The Allies knew EXACTLY who they were dealing with in Sicily. US military intelligence was using links between the US mob and Sicilian Mafia to sow disruption before they even landed. The Allies knew they could use the Mafia, for better or worse they used them.
@@brianmirras8590 May I introduce you to Maxim 29 of The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries: "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less".
The Italian and German commands between them evacuated about half the troops they had had on Sicily despite having no air superiority or naval cover. All they had was massed heavy and light anti aircraft guns. Kesselring not only evacuated 52,000 troops (including 4,444 wounded), 14,105 vehicles, 47 tanks, 94 guns, 1,100 tons of ammunition, and about 20,700 tons of gear and stores. but also 62,182 Italians, 41 guns and 227 vehicles with the loss of only one motor raft and the train ferry Carridi, which was scuttled when Allied troops entered Messina. Not quite as impressive as Dunkirk in terms of numbers but still impressive given the Allied strength which could be considered greater than the German army in 1940.
The US Army during WWII put the local Mafia in New York City in charge of keeping the docks and ships around the city safe from sabotage. And, the Mafia "wet it's beak" a little, in payment for very low cost security. TRUE.
@@lantichista Seemed like my Italian grandfather shares that view of the Sicilians, mostly because of the Mafia and the way they see themselves. Also the view shared by a friend of mine in the Col Moschin... And the native Italian people I work with...
Actually Jingles, when the US asked Lucky Luciano to make contacts in Sicily prior to Operation Husky, i'm pretty sure they knew who they were talking to 😉
Jingles! I live in Catania and work for the Navy at Sigonella. What a nice surprise to see you feature my area. I have to correct you tho. The base yep went to is called NAS 1, and the one you showed is NAS 2 and is owned by the ITAF. We do have a big footprint there tho. NAS 2 is about 3 miles NNE of the Sig airbase. I'm sure you'll spot it on a satellite view. Btw, been watching you for almost 10 years now and still enjoying it. Cheers!
I started watching him when he was doing Air-soft and never stopped. Hello from Oklahoma, U.S.A. I love Italian food, I have been to the Olive Garden many times. XD Joking, but, I do love me a Stromboli Roll!!!!!
3:00 for those that don't use the impractical Imperial Measurements: 3.057 Kilometers. If you like weird measurements though, let me give you a few Jingles Inspired ones: 3.057 Kilometers is about equal to: 302 TOG 2*s 12 Yamato class Battleships 15 and a half Queen Elizabeth class Battleships.
never mind the Bosporus : 700m (barely 2 Yamatos^^) .... Historically, the Bosporus was also known as the "Strait of Constantinople,,, please do not change, ever, oh great Jingles^^ ( source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus)
I've been watching you for quite a number of years now Jingles, and I cannot express how happy I am that you're still uploading videos and telling your stories. Thank you for the many years of entertainment!
Introducing........ "Story Time with Uncle Jingles! (Warning, might not be safe for small children or animals)"! It's the most fun you can have with your pants on! XD
I was stationed in Sigonella from 1996-1999. Best duty station ever! Sicily averages something like 340 days of sunshine per year. Jingles, you were flying over NAS 2 in the video, which is where the airfield is. You must have visited NAS 1 (7 miles east/northeast of NAS 2) where all of the things you mentioned were located. I lived on NAS 1 and went to work at the control tower in NAS 2. We worked alongside Italian airforce air traffic controllers. As I'm sure you can imagine, I learned every Italian curse word/phrase imaginable within the first 3 months, lol. The Sicilians were amazingly kind and generous people and I really loved and miss my time there. My wife and I have a trip planned for next summer. Thanks for freshening up those memories!
Legend has it, every time Churchill called Italy a "soft underbelly", the uniformed officers wanted to throw a topographic map at him....with a rock in it.
I have been to Sicily several times for work and I love it, Marsala is an especially beautiful city/town. Palermo.... not so much. Catania is great. There are soo many historical locations to visit, it's ridiculous. By historical, I mean Thousands of yrs old. Sicilians take immense pride in their wine and confectionaries (bakeries). Holy S!@#! The bakeries and confectionary shops are unbelievably good. ugh. I miss that place.
Well, I have never been to Sicily, but it makes sense that Palermo isn’t so nice because … Patton took it and everyone’s response to that? “Damn!” Some people will get that reference 😂
We had students from La Maddalena at my dorm in High Wycombe, England. Because many of those US Navy and Airforce bases have a big enough school for elementary and junior high but for High School they would get shipped off to High Wycombe to L.C.H.S. aka London Central. I went from Navy Brat to Army Vet.
Jingles, I love getting this inside view into the world as you experienced it. I'll never get to these places so I really appreciate hearing personal stories about them. Thanks!
