Operation Devon - Special Forces in World War 2

October 3^rd, 1943 – October 8^th, 1943

Operation Devon

Objectives

Capture Termoli, and with it unhinging the German defensive position along the river Bifurno.

Operational Area

Termoli on the Adriatic coast, Italy

Unit Force

No. 3 Army Commando
No. 40 (RM) Commando
Special Raiding Squadron
Seaborne landing Brigadier B. Howlett’s 36^th Brigade and Brigadier N. Russell’s 38^th Brigade of the 78^th Infantry Division
Brigadier E. E. E. Cass’s 11^th Brigade of the 78^th Infantry Division supported by the 4^th Armoured Brigade.

Opposing Forces

1 Fallschirmjäger Division
16 Panzer Division

Operation

The capture of Termoli is entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel’s J. F. Durnford-Slater’s 1^st Special Service Brigade, comprising No. 3 Commando and No. 40 Royal Marine Commando supported by the 1^st Special Raiding Squadron with 207 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel R. B. Mayne. The assault force was to be reinforced by the seaborne arrival of two of the 78^th Division’s three brigades Brigadier B. Howlett’s 36^th Brigade and Brigadier N. Russell’s 38^th Brigade and the landward support of the 78^th division third organic component, Brigadiers E. E. E. Cass’s 11^th Brigade, supported by the 4^th Armoured Brigade.

The 8^th Army’s advance begins on October 1^st, 1943, and the 1^st Special Service Brigade sails on the following day. Preparatory air operations are frustrated by a week of bad flying weather. The light bombers are grounded during this period, but British and US Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk fighter-bombers of Air Vice Marshal H. Broadhurst’s Desert Air Force, and Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers of Major General James H. Doolittle’s North-West African Strategic Air Force are able on occasion to interfere with German troop movement on the roads linking Campobasso and Isernia, and in the battle for Termoli which now start the Allied air forces intervene effectively.

October 3^rd, 1943

The 1^st Special Service Brigade arrives off the coast of Termoli before dawn, No. 3 Commando and No. 40 (RM) Commando, and elements of the Special Raiding Squadron land behind the German lines at Termoli, a seaport town on the Adriatic coast, north of the Biferno River. No. 3 Commando lands first and secures the bridgehead without the knowledge of the enemy. The large landing craft in which No. 40 (RM) Commando and the Special Raiding Squadron would land struck on a sandbank which is not marked on the chart. Colonel Durnford-Slater asks a naval lieutenant who had come ashore with No. 3 Commando to bring them in with the smaller craft which brought No. 3 Commando in.

After landing No. 40 (RM) Commando penetrates well into the town before the Germans are alerted, and brisk close-quarter fighting with German 1 Fallschirmjäger Division ensues. By 08:00 the commandos have captured the town and control the approaches. The surprise is so big that the Kampf Gruppe commander, Major Rau is captured, in his pyjamas and his Kampf Gruppe is scattered.After capturing the town, the 1^st Special Service Brigade establishes a close perimeter around the town. During the morning patrols of the commandos make contact on the Biferno with the 2/Lancashire Fusiliers who are leading the overland force. Their movement has been delayed by the cratering of the roads, the demolitions of bridges and limited combat with German detachments. General Heydrich, the Commander of 1 Fallschirmjäger Division, ia able to slip out of the town on foot, leaving his car behind, a I939 Horsch. No. 3 Commando finds it, cleans it up, and presents it to Colonel Durnford-Slater. Throughout the morning, German supply lorries keep coming in from the north. No. 40 Commando ambushes twelve of these at a northern crossroad, greeting each vehicle with long Bren bursts until they run off the road and overturn, often in flames.

Heavy rains begin on October 3^rd, 1943, and continue for 18 hours, rendering all the area except for the roads impassable to vehicles, and both field and anti-tank guns are constantly bogged down. There is a small and low-capacity boat-bridge over the Biferno, but the Bailey bridging equipment, that hurriedly moves forward, does not arrive until October 4^th, 1943. Therefor the 11^th Brigade is occupied during October 3^rd, 1943, in crossing the Biferno in small groups. They are wading or using the boat-bridge and local boats.

By 12.00 on October 3^rd, 1943, the Kampf Gruppe Stempel and Kampf Gruppe von Döring, of the 16^th Panzer Division, are each moving toward Termoli. Shifted suddenly from the Volturno river front both units suffer from fuel shortages because of air attacks. Both Kampf Gruppen find it difficult to make effective progress towards their new front. Kampf Gruppe Schulz meanwhile drew in its left-hand troops to the northern side of the Biferno, where the ridge of the Monte di Coccia looks over Termoli.

