2023-07-31 16:17:28
Time.news – Someone has his wife next to him, another a child in his arms, still others simply a face without a wrinkle: there is a faded black and white photo of each of the 480 Canadian soldiers resting in the Agira military cemetery, overlooking on the stretch of water Pozzillo which vaguely recalls the lakes of Canada: they are young and very young, fallen between Leonforte, Assoro and Agira, and they are the majority of the 562 Loyal “Eddies” who died 80 years ago in the Allied landing in Sicily, that Operation Husky which in 1943 gave way to the military defeat of Nazism.
Tjarco Schuurman, an imposing man of almost two meters, president of the D-Day Dodgers Foundation, has been looking for them one by one for three years, contacting the families who, surprised and happy, have pulled the forgotten shots out of the drawers.
This is how “Faces of Agira” was born, a project that travels on social networks to give a memory to de facto unknown soldiers, and which is deeply linked to the Wrap (Walking for Remembrance & Peace), the “path” that a group of Canadians, led by Steve Gregory, followed in the footsteps of the allied troops in July 1943, from Marzamemi and Pachino, places of the landing, to Adrano. A touching commemoration, to the sound of the Seaforth Highlanders’ bagpipes, closed the Wrap, which started on 10 July in Pachino.
Many people gathered at the Agira cemetery at sunset: after a first memory, a particular “greeting to the sun” by a Canadian soldier, a native of the Red Indian, the list of the fallen was read: for each name, an item, a distinction “present”. There was also Tony Loffreda, the only Canadian senator of Italian origin, who wanted to follow the whole “journey”. “Tjarco Schuurman gave them a face, we added a token of our memory,” said Gregory.
In three years, building an impressive network of contacts and volunteers also among the inhabitants of Assoro and Agira, Schuurman managed to combine 480 photos with the names of the fallen, of the more than 500 soldiers buried in this white cemetery. When asked how his request was received by the families of the fallen, Schuurman replies that “some did not even know that a relative of theirs had died in Sicily, but they still searched for the images in drawers and wardrobes. There are still about twenty photos missing, but we don’t stop.” In Marzamemi, 130 markers have been planted on the beach facing the sea, in memory of those who did not die in battle, but who fell during the landing operations or were part of the crews of aircraft shot down in Sicily.
In the night between 9 and 10 July 1943, more than 25,000 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Brigade of the Canadian Expeditionary Corps under the command of Major General Harry Crerar landed between Marzamemi and Pachino, in eastern Sicily. Scorching sun, very little drinking water, dusty roads: the Canadian volunteers are disoriented but proceed quite quickly towards the heart of the island and at first meet no resistance.
“The Americans march towards Palermo and the British cut the coast towards Catania: the Canadians remain in the center where they will find themselves engaged in the conquest of towns perched on the mountains, true German and Italian strongholds” recalls the historian Alfio Caruso. On 16 July the Loyal Edmontons enter Piazza Armerina, then Valguarnera, Enna, Assoro, Leonforte, Nissoria and finally Agira: it is the bloodiest battle, thousands will be the civilian victims under the bombings, and as many the soldiers of the two sides that remain on the ground, including a very high number of Canadians, now buried in the Agira military cemetery.
“My grandfather was an interpreter during the Second World War, we Dutch owe a lot to Canada – explains Tjarco Schuurman -. This is where I started from to give a face to these graves. We want to change the way we look at war: no bigger known heroes or stories, but simple soldiers, boys who left as volunteers because they believed in peace”.
It was the Canadians who built the first Bailey bridge in Europe under enemy fire: it was set up in just one night, between 21 and 22 July 1943, by the engineers of the Royal Canadian Engineers to cross the Strigilo gorge since the Germans had skip the only access road to the town of Leonforte, in the Enna countryside, the bridge over the Petrangelo stream on the SS121. To commemorate this battle and the very high number of victims of the various Canadian, Italian and German flags, a monument was inaugurated in Leonforte which reproduces the Bailey bridge which allowed the allies to conquer the town which housed the most important defensive line German.
“This monument – explains Gregory – is very important to us because it allows us to remember and leave a trace of the almost 600 Canadian soldiers who fell during Operation Husky”. The battle for the capture of Leonforte lasted three whole days, and pitted the 2nd Canadian Brigade with the divisional artillery against elements of the 15th Panzergrenadier – German Division supported by units of the 4th Livorno Division.
The Canadian Engineers tried several times to pass the Petrangelo ravine to reach the town, but they came under fire from German machine guns and mortars and lost many men: the few who managed to go up the gorge and pass, found themselves involved in fighting at the weapon, in the absence of radio communications, and they had the worst, while the population of Leonforte (especially women and children) had taken refuge in the railway tunnel: the civilian dead were 33, the youngest of 5 years, the most aged 61.
“The only possibility was to bring in the tanks which, however, could not overcome the valley: while the Loyal Edmontons were fighting outside the town, the sappers got to work under the command of the chief engineer, lieutenant colonel Geoff Walsh and install the first European Bailey bridge,” explains historian Angelo Plumari. is a modular iron and steel structure that is assembled and extended as it is built: as soon as a 3.05 meter long section is ready, it is pushed onto rollers and fixed to the next section, only in this way will it be able to support heavy loads. Only by passing over the bridge, the allied tanks will be able to reach and conquer Leonforte.
The Canadians will pay a high price: 57 dead and 105 wounded, including two Red Indian Seaforth Highlanders, the first of 50 volunteers from Canada’s native tribes. But many more were the fallen Italians and Germans: among them the second lieutenant Luigi Scapuzzi, decorated for military valor and other unknown people who rest in graves without a cross. The Leonforte Bailey bridge remains the first of a long series: during the Second World War more than 3,000 Bailey bridges were built in Italy alone, with a total length of 90 km, to replace the bridges destroyed by the Germans.
#Agiras #homage #Canadians #died #Landing