Love the stories Jingles, thanks for catering that to us - all that stuff is much more why I come to your channel, even before WoWs, so even if you should be leaving Wargaming behind (which would be understandable) many of us would stay for all the other great content you are providing us with! Btw. also love that you use the Austrian Eurofighter livery. Cheers from your Viennese fans ;)
my old man was there in 43 and after he passed i went to see some of the places he fought, and visited sicily, got to syracuse after watching the bushes at the side of the railway tracks turn to cacti thought shit its hot and booked a train north, all the way to rome north, great train journey
Keep these videos coming Jingles. This is like gaining an uncle Jingles who has been around in the family and telling the children about the big wide world.
Went to Calabria last year, with my italian ex girl. Her Family told some gruesome mafia storys, but the landscape is such a beauty without many tourists there.
Been to Sigonella NAS a few times. One time our ride (A C2 COD from the Forrestal) broke down and what was supposed to be an overnight stay turned out to be five days while we waited for it to be repaired. We weren't able to take advantage of it though as the plane was in a constant state of "almost fixed" so we had to spend the entire day camped out at the terminal waiting to see if we would fly out of there that day. We did take advantage of the enlisted club pretty much every night though. :)
The Mighty Jingles: Come for the World of Warships/Tanks commentary videos, stay to spend your Saturday morning eating a leisurely breakfast and listening to an old salt talk about his time in the navy. It's like the MSFS/digital version of listening to your grandfather tell stories in a rocking chair on the porch, and equally wonderful.
Horrifying more like, given what it's like to live in the shadow of the Mafia. Can't open a business without those corkroaches crawling in to offer "protection". You just have to pay unless you want your family to suffer, and to hope their demands don't drive you bankrupt, because nobody can help you.
Brother and his family were stationed at NAS Siga. Got to come visit for a week while he was there. Love'd it so much, I almost didn't come back. ;) Best. Vaca. Ever.
Walking on top of Mt Etna is awesome. That was in 2001, just after that years lava flow. Couldn't get to the top as it was closed, but we saw the 2001 crater, walked on the lava trail, and had a blast on the 'moon'. It really looks like you're on the moon, with thousands of craters all around you. Then we left Sicily, and went to see Vulcano, Lipari, Stromboli, Vesuvius and ended with Roma (not a volcano). That was an awesome late teens trip :)
Funny that Jingles should mention Mule Trains for supplies. My last active duty US Army duty station was Fort Carson, Colorado, where the last two "Pack" units in the US Army finally furled their colors and deactivated. On Saturday, December 15th, 1956, the 4th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack) was re-designated as the 4th Air-phibious FA Firing Unit (Experimental), assigned to Fort Sill, OK. The 35th Quartermaster (Pack) Company was formally deactivated. The 301 mules and 20 horses were retired to local and national riding businesses, zoos, and parks. In some ways, it was not until the advent of the helicopter that the TRUE all-terrain transportation method was finally supplanted.
My grandad fought his way up through Sicily, and at one point led the attack on Catania airfield (which was a big luftwaffe base) they were being mortared (one round killed one of his corporals) he wasn't sure where the mortars were coming from but decided that if he was spotting for them he'd be in the control tower, so he asked for support smoke mortar rounds on the control tower. The mortar fire then became much more inaccurate.
Another story he told was when the Navy had helpfully shelled the road and destroyed it so stopping the allied advance before it could be repaired. At the end of the next headland there was a "castle" on the headland on oneside and the slope up the mountain on the otherside. So my grandad was sent up to "reconoitre" the inevitably ambush with his platoon. Knowing they were going to be ambushed he split his platoon to try and support each other which kind of worked but half the platoon got cut off and he instructed them to surrender whilst the rest of his platoon pulled back along the headland and then swam back to friendly lines across the bay (about 2 miles). He said he remembered sinking under the water at one point and then though "well if the Germans didn't get me I'm not going to drown" he reported back in his underwear :-)! Of the 36 members of his platoon that landed on Sicily only 6 were still there at the end. Montgomery gave a speach to the Green Howards promising that wherever he went they'd go with him - they thought he meant fight up Italy and he got booed. Actually they got brought back for D-day, my grandad said the thought they brought 50 div back because after fighting all the way across North Africa and Sicily they were probably experienced enough to put up a decent fight but sufficiently worn out that they were disposable enough if they all got wiped out! Miss talking to him.
