Colonel George Chatterton, the commander of the Glider Pilot Regiment, had protested their participation as he believed they were entirely unfit for any operation. When the training period for the brigade ended with a total of two exercises completed, the glider pilots had an average of 4.5 hours training in flying the unfamiliar Waco, which included an average of 1.2 hours night flying.

1st Airlanding Brigade
The units of the 1st Airlanding Brigade were: the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment; 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment; 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance and 9th Field Company, Royal Engineers. The Staffords were tasked with securing the bridge and the area to the south, while the Borders were to capture Syracuse. For the mission the 1st Airlanding Brigade were allocated 136 Waco and eight Horsa gliders. With the shortage of space in the gliders—Wacos could only accommodate fifteen troops, half that of the Horsa, thus the whole brigade could not be deployed. Six of the Horsas carrying 'A' and 'C' companies from the Staffords were scheduled to land at the bridge at 23:15 on 9 July in a coup-de-main operation. The remainder of the brigade would arrive at 01:15 on 10 July using a number of landing-zones between 1.5 and 3 mi away, then converge on the bridge to reinforce the defence.

Italian forces
The Ponte Grande Bridge was immediately outside the area defended by the Italian 206th Coastal Division, which would oppose the British seaborne landing. The fortress commander was Rear Admiral Priamo Leonardi, with Colonel Mario Damiani in command of the army contingent. The Augusta-Syracuse Naval Fortress Area, which included the Coastal Division, was protected by six medium and six heavy coastal artillery batteries, with eleven additional dual-purpose coastal and anti-aircraft batteries, with six batteries only of anti-aircraft guns. Finally the Fortress contained an armoured train with four 120 mm guns. The army contingent was the 121st Coastal Defence Regiment, which included four battalions. There were also naval and air force battalions available, while the 54th Infantry Division "Napoli" was in a position to send reinforcements if required.

Mission
On 9 July, a contingent of 2,075 British troops, along with seven jeeps, six anti-tank guns and ten mortars, boarded their gliders in Tunisia and took off at 18:00, bound for Sicily. In the hours that preceded the landing, twelve Boeing B-17 and six Vickers Wellington equipped with radar jamming devices flew back and forth along the coast in the Siracusa-Licata sector; between 21:00 and 21:30, 55 Wellingtons of 205th Group carried out a diversionary bombing of the port and airport of Syracuse, causing a number of civilian and military casualties, including the commander of the Italian naval base, Commander Giuseppe Giannotti. 280 puppets dressed in paratrooper uniforms were launched north of the landing area, in order to deceive the Italian defense. En route, the gliders encountered strong winds, poor visibility and at times were subjected to anti-aircraft fire. To avoid gunfire and searchlights, pilots of the towing aircraft climbed higher or took evasive action. In the confusion surrounding these manoeuvres, some gliders were released too early and sixty-five of them crashed into the sea, drowning around 252 men. Of the remainder, only twelve landed in the right place. Another fifty-nine landed up to 25 mi away while the remainder were either shot down or failed to release and returned to Tunisia. About 200 American paratroopers, having been mistakenly parachuted in the area assigned to the Eighth Army, were captured by the Italian 146th Coastal Regiment (206th Coastal Division) in the early hours of 10 July.

Only one Horsa with a platoon of infantry from the Staffords landed near the bridge. Its commander, Lieutenant Withers, divided his men into two groups, one of which swam across the river and took up position on the opposite bank. Thereafter the bridge was captured following a simultaneous assault from both sides. The Italian defenders from the 120th Coastal Infantry Regiment abandoned their pillboxes on the north bank.

The British platoon then dismantled some demolition charges that had been fitted to the bridge and dug-in to wait for reinforcement or relief. Another Horsa landed roughly 200 yd from the bridge but exploded on landing, killing all on board. Three of the other Horsas carrying the coup-de-main party landed within 2 mi of the bridge—their occupants eventually finding their way to the site. Reinforcements began to arrive at the bridge, but by 06:30 they numbered only eighty-seven men.

Elsewhere, about 150 men landed at Cape Murro di Porco and captured a radio station. Based on a warning of imminent glider landings transmitted by the station's previous occupants, the local Italian commander ordered a counter-attack but his troops failed to receive his message. The scattered nature of the landings now worked in the Allies' favour as they were able to cut all telephone wires in the immediate area. The glider carrying the brigade deputy commander, Colonel O. L. Jones, landed beside an Italian coastal artillery battery; at daylight the staff officers and radio operators attacked and destroyed the battery's five guns and their ammunition dump. Other isolated groups of Allied soldiers tried to aid their comrades, assaulting Italian defences and targeting reinforcements. Another attack by a group of paratroopers on three 149/35 mm Italian coastal batteries failed, and the batteries were able to open fire on Allied landing craft and troops at 6:15 on 10 July. At 9:15, the 1st Battalion of the Italian 75th Infantry Regiment ("Napoli" Division) captured another 160 American paratroopers on the Palazzolo Acreide–Syracuse road. Another group of paratroopers attacked an Italian patrol led by Major Paoli, commander of the 126th Artillery Group; Paoli was killed and his unit fell in disarray, and was thus unable to intervene in the later fight against British tanks near the bridge.

The first counterattack on the bridge was by two companies of Italian sailors, who were repulsed by the British. As the Italians responded to the Allied landings, they gathered more troops and brought up artillery and mortars to bombard the Allied-controlled Pont Grande Bridge. The British defenders came under attack from the Italians while the expected British 5th Infantry Division relief did not appear at 10:00 as planned. At 11:30 the Italian 385th Coastal Battalion arrived at the bridge, followed soon afterward by the 1st Battalion, 75th (Napoli) Infantry Regiment. The Italians were positioned to attack the bridge from three sides. By 14:45 there were only fifteen British troops defending the bridge that had not been killed or wounded (four officers and eleven soldiers). At 15:30, with their ammunition consumed, the British stopped fighting. Some men on the south side of the bridge escaped into the countryside, but the rest became prisoners of war. With the bridge back in Italian hands, the first unit from 5th Infantry Division, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, of 17th Infantry Brigade, arrived at the bridge at 16:15 and mounted a successful counter-attack, which had been made possible by the prior removal of demolition charges from the bridge, preventing its destruction by the Italians. The 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Regiment, having no artillery, was unable to oppose the British tanks and had to retreat after suffering heavy losses. The survivors from the 1st Airlanding Brigade took no further part in the fighting and were withdrawn back to North Africa on 13 July. During the landings, the losses by 1st Airlanding Brigade were the most severe of all British units involved. The casualties amounted to 313 killed and 174 missing or wounded. Fourteen accompanying glider pilots were killed, and eighty-seven were missing or wounded.

