Sunrise Bridge MTO (id:#57427)

Critical Hit (Platoon Leader 2.0 ID: PL2#1)   [next]   [previous]

Primosole Bridge, near Highway 114, Sicily 1943-07-14 (11 others)

No balance information available

Overview:

CAMPAIGN GAME WITH 6 CG DATES ---- When news of the costly success at Ponte Grande Bridge and the capture of Syracuse reached the 1st and 2nd Parachute Brigades in Tunisia, plans for the employment of the 2nd Para Brigade to drop near Augusta were cancelled. Instead, the 1st Parachute Brigade received the order confirming their assault on the Primosole Bridge. The attack, aimed at securing the Allied line of advance to Catania, was to take place the night of the 13th. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions enplaned in 105 Dakota and eleven Albermarle aircraft while Waco and Horsa gliders were towed in. Italian and German AA gunners fired at the low flying aircraft as they came in. Ten planes turned back and thirty-seven crashed into the sea. Of the 1,900 men of the 1st Parachute Brigade debarked, only about 250 men reached Primosole Bridge. Earlier in the same day, men of the German 1st Fallschirmjaeger Division had flown from Rome and parachuted into the same area. Bridge defense under Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson consisted of three anti-tank guns, two 3-in mortars, light machine guns and a Vickers machine gun. A group of Fallschirmjaegers were rallied to evict the Red Devils from the Primosole Bridge.

Defender: Italian / German (Elements of XVI Italian Corps, Kampfgruppe Schmalz and 3rd Fallschirmjaeger Regiment)  

Errata (source)