I live in Palermo! It's great to see you visit Sicily. I've also been to Sigonella (as well as Birgi near Trapani), but always on "the Italian side", we were never allowed into the US part. But it was still really cool seeing the Ospreys (although not quite from a close distance), as until that moment they were just some of the US stuff you see on the internet. I can't complain though as we spent some time talking with pilots and mechanics of the Eurofighter and we also had a tour of the base. About the mafia, here the narrative that the allies empowered the Mafia is starting to gain popularity, it's a pretty sad story, and I suspect it wasn't taught to the general public until more recently. I've also visited Mt. Etna and Catania and it was great, it was just a guided visit so we didn't do anything extreme but it was pretty cool regardless. I'm pretty surprised you didn't mention about the bridge over the Messina strait (and how it was tied to Berlusconi), which has since become one of those never ending proposals and never start to build projects. But the new EU money seem to have revived the project a bit more seriously this time, as you would imagine it's not the idea place for a bridge. I'm really happy you enjoyed your time here (although it wasn't much), also your pronunciations were spot on.
Hi Jingles, love the series. It's no wonder the Allies weren't too keen on landing in Japan after their experiences on Sicily, D-Day and Iwojima. It seems to be somewhat difficult to tell what the busiest strait actually is. Partly because it depends on whether you count artificial channels or not (Suez for example is pretty busy) and I couldn't find that many numbers with a quick search. Might have been the wrong terms.
In Catania I got pull for a phone watch at the end of the pier. I had a phone , attached to a wall and an American sized refrigerator completely full of American beer.
Was there another paint incident? I thought I remembered a story where you convinced the captain to allow leave for the crew and then proceeded to stay onboard xD
I'm pretty sure he told that story in a MwJ with Eddie. The details are consistent (Catania in particular and Sicily in general is mentioned in MwJ episode 349, halfway through the video), so I think he's referring to the same incident.
Signore Jingles, por que de la misera? LOL You are accomplishing what you set out to do, a very entertaining AND informative series based on flight/sim. If you get the time, take off from MGW (Hart Field) here in Morgantown and then fly due north to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You will fly right over my house. It's maybe a 25 minute flight and it will give you plenty of time to talk (as you certainly can) as you fly over the beautiful forested Appalachian Mountains, flying alongside the Monongahela River as it heads up towards Pittsburgh. RockOn, Jingles.
Oh, we didn't get the 2nd part of the paint-incident? Since if I'm vaguely recalling correctly, in a earlier video years ago you also talked about this incident. And you ended up taking personal issue with this and that only "low ranks" were banned from leave. So you took it up to someone, escalated it repeatedly until you got to talk with the Ship's Captain or something. Might very well be misremembering it though.
The Allies and in particular the US Navy knew who they were dealing with, they made a deal with lucky Luciano (who was quite possibly the most important mob boss of the 20th century in the US) establishing connections with Sicilian mafia members before operation husky had commenced for intelligence purposes. The navy requested that Luciano provide intelligence information and would establish connections between the army and local mafia leaders, as well as the promise that there would be no dock worker strikes through the end of the war and in return his sentence would be commuted provided that he would be deported back to Italy. Many members of the Italian mafia became trusted employees of the US Army's military government during the war. Its actually such a cool story knowing that cooperation between the US government and organized crime happened during the war.
Smiling Albert Kesselring was the definitive defensive warfare Field Marshall and he was a Luftwaffe guy not a ground general which shows you what a versatile guy he was
Another great video👍 I can recommend “Sicily ‘43” by James Holland. Fantastic book about Operation Husky which tells of the Mafia And the cluster fuck glider operation which is an eye opener.
I wish we had a chance to stop in Sicily while I was in the Navy, but it seems everytime we were deployed it was during a conflict or war of sorts. This meant less ports and more of the same bland food over and over, haha.
Part of the Mafia story is the US government had made a deal with the US Mafia who largely controlled the docks through the Longshoremens Union. The deal was the government would not investigate or prosecute the status quo if the Mafia would not cause work stoppages or problems on the docks for the duration of the war.
is that the time that you did long windway getting leave which lead to captin( Mingle width Jingles had the story in it from about an year to 2 year ago) . for all the new people how have not here it
Sigonella sucks! I was deployed there for 7 months and it wasnt fun other then a few experiences. Catania has a really nice WW2 museum and an amazing sushi restaurant Kiyomi. We took a day to hike up Mt Etna. I also crashed a birthday party with my buddy right outside of NAS 2. I have a few cringy videos on my channel of us shooting their guns. The guys over at Etnas shooting club really are some amazing people, and the whole experience despite sucking was actually pretty amazing!
no mate they do grow wine on the land. every year at summers end. people from the town go up onto the fields and dig up the ripe bottles of wine they are then allowed to dry in the sun for a day or so. :)
There were a _few_ roads in Sicily in the 1940s, they just a) weren't very good and b) mainly didn't go where the Allied forces were trying to go. There used to be a very famous (and very grueling) road race held every year on the island, the Targa Florio, which began in 1906 and was run on public roads (at first making laps of the entire island, later on a shorter but still quite long course in the mountains around Palermo). You know the infamous pod racing scene in _The Phantom Menace,_ where the Sand People are up in the hills taking pot shots at the racers? That's a reference to the early days of the Targa Florio, in the 1910s and 1920s, when Sicilian bandits had a habit of doing the same. I think there still is a smaller-time road rally in Sicily by that name, but the "proper" Targa Florio was last run in 1977, when it was shut down mid-race by the police on grounds of public safety.
