WWII ARMY AIR FORCES RESTRICTED FILM RAID ON PANTELLERIA OPERATION CORKSCREW 77724
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Created in 1943, PANTELLERIA is a confidential Army Air Forces film featuring Gen. Jimmy Doolittle that details the raid in support of Operation Corkscrew. 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. The radar installations and airfield on the island were seen as a real threat to the planned invasion of Sicily. The Italian garrison on the island was 12,000 strong in well-entrenched pillboxes and 21 gun batteries of a variety of calibres. In addition, there was an opportunity to assess the impact of bombardment upon heavily fortified defenses. It was decided to see if the island could be forced into submission by aerial and naval bombardment alone. Failing this, an amphibious invasion was planned for 11 June.
Starting in late May, the island was subjected to steadily increasing bombing attacks. In early June, the attacks intensified and 14,203 bombs amounting to 4,119 tons were dropped on 16 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 and Admiral Andrew Cunningham from the flagship HMS Aurora. From 8 May to 11 June 5, 285 bombing sorties were flown by fighter-bombers, medium and heavy bombers including B-24s and B-17s, dropping a total of 6,202 tons 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 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 surrendered.
An assessment reported that the defences had been reduced to 47 percent effectiveness. The ease of the operation led to an optimistic assessment of the effectiveness of bombing, which was not always borne out in practice. The Italian garrisons on other nearby islands (Lampedusa and Linosa) quickly fell. This cleared the way for the invasion of Sicily a month later.
This film begins with the Allied forces gathering at Casablanca, and FDR and Churchill's meeting there. Pantelleria is 45 miles from Africa and 60 miles from Silicy. At mark 4:55, we have the assigning of targets and plotting plans by the allied forces. At mark 5:50, we have the transporting of the materials needed for the assault on June 11, 1943. The Royal Navy assisted with the bombardment of the island coast behind on 6 occasions. The focus once more turned on Pantelleria in the spring of 1943. The taking of the island was partly operational and partly experimental. There was a need to gain a toe hold on Italian soil prior to the invasion of Sicily and later the Italian mainland and a need to better understand the effectiveness of intensive bombing prior to a sea-borne assault.
The month of May was devoted to the softening up of the island fortress. On Saturday May 8, 1943, 33 American bombers made the first attack on Pantelleria dropping about 43 tones of drums of bombs. 30 minutes later, a second attack was made by 13 American fighters each releasing half a ton of bombs. On the morning of June 11, 1943 the smoke from the fire over Pantelleria was so dense that crafts could no longer find their targets at mark 13:00. Failure or success of the forces lay concealed under the smoke. From May 8, 718 US tons of bombs were dropped, and 826 tons were dropped. By June 10, 1477 tons of bombs have been dropped. At the deadline of 10:30, the Allied forces landed.
Pantelleria falls at mark 15:40. Occupation at the island reveals that the garrisons means of existence were not completely destroyed at mark 16:05. There was food, water and ammunitions but the bombings destroyed the island communication system that isolated units suffer hunger, thirst and lack of supplies at mark 16:40. The enemy paid with approximately 95 aircrafts ¾ of which were German at mark 16:50. The allied air army lost 13 aircrafts and 5 missing not 1 a heavy bomber at 16:57. 13 American lives were lost, 17 missing in action and 5 wounded. The planes found in the amazing underground hangar were undamaged. 11,121 prisoners were caught in which only 89 were German at mark 17:30. Only few causalities were uncovered.
The impact of dominant air power demonstrated at Pantelleria, has echoed down the years in every conflict ever since. The decisive nature of overwhelming air superiority, the destruction of an enemy’s infrastructure, and the consequent No Fly Zones able to be imposed, just as at Pantelleria, was illustrated once again as an essential precursor in the removal of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.
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Never heard of this, just when you think you've seen it all. Love it
It was in the 1980's before I ever heard of the island of Lampedusa and Panelleria. While stationed on Lampedusa at a USCG Loran Station, I met a girl from Panelleria., and within a few months. I made my first visit to Pantelleria. I ended up marrying the girl from Pantelleria.....on Pantelleria. We're no longer married, but I still consider her family part of my family. Wonderful people there. I walked on the inside of those underground aircraft hangers. They were huge. My first visit, you could still see buildings with shell marks in their walls, even a bombed out building. Over the years, they've been repaired, or removed. It's quite a bustling tourist island now. Along with Lampedusa.
This is wonderful.. I have been to Pantelleria, in 1990. One of the days I was there, some fishermen brought in an engine that they had recovered from just offshore of the harbor. It was encrusted with barnacles, but still possible to see that it was of WWII vintage. I suggested that someone get a wrench, and see if the bolts were metric or imperial - as I recall, they were not metric- so we guessed it was a US bomber engine. From this video, which says no 4 engine bombers were lost, it was probably a P-38 or B-25 engine.. Pantelleria is a beautiful, friendly and scenic place...and almost unknown in the US. Salute to Periscope films, for keeping these treasures preserved.
In Major Gene Gurney's 1965 "The War in the Air"
there are pictures of the bombing of Pantelleria by B25s and A20s mainly.
I think if you do some research you may find the UK was also not metric at this time.
