1942 - 1943

On 12 November the 3rd Parachute Battalion (3 Para Bn) jumped onto and seized the vital airfield at Bone between Algiers and Tunis, arriving barely before German paratroopers deployed for the same mission. Four days later 1 Para Bn dropped and occupied a key road junction at Beja 90 miles from Tunis. Both operations achieved the desired link up with the advancing 1st Army.

Speed was essential to prevent the consolidation of Italian and German defences facing a rapid pincer movement launched from the west and south east immediately after the amphibious landings. Key bridges and ports were to be captured by airborne assault.

Operation Husky was the overall name for the allied invasion of Sicily, including the seaborne landings. 

Operation Ladbroke refers to the glider borne attack on the Ponte Grande bridge in southern Sicily by the 1st Airlanding Brigade on the night of July 9.

The Italians had capitulated while the force was still at sea. The sinking of HMS Abdiel by a mine in the harbour, however, resulted in the loss of 130 soldiers from 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion including their Commanding Officer. Despite this setback, the port was seized and the advance continued to Foggia, where the division was relieved by units from the 8th Army. The 1st Airborne Division less one brigade returned to the UK in November to prepare for D-Day.

A large number of Allied service personnel managed to escape, against Army orders, into the neighbouring hills and countryside before the Germans had time to move in and reassert control over the camps.

An operation to rescue and evacuate personnel in the Marche and Abruzzi regions was requested in mid September by 15 Army Group, following concerns that the Germans would take steps to round the escaped prisoners up and transport them to Germany.

Preparations for the operation began in August 1943 with proposals to drop large numbers of men from 2 SAS Regt into Italy to disrupt German forces and sever supply lines. However, other competing priorities and a shortage of transport aircraft resulted in Op Speedwell consisting of thirteen men divided into two groups, tasked with attacking targets north of Florence and La Spezia.

Group 1
Captain Philip Pinckney
Lt Anthony Greville-Bell, Sgt George Daniels and Corporal P Tomasso
Sgt P Robinson L/Sgt Horace Stokes and Parachutist Curtis

Quite early in the war the Germans were known to be working towards the production of an atomic bomb; it was thought they had made considerable progress in the production of Heavy Water, an essential component. Attacks were planned in 1942 to delay production at a German research establishment at the Norsk Hydro plant at Vermork in Norway. This was situated in an isolated deep valley 60 miles west of Oslo and 80 miles from the coast.