Ya know jingles, I’m in my early 20s and hearing you talking about your time in the navy makes me think I should sign up myself at the earnest US navy center. And then I remember how unathletic I am, and how I would never survive the training.
Sicily is also a birthplace of back-white invasion stripes. When US and UK airborne units were flying over invasion fleet, they were "identified" as german bombers and shot by every flak gun, inflicting up to 30% of casualties. In the aftermath all Allied planes were given invasion stripes, so that kind of "accidents" wouldnt happen.
Jingles, weren´t you deployed during one of the Gulf Wars?? It´d be kind of cool if you flew over the area where you were and tell some stories (if there are any) preferrably the ones with sex and guns (rock´n´roll otional)
No. At that point, all personnel are at their “Action Stations” (RN) or “General Quarters” stations (USN), and are responsible to maintain the set material condition in their spaces.
Well, every time I visited Sicily, the Italians filled it to the brim with meatshields, and I have to grind them down into oblivion while my troops go over from the mainland. Because just Sicily by itself always seems to be enough to stop the Italian AI from surrendering...
I was briefly in Sigenilla (misspelled) in 1985. The only place we visited was the terminal. The only thing I remember is that the runway was very short. Have you ever visited Perth Western Australia? That place was a lot of fun.
Join the navy they said. See the world they said. Get surprised about how much of the world looks like the inside of a ship.
or do what my mate form my school days did. joined the navy to see the world and spent 12 years as a sub mariner on a missile boat. :)
The Allies knew EXACTLY who they were dealing with in Sicily. US military intelligence was using links between the US mob and Sicilian Mafia to sow disruption before they even landed. The Allies knew they could use the Mafia, for better or worse they used them.
Enemy of my enemy is my friend
@@brianmirras8590 May I introduce you to Maxim 29 of The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries: "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less".
That’s all correct 👍
The Italian and German commands between them evacuated about half the troops they had had on Sicily despite having no air superiority or naval cover. All they had was massed heavy and light anti aircraft guns. Kesselring not only evacuated 52,000 troops (including 4,444 wounded), 14,105 vehicles, 47 tanks, 94 guns, 1,100 tons of ammunition, and about 20,700 tons of gear and stores. but also 62,182 Italians, 41 guns and 227 vehicles with the loss of only one motor raft and the train ferry Carridi, which was scuttled when Allied troops entered Messina. Not quite as impressive as Dunkirk in terms of numbers but still impressive given the Allied strength which could be considered greater than the German army in 1940.
The US Army during WWII put the local Mafia in New York City in charge of keeping the docks and ships around the city safe from sabotage. And, the Mafia "wet it's beak" a little, in payment for very low cost security. TRUE.
In Italy, Sicilians are considered Sicilians first and Italians second, by the Italians
Nice. i first heard of sicilians from True romance the movie and they were fucking badass.
@@carlosrivas1629 They were conquered by the Normans. Maybe they are still part Norman.
In Peaky Blinders when the Mafia are trying to kill the Shelbys, 1 mafia says the locals hate like the Sicilians! LOL!
That is incredibly untrue.
Nobody in Italy is viewed as 'insert regional name' first, then Italian.
@@lantichista Seemed like my Italian grandfather shares that view of the Sicilians, mostly because of the Mafia and the way they see themselves. Also the view shared by a friend of mine in the Col Moschin... And the native Italian people I work with...
Actually Jingles, when the US asked Lucky Luciano to make contacts in Sicily prior to Operation Husky, i'm pretty sure they knew who they were talking to 😉
Jingles! I live in Catania and work for the Navy at Sigonella. What a nice surprise to see you feature my area. I have to correct you tho. The base yep went to is called NAS 1, and the one you showed is NAS 2 and is owned by the ITAF. We do have a big footprint there tho. NAS 2 is about 3 miles NNE of the Sig airbase. I'm sure you'll spot it on a satellite view. Btw, been watching you for almost 10 years now and still enjoying it. Cheers!
I started watching him when he was doing Air-soft and never stopped.
Hello from Oklahoma, U.S.A. I love Italian food, I have been to the Olive Garden many times. XD
Joking, but, I do love me a Stromboli Roll!!!!!
It wouldn't be a Jingles video if he didnt miss the mark a little lol
@@TheRofllol123 Agreed! That's why we love him!
@@TheRofllol123 Misidentification is the hallmark of any good jingles video.