Aftermath
After an enquiry into the problems with the airborne missions in Sicily, the British Army and Royal Air Force submitted recommendations in the aftermath of Operation Ladbroke. Aircrew were to be trained in parachute and glider operations, and pathfinders were to be landed before the main force, to set out their beacons. The landing plan was simplified with complete brigades landing on a drop zone, instead of the smaller battalion landing areas used on Sicily. Gliders were no longer released at night while still over water, and their landing zones would be large enough to accommodate the aircraft with room to spare. Following a friendly fire incident over an Allied convoy, more training was given to ship's crews in aircraft recognition; Allied aircraft were also painted with three large white stripes. Training for pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment was increased, and improvements to the gliders were implemented, including better inter-aircraft communication. To provide another method of delivering jeeps and artillery by air, the Royal Air Force started experimenting with how to use parachutes to drop them into combat, the jeeps and guns being carried in aircraft's bomb bays. A second Royal Air Force transport group, No. 46, was formed and equipped solely with Douglas Dakotas, instead of the mixture of aircraft in No. 38 Group. Together, the Royal Air Force groups were capable of supplying eighty-eight Albermarles, eighty-eight Stirlings, thirty-six Halifaxes and 150 Dakotas, a total of 362 planes which did not include aircraft held as reserves.

title: Operation Ladbroke


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Talk:Atomic chemical

Opinion
reads like bunk to me. -anon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cimon Avaro (talk • contribs) 17:30, 27 June 2003 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Atomic chemical


text:
Slavonian

Slavonian may refer to:

 * something of, or related to Slavonia
 * Slavonian dialect, a Slavic dialect spoken in parts of Slavonia
 * historical name used in some sources for the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language in Slavonia

title: Slavonian


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Poetry Bookshop

The Poetry Bookshop operated at 35 Devonshire Street (now Boswell Street) in the Bloomsbury district of central London, from 1913 to 1926. It was the brainchild of Harold Monro, and was supported by his moderate income.

The Bookshop not only sold, but also published, poetry by living poets. Readers were encouraged to browse, and several poets actually made their home there, including Wilfred Owen, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson and Robert Frost. The atmosphere was welcoming, and the shop's best-sellers were hand-coloured rhyme sheets for children.

During World War I, when Monro was serving in the armed forces, the shop was run almost single-handed by his assistant, Alida Klementaski, whom he later married.

Among the works published by the Poetry Bookshop were collections by Charlotte Mew and Richard Aldington and the Georgian Poetry series as well as Ezra Pound's seminal 1914 anthology Des Imagistes.

Penelope Fitzgerald for quite a few years attempted to interest a publisher in a book on the shop. Her letters reveal the amount of work she did, some of which was useful to her when she wrote her biography of Charlotte Mew.

title: Poetry Bookshop


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Operation Fustian

Operation Fustian was an airborne forces operation undertaken during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 in the Second World War. The operation was carried out by Brigadier Gerald Lathbury's 1st Parachute Brigade, part of the British 1st Airborne Division. Their objective was the Primosole Bridge across the Simeto River. The intention was for the brigade, with glider-borne forces in support, to land on both sides of the river. They would then capture the bridge and secure the surrounding area until relieved by the advance of British XIII Corps, which had landed on the south eastern coast three days previously. Because the bridge was the only crossing on the river and would give the British Eighth Army access to the Catania plain, its capture was expected to speed the advance and lead to the defeat of the Axis forces in Sicily.

Many of the aircraft carrying the paratroopers from North Africa were shot down or were damaged and turned back by friendly fire and enemy action. Evasive action taken by the pilots scattered the brigade over a large area and only the equivalent of two companies of troops were landed in the correct locations. Despite this and the defence by German and Italian forces, the British paratroops captured the bridge, repulsed attacks and held out against increasing odds until nightfall. The relief force led by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, under Major-General Sidney C. Kirkman, which was short of transport, were still 1 mi away when they halted for the night. By this time, with casualties mounting and supplies running short, the parachute brigade commander, Gerald Lathbury, had relinquished control of the bridge to the Germans. The following day the British units joined forces and the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, with tank support, attempted to recapture the bridge. The bridge was not finally secured until three days after the start of the operation, when another battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, led by the paratroopers, established a bridgehead on the north bank of the river.

The capture of Primosole Bridge did not lead to the expected rapid advance, as by this time the Germans had gathered their forces and established a defensive line. It was not until early the following month that the Eighth Army captured Catania. By this time the 1st Parachute Brigade had been withdrawn to Malta and took no further part in the conquest of Sicily. Lessons were learned from the operation and were later put into practice in future Allied airborne operations.

Background
After the Axis powers were defeated in North Africa, the Allied armies' next logical objective was to cross the Mediterranean, landing in either the south of France, the Balkans, Sicily or Italy. The objective chosen was Sicily, with the landing scheduled for 10 July 1943. The Allied 15th Army Group, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander, consisted of the American Seventh Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton, which would land in the west between Licata and Scoglitti, and the veteran British Eighth Army, commanded by the experienced General Bernard Montgomery, which would land in the south east between Cape Passero and Syracuse.

In addition to the seaborne landings, there were also airborne landings during the invasion. The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, would land in support of the Seventh Army, while the British 1st Airborne Division, under Major General George Hopkinson, conducted brigade-sized landings along the eastern coast to support the Eighth Army.

The first British airborne landing was Operation Ladbroke, which was carried out by the 1st Airlanding Brigade, under Brigadier Philip Hicks, during the night of 9–10 July. Their objective was to seize and hold the Ponte Grande bridge just outside Syracuse. The second British airborne mission, Operation Glutton, was to have been undertaken by the 2nd Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier Ernest Down, on the night of 10–11 July, aiming to capture a bridge beside Augusta. However circumstances changed and the second operation was cancelled.

The third British airborne mission planned was Operation Fustian, to be carried out by the 1st Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier Gerald Lathbury, and scheduled for the night of 13–14 July. The 1st Parachute Brigade's objective was the Primosole bridge, crossing the Simeto River, south of Catania. The bridge was a vital objective, as it was the only crossing point over the Simeto. Its capture would give the Eighth Army access to the Catania plain, to enable them to continue their advance northwards; its destruction would seriously hamper the advance. Once the parachute brigade had captured the bridge, they would then have to defend it until relieved by units of the Eighth Army advancing from the landing beaches.

British forces
The 1st Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier Lathbury, comprised the 1st, the 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions, the 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, the 1st (Parachute) Squadron, Royal Engineers and the 1st (Airlanding) Anti-Tank Battery, Royal Artillery. The airlanding anti-tank battery were equipped with the 1st Para Brigade's only anti-tank guns, the British 6 pounder. Despite the formation being a parachute brigade, the only way to transport the anti-tank guns and the jeeps required to pull them when they had landed, was by glider. Transporting artillery by air was something new to the British or any other army, and this would be the first time that any artillery guns had ever been flown into combat.

The 1st Parachute Brigade was an experienced formation, initially under command of the 1st Airborne Division before being detached from the division to fight in North Africa. The brigade had taken part in the landings in Algeria in November 1942 and the subsequent Battle of Tunisia, during which each of the brigade's three parachute battalions had taken part in their own battalion-sized parachute landings. It was during this campaign that the 1st Parachute Brigade had been given their nickname the Red Devils by the Germans. A British parachute battalion had an establishment of 556 men in three rifle companies. Each of the companies were divided into a small headquarters and three platoons. The platoons had three sections; each section had a Bren light machine gun and a 2-inch mortar as well as the men's own personal weapons. The only heavy weapons in the parachute battalion were in the 3-inch Mortar platoon and the Vickers machine gun platoon which were part of the battalion headquarters.

