Sicily August 11th (?) 1943

[Ruy Horta]

Just curious about a passage in Carlo D'Este's "Bitter Victory - The Battle for Sicily, 1943".

On page 481 (hard cover Dutton) there is mention of a battle between 8 Fw 190s and the USN off Brolo, Sicily, either on or around August 11th 1943.

What strikes me is a USN claim of all but one of the attackers shot down.

If true, this must have been a heavy blow to either Staffel or Gruppe involved.

Anyone able to shed more light on this event?

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Ruy,

The German unit involved was II./S.K.G. 10. Here are some details about 11 August 1943 from the research of Morten Jessen and I:

From 02:43 to 04:00 the American 2nd Battalion 30th RCT was landed at Caronia, 20 km west of Sant’ Agata, by one LST, two LCIs, and six LCTs, with Task Force 88 covering with the cruiser Philadelphia and six destroyers. The American troops landed at Brolo, seven kilometres east of Cap d’Orlando. The small force was heavily attacked by the Germans, but made contact with the main American force in the evening.

In the morning II./S.K.G. 10 received orders to attack warships on the east and north coasts of Sicily.

Two morning missions were flown by II./S.K.G. 10, both to Cap d'Orlando. A II./S.K.G. 10 pilot, Lt. Klaus Jost, was shot down by a Spitfire and taken prisoner during the unit's midday mission to Cap d'Orlando. The victor was probably from the 307th FS/31st FG.

At 16:56 FW 190s attacked Philadelphia, Bristol and Ludlow, who were providing fire support at Caronia. The warships manoeuvred quickly, and the bombs dropped narrowly missed them. The Americans claimed seven FW 190s shot down, including five for the cruiser Philadelphia, one for Ludlow, and one for an American fighter pilot, Capt. Baker of the 308th FS/31st FG, who claimed an FW 190 shot down at 16:40 at Cap Orlando.

Between 16:15 and 17:55 nine II./S.K.G. 10 FW 190s carried out a gliding attack on warships, dropping nine SC 250s. One FW 190 received a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire directly above an American cruiser. This aircraft burst into flames and crashed into the sea. The pilot of this aircraft was Fw. Günter Scheid, who crashed north of Cap d'Orlando and was posted missing. Uffz. Hans Rademacher was shot down and killed by Spitfires north of Cap d’Orlando.

Aside from Scheid, Rademacher and Jost, no other II./S.K.G. 10 pilots were lost on this day, and no other FW 190s were damaged or lost.

There will be lots more details in our book, The Focke-Wulf FW 190 in the Mediterranean.

Cheers,
Andrew A.

[Ruy Horta]

Thank you Andrew for the detailed description of the event I was curious about. Looks like you have another must have addition to my library in the making!

As suspected, the claim of 7 out of 8 attackers was too high. But the overclaim ratio seems rather high for ship vs aircraft claims. Since ships have to engage a/c at relatively close quarters, one would expect more "splash-claims", that means witnessing the crash.

Here there is only one clear ship kill - as in burn and splash - and the rest getting away (well, excl/ one shot down by an American fighter).

Would be interesting to learn more of the USN side of the battle, especially the events leading to these claims.

[NickM]

Ruy:

Well now...looks like Andrew beat me to it! I checked my rather dog eared copy of Brian Cull's 'Spitfires over Sicily' & it restates more or less the same info: II/SKG10: on August 10 they lost 3 Fws to US Spits & One to a SAAF Spit; on August 11 they lost another 3--two to US Spits & one to flak.


And I too am awaiting Andrew's next book too!


nickm

[bearoutwest]

As a minor side-track.....does anyone know of any books covering the Regia Aeronautica's use of the Dewoitine 520 over Sicily and Italy in 1943?

Regards.

[Ruy Horta]

Originally Posted by NickM

Well now...looks like Andrew beat me to it! I checked my rather dog eared copy of Brian Cull's 'Spitfires over Sicily' & it restates more or less the same info: II/SKG10: on August 10 they lost 3 Fws to US Spits & One to a SAAF Spit; on August 11 they lost another 3--two to US Spits & one to flak.

Nick,

D'Este didn't mention an air component so I never checked my copy of Cull. Did a quick mental check if I had something, thought of Hammel and Air war Europa, but dismissed it as an Air source as well.

That's the problem with too much info

Thanks!