@@paulvamos7319 WFT is a Stromboli Roll?
3:00 for those that don't use the impractical Imperial Measurements: 3.057 Kilometers.
If you like weird measurements though, let me give you a few Jingles Inspired ones:
3.057 Kilometers is about equal to:
302 TOG 2*s
12 Yamato class Battleships
15 and a half Queen Elizabeth class Battleships.
never mind the Bosporus : 700m (barely 2 Yamatos^^) .... Historically, the Bosporus was also known as the "Strait of Constantinople,,, please do not change, ever, oh great Jingles^^ ( source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus)
thankyou sir i am longer lost and confused. :)
I've been watching you for quite a number of years now Jingles, and I cannot express how happy I am that you're still uploading videos and telling your stories. Thank you for the many years of entertainment!
Nothing like an old English sailors babbling about nothing. Man but there is nothing like it my daily dose of Jingles!!
Introducing........ "Story Time with Uncle Jingles! (Warning, might not be safe for small children or animals)"! It's the most fun you can have with your pants on! XD
I was stationed in Sigonella from 1996-1999. Best duty station ever! Sicily averages something like 340 days of sunshine per year. Jingles, you were flying over NAS 2 in the video, which is where the airfield is. You must have visited NAS 1 (7 miles east/northeast of NAS 2) where all of the things you mentioned were located. I lived on NAS 1 and went to work at the control tower in NAS 2. We worked alongside Italian airforce air traffic controllers. As I'm sure you can imagine, I learned every Italian curse word/phrase imaginable within the first 3 months, lol. The Sicilians were amazingly kind and generous people and I really loved and miss my time there. My wife and I have a trip planned for next summer. Thanks for freshening up those memories!
Yay, I love these videos Jingles. Thanks.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Yeah, Story Time with Uncle Jingles is the best!
You have a great weekend also.
I now find myself looking forward to these videos more than any other, Jingles. Keep it up mate!
Legend has it, every time Churchill called Italy a "soft underbelly", the uniformed officers wanted to throw a topographic map at him....with a rock in it.
It wasn't the "Allies" who re-instated the Mafia jingles, it was the Americans. Credit where credit is due.
Can say that was US intelligence agency, they did the same in Marseille, south of France
I have been to Sicily several times for work and I love it, Marsala is an especially beautiful city/town. Palermo.... not so much. Catania is great. There are soo many historical locations to visit, it's ridiculous. By historical, I mean Thousands of yrs old. Sicilians take immense pride in their wine and confectionaries (bakeries). Holy S!@#! The bakeries and confectionary shops are unbelievably good. ugh. I miss that place.
Well, I have never been to Sicily, but it makes sense that Palermo isn’t so nice because … Patton took it and everyone’s response to that? “Damn!”
Some people will get that reference 😂
jingles, was giving you directions during the video. Spent 12 months onboard Nas Sig back in 2005/2006. Great vid and keep up the great content.
We had students from La Maddalena at my dorm in High Wycombe, England. Because many of those US Navy and Airforce bases have a big enough school for elementary and junior high but for High School they would get shipped off to High Wycombe to L.C.H.S. aka London Central. I went from Navy Brat to Army Vet.
I enjoy the flights over places you've visited, so please keep doing them. The sea stories are a bonus.
Jingles, I love getting this inside view into the world as you experienced it. I'll never get to these places so I really appreciate hearing personal stories about them. Thanks!
Love the stories Jingles, thanks for catering that to us - all that stuff is much more why I come to your channel, even before WoWs, so even if you should be leaving Wargaming behind (which would be understandable) many of us would stay for all the other great content you are providing us with!
Btw. also love that you use the Austrian Eurofighter livery. Cheers from your Viennese fans ;)
my old man was there in 43 and after he passed i went to see some of the places he fought, and visited sicily, got to syracuse after watching the bushes at the side of the railway tracks turn to cacti thought shit its hot and booked a train north, all the way to rome north, great train journey
These "A gnome abroad" videos have got to be my favorite on the channel. You just have a way with telling stories, I guess.
Keep these videos coming Jingles. This is like gaining an uncle Jingles who has been around in the family and telling the children about the big wide world.
20 years US Navy, your Yankee was our Yoke.
Went to Calabria last year, with my italian ex girl. Her Family told some gruesome mafia storys, but the landscape is such a beauty without many tourists there.
Been to Sigonella NAS a few times. One time our ride (A C2 COD from the Forrestal) broke down and what was supposed to be an overnight stay turned out to be five days while we waited for it to be repaired. We weren't able to take advantage of it though as the plane was in a constant state of "almost fixed" so we had to spend the entire day camped out at the terminal waiting to see if we would fly out of there that day.
We did take advantage of the enlisted club pretty much every night though. :)
I went to Sicily on holidays in 2019, the coffee and deserts are to die for. Definitely will be going back.
