"Why go back to the sea? We just got here. Do you know who

those bastards are? The Hermann Goering Division.

We beat their asses in North Africa and

we're going to do it again!"

General Theodore Roosevelt

"Retreat? Hell, no. They haven't overrun our beach yet."

1st Division Commander Terry Allen

"I question whether any other U.S. division could have repelled

that charge in time to save the beach from tank penetration.

Only the perverse Big Red One with its no less perverse

commander was both hardened and experienced enough

to take that attack in stride."

II Corps Commander Omar Bradley

General George S. Patton awoke from a troublesome slumber forty-five minutes before the Invasion of Sicily began and worked his way onto the deck of his command ship, the Monrovia. The new flag of the Seventh Army flew proudly from the halyard. The first of Patton's forces, whose motto had become "Born at Sea - Baptized in Blood," were landing on Sicily. Reflecting on the moment, Patton wrote in his diary, "Despite my own anxiety, the Italians must be scared to death."

Aboard the Ancon, II Corps commander Omar Bradley had gingerly climbed his way to the bridge around midnight. During the five-day passage to Sicily's shores, Bradley developed hemorrhoid pain that forced local surgery by the ship's doctors. While the Ancon pitched in the clambering seas caused by the summer storm, Bradley was down below recovering and as he remembered, "feeling worse than he had ever felt in his life." Now, with just a few hours of sleep, he watched the start of the Invasion, and anxiously revealed in his own words, "I could exercise no control whatsoever. Until the division commanders landed and put in their communications, we had to bunk aboard the Ancon trusting God and the Plan."

General Terry Allen ordered the initial wave of 1st Division soldiers into their assault boats a little before 2:00 AM on the morning of July 10th. Due to the immediate effectiveness of the Navy's big guns, Allen could already see fires along the Gela plains. By 2:30 Lieutenant Colonel Bill Darby's Ranger Battalion hit the beaches and, