6.Īfter meeting heavy opposition on Revisotto on Aug. That left Mount Revisotto and Mount Seggio, which were finally occupied Aug. Dougan led his platoon across a 300-metre stretch of open ground under continuous fire, led a charge on the enemy and captured the objective, earning a Military Cross. “He could hold his revolver only by gripping it in both hands,” one witness recalled. A senior officer and both platoon sergeants were killed the other senior officer was wounded. 5, the Canadians started their final assault.
While leading the forward platoon, Lieutenant John Dougan was wounded by machine-gun bullets in both arms and hands. “In the open, and under what seemed to his platoon murderous fire, he dressed the wounds of each of the three in turn, found cover for them, and carried and aided them to it.” Bullets were seen kicking up the dust along the line of his path” as he crawled about 300 metres to reach the wounded. “German fire appeared to centre around him. “To his comrades, the further advance of this soldier could only end in death, but to their amazement he continued on towards the wounded men,” reads his commendation for the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The mule train scattered, delaying support and supplies.Īs casualties mounted, Private John Low crawled out to help the wounded. Slowed by rocky ground too hard to allow digging of slit trenches, targeted by aircraft, machine-gun fire and mortars, the men sheltered under overhanging cliffs and behind rocks. But the Germans had reoccupied the peak and were ready for them. 3, the Edmonton Regiment started the advance up Hill 736. “In the open, and under what seemed to his platoon murderous fire, he dressed the wounds of each of the three in turn, found cover for them.” A mule train was formed to carry the battalion’s mortars, ammunition, machine guns and rations to support the attack. “There could be no assurance of safe passage for Allied troops along the river flats until they were denied to the enemy.”Ī patrol by the Edmonton Regiment met no enemy on July 31 when it reached the foot of the first obstacle, Hill 736.
“These three hills dominated the entire alley eastward from Regalbuto,” wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Nicholson in The Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945.
Jack H.Smith/Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada//PA-114511 At the beginning of August 1943, after nearly a month of hard fighting in Sicily, the Canadian advance was threatened by three mountains towering more than 300 metres above the Salso valley.
0 kommentar(er)
