View (active tab) What links here ; Operation Roast. This lagoon (much smaller today due to land reclamation in the 1980s) is separated from the Adriatic Sea, to the east, by a narrow strip of land called a spit no more than 2 ½ kilometres wide with three canals linking the two bodies of water. Copyright © 2004-2020 Lava Development, LLC., all rights reserved, More on Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast, Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast Photo Gallery, See all 8 photographs of Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast. To achieve this we were to embark in the Fantails before dawn — each Fantail carried one platoon — to be transported across the lake to a small dry beach some 30 metres (100 yards) from the buildings whence to secure the bridge.

I'm afraid his training on a .5 browning consisted of being shown the position of the safety catch and trigger. By now we had the increasingly uneasy feeling that we — The Buffs — were being left to do the job on our own. What transpired is that No. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB. Others in the ward were talking of the war being over. Comacchio Group Royal Marines is based at Arbroath, Scotland and performs security duties for the Clyde Submarine Base and surroundings. The occasional shell or mortar was still falling near by — the splinters buzzed by us. I'm sure that I was not the only one who could not face the inevitable meat and vegetable stew for breakfast at 3.30am. ww2dbase West of Lake Comacchio, British V Corps launched Operation Impact Plain after sundown on 10 Apr 1945 to widen the area between the southern tip of Lake Comacchio and Fossa di Navigazione, also known as "The Wedge", expanding the territory gained with Operation Roast. 40 and 43 R.M. It is no longer possible to leave messages here. Day must have been! In the following very cold months war never came to an end. Did you enjoy this article? Smokers stayed in Neptune non smokers off to Coulport. Someone had a good supply of tracer! 850 heavy bombers and 700 medium bombers were used to support the Allied attacks that took place on this day. As we were about to move off it was reported to me that the machine-gunner member of my Fantail crew had gone ‘missing’ in the darkness. I know nothing of it, but I'm sure I missed a wonderful celebration. Now in the last 60m (200 yds) of our approach, in about half a metre (18 ins) of water, we travelled parallel to the flood bank of the canal, which was about 10m (30 yards) to our right. Viewed in the moonlight I felt that I was looking at a cemetery. By the late morning of 12 Apr, Indian troops also crossed the Santerno River. Then I got back to Ronnie Horton. Despite reassurances to the contrary we felt that our objective would be well defended, which would make the whole operation extremely chancy.

» Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast. Unfortunately, it did not have its usual effect.

I made my way back to the Fantails in an attempt to assemble any others, but I found only dead and wounded. It was only after Wally's repeated and anguished requests to me to ‘Think of Players, Sidney. The instrument of surrender was signed on the following day, and it would take effect on 2 May. Allied Operation Grapeshot was ordered to commence in northern Italy. Ah! British advances in northern Italy were held up at Bastia and the Fossa Marina canal, frustrated by the German 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment.

The Allied troops were exhausted from months of fighting in late 1944, and the first four months of 1945 were marked by intensive efforts to rebuild combat strength and morale. Peter Young DSO, MC, 2 Commando Detachment 13 Sep'41 for 7 months, BUCKMASTER, Eric, Memories of No 2 Commando, DIXON, Herbert, Memories of No 2 Commando, SAWYER, Alfred, Memories of No 2 Commando, Special Service Brigade, Group, & Signals. Operation Roast was a military operation undertaken by British Commandos, at Comacchio lagoon in north-east Italy, during the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, part of the Italian Campaign, during the final stages of Second World War. The following day, 3 April, Royal Engineers made serviceable the blown bridge and the Commandos moved over the canal, supported by tanks of the North Irish Horse. The operation carried the frontline forward seven miles.

3rd Carpathian Infantry Division of Polish II Corps captured Bologna, Italy with assistance from US 34th Division. Terms of Service apply. I returned to Wally to collect some of the morphia syrettes he carried. 2 jumped off as scheduled at 7:00 p.m. on April 1st, 1945 and lugged and tugged and humped their boats across the few inches of water topping a layer of oozy slime that comprised Lake Comacchio.

Please refrain from using strong language. WW2 People's War Homepage Archive ... Embarking across Lake Comacchio.

Against them were 21 German divisions (some of which were under-strength) and 4 Italian divisions; Axis fighting troops totaled about 400,000. ww2dbaseBritish 8th Army launched its attack first.

My mood of elation promptly evaporated, to be replaced by utter exhaustion, and I told the others to go on without me. Forum Index » Commando Event Anniversaries (WW2) Author Message; 01/04/2020 22:56:17 Subject: Battle of the Argenta Gap, Lake Comacchio, Italy. The World War II Database is founded and managed by After dawn on the 14th, since most of our group could not swim Wally sent me back to retrieve a damaged assault boat that we could see floating near by. The terrain for Operation Roast, Operation Impact Plain, and … http://www.geocities.com/vqpvqp/nih/narrative/italy36.html.

