West Point ’41: The Class That Went to War and Shaped America

7 | Jump Time in Sicily

66 7 Jump Time in Sicily The ultimate success of the North African campaign cleared the way for Allied Forces to aim for the stepping-stone leading to Italy—the enemy-held island of Sicily. Securing Sicily would not only eliminate an Axis stronghold but open up Allied routes to the eastern Mediterranean and help destabilize Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. From the shores of Sicily, mainland Italy was a stone’s throw away, only a couple of miles distance. The Allied invasion of Sicily, labeled Operation Husky, was to include the first large-scale airborne invasion in history. General “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin’s protégé, paratrooper Jack Norton, was front and center in that effort, serving as a battalion executive with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne. The goal was for airborne forces to drop behind the beaches near the city of Gela, on Sicily’s southern shore, where General Patton’s Seventh Army was to land. Airborne forces were to knock out enemy pillboxes and communications, confuse the enemy as to the location of landing forces, and block the roads into Gela to protect the beachhead. At the same time the British would prepare for Field Marshal Montgomery’s Eighth Army to land to the east, around the southern tip of the island from Seventh Army objectives. There was ample moonlight on the night of July 9, 1943, as planes from the 82nd Airborne took off from Algeria at approximately 10 p.m. They were heading three hours east toward Sicily, embarking on a complex airborne route to avoid friendly fire from Allied ships in the Mediterranean. But the winds were picking up as they took off, “Mussolini winds” as some dubbed them.1 By the time Norton’s plane reached Sicilian air space, he had to contend with gale force winds whipping up to forty knots. Norton was serving as jumpmaster, responsible for combat jump procedures , proper rigging, plane exits, and more. The enemy fire began as his men were preparing to jump. These are dangerous conditions, he worried, high winds and enemy fire. Kazel-Wilcox - West Point.indb 66 3/19/2014 5:40:10 PM jump time in sicily ★ 67 But the paratroopers were out the door. What happened next was out of Norton’s control. Almost as soon as his chute opened, Norton hit the ground. He was stunned. He looked around. This doesn’t look anything like what we studied on the maps. He scanned the scenery, noticing high rock walls. No one in their right mind would plan a drop by walls. Realized Norton: We’ve been dropped in the wrong place! The planes had either been blown off course or been outright erroneous in their navigation. Norton quickly discovered that many men had landed directly on the walls, suffering broken necks, legs, and arms upon impact. Only a fraction survived the jump. Those who survived now had to contend with the enemy. Norton and other officers quickly established a temporary command post. From there, Sergeant Freeland, a linguist who spoke Italian, headed off on reconnaissance to scope out where they were. Within thirty minutes, he and Norton took to a road they thought resembled one on the maps they had studied. Norton crept along one side of the road, Freeland the other. They moved methodically, carefully, till they heard voices. Norton thought he could make out some of the words. He whispered, “Get down!” to Freeland. The two men got down on their knees. Then Norton attempted a sign-countersign to determine if the voices were those of Allied Forces: “George.” He hoped for the reply, “Marshall.” Instead came, “Marshall, hell!” A stream of machine-gun tracer bullets tore through the night skies. Bullets clipped the strap of Norton’s helmet; more bullets knocked the epaulets off his shoulder. Norton and Freeland grabbed hand grenades, each lobbing one about fifty feet in the direction of the enemy. The resulting pyrotechnics unveiled the enemy in pillboxes. The whole area was surrounded by barbed wire. Norton and Freeland were trapped. They each unloaded a second hand grenade into the pillbox area. Then they ran, hurdling the barbed wire in a race for their lives. They didn’t stop running till they got back to their command post. Despite the fiasco, Norton and other airborne forces took on the enemy from wherever they had landed. The enemy was even more confused than the Americans, with forces coming at them from all...