The advance of the 78th Division beyond the Simeto valley was in no way easier than before: only one road was available along the western slopes of Mount Etna. On either side of it, there was lava, making it quite impossible to deploy guns or vehicles off the road. The cunning Boche made the best possible use of these difficulties, cratering the road at frequent intervals in difficult places and covering the craters with fire from artillery, mortars and snipers.
To add to our troubles, all the big towns, such as Aderno, Bronte and Randazzo, were extremely heavily bombed by the British and American Air Forces and reduced to rumble, filling up the narrow roadways with debris and making passage impossible without extensive clearing by bull dozers and road gangs. A good many mines, both anti-tank and anti-personnel, were encountered, particularly during the final stages. Owing to the cratering, forward units had to operate with their supplies and baggage mule-borne.
By this time, it was perfectly obvious to all that the Boche was clearing out of Sicily as rapidly as possible at the same time evacuating his tanks, vehicles and equipment. His technique in imposing delay on us was excellent and he had built up such a concentration of “flak” across the Straits of Messina that it was extremely hazardous for our aircraft to attempt to deny the passage of his ships and ferries to the mainland.
On 11th August, the Battalion moved up to Bronte in Motor Transport carrying all its gear with it and debussed at the Brigade mule point, transferring all loads to the mules at once. The Battalion having been put in its assembly area, the rest of the day was spent on reconnaissance and preparing for action.
The situation was that the Brigade was held up at Mount Rivoglia and to the west of the road with the enemy established on Maletto mountain.
The Brigade plan for a night attack on Mount Maletto, with the London Irish on the right and the “Faughs” on the left, supported by a moving artillery barrage. We were to later to clear Maletto village and the “Skins” were then to move down the road to Randazzo.
At 7pm, the Argylls moved off to cover our forming up and, at 1030pm, the Battalion itself moved off. A few shells fell on the road as we moved up and Mount Macherone was heavily mortared but no one was hit. We had a bright moon to aid us and we found little difficulty in forming up with plenty of time in hand.
At 230am on 12th August, the barrage came down and the leading Companies moved off. C Company (Lt HCP Hamilton) was on the right and A Company (Major PJ Proctor) on the left. The barrage was well put down and enabled A Coy and C Coys to get right up to the foot of the hill before fire was opened.
Luck was on the side of C Company for they struck a weak spot in the defences and got onto their objective without opposition. A Company had quite a struggle, however, and had to battle their way through most persistent enemy posts and it was not until day light that both company objectives had been gained. Battalion HQ now established itself in a house half way up the mountain with B and D Companies in reserve. As soon as things had quietened sufficiently, the mules were sent for; they got up with some 3-inch Mortars and MGs but had some casualties on the way.
From now on, for the whole of the remainder of the way, the Battalion positions was plastered with all the mortar bombs, shells and bullets, the Boche could lay their hands on. It was most unpleasant and, for many days thereafter, men were picking pieces of rock and metal out of their skin.
Early on, a counter attack was put in but didn’t manage to catch A Company bending and suffering heavily in consequence. Nothing could be seen of the London Irish, wireless touch had been lost and the enemy was still intact on their objective; soon these posts began to worry us considerably, bringing MGs to bear on us from a number of places which it was difficult to spot. It later transpired that the London Irish had encountered appalling ground conditions, chiefly lava and undergrowth, with high stone walls and deep drops and, except for one Company, had been unable to reach their start line before daylight. Very heavy fire swept the open ground, which they had to cross to reach the hill and they just couldn’t make it in daylight.
As the day wore on, enemy fire increased and accurate sniping began to take its toll; Paul Hamilton and Lieutenant Finlay were wounded but remained on duty until dark. No movement from the rear to the Battalion was possible and, to add to our difficulties, firing started from Maletto village below us on the western side of our mountain.
At 4pm, after a good dousing with artillery fire, D Company (Lieutenant OFP Jewell) was ordered to clear the town. Under cover of 2 inch and 3 inch Mortar, smoke and small arms fire, the Company got into the village. Several small battles occurred but it was not long before prisoners began to roll in.
It was during this phase that a most amusing, and at the same heroic, incident took place, which cannot be allowed to pass untold.
While clearing up the village outskirts, Lieutenant Fielding and a party of stalwarts, including Fusilier Swain DCM (of Tanngoucha fame) saw ten Boche running off towards a railway embankment. Hotly pursuing, Lieutenant Fielding’s party soon came up with them. Fusilier Roberts crawled forward and scattered the party with grenades and then, armed with a pistol, calmly gave chase to two of them. Having fired off all his rounds and thrown his grenades without avail and in desperation he hurled a large rock, catching his man on the back of the neck; this was too much for the Bosche, who was promptly captured.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Fielding’s party had split up and Fielding found himself under fire from an MG 34 in a culvert under the railway. Seizing a rifle, he placed his shots so accurately that the gun stopped firing and enabled him to dash across the railway and get within grenade range. Although quite alone, he now threw his grenades into the culvert and, running up, held up the Boche inside with his now empty rifle. An Unteroffizier and five Boche crawled out after a bit of parleying and were disarmed and marched off by Fusilier Roberts and others who came doubling up. In this little scrap, all ten Boche were either shot or captured for a loss of two of ours.