Monday 9 September 2013

16 DLI and the Salerno Landings


Though you would hardly know it from the BBC and much of the mainstream media's complete lack of coverage, today marks the 70th anniversary of the Salerno Landings, when 16 DLI and the rest of the British 46th Infantry Division went ashore on mainland Italy as part of the US Fifth Army in what was, to that date, the biggest ever amphibious operation.

Already on the web site are the following:

Photographs and documents relating to Major A E C Vizard, who led A Company 16 DLI into action on the first morning of the landings:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page302.html

'Prelude to Salerno', a 1945 poem about the landings by 16 DLI CSM W 'Jimmy' James:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page242.html

A copy of the beach head newspaper The Salerno Times, dated 16/9/43, which which was kept as a souvenir by Capt Gordon Harris of the Signal Platoon,16 DLI:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page284.html

Padre G Meek's memories of 16 DLI's Salerno Regimental Aid Post:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page88.html

And a brief potted history of the first days of 16 DLI's mainland Italy campaign:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page98.html