Such attacks kept gunners at Gela on edge. On the ground, he removed his helmet and banged it against a tank hull to alert the crew to stop firing on the planes.īombs explode and anti-aircraft fire streaks skyward during a German attack on US ships at Gela on June 12. Under intense fire from friendly guns, Tucker and his paratroopers jumped. After a confused conversation between him and the pilot, the plane made a U-turn to fly back toward Gela. Reuben Tucker was aboard a C-53 that began to disintegrate before reaching the shoreline. “We shot down many planes but had no knowledge of whose they were,” Poulin said.
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“We did not know paratroop planes were coming.” Poulin went on to say that ships had orders “to elevate guns at 75 degrees and fire when attacked.” Crews in the gun tubs aboard the Leonard Wood sent their volleys of fire soaring skyward without seeing their targets. Maurice Poulin, a coast guard seaman 1st class who manned a 20mm gun on the troop transport USS Leonard Wood (APA 12), calls the blame a “bum rap.” “We had been under attack by German dive bombers,” he says. Other scared gunners on shore and aboard ships sent volleys of fire lofting into the night sky.Īccusations would later descend on the gunners like artillery fire. When the next formation appeared over the shoreline, a never identified nervous gunner on the beach began shooting. These would be the only airborne soldiers to float down safely to the correct drop zone. The first two formations of transport planes followed their prescribed course and discharged their paratroopers squarely on target. Ridgway, the 82nd Airborne Division commander, had sent the 505th Parachute Infantry floating down over Gela safely a day before the incident that shredded the 504th. Instead, fellow Americans would kill many of Tucker’s men in the greatest friendly fire disaster in American history. But as darkness Infantry Regiment were scheduled to make up a second attack wave, jumping into the harbor city of Gela from C-47 Skytrains and C-53 Skytroopers (C-47s customized for parachute operations). Twin-engine aircraft of similar appearance in these briefings included the C-47 and German Junkers Ju 88 bomber. Gunners aboard the ships had been shown recognition slides to help them distinguish aircraft types.
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Approaching the armada of Allied ships offshore from Gela, Pitzer and other transport pilots flew in V formations of nine planes each. “It was radio silence and lights out,” said Pitzer. Pitzer remembers cruising at 400 feet, the altitude at which drops were made. On the night of the 11th, the C-47s and C-53s lifted off from unpaved, dust-strewn runways around Kairouan, Tunisia, and flew toward Sicily. Incredibly, naval commanders told Ridgway the navy could not guarantee the safety of his force. But many of the ships’ crewmen insist to this day that they never saw the order. An order was issued to ensure that ships would be informed about the paratrooper transport planes passing overhead. One hundred forty-four C-47s and C-53s would carry the soldiers of Tucker’s 504th. A second drop, initially planned for the 10th, was hastily rescheduled for the 11th. He concluded that a second airdrop was unnecessary, but by then the momentum was unstoppable. Ridgway, considered too old to parachute, reached Sicily by sea. German aircraft spent the day attacking the invasion fleet, fraying gunners’ nerves. Several transport planes were lost, but that gave no hint of what was to come.Īmphibious landings started in the morning. Ridgway, thus launched the first-ever significant combat parachute assault by Americans. The 82nd Airborne Division, commanded by Major General Matthew B.
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The operation was codenamed Husky, the Invasion of Sicily, and it began on the night of July 9–10, with Pitzer and 226 other pilots dropping 2,200 paratroopers of Colonel James Gavin’s 505th Parachute Infantry into Gela. Now, 2,000 paratroopers of Colonel Reuben Tucker’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment were scheduled to make up a second attack wave, jumping into the harbor city of Gela from C-47 Skytrains and C-53 Skytroopers (C-47s customized for parachute operations). Dorr)Ī day earlier, July 10, 1943, the Allies had landed 170,000 troops at Sicily in the largest amphibious operation to that point in history. Colonel Reuben Tucker saw his 504th Parachute Infantry shot to pieces by friendly fire on July 11, 1943, as the unit approached Gela, Sicily, for a jump.