The German line has been fractured, and the Allies are through the Argenta Gap.

Operation Roast was an attack across Lake Comacchio to capture the spit of land between Lake Comacchio and the Adriatic Sea, from the River Reno to the Valetta canal, a distance of about 7 miles. HTML tags are not allowed. Comacchio Group in 1979. Tell us how you think we are doing. In March 1945 war moved to Massa, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Marshes of Comacchio and the Adriatic Sea.

The city of Argenta was situated in the middle of "The Wedge".

Fortunately, his reply to that gaffe was lost in the static. British troops commenced Operation Roast across Lake Comacchio in northern Italy. No. Fantails had been used twice previously in the past few days in similar operations. On 1 April 1945 the whole of 2nd Commando Brigade was engaged in the operation. Routed German defenders who had fled north, fell into the waiting Bren guns of 6 Troop. The next day was to prove me right, tragically right. Privacy Policy and

Battle of the Argenta Gap, Lake Comacchio, Italy, launched on the 1st April 1945 involving the whole of 2 Commando Brigade.

German 29th Panzergrenadier Division arrived in the Reno River area as reinforcement; earlier in the day, Adolf Hitler had rejected a request to withdraw German forces north of the Po River. It was then I saw an enormous furrow cut across the surface of the water alongside and thought, 'That's a high velocity round'. Well, not quite like that, I regret to say.

', and my reply, ‘They're all dead,’ did nothing to help matters. The 2nd Commando Brigade had succeeded in taking and clearing the entire spit, securing the eastern flank of Eighth Army. It was not until 5:00 a.m. the next morning that they landed on the opposite shore, approached the enemy from the rear and engaged in an attack on everything in a German uniform.

9 Commando initially made good progress until No.

A junction with a secondary canal seemed to offer possibilities, and from here C Company — now reduced to Wally, me and eight or nine others, plus two most willing German ‘prisoners’ — made its way across the floods in the darkness. Tell us how you think we are doing. It had been a cold night with an early morning mist. Having lost track of time I can only say sometime during the afternoon three Typhoons appeared and proceeded to beat the place up. From where I sat on the ramp of the Fantail I could see shells landing around the buildings of our objective. 2 Commando ‘fallen’ part of the Commando history. He had been inside Germany for some time and way out of touch. I doubt it they could do more than 0.5km an hour (3mph) when afloat and driven by the tracks. No. Troops of British Special Boat Service and Italian 28th Garribaldi Brigade captured islands in Lake Comacchio in northern Italy. US Fifth and British Eighth Armies reached the Po River north of Bologna, Italy. Our arrival in them would surprise no one, least of all 29th Panzer Division!

He had his problems, too, with a number of badly wounded men around him. The 78th and 56th Divisions of the British Eighth Army overcome the Fossa Marina, a canal running northeast from Argenta into Lake Comacchio, with a combination of land and amphibious assaults. 2, 40 and 43 Commandos all made their objectives relatively as expected although the Germans succeeded in blowing-up one bridge before it was captured by No.2 Commando. I appointed the Platoon Sergeant, the solid and dependable Ernie Hacker, to the job for the duration of the trip. There was little I could do for him. There followed immediately a shout from the American crewman, ‘They got tanks!’, and I saw what I took to be two tanks on the road along the shore line ahead of us. We could hardly have given the opposition a better opportunity to prepare for our arrival. 2 and No. This was followed by Operation Impact Plain on the 10/11th April at the southern tip of Lake Comacchio, and Operation Impact Royal on the 15/6th April at the Fessina Canal East of Argenta. 43 Commandos moved up to the bridges on the Bellocchio Canal, held by No.2 Commando. The Royal Naval Commandos were a commando formation of the Royal Navy which served during the Second World War.The first units were raised in 1942 and by the end of the war, 22 company-sized units had been raised to carry out various tasks associated with establishing, maintaining and controlling beachheads during amphibious operations. British troops attacked the area between the southern tip of Lake Comacchio and the Fossa di Navigazione, known as 'The Wedge', in northern Italy. In Italy, US IV Corps and British XIII Corps reached the Po River at San Benedetto and Ficarolo, respectively.

In this incomprehensible state I looked at the man lying next to me on the bank and saw that half his battle … I did not require two guesses to know what that meant! Another shout from the American crewman followed immediately, ‘The driver's dead!’ There was now considerable chaos inside the Fantail with casualties up at the mangled front end. The US 15th Air Force conducted its final bombing mission in Italy. 9 Commando captured 232.