My uncle s2c Lewis j.Bendl was killed in action while serving aboard PT 203 off the coast of Pantelleria when a sqaudron of US PT boats and British MTB were attacked by Luftwaffe. JU 88s at dusk on June 11, 1943.
My grandfather was an Italian soldier on the island, and said the most terrified he's ever been wasn't the bombing from Allied planes.. It was the Stukas that strafed the transports he and his fellow POW's were on after they surrendered. It's so sad how war cuts young life so short, so sorry for your family. That so easily could have been my grandfather killed instead of your uncle, and I wouldn't even be here today.
@@andrewjoseph1785 Thank you for your reply.
Never saw this one. Thanks for posting..
At 15:36 Brit soldier disembarking is carrying bagpipes. Thought these were outlawed by the Geneva Convention?
Only after WW II. During WW II entire towns were routed and surrendered to single pipers, which the UN could not allow to continue. There were plans to land pipers on Japan to take the island, but it was found that pipes were ineffective against people that had grown up on Japanese music, so the atomic bomb had to be used instead. Most people at the time agreed that it was more humane.
Indeed, bagpipes are a terrible and uncivilised weapon. 😁
Definition of a gentleman, "someone who can play the bagpipes but never does"
@@IntrospectorGeneral Wears them outside his trousers?
The UN Convention Outlawing Bagpipes was first proposed by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty towards Animals. Far too often, bagpipe created sounds, seemed as if someone was strangling a Cat!
Look at those poor young and old civilians who withstood all those bombs....and remember the ones you can't look at.
Took the words out of my mouth! The old and Women! They took the brunt and NO ONE gave a damn! You don't see Anyone offering aid to them! That is gut wrenching. Yes War is Hell but you'd have to be pretty hard hearted Not to grieve at those pictures.
Their casualties were light because they had all sought shelter from the bombing. The buildings were damaged, but chances are they had centuries old cellars, tombs, tunnels and various other shelters on the island where they were safe. Mediterranean islanders have a millenia long tradition of having to flee and hide for their lives. It doesn't look like they really aimed the town anyway, mainly the military targets around it.
@@63bplumb They were arriving as a conquering army, not as UN disaster relief ! The Italians actually got pretty good treatment - even their POW's. They were still on the side of Hitler and Japan at that time, and an enemy nation. EVEN SO, the civilians received good treatment and medical aid once the soldiers had landed and organized themselves, as did the POW's. The Allies were looking to alienate Italy/Italians from Hitler with mild treatment and it worked. When we invaded other spots later on some Italian troops refused to fire on us or even attacked the Germans themselves, and we received help from Italians the rest of the war. Sometimes giving a damn encompasses more than a picture. Their suffering was necessary to stop the murder, rape, torture, abuse and enslavement of tens of millions of people that was going on in Nazi and Japanese occupied countries. Taking that island was a first step in shutting them down. Really, you should read some actual history so you can put images like that in the proper place. I doubt it's as bad as you make it out to be. I think the b&w photography affects your judgement because it makes everything look bleaker, but it's just a group of people waiting on the beach - possibly to be taken off the island for their safety. Maybe they're just curious and watching the soldiers landing - that was common. Assuming the absolute worst is just ridiculous.
The allied conquest of the south was a humanitarian disaster in general. More people died of famine and disease in the “liberated” areas than in the areas occupied by the German. And lets not bring your rapey allies in to the discussion. But Pantellaria was an island fortress so it needed to be cleared somehow.
Think if you do some research you will find the Italians subjected the population of Malta to many raids and bombs? The also attacked England, Greece Albania and Egypt.
Pantelleria Axis air bases were uncomfortably close to Malta during the great 1942 blitz there, in addition to those in Sicily.
In reading the comments, it's amusing to see how the Dunning-Kruger effect applies to the assessment of history.
Sounds like a reverse uno card for what The axis attempted on Malta.
I'm surprised that they didn't put this clip in VICTORY AT SEA.
American manned Spitfires?
Yup my dad flew a MK V on one of these raids? He was with 333 15 AAF. My dad got the air metal for missing a tanker and accidentally sinking two torpedo boats on one of these raids. Lucky miss? My dad went on to fly the spit MK IX and then the P51. Early on American fighters just couldn't handle the BF 109 so we got loaners from the brits.
Let's see-- an island fortress that is utterly strategic to shipping & control of the Mediterranean, the Allies take it and immediately rebuild the runways, and 4 days later the Axis flys over and bombs the place UNOPPOSED! Oh, silly us, we didn't think they'd want it back so we weren't looking.
Too bad you can’t set the volume properly.
For christ sake turn up the sound !
Let's go strahfing ! Strafing the enemy is just so lowbrow.
There was no suicidal defense by the Italians. But they were smarter to surrender, stayed alive
wish they would have noted the Brit Division
wonderwall
fight fight fight then who ever wins say were the good guys
Thus the world is lucky that the Anglo-Americans are the good guys, that is the ones who win.
Yep, that’s the way it works.
tja
Do you think Britan or any other European Nation would fight a World War for us today as we did for them?... I doubt it very much...Can we get one of these bombardments for Portland and Seattle? BUCK FIDEN 2020
DUMP TRUMP 2020