It was decided that the brigade's paratroops would land on four separate drop zones and that the gliders would land at two landing zones. The paratroops of the 1st Parachute Battalion were divided into two groups, one of which would land at 'Drop zone One' to the north of the river, and the second at 'Drop zone Two' to the south of it. Once they had landed the two groups would head for their assembly points, before conducting an assault on the bridge from both sides simultaneously. The 2nd Parachute Battalion were to be landed south of the bridge on 'Drop zone Three', in the area between the Gornalunga Canal and the main highway. The 2nd Battalion then had to assault and occupy three small hills, which had been given the codenames 'Johnny I', 'Johnny II' and 'Johnny III'. The hills were believed to be occupied by an Italian force of around platoon strength. Once the battalion had secured the three hills, they were to dig in and prepare to defend the hills against an attack from the south. The 3rd Parachute Battalion would land at 'Drop zone Four', 1000 yd north of the bridge. Their objective was to secure the ground in this area, defending against any counterattack from the direction of Catania. The brigade's glider force had two landing areas, 'Landing zone Seven' north of the river and 'Landing zone Eight' south of the river. Owing to the complexity of the landing plan and the short time between inception and execution, the pathfinders belonging to the 21st Independent Parachute Company, Army Air Corps, would be deployed to mark the correct drop zones. This was the first occasion this had been done in British airborne operations. The pathfinder company had special marker lights and Rebecca and Eureka beacons that the transport aircraft and gliders would be able to identify and home in on.

The senior officers of the 1st Airborne Division had estimated that there would be around 450 casualties during the capture of the bridge, of which 25 per cent would be killed or missing, and the other 75 per cent wounded. It was appreciated that by themselves the three battalions' medical officers and staff would be unable to cope with the expected numbers of casualties, so one section from the 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, consisting of one doctor and 16 other ranks, would be attached to each of the parachute battalions. The remainder of the field ambulance, comprising the headquarters with two surgical teams, would be co-located with the brigade and establish their main dressing station in farm buildings to the south of the bridge.

After problems with the first two airborne operations in Sicily, the Royal Air Force advisor assigned to the 1st Airborne Division suggested that the American C-47 pilots adopt the Royal Air Force bomber stream formation. This entailed the aircraft flying in pairs one behind the other with one minute between each aircraft, instead of flying in their normal 'V' formation. The suggestion was dismissed by the American pilots, who were mostly pre-war airline pilots, not least because their training had not included any instruction in night time navigation and the inexperienced crews relied heavily on following the aircraft in front.

Unconnected with Operation Fustian, but being conducted at the same time, No. 3 Commando would carry out a separate operation 8 mi to the south of the Simeto River. The commando unit were to carry out an amphibious landing from the sea, then assault and capture the Malati Bridge over the Leonardo River.

The relieving force for both the commandos and paratroopers would be from British XIII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey. The corps consisted of the 5th Infantry Division, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and the 4th Armoured Brigade. The armoured brigade, with three tank regiments, was equipped with the American built Sherman tank. Early on 13 July the commander of the 50th Division, Major-General Sidney Kirkman, was called to General Montgomery's Eighth Army headquarters. Here he was informed about the two missions by the British Commandos and the 1st Parachute Brigade, and the requirement for the bridges to be captured intact. Montgomery's intention was for the 50th Division to lead the Eighth Army's advance and relieve the commandos and the paratroopers. To assist Kirkman in the task, Montgomery placed the 4th Armoured Brigade under his command. Montgomery was insistent that he wanted the infantry division to relieve the parachute brigade early on 14 July, which would require the division to advance around 25 mi in 24 hours. The 50th Division had landed on 10 July and by this time had been fighting for three days non-stop. With the daily temperature most of the time reaching 100 F, many of the men in the division were physically exhausted and suffering from heat exhaustion. The division's situation was not improved by a grave error of judgement by Montgomery. During the planning for the invasion, he had overestimated the strength of the German and Italian resistance to the Allied landings. The British Eighth Army consisted mainly of infantry, tanks and heavy weapons but were light on any form of mechanical transport, so any advance by the 50th Division would have to be conducted on foot.

Axis forces
The Italian Army force in the area of Primosole Bridge came from the 213 Coastal Division commanded by General Carlo Gotti. Coastal divisions were second line divisions, usually formed from men in their forties and fifties, and were intended to perform labour or other second line duties. Recruited from the local population, their officers were mostly men who had retired but had then been called up again. Their morale was low, not least because of their second rate equipment and weapons. It had been intended to improve their armaments with equipment seized from the recently disbanded Vichy French army, but when the arms arrived in Sicily, many of them had been made unusable, and some had the wrong type of ammunition or no ammunition at all.

The Italians were supported by German paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Division, who were ordered to move to Sicily from France, and if necessary were to parachute in on 9 July. The 1st Fallschirmjäger Machine Gun Battalion commanded by Major Werner Schmidt had landed at Catania during an Allied air raid early on 13 July. Their aircraft and anti-tank guns were destroyed during the raid, so the battalion left on foot for Primosole Bridge. When Schmidt informed the divisional commander of his intentions, he was warned to expect a sea or airborne landing that night. If the Allies landed to the rear of the division, Schmidt's battalion had to hold Primosole Bridge so that the division could escape. Forewarned in this way, the machine gun battalion started to dig in and prepare a defence around 2000 yd to the south of the bridge once they arrived, well located to deal with any parachute or glider landing in that area.

Primosole Bridge
The Primosole Bridge is built from steel girders. It has a span of 400 ft, and is raised 8 ft above the Simeto River. The land to the north of the bridge is mainly olive and almond groves in tree-lined fields. Immediately to the south of the bridge is the Gornalunga canal, and beyond that three prominent hills. The road crossing the bridge is Highway 114, running from Lentini 10 mi to the south to Catania 7 mi to the north. To assist the Italians defending the bridge, four pillbox bunkers had been constructed, two on the north bank and two on the south bank.

Fustian
At 19:30 on 13 July 1943, the first aircraft carrying the 1,856 men of the 1st Parachute Brigade took off from North Africa. The aircraft used consisted of 105 Douglas C-47 Skytrains belonging to the 51st Troop Carrier Wing, 51 each from the 60th and the 62d Troop Carrier Groups, while the 64th Troop Carrier Group supplied the other three. No. 38 Wing Royal Air Force supplied eleven Armstrong Whitworth Albemarles. Following behind the parachute force were the glider towing aircraft. These aircraft, again supplied by No. 38 Wing, comprised 12 Albemarles and seven Handley Page Halifaxes, towing 11 Horsa gliders and eight Waco gliders. The gliders were used to carry 77 men, mostly from the anti-tank battery, ten 6 pounder anti-tank guns and 18 jeeps.

The aircraft's flight path took them around the south eastern corner of Malta and up the eastern coast of Sicily. The route was measured to ensure that the first planes arrived over the drop zones at 22:20. When the planes arrived off Sicily, they were supposed to stay 10 mi offshore until reaching the Simeto River, when they would head inland for the drop zones. Somehow, 33 aircraft strayed off course and approached an Allied convoy. The naval gunners had been warned to expect an air raid, and opened fire on the American and British aircraft. Two of the planes, trying to avoid the unexpected anti-aircraft fire, collided and crashed into the sea. Another two were shot down, and nine were so badly shot up, with wounded crew and passengers, that they were forced to turn back towards their airfields in North Africa.

Those aircraft that did reach the Sicilian coast were engaged by Axis anti-aircraft guns, which shot down 11 of them. Another ten were damaged and were forced to abort their mission. Some of the inexperienced pilots now refused to go any further, and on his aircraft Lieutenant Colonel Alastair Pearson, commanding officer of the 1st Parachute Battalion, realising his plane was flying round in circles, had to threaten to shoot the crew to make them continue. The anti-aircraft fire and the evasive action taken by the pilots had dispersed the aircraft formations, and the parachute drop was scattered over a large area. The violent evasive manoeuvring left some of the paratroopers in heaps on the aircraft floor, and they were unable to jump when ordered. When safely back out to sea, some of the pilots refused to try again, considering the risk too great. Of the surviving aircraft which carried on with the mission, only 39 managed to drop their paratroops within 0.5 mi of the correct drop zone. The furthest off course were some groups from the 3rd Parachute Battalion and Royal Engineers who landed 12 mi to the south of the bridge, while another four aircraft landed their paratroops on the slopes of Mount Etna 20 mi to the north.