The Mighty Jingles: Come for the World of Warships/Tanks commentary videos, stay to spend your Saturday morning eating a leisurely breakfast and listening to an old salt talk about his time in the navy. It's like the MSFS/digital version of listening to your grandfather tell stories in a rocking chair on the porch, and equally wonderful.
That first story of how the Mafia helped the Allies, I remember learning about that through Simple History's video on the matter. Quite fascinating.
Horrifying more like, given what it's like to live in the shadow of the Mafia. Can't open a business without those corkroaches crawling in to offer "protection". You just have to pay unless you want your family to suffer, and to hope their demands don't drive you bankrupt, because nobody can help you.
Brother and his family were stationed at NAS Siga. Got to come visit for a week while he was there. Love'd it so much, I almost didn't come back. ;) Best. Vaca. Ever.
Love this series. Jingles' Adventures in the Royal Navy never cease to make me laugh and smile.
This series is soothing to listen
Walking on top of Mt Etna is awesome.
That was in 2001, just after that years lava flow. Couldn't get to the top as it was closed, but we saw the 2001 crater, walked on the lava trail, and had a blast on the 'moon'. It really looks like you're on the moon, with thousands of craters all around you.
Then we left Sicily, and went to see Vulcano, Lipari, Stromboli, Vesuvius and ended with Roma (not a volcano). That was an awesome late teens trip :)
This is my favorite part of your channel now
Last week Crete and today Sicily 2 places where my family are from love how your covering these two places
Funny that Jingles should mention Mule Trains for supplies. My last active duty US Army duty station was Fort Carson, Colorado, where the last two "Pack" units in the US Army finally furled their colors and deactivated.
On Saturday, December 15th, 1956, the 4th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack) was re-designated as the 4th Air-phibious FA Firing Unit (Experimental), assigned to Fort Sill, OK.
The 35th Quartermaster (Pack) Company was formally deactivated. The 301 mules and 20 horses were retired to local and national riding businesses, zoos, and parks.
In some ways, it was not until the advent of the helicopter that the TRUE all-terrain transportation method was finally supplanted.
I remember, as a boy, touring inside Etna's crater. I managed to smuggle some solidified lava back home to Australia.
Decided to repaint the German destroyer we were tied up next too. THIS! What a throw away line I would love to hear more about!!
My grandad fought his way up through Sicily, and at one point led the attack on Catania airfield (which was a big luftwaffe base) they were being mortared (one round killed one of his corporals) he wasn't sure where the mortars were coming from but decided that if he was spotting for them he'd be in the control tower, so he asked for support smoke mortar rounds on the control tower. The mortar fire then became much more inaccurate.
Another story he told was when the Navy had helpfully shelled the road and destroyed it so stopping the allied advance before it could be repaired. At the end of the next headland there was a "castle" on the headland on oneside and the slope up the mountain on the otherside. So my grandad was sent up to "reconoitre" the inevitably ambush with his platoon. Knowing they were going to be ambushed he split his platoon to try and support each other which kind of worked but half the platoon got cut off and he instructed them to surrender whilst the rest of his platoon pulled back along the headland and then swam back to friendly lines across the bay (about 2 miles). He said he remembered sinking under the water at one point and then though "well if the Germans didn't get me I'm not going to drown" he reported back in his underwear :-)! Of the 36 members of his platoon that landed on Sicily only 6 were still there at the end. Montgomery gave a speach to the Green Howards promising that wherever he went they'd go with him - they thought he meant fight up Italy and he got booed. Actually they got brought back for D-day, my grandad said the thought they brought 50 div back because after fighting all the way across North Africa and Sicily they were probably experienced enough to put up a decent fight but sufficiently worn out that they were disposable enough if they all got wiped out! Miss talking to him.
Thank you for sharing
I live in Palermo! It's great to see you visit Sicily.
I've also been to Sigonella (as well as Birgi near Trapani), but always on "the Italian side", we were never allowed into the US part. But it was still really cool seeing the Ospreys (although not quite from a close distance), as until that moment they were just some of the US stuff you see on the internet. I can't complain though as we spent some time talking with pilots and mechanics of the Eurofighter and we also had a tour of the base.
About the mafia, here the narrative that the allies empowered the Mafia is starting to gain popularity, it's a pretty sad story, and I suspect it wasn't taught to the general public until more recently.
I've also visited Mt. Etna and Catania and it was great, it was just a guided visit so we didn't do anything extreme but it was pretty cool regardless.
I'm pretty surprised you didn't mention about the bridge over the Messina strait (and how it was tied to Berlusconi), which has since become one of those never ending proposals and never start to build projects. But the new EU money seem to have revived the project a bit more seriously this time, as you would imagine it's not the idea place for a bridge.