October 4^th, 1943

During the night the 36^th Brigade disembarks and lands at Termoli. The planned operations for October 4^th, 1943, are that the 11^th Brigade and 1^st Special Service Brigade hold the bridgehead at Termoli while the 36^th Brigade clears the Coccia ridge and then advances toward Guglionesi, twelve kilometres to the south-west. They were unaware of the approach of 16^th Panzer Division and saw no problem in breaking out of the secure bridgehead around Termoli.

While the 36^th Brigade begins to probe the Coccia ridge and crosses the Sinarca stream to the north-west of Termoli on October 4^th, 1943, Kampf Gruppe Stempel, based on one Panzergrenadier battalion, is arriving at Petacciato on the north. Kampf Gruppe von Döring, based on two Panzergrenadier battalions, does the same at San Giacomo to the west of the Coccia ridge. During the battle that evolves that day neither of the two sides gains any advantage and gives no particular gain to either side. The British do deduce that a large German force, probably armoured, is entering the battle, while their own armour and all but a few anti-tank guns are on the wrong side of the river Biferno. By the evening of that day British engineers are working on a tank ford and a Bailey bridge to bring them across.

October 5^th, 1943

Howlett orders his 8/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the night to renew the attack on San Giacomo. Howlett is very anxious to use the armour in support since these can probably move on the higher, drier ground. Six Sherman tanks of 3/County of London Yeomanry cross early on the October 5^th, 1943, by means of the newly completed ford, but in the process cause so much damage that no other armour can reach the northern bank for that day.

Early in morning of October 5^th, 1943, the infantrymen of the 8/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders find themselves, with very few anti-tank guns, in a dangerous position near the Valentino brickworks outside Termoli. On this same morning, three companies of the 2^nd Panzerregiment of the Kampf Gruppe Stenckhoff, totalling some 20 Panzerkampfwagen IV battle tanks, appear on the battlefield. With the support of this armour, Kampf Gruppe Stempel and Kampf Gruppe von Döring attack towards San Valentino and the Goccia ridge, threatening the 36^th Brigade in the proces. Four Sherman tanks are knocked out and the 8/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who suffer 162 casualties, are pressed slowly back toward Termoli. On the 8/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ flank six German Panzer IV tanks, on the Goccia ridge, overrun a part of the 6/Royal West Kent. With it they create a gap between the 6/Royal West Kent and the 5/Buffs. With the help of the infantry of the Kampf Gruppe von Döring they force back both battalions. At the same time, Kampf Gruppe Stempel, on the German left, closes on Termoli.

However, at 15.00 the Bailey bridge is finally completed, and the 3/County of London Yeomanry quickly crosses the river. Forward with the 36^th Brigade, Major General Vyvyan Evelegh commander of the 78^th Infantry Division orders a counterattack, and the combination of the 3/County of London Yeomanry and the 5/Buffs re-establishes the positions on the Goccia ridge. At the same time the 11^th Brigade and 1^st Special Service Brigades hold the bridgehead to the north-west of Termoli. By now the Germans are exhausted, while having gained little more than three kilometres in two days of heavy fighting. The 16^th Panzer Division has suffered 126 casualties and 108 men sick by now.

On October 5^th, 1943, more reinforcements reach the British lines. In the afternoon two squadrons of Sherman tanks of the Canadian Three Rivers Regiment arrive overland, and during the evening the 38^th Brigade is delivered by sea. On the same day, moreover, the fighter-bombers of Major General Edwin J. House’s US XII Air Support Command are diverted to the 8^th Army’s front to support the efforts of the Desert Air Force.

October 6^th, 1943

Major General Evelegh orders a general counterattack, and this started to turn the tables by noon on that same day. At 16.35 Herr sanctions a withdrawal to the north-west.

October 7^th, 1943 – October 8^th, 1943

The 78^th Infantry Division pushes forward to the town of Larino in the south and toward Petacciato on the coast.

Aftermath

Operation Devon cost over five hundred casualties on each side. The 1^st Special Service Brigade alone suffers three officers and twenty-nine other ranks killed, seven officers and seventy-eight other ranks are wounded, and one officer and twenty-two other ranks are missing.

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