Those men of the 1st Parachute Brigade that landed on the southern drop zone were well within range of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Machine Gun Battalion. In the darkness, the Germans initially thought that the paratroopers were their own reinforcements landing, but they soon realised their mistake and opened fire. Some of those who escaped the machine gun fire were rounded up on the drop zone, and about 100 of them became prisoners of war as soon as they had touched ground. In the confusion of the landing, 50 men of the 1st Parachute Battalion had assembled, assaulted and managed to capture the bridge before the 50 Italian defenders could destroy it with the attached demolition charges. The Italians were taken prisoner, just as a second group of 40 paratroopers led by Brigadier Lathbury arrived at the bridge. Lathbury organised the safe removal of the demolition charges and set up a defensive perimeter. More paratroopers continued to gather at the bridge, and soon they numbered around 120 men, who dug in to the north and south.

The Brigade Headquarters and the field ambulance main dressing station were established to the south of the bridge, where the brigade's casualties started arriving for treatment. Away from the main dressing station, the medics on the 2nd Battalion drop zone had 29 wounded as a result of the parachute drop, and there were 15 wounded on drop zone one from the 1st Battalion.

The first glider casualties had occurred on takeoff, when two aircraft towing Waco gliders crashed. While en route, one of the gliders was released early by its towing aircraft, and crashed into the sea. When they did arrive over Sicily, the element of surprise was gone, and four gliders were shot down by the coastal anti-aircraft batteries. By the time the gliders arrived at their landing zones, two hours had lapsed since the parachute landings had started. One glider pilot later commented that they did not need the pathfinders, as the tracer and lights from explosions were brighter than any of the landing markers. Of the surviving glider force, only four gliders managed to land relatively unscathed, all the others being caught by the Fallschirmjäger machine gun fire and destroyed on their approach. The four intact gliders had been carrying three of the anti-tank guns, which were now included in the bridge's defences. Including the men from the gliders, the 1st Parachute Brigade had 295 men at the bridge. Shortage of manpower was not their only problem; their only support weapons were the anti-tank guns, two 3-inch mortars and a Vickers machine gun.

Daybreak
By 04:30 on 14 July, the 1st Parachute Battalion was in control of Primosole Bridge, but the Fallschirmjäger Machine Gun Battalion were well dug in to the south. Beyond them, 140 men of the 2nd Parachute Battalion had occupied the three small hills, and taken 500 Italian prisoners. In numbers, both battalions had little more than company strength. The 3rd Parachute Battalion had suffered the worst in the scattered parachute drop, and only a few of their men had arrived at the bridge. With no command structure, they were attached to the 1st Parachute Battalion to help defend the bridge. To the north, the Italian 372nd Coastal Battalion and the 10th Arditi Regiment had been informed of the parachute landings. Many of the 372nd Battalion had disappeared, while the Arditi mounted the first of a number of attacks on the British positions. Without the support of any heavy weapons, they were easily fought off.

Also at dawn the first attack by the Fallschirmjäger Machine Gun Battalion to the south began, when they opened fire with their machine guns and mortars. Their first assault was against the 2nd Parachute Battalion's positions, and was unsuccessful. However, their next assault, later in the morning, succeeded in capturing Johnny II, the second of the small hills. Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, in command of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, immediately counterattacked, but his men were repulsed after sustaining a number of casualties. At 09:00 a forward observation officer attached to the 2nd Parachute Battalion managed to make radio contact with the British cruiser HMS Newfoundland, which then used its 6-inch guns to target the Fallschirmjäger positions. The naval gunfire had the desired effect, causing the Germans some casualties and keeping them under cover. From then on, German resistance from the south was restricted to harassing machine gun fire. A grass fire they started did force the 2nd Parachute Battalion to abandon Johnny I, and the remnants of the battalion now concentrated on Johnny III.

To the north of the bridge, a German scratch-built battle group of 350 men, including the 1st Company, 1st Fallschirmjäger Signal Battalion, an anti-aircraft battery and some anti-tank guns, was gathered under the command of Captain Franz Stangenberg, supported by the 113rd Light Trucks Company of the 10th Arditi Regiment (the "Commandos" unit of the Italian Army) with 56 men and six heavily armed SPA-Viberti AS.42, Stangenberg was in position to launch his first assault on the bridge at 14:00. This first attack was driven off by the British paratroopers. For his second attempt Stangenberg brought up three 88 mm anti-aircraft guns in support. This assault was more successful, taking some prisoners, and almost succeeded in reaching the bridge. It also secured a position for the 88s to engage the two pillboxes on the north bank. By 17:00 the men of the 1st Parachute Battalion were almost out of ammunition, and were forced to withdraw to the southern side of the bridge. The German 88s were moved forward again, and this time demolished the pillboxes on the south side. Running short of supplies and with his casualties mounting, Brigadier Lathbury made the decision to relinquish control of the bridge to the Germans, and the parachute brigade moved back 1200 yd. Of the 295 men who had been at the bridge, 115 had become casualties. The 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance main dressing station could not be moved or evacuated, and remained behind in no man's land.

An Italian officer entered the station, and informed the medical staff they were now prisoners of war, but since they were treating casualties from both sides, they were allowed to remain and continue operating. Treatment of the wounded continued all day, and by 22:00 the surgeons had carried out 21 surgical operations and were looking after 62 British and 29 German or Italian patients. At 18:30, in the darkness, Lathbury led the remainder of his men to join the 2nd Parachute Battalion.

During the night of 14–15 June, the Italians mounted several counterattacks with an armoured car squadron (under Captain Paradisi Romolo) reinforced with Blackshirt Commandos aboard the motorized column penetrating the British sector and in a suicidal raid very nearly overran the headquarters of 9th Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry. Another column of armoured cars crossed Primasole Bridge and attacked the 98th Field Regiment Royal Artillery that had only recently having arrived in the area but the Italians were defeated at the intersection of the Lentini and Scordia roads and Semoventes from the 4th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion, truck-borne infantry and supporting motorcycle companies from Gruppo Tattico Carmito (under Lieutenant-Colonel Francesco Tropea) attacked the British 124th Field Artillery Regiment but were unable to repeat their success obtained at Malati Bridge against No. 3 Commando (under Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater) and suffered a crushing defeat. British war correspondent Evelyn Aubrey Montague reported that several Italians units had indeed fought hard for Primosole Bridge, "While some dropped behind enemy lines and rounded up a large number of Italian prisoners ... the main body captured the bridge and held it all yesterday against tremendous odds. For nearly 24 hours, they were shelled, under mortar fire, strafed from the air, and attacked on the ground by seven Italian battalions. There were less than 200 of them to resist this continuous onslaught, but they held out stubbornly, knowing that behind them our infantry were fighting, furiously to come to their aid."