I'm really happy you enjoyed your time here (although it wasn't much), also your pronunciations were spot on.
A Gnome Abroad playlist, please? Been trying to get some friends and others I know to watch these....having them all in one spot would be amazing.
Enjoy listening to Jingles stories of when he was in the Navy.
Hi Jingles,
love the series.
It's no wonder the Allies weren't too keen on landing in Japan after their experiences on Sicily, D-Day and Iwojima.
It seems to be somewhat difficult to tell what the busiest strait actually is. Partly because it depends on whether you count artificial channels or not (Suez for example is pretty busy) and I couldn't find that many numbers with a quick search. Might have been the wrong terms.
Got to love a good story, thank you jingle
In Catania I got pull for a phone watch at the end of the pier. I had a phone , attached to a wall and an American sized refrigerator completely full of American beer.
Was there another paint incident? I thought I remembered a story where you convinced the captain to allow leave for the crew and then proceeded to stay onboard xD
I'm pretty sure he told that story in a MwJ with Eddie. The details are consistent (Catania in particular and Sicily in general is mentioned in MwJ episode 349, halfway through the video), so I think he's referring to the same incident.
Signore Jingles, por que de la misera? LOL You are accomplishing what you set out to do, a very entertaining AND informative series based on flight/sim. If you get the time, take off from MGW (Hart Field) here in Morgantown and then fly due north to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You will fly right over my house. It's maybe a 25 minute flight and it will give you plenty of time to talk (as you certainly can) as you fly over the beautiful forested Appalachian Mountains, flying alongside the Monongahela River as it heads up towards Pittsburgh. RockOn, Jingles.
2:03am and still loving the content keep it up my good man.
My grandmother emigrated from Messina, Sicily back in 1911!
Wow! A Seymour Johnson Mudhen! Color me pleasantly surprised to see my hometown boys in FS 2020 and on Jingles channel
Oh, we didn't get the 2nd part of the paint-incident?
Since if I'm vaguely recalling correctly, in a earlier video years ago you also talked about this incident. And you ended up taking personal issue with this and that only "low ranks" were banned from leave.
So you took it up to someone, escalated it repeatedly until you got to talk with the Ship's Captain or something.
Might very well be misremembering it though.
I am surprised no mention of Syracuse.
Anyway, great video, thank you for sharing. Italy is one of the few countries I would LOVE to visit one day.
The Allies and in particular the US Navy knew who they were dealing with, they made a deal with lucky Luciano (who was quite possibly the most important mob boss of the 20th century in the US) establishing connections with Sicilian mafia members before operation husky had commenced for intelligence purposes. The navy requested that Luciano provide intelligence information and would establish connections between the army and local mafia leaders, as well as the promise that there would be no dock worker strikes through the end of the war and in return his sentence would be commuted provided that he would be deported back to Italy. Many members of the Italian mafia became trusted employees of the US Army's military government during the war.
Its actually such a cool story knowing that cooperation between the US government and organized crime happened during the war.
Could have mentioned the '85 crisis in Sigonella, it was a most interesting situation. But then again there is so much more to Sicily.
Keep it up I love these videos
Love the series. Semper Fi!
Haaaah that's what we call a Tequila Stuntman because it leaves you looking like you've been in a fight!
Thanks for the trip.
Smiling Albert Kesselring was the definitive defensive warfare Field Marshall and he was a Luftwaffe guy not a ground general which shows you what a versatile guy he was
Visit to Sicily and the two most vivid memories are the wine country and the American base and their burgers, fries and cheerleader school girls, eh?
Never really hit Europe in my days in the Marine Corps, I was stationed in Japan for 5 years of the 10 I was in
Another great video👍 I can recommend “Sicily ‘43” by James Holland. Fantastic book about Operation Husky which tells of the Mafia And the cluster fuck glider operation which is an eye opener.
I wish we had a chance to stop in Sicily while I was in the Navy, but it seems everytime we were deployed it was during a conflict or war of sorts. This meant less ports and more of the same bland food over and over, haha.
I came here for the Gnome babbling about WoWs, I stayed for the Gnome babbling about all kinds of funny and actually pretty interesting stuff! :)
Have you been to the south east side of Sicily? Was kinda hopping to see that area. Love the vids and even more hearing your stories...
Part of the Mafia story is the US government had made a deal with the US Mafia who largely controlled the docks through the Longshoremens Union. The deal was the government would not investigate or prosecute the status quo if the Mafia would not cause work stoppages or problems on the docks for the duration of the war.
is that the time that you did long windway getting leave which lead to captin( Mingle width Jingles had the story in it from about an year to 2 year ago) . for all the new people how have not here it
Sigonella sucks! I was deployed there for 7 months and it wasnt fun other then a few experiences. Catania has a really nice WW2 museum and an amazing sushi restaurant Kiyomi. We took a day to hike up Mt Etna. I also crashed a birthday party with my buddy right outside of NAS 2. I have a few cringy videos on my channel of us shooting their guns. The guys over at Etnas shooting club really are some amazing people, and the whole experience despite sucking was actually pretty amazing!
