Salerno
On the face of it a landing at Salerno had it's advantages, the steep grade of the beaches made it possible for landing craft to run up on the sand and land troops directly on the beach. The small harbor at Salerno when captured could handle a modest flow of supplies, not far inland was a railroad and a main coastal highway running through Salerno, Naples and eventually to Rome, planes flying from Sicily could support the landings and there was a good airfield within the beachhead area at Monte Corvino. On the other side of the coin however, the valley of the Sele and Calore rivers divided the area into two sectors, landings on either side of the corridor would be divided by about eight miles. The Mountains enclosing the beachhead would allow any enemy artillery positioned there to fire right down at invading troops, also, the way to Naples from the beachhead wound through two narrow, easily defended gorges in the Sorrento hills. At 3.30 AM on September 9, men of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division began landing on the beaches, working their way past wrecked tanks and dodging machine gun emplacements manned by men of the 16th Panzer Regiment. The fighting was quite fierce and Sergeant Manuel S. Gonzales of E company, 141st Infantry Regiment won the Distinguished Service Cross for wiping out a German gun emplacement single handed even though wounded by grenade fragments and Sergeant James M. Logan won the Medal of Honor for wiping out an enemy machine gun crew singlehanded and then turning the gun on it's former owners. Even though most of the troops were pinned down by artillery, mortar fire, machine guns and snipers, men and equipment continued to pour ashore through the wrecked boats of the first waves. At 7 AM, while still disorganized and scattered, the 36th was hit by the first large scale tank counterattack launched by the Germans, about 15 Panzer IVs hammered the 141st Regiment, the battle raged past noon of D-Day, fought by pockets of infantry using Bazookas and machine guns to turn back the enemy attack. The heroic actions were many, Captain Hersel R. Adams of the 141st, 3rd Battalion was wounded while attacking the Panzers, he urged his men to leave him and carry on the attack and was killed when the tanks regrouped and came back with guns blazing. PFC Edward L. Rookey and PFC Lavern Counselman crawled within 30 yards of the approaching tanks to engage them with a Bazooka. In the 2nd Battalion, PFC Ramon G. Gutierrez, PFC Saloman Santos Jr and PFC Abner E. Carrasco all performed acts of bravery under fire and helped turn back the German attack. By 4 PM the situation was relatively under control and the Germans had fallen back, in some places the 36th had advanced as much as four miles, but there was still no contact with the British X Corps on the other side of the corridor.
In the northern sector, the British had landed against only light opposition,Although there was some confusion. Rocket firing landing craft were used for the first time, these were potentially murderous weapons but the ones used at Salerno were hastily assembled and some rounds were wildly off target. One blast was almost half a mile from where it should have been and the troops of the 56th Division (who had been ordered to follow the rockets) landed on the wrong beach, they became tangled up with troops of the 46th Division and to make matters worse, all their vehicles and heavy weapons had landed on the correct beach. On other sectors of the beachhead, numerous counterattacks were beaten off with the aid of accurate Naval gunfire, the 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, nearly had their "hair parted" by gunfire from a Destroyer that was firing at German positions nearby. Lt. David Lewis, a famous Welsh Rugby player was killed leading a charge that wiped out some machine gun nests and took 25 prisoners. Around Monte Corvino airfield fighting raged all day, two German planes were shot down by ground troops as they tried to get airborne, a British plane, thinking that the airfield was in friendly hands, was shot down by the Germans and as night fell tanks and infantry were still slogging it out on the airfield. The British had taken the town of Salerno but still hadn't made contact with the Americans. Using only one division, the Germans had confined the invaders to a small area, now they brought up more troops in the shape of the 19th Panzer Grenadier and the 26th Panzer division, taken from in front of Monty's slow advance in the south and the Hermann Goring Division and 15th Panzer Grenadier from the north where they had been refitting after their action in Sicily. Not to be outdone, the Luftwaffe made nearly 550 sorties in the first three days of the invasion and also used the new 'glide bomb' to good effect, hitting the U.S.S. Savannah, H.M.S. Uganda and the battleship H.M.S. Warspite, all three were damaged to the point where they had to be withdrawn from the action. The glide bombs actually sank four transports, one heavy cruiser and seven landing craft, as well as damaging other ships. The allies came up with the notion that electric motors could upset the delicate guidance mechanisms of the glide bombs, so a dead-serious signal was sent to all ships directing that all electric razors be turned on during glide bomb attacks!!
Although the U.S. 45th Division was brought in as reinforcements, the only real hope of help came from the British 8th army in the south, but the 8th army was itself being held up by the terrain and German demolition teams. On Sept 12th, a German attack overran the 2nd Battalion, U.S. 143rd Infantry and destroyed it as a unit, then reached as close as two miles from the beach and only the nonstop firing of the 189th and 158th Field Artillery Battalions 105mm guns turned the tide of the attack. The gunners fired over 4,000 shells during this action. A Battalion of the U.S. 82nd airborne Division were dropped inside the American lines as the only reinforcements that could be sent, although only 1,300 men of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry were dropped, the boost to morale was tremendous. General Mark Clark reorganized his lines and some of the British 7th Armored Division came ashore. Sometimes the pressure on the allied troops was so great that only the weight and accuracy of Naval gunfire saved the day, over 11,000 tons of shells were fired on the beachheadduring the operation. Allied airpower also, was now directed at Eboli, Battipaglia and other German positions and with the Germans having to keep watching their back for Montgomery's troops, they pulled back to positions in the northern appenines as part of their planned withdrawal. By Sept 18th, most of the fighting around the beachhead was over, the nine day period of fighting had cost the Americans over 3,500 casualties and they had come close to being pushed back into the sea. The British suffered 5,500 casualties in the bitter fighting around Salerno, Monte Corvino and Battipaglia, but the allies now had a firm foothold in Italy and had control of the Mediterranean.