By dawn, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division had only managed to advance 10 mi, and were still 8 mi from No. 3 Commando at the Melati bridge and 15 mi from Primosole Bridge. It was not until 17:00 that the 5th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, part of the 69th Infantry Brigade, eventually reached Malati Bridge, although by now the commandos had been forced to withdraw after being overwhelmed during what proved to be largely an Italian counterattack from Gruppo Tattico Carmito comprising the 4th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion (under Lieutenant-Colonel Francesco Tropea), the 553rd (under Captain Giovanni Sartor) and 554th (under Captain Fausto Clementi) Motorcycle Companies on 13 July. The bridge was quickly captured; the commandos had dismantled the demolition charges so that it could not be demolished. With their first objective secured, the British infantry continued their advance on foot towards the parachute brigade. The tanks and small amount of motor transport belonging to the 4th Armoured Brigade had been held up even further back. They had been stopped in Carlentini by a destroyed bridge, and the 4th Armoured Brigade did not start moving again until after 19:00.

The 50th (Northumbrian) Division eventually reached Lentini, about halfway from their start point to Primosole Bridge, in the afternoon. Here the streets were blocked by debris, covered by snipers and machine gunners left as a rearguard by the retreating Germans. By nightfall only one of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division's infantry battalions, the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, of 151st Infantry Brigade, with some tanks in support, had reached a position 1 mi from Johnny II. Despite their orders to advance at all speed, they halted for the night.

Recapture of the bridge
After the parachute brigade withdrew, the Axis forces gathered at the bridge. They now comprised the remnants of the 372nd Coastal Battalion (under Major Nino Bolla ) in the form of two fire support companies and one rifle company and one Blackshirt Commando Battalion (under Major Vito Marciano ) and gunners from the 29th Artillery Battalion that arrived from Catania as much needed riflemen for Major Bolla, with this Italian force fighting alongside the German 1st Fallschirmjäger Machine Gun Battalion and Captain Stangenberg's Battle Group. The German High Command was aware of the importance of holding the bridge, and overnight they dispatched reinforcements who arrived by parachute. These came from the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, and consisted of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Engineer Battalion, the 1st Battalion, 4th Fallschirmjäger Regiment and a battalion of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Artillery Regiment. The Fallschirmjäger engineers started to form a defensive line to the north of the bridge, and a smaller one on the southern bank.

Early on 15 July, the 1st Parachute Brigade heard tank fire to the south of their position. Brigadier Lathbury sent out a patrol to investigate, which located the tanks and infantry of XIII Corps that had halted just south of them the previous night. The 1st Parachute Brigade and 50th (Northumbrian) Division now moved forward together. The main dressing station, which had continued to operate after being captured, was liberated by the 2nd Parachute Battalion. In an attempt to recapture Primosole Bridge the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, supported by the 44th Royal Tank Regiment, carried out a number of costly assaults in the face of withering fire from the German and Italian defenders resulting in 100 British casualties, including 34 killed. At one stage they managed to cross the bridge, but three Sherman tanks accompanying them were knocked out by the German 88s, and with no armoured support the infantry were forced to withdraw. However, an error in communication caused the Fallschirmjäger Engineer Battalion to withdraw to the north bank of the river, and this allowed the Durhams to establish a position at the southern end of the bridge. At the main dressing station the surgeons had operated on another 14 wounded by the time ambulances arrived from XIII Corps at 17:00 to evacuate the wounded. At 18:00 the Main Dressing Station was closed and the men moved to Johnny I. During the time the main dressing station had been active, the surgeons had completed 31 operations, and the medics had treated 109 wounded.

The Germans were aware that the British paratroopers had dismantled the explosive charges attached to Primosole Bridge, and now attempted to destroy it by driving trucks laden with explosives onto it. This was unsuccessful.

During the night the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry continued trying to capture the bridge. Their attacks also provided a distraction for the Germans while Lieutenant Colonel Pearson of the 1st Parachute Battalion led two companies of the 8th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry across the Simeto River using a small ford to establish another bridgehead on the northern bank. During the day's battle both the British and Germans suffered heavy casualties, but the bridge was eventually retaken by the British infantry.

The remaining machine-gunners, mortar-men and protecting rifle teams from the 372nd Coastal Battalion and the reinforcements from the 29th Artillery Battalion sent to their assistance, held their ground until Major Bolla discovered that the neighbouring Fallschirmjäger unit had retreated without informing them of the planned German withdrawal. Bolla was nevertheless able to extricate his forces and escape the British encirclement.

Leaving the British Eighth Army to continue their advance, at 07:00 16 July the 1st Parachute Brigade were transported in trucks to Syracuse, where they embarked on a LST. Here they remained overnight, sitting through a two-hour air raid, and sailed for Valletta at 12:00 on 17 July. In Operation Fustian they had suffered around 141 dead, and 168 missing or wounded.

Aftermath
The operation was successful in the end; though narrow in victory in part because of the uncoordinated and ill-controlled friendly anti-aircraft fire. Only forty percent of the 5,000 paratroopers dropped had landed near their assigned drop zones. The recapture of Primosole Bridge did not result in the rapid advance over the Catania plain envisioned by Montgomery. The by now exhausted 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division was holding a position based on the bridge. The 5th Infantry Division took over the lead, but after a number of attacks could not make any further progress. Its 13th Infantry Brigade had to establish another bridgehead across the Simeto, but the Germans had brought in more troops and prepared defensive positions, and after hard fighting it was not until 5 August 1943 that the Eighth Army entered the city of Catania itself. Further hard fighting followed, and they entered Messina just after the United States Seventh Army on 17 August 1943.

After an enquiry into the problems with the airborne missions in Sicily, the British Army and Royal Air Force submitted some recommendations. Aircrew had to be trained in parachute and glider operations, and pathfinders landing before the main force had to have enough time to set out their beacons. The landing plan was simplified, with complete brigades landing on one drop zone instead of the smaller battalion landing areas used in Sicily. Gliders were no longer released at night while still over water and their landing zones would be large enough to accommodate the aircraft with room to spare. Following the friendly-fire incident over the convoy, more training was given to ships' crews in aircraft recognition and Allied aircraft were painted with three large white stripes on their wings. Training for pilots belonging to the Glider Pilot Regiment was increased and improvements to the gliders were implemented, including better inter-aircraft communication.

For transporting paratroops, to avoid relying solely on American aircraft and pilots, No. 38 Wing Royal Air Force was expanded, becoming No. 38 Group with its Halifax squadrons, now supported by four squadrons of Albemarles and four squadrons of Stirlings. To provide another method of delivering jeeps and artillery guns by air, the air force started experiments on parachuting them into combat, carrying the jeeps and guns in the aircraft's large bomb bays. A second Royal Air Force transport group, No. 46 Group, was formed, and was equipped solely with Dakotas, instead of the mixture of aircraft in No. 38 Group. After these changes, the Royal Air Force groups could supply 88 Albemarles, 88 Stirlings, 36 Halifaxes and 150 Dakotas, a total of 362 planes, in addition to aircraft held as reserves.

Lessons were learned from the near-disastrous parachute drops on Sicily and paved the way for larger and more successful operations in Italy, Normandy and Southern France.

title: Operation Fustian


text:
Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie (spelled Carnagey until c. 1922; November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books.

One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's behavior towards them.

Biography
Dale Carnegie was born November 24, 1888, on a farm in Maryville, Missouri. He was the second son of farmers Amanda Elizabeth Harbison (1858–1939) and her husband James William Carnagey (1852–1941). Carnegie grew up around Bedison, Missouri, southeast of Maryville and attended rural Rose Hill and Harmony one room schools. Carnegie would develop a longstanding friendship with another Maryville author, Homer Croy.