13:09 "Area suitable for growing wine" . Just as crap as we expect from you Jingles, you grow grapes and make wine
To be fair, grapes grow on vine, too
C'mon, Jingles. Even you MUST know that you don't GROW wine (13:10), you grow the grapes THEN you make wine! Oh JIngles...you so silly! :-)
no mate they do grow wine on the land. every year at summers end. people from the town go up onto the fields and dig up the ripe bottles of wine they are then allowed to dry in the sun for a day or so. :)
From what I looked at, there is part of Sicily that is controlled by Italy and then there is an autonomous region.
There were a _few_ roads in Sicily in the 1940s, they just a) weren't very good and b) mainly didn't go where the Allied forces were trying to go. There used to be a very famous (and very grueling) road race held every year on the island, the Targa Florio, which began in 1906 and was run on public roads (at first making laps of the entire island, later on a shorter but still quite long course in the mountains around Palermo). You know the infamous pod racing scene in _The Phantom Menace,_ where the Sand People are up in the hills taking pot shots at the racers? That's a reference to the early days of the Targa Florio, in the 1910s and 1920s, when Sicilian bandits had a habit of doing the same.
I think there still is a smaller-time road rally in Sicily by that name, but the "proper" Targa Florio was last run in 1977, when it was shut down mid-race by the police on grounds of public safety.
Tequila Suicide? Who cooks up these ideas? Oh by ...insert almighty entity here... that sounds painful on an empire level.
Hi Jingles, I was wondering if you were ever going to revisit Cold Waters, love the videos!
I had no idea that wine was "Grown". I thought it was made from grapes.
My boy why is your TH-cam name your CoBatt
I don't want this series to end... 😞
Sono Siciliano! '84-'85 at Comiso Air Station. All compasses on Sicily point to Etna!
And, nobody saw that guy painting the German frigate??
Thanks Jingles.
I think you can see mt etna on the war thunders training ground for Italian aircraft
Loved this :)
From Trieste to Napoli, Italy is a beautiful country. If you have the chance, go to Italy. Being from Chicago, was helpful for once.
"The mafia took a little off the top." I mean you're in the same boat with politicians, so why not.
Ya know jingles, I’m in my early 20s and hearing you talking about your time in the navy makes me think I should sign up myself at the earnest US navy center.
And then I remember how unathletic I am, and how I would never survive the training.
Sicily is also a birthplace of back-white invasion stripes. When US and UK airborne units were flying over invasion fleet, they were "identified" as german bombers and shot by every flak gun, inflicting up to 30% of casualties. In the aftermath all Allied planes were given invasion stripes, so that kind of "accidents" wouldnt happen.
I want to see Jingles landing at the most difficult airports.
The mob did keep the ports in new york secure during both world wars too
Wonder if this will have a bit of history in it as well as stories from the Gnome himself
Well that didn’t take long to get an answer ahahaha
Jingles Grandpa Story Time
Jingles! You should try out the new stuff on Cold Water really enjoyed that series
Sig was okay as bases go. Base housing was notorious for being a “swingers paradise” 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s
Haha @ repainting the German ship.
What did they paint on it?
Jingles, weren´t you deployed during one of the Gulf Wars?? It´d be kind of cool if you flew over the area where you were and tell some stories (if there are any) preferrably the ones with sex and guns (rock´n´roll otional)
In combat situation, Zulu condition, was it, do they still make patrols to make sure everything is shut down as it should?
No. At that point, all personnel are at their “Action Stations” (RN) or “General Quarters” stations (USN), and are responsible to maintain the set material condition in their spaces.
@@ELCADAROSA Got it. thank you.
What you call a tequila slammer we refer to as gringa training wheels.
Well, every time I visited Sicily, the Italians filled it to the brim with meatshields, and I have to grind them down into oblivion while my troops go over from the mainland. Because just Sicily by itself always seems to be enough to stop the Italian AI from surrendering...
What did you think of the Greyhound film?
How does one grow wine?
Jingles and his shipmates sitting in the food court oggling teen-aged American girls in cheerleading outfits. LOL
I was briefly in Sigenilla (misspelled) in 1985. The only place we visited was the terminal. The only thing I remember is that the runway was very short. Have you ever visited Perth Western Australia? That place was a lot of fun.
Some times, Jingles sounds exactly like Jeremy Clarkson's heir.
Or the best Jeremy Clarkson Imitator.... In the World!