In 1904, at age 16, his family moved to a farm in Warrensburg, Missouri. As a youth, he enjoyed speaking in public and joined his school's debate team. Carnegie said he had to get up at 3 a.m. to feed the pigs and milk his parents' cows before going to school. During high school, he grew interested in the speeches at the various Chautauqua assemblies. He completed his high school education in 1906.

He attended the State Teachers College in Warrensburg, graduating in 1908.

His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers. He moved on to selling bacon, soap, and lard for Armour & Company. He was successful to the point of making his sales territory of South Omaha, Nebraska, the national leader for the firm.

After saving $500, Dale Carnegie quit sales in 1911 in order to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a Chautauqua lecturer. He ended up instead attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but found little success as an actor, though it is written that he played the role of Dr. Hartley in a road show of Polly of the Circus. When the production ended, he returned to New York, living at the YMCA on 125th Street. There he got the idea to teach public speaking, and he persuaded the YMCA manager to allow him to instruct a class in return for 80% of the net proceeds. In his first session, he had run out of material. Improvising, he suggested that students speak about "something that made them angry", and discovered that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From this 1912 debut, the Dale Carnegie Course evolved. Carnegie had tapped into the average American's desire to have more self-confidence, and by 1914, he was earning $500 (about $ today) every week.

During World War I he served in the U.S. Army spending the time at Camp Upton. His draft card noted he had filed for conscientious objector status and had a loss of a forefinger.

By 1916, Dale conducted a sold out lecture at Carnegie Hall, which influenced his decision in 1919 to change the spelling of his last name in honor of the steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie, and easier for others to remember. Carnegie's first collection of his writings was Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men (1926), later entitled Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1932). In 1936, Simon & Schuster published How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was a bestseller from its debut. By the time of Carnegie's death, the book had sold five million copies in 31 languages, and there had been 450,000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute. It has been stated in the book that he had critiqued over 150,000 speeches in his participation in the adult education movement of the time.

Personal life
His first marriage ended in divorce in August 1931.

On November 5, 1944, he married his former secretary, Dorothy Price Vanderpool (1913–1998), who also had been divorced. Vanderpool had a daughter, Rosemary, from her first marriage. She and Carnegie had a daughter, Donna Dale. Dorothy ran the Carnegie company following Dale's death.

Carnegie died of Hodgkin lymphoma on November 1, 1955, at his home in Forest Hills, New York. He was buried in the Belton, Cass County, Missouri, cemetery.

Books

 * 1915: Art of Public Speaking, with Joseph Berg Esenwein.
 * 1920: Public Speaking: the Standard Course of the United Y. M. C. A. Schools.
 * 1926: Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men. Later editions and updates changed the name of the book several times: Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1937 revised), How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking (1956) and Public Speaking for Success (2005).
 * 1932: Lincoln the Unknown.
 * 1934: Little Known Facts About Well Known People.
 * 1936: How to Win Friends and Influence People.
 * 1937: Five Minute Biographies.
 * 1944: Dale Carnegie's Biographical round-up.
 * 1948: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.
 * 1959: Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook: a Treasury of the Wisdom of the Ages. A selection of Dale Carnegie's writings edited by Dorothy Carnegie.
 * 1962: The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. (by Dorothy Carnegie, based upon Dale Carnegie's own notes and ideas)

Booklets
(most given out in Dale Carnegie Courses)
 * 1938: How to Get Ahead in the World Today
 * 1936: The Little Golden Book (later renamed The Golden Book, lists basics from HTWFIP and HTSWSL)
 * 1946: How to Put Magic in the Magic Formula
 * 1947: A Quick and Easy Way to Learn to Speak in Public. (later combined as Speak More Effectively, 1979)
 * 1952: How to Make Our Listeners Like Us. (later combined as Speak More Effectively, 1979)
 * 1959: How to Save Time and Get Better Results in Conferences (later renamed Meetings: Quicker & Better Results)
 * 1960: How to Remember Names (later renamed as Remember Names)
 * 1965: The Little Recognized Secret of Success (later renamed Live Enthusiastically)
 * 1979: Apply Your Problem Solving Know How

title: Dale Carnegie


text:
Operation Corkscrew

Operation Corkscrew was the code name for the Allied invasion of the Italian island of Pantelleria (between Sicily and Tunisia) on 11 June 1943, prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily, during the Second World War. There had been an early Allied plan to occupy the island in late 1940 (Operation Workshop) but it was cancelled when the Luftwaffe arrived in the Mediterranean.

Background
Allied attention returned to Pantelleria in early 1943. The radar installations and airfield on the island were seen as a threat to the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). The Italian garrison on the island was 12,000 strong in well-entrenched pillboxes and 21 gun batteries. There was an opportunity to assess the impact of bombardment upon fortifications. It was decided to see if the island could be forced into submission by aerial and naval bombardment alone. Failing this, an invasion was planned for 11 June.

Landings
Starting in late May, the island was subjected to steadily increasing bombing attacks. In early June, the attacks intensified and 14,203 bombs weighing 4119 LT were dropped on 112 Italian batteries. On 8 June, a Royal Navy task force of five cruisers, eight destroyers and three torpedo boats carried out a bombardment of the main port on the island.

The engagement was observed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, and Admiral Andrew Cunningham from the flagship HMS Aurora (12). From 8 May to 11 June 5,285 bombing sorties were flown by fighter-bombers, medium and heavy bombers, dropping a total of 6202 LT of bombs on the island.

Two demands for the garrison to surrender went unanswered and on 11 June, the amphibious assault went ahead. About an hour before the landing craft reached the beaches, the accompanying ships opened fire. Unknown to the attackers, the commander of the garrison Admiral Gino Pavesi on Pantelleria had sought permission to surrender from Rome the previous evening and received it that morning. When the first of the British Commandos landed, the Italians had already surrendered and the landing was unopposed.

Aftermath
The Italian gun positions were reduced to 47 per cent effectiveness by the intense ten-day air bombardment. Out of 112 guns bombed, 2 had suffered from direct hits, 17 were near misses and 34 were damaged by debris and splinters (10 beyond repair). All control communications were destroyed, along with many gun emplacements and ammunition stores.

The Italian garrisons on the nearby islands (Lampedusa and Linosa) quickly fell over the next few days. The operation cleared the way for the invasion of Sicily a month later.

title: Operation Corkscrew


text:
Operation Chestnut

During World War II, Operation Chestnut was a failed British raid by 2 Special Air Service, conducted in support of the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Background
Two teams of ten men each, codenamed 'Pink' and 'Brig', parachuted into northern Sicily on the night of 12 July 1943, to disrupt communications, transport and the enemy in general. All radios were broken and much ammunition, explosives, and food were lost in the jump. One team landed near an inhabited area, alerting the defenders.

Without radios, neither team was able to contact and direct the planes bringing in reinforcements, which subsequently returned to base without any drops being made. The raiders were unable to achieve anything worthwhile and worked their way towards friendly lines evading the enemy.

This was the first parachute raid for 2 SAS, and also the raid when Maj. Geoffrey Appleyard, (former commander of the Small Scale Raiding Force), was lost. Appleyard was aboard the plane carrying 'Pink' team as drop supervisor. After the drop was made the plane failed to return to base.

title: Operation Chestnut


text:
Charles W. Nash

Charles Williams Nash (28 January 1864 – 6 June 1948) was an American automobile entrepreneur who served as an executive in the automotive industry. He played a significant role in building up General Motors as its fifth president. In 1916, he bought Thomas B. Jeffery Company, makers of the popular Rambler automobile, and renamed it Nash Motors. The resulting firm played an independent role in an automobile industry increasingly dominated by the Big Three: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

Nash's profits came from focusing on one well-designed car in the upper-medium price range. He bought several distressed companies in Wisconsin, merging them and installing advanced managerial accounting procedures while cutting costs and focusing on long-term growth. He retired as president in 1932, but remained chairman of the board. He facilitated the merger in 1937 with Kelvinator, a manufacturer of refrigerators, home appliances, and commercial refrigeration.

Early life
Nash was born to a poor farming family in Cortland, Illinois, on what is now Route 38 — Lincoln Highway. His mother was Anna E. "Annie" Cadwell (1829–1909), who married David L. Nash. Other Nash siblings included Mazovia (b. 1862), George C. (b. 1866), and Laura W. (b. 1868).

Charles' parents separated when he was six years old and abandoned him. As a result of a court order, he worked as a farmhand in Michigan as an indentured servant under an agreement that was to last until he was 21. Nash had only three months of schooling per year while he was "bound out" to perform farm chores.

At age 12, Nash ran away and became a farmhand, first in Grand Blanc, Michigan, for $8 per month, then for Alexander McFarland in Mount Morris, Michigan, for $12 per month. On McFarland's farm, he learned the carpentry trade from John Shelben and formed the "Adams & Nash" concern to press hay.

While pressing hay on the Halleck farm, he met his future wife, Jessie Halleck, and married her on April 23, 1884. They moved to Flint, Michigan, due to Jessie's poor health. In 1890 was hired by William C. Durant of the Flint Road Cart Company, which later became the Durant-Dort Carriage Company.

Automobile industry
Durant hired Nash in 1890 for $1 per day as an upholstery stuffer. Within six months, he was promoted to superintendent of the factory. Within ten years, Nash became vice president and general manager of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. Nash introduced the straight-line belt conveyor into the assembly of carriages. In 1897, Nash had a chance to drive an early automobile and immediately became interested in its commercial possibilities.

General Motors
By 1910, the chief business of Durant-Dort Carriage Company was building automobile bodies for the Buick unit of General Motors, which was founded in 1908 by Durant, who had bought Buick in 1904. Durant found himself short of both capital and skilled management.

Durant brought in Nash to Buick to oversee production. Durant was not concerned that Nash did not have any automotive industry experience; his expertise was in dealing with people and also how to organize an efficient production line. James J. Storrow followed the recommendation and appointed Nash as vice-president of Buick on 13 December 1910.

Nash was searching for an expert in day-to-day manufacturing operations so he could focus more on sales, supplier relations, and logistics. In 1912, Nash hired Walter P. Chrysler from the American Locomotive Company to be Buick's works manager.

In late 1912, Durant was fired by the General Motors board, and on November 19, Nash was elected as the fifth president of the company because he had earned the trust of the bankers who controlled the board of directors. Durant had acquired numerous automakers without analyzing their contribution to the product mix and some like Elmore, Cartercar, Reliance Motor Truck, Welch Motor Car, were money-losing operations that left the company financially overextended; thus, there was concern if it could even survive another five years.

Under Nash's leadership, General Motors made immense gains in profits earned and in the number of vehicles produced. Nash focused on making GM more efficient by eliminating unprofitable products and streamlining manufacturing. He arranged for GM to purchase 51% of axle maker Weston-Mott. Cost-cutting and higher sales were his top priorities. There was tight control of inventories and cash at the corporate level, as well as changes designed to maximize production at each factory.

Nash had restored GM to organizational stability and financial health. This was reflected in 1914 profits at $7.2 million and doubling for 1915 as well as again doubling for 1916, with the automaker taking in nearly $29 million.

His strategy of consolidating into large units paid off: he combined three different truck operations into one and merged several parts-making operations. Keen to build up international markets, he set up the General Motors Export Company to handle global sales. He also moved GM's general offices from New York to Detroit, created a new purchasing office, and set up a new accounting office with standardized accounting procedures. However, Nash was reluctant to pay dividends to shareholders

By late 1915 and early 1916, Billy Durant attempted to reassert his control over the company, and Nash was caught in the power struggle between Durant and bankers. By May 1916, Durant regained control of the majority of voting stock. He offered Nash a $1 million annual salary to remain with the automaker. Nash described the salary as "more than a man’s worth" and resigned on June 1.

Nash Motors
After he clashed with Durant, Nash resolved never to work for someone else again. Along with former GM executives, James J. Storrow and Walter P. Chrysler, Nash attempted to take over Packard, but the luxury car maker's board of directors demurred.

Nash learned that the heirs of the Jeffery Motor Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin, were anxious to retire. It was best known for its Rambler brand of cars and numerous innovations. Nash bought out the pioneering automaker in August 1916 with a down payment check of half a million dollars and the total deal worth $5 million (some reports indicate the price was $9 million). One of the first major investors was Alfred P. Sloan. While Jeffery Motors had total stock of $3 million, the newly incorporated Nash Motors became a substantial force with capital stock value of almost $24 million on 29 July 1916.

In 1917, he renamed the company Nash Motors. The 1917 Nash Model 671 was the first automobile to bear the name of the new company's founder. Nils Erik Wahlberg, a former GM engineer, developed new cars and engines for the 1918 model year. Nash Motors became successful almost immediately, with sales totaling 31,008 trucks and cars by 1919.

Nash was able to negotiate procurement contracts with the United States Army during World War I which made the company one of the largest producers of trucks in the nation. In 1918, Nash was appointed to take charge of the engineering and production of aircraft matters for the war effort.

In addition to running his own company, Charles Nash served as president of the luxury automaker LaFayette Motors until Nash Motors bought out the company in 1924.

By 1929, the Big Three automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) controlled 75 percent of the automobile market. Nash Motors was in fourth place, producing 138,000 vehicles in 1928.

Nash focused on producing one high-quality automobile for the upper-medium price range, later adding a smaller, less expensive model, the Ajax. Nash realized he could never compete with the market diversity of the Big Three, so he based his profits on careful management, close attention to costs, and expansion opportunities. Nash was a hands-on executive who concentrated on developing more efficient purchasing and setting up accounting procedures that would specify the source of costs and profits.

Nash acquired other car companies, including Mitchell Motors of Racine in 1923 and LaFayette Motors of Milwaukee in 1924.

During the Great Depression, Nash cars were popular because they provided high quality, durability, and the look of luxury at a relatively low price. The company also saw an opportunity in the luxury car market segment. It introduced the top-of-the-line Ambassador models on a 142 in wheelbase in 1932 that soon earned the nickname of "Kenosha Duesenbergs" because of their quality.

During a time when most others were operating in the red or going bankrupt, Nash Motors was only one of two firms in the automobile industry generating a profit. In November 1932, Nash was honored by Sales Management (now Sales Management and Marketing) magazine as "The Pace Setter for the Auto Industry." Nash gave up the presidency in 1932, but remained board chairman. Nash wanted George W. Mason as his executive vice president, and to have Mason, he had to buy Kelvinator, a leading manufacturer of refrigerators.

After twenty years of success in running his company, Nash turned it over in 1937 and the merged company was renamed Nash-Kelvinator.

Retirement
Nash retired from his namesake company in 1936 to live in California. His health started to fail during his wife's illness and eventual death in 1947. He is quoted as describing himself as "the most common cuss that lived." He died in 1948 at the age of 84 in Beverly Hills, California. Always proud of belonging to the "common people", he left an estate valued at about US$50 million (approximately US$0 in dollars ). Nash was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale beside his wife.

Legacy
Nash is best remembered for responding to public demand by building smaller, more economical, and affordable cars. Nash Motors successfully marketed cars to America's middle class. Charles Nash is also recognized for lean operations in business that included scheduling production and material orders closely, carrying a small inventory, and having flexibility in meeting the changing market needs during the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s. Nash is also credited with developing the straight-line conveyor belt assembly system that he first introduced at the Durant-Dort Carriage Company factory.

Charles W. Nash's achievements by 1926 were characterized as a genuine success story:

"A man who, in the short space of nine years, has built up a business on which there is not a dollar of bonded indebtedness, whose stocks have a market value approximating $137,000,000, whose profits have exceeded $56,000,000, and whose bank balance tops $30,000,000, surely must be regarded as a very practical authority on what makes for success."

Timeline

 * 1890 - Charles Nash was hired to stuff seat cushions at Durant-Dort Carriage Company
 * 1904 - Durant buys Buick, takes Nash with him as assistant manager
 * 1910 – Charles Nash takes control of General Motors from William Durant
 * 1912 – Charles Nash hires Walter P. Chrysler to manage the Buick division of General Motors
 * 1912 – Nash becomes president of General Motors
 * 1916 – William Durant re-gains control of General Motors, and Charles Nash resigns
 * 1916 – Charles Nash buys the Thomas B. Jeffery Company, maker of the Rambler
 * 1917 – Thomas B. Jeffery Company is renamed "Nash Motors"
 * 1917 – First Nash designed car, "Model 681" is produced
 * 1918 – Nash becomes the largest producer of trucks in the world, building 11,490 four-wheel drive quads for the US Army
 * 1919 – Nash purchased half interest in the Seamon Body Corporation of Milwaukee - the builder of bodies for Rambler, Jeffery, and Nash
 * 1925 – Purchased plant from the Mitchell Motor Car Company in Racine, Wisconsin
 * 1930 – Nash retires and becomes chairman of the Board
 * 1937 – Merged Nash with Kelvinator to form Nash-Kelvinator and made George W. Mason the CEO
 * 1948 – Nash dies

title: Charles W. Nash


text:
Operation Barclay

Operation Barclay was a World War II deception by the Allies in support of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.

The goal was to deceive the Axis powers as to the location of the Allies' assault across the Mediterranean and to divert the Axis military command's attention and resources. Operation Barclay used bogus troop movements, radio traffic, recruitment of Greek interpreters, and acquisition of Greek maps to indicate an invasion through the Balkans.

Operation Barclay created a sham army in the eastern Mediterranean: the Twelfth Army consisting of 12 fictitious divisions. Adolf Hitler suspected that the Allies would invade Europe through the Balkans, and Barclay served to reinforce this.

As part of Barclay the British also launched Operation Mincemeat, where faked documents were planted via Spain, and Operation Waterfall, in which a decoy invasion force was assembled in Cyrenaica. To reinforce the impression that an Allied invasion was imminent the Special Operations Executive (SOE), in co-operation with the Greek andartes, mounted Operation Animals, a series of attacks on rail and road networks.

The deception was successful. The German High Command concluded there was a greater concentration of Allied forces in the eastern Mediterranean than was the case and held to this assessment, making subsequent deceptions more credible. German forces in the Balkans were reinforced from 8 to 18 divisions, and the Italian fleet was diverted into the Adriatic Sea. The Allied invasion of Sicily thus achieved total surprise.

The greatly increased number of German occupying forces in Greece resulted in negative consequences for the Greek Resistance. Wide-ranging counterguerrilla operations were carried out, culminating in mass reprisals such as the Massacre of Kalavryta and the Distomo massacre.

title: Operation Barclay


text:
ISO/IEC 8859-2

ISO/IEC 8859-2:1999, Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 2: Latin alphabet No. 2, is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 1987. It is informally referred to as "Latin-2". It is generally intended for Central or "Eastern European" languages that are written in the Latin script. Note that ISO/IEC 8859-2 is very different from code page 852 (MS-DOS Latin 2, PC Latin 2) which is also referred to as "Latin-2" in Czech and Slovak regions. Almost half the use of the encoding is for Polish, and it's the main legacy encoding for Polish, while virtually all use of it has been replaced by UTF-8 (on the web).

ISO-8859-2 is the IANA preferred charset name for this standard when supplemented with the C0 and C1 control codes from ISO/IEC 6429. Less than 0.04% of all web pages use ISO-8859-2 as of October 2022. Microsoft has assigned code page 28592 a.k.a. Windows-28592 to ISO-8859-2 in Windows. IBM assigned code page 912 to ISO 8859-2, until that code page was extended in 1999. Code page 1111 is similar, but replaces byte B0 ° (degree sign) with U+02DA ˚ (ring above).

Windows-1250 is similar to ISO-8859-2 and has all the printable characters it has and more. However a few of them are rearranged (unlike Windows-1252, which keeps all printable characters from ISO-8859-1 in the same place).

Language coverage
These code values can be used for the following languages:

• Albanian

• Bosnian

• Croatian

• Czech

• Finnish

• German

• Hungarian

• Polish

• Romanian

• Rotokas

• Serbian Latin

• Slovak

• Slovene

• Upper Sorbian

• Lower Sorbian

• Turkmen

Code page layout
Differences from ISO-8859-1 have the Unicode code point number underneath.

title: ISO/IEC 8859-2


text:
Talk:History of rail transport

External links modified
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Africa section
This section consists of mostly bare headings, (for African countries) with little or no copy.

Added WP article links, and a "See also" section, specific to rail history in Africa. That is probably not the ideal in an article, but thought it was preferable that seekers were clearly and obviously directed somewhere, (pending expansion of the section). In addition, prospective editors might be less likely to "re-invent the wheel" if they can clearly see that information relevant to this section does exist elsewhere on Wikipedia.122.105.94.165 (talk) 05:54, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Ancient Chinese railway
Is that bit about an ancient Chinese railway believable? I cannot find any indication of this find outside the website that is given as a reference. A second, ideally more scholarly, reference seems necessary. This also applies to Rail transport. --Wrongfilter (talk) 15:43, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

I recommend somebody with a little bit of sense review this article in it's entirety...
In particular... the following... >>>The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels, England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3838 BC,[1] making it some 30 years older than the Sweet Track from the same area.[2] Various sections have been designated as scheduled monuments.[3][4][5][6]<<<

The wheel wasn't even invented in 3838 B.C. Thus I recommend this be removed. wbenton (talk) 16:12, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

 * If you read the reference, you'll see that it was used as a walkway rather than for wheeled wagons. Whether such a walkway deserves to stay in the article is another question... Bellowhead678 (talk) 20:43, 23 March 2022 (UTC)
 * When I was doing research for my rewrite of Train in 2021, I found the earliest instance of something train-like was a wagonway in Babylon, circa 2,200 BCE. So I think it's dubious to claim something from 3838 BCE is rail transport. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:43, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Sweet Track
Were the Sweet Track and Post Track really railways? What is described is a roadway. 86.3.219.123 (talk) 07:04, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:History of rail transport


text:
User:Sue Michael Canuck/ban

Note: This user appears to be a reincarnation of User:Joe Canuck / User:ChuckM. If this is confirmed, and the pattern of unhelpful edits similar to the above continues, they will be automatically covered by the hard ban of those user accounts. The Anome 18:27 27 Jun 2003 (UTC)

title: User:Sue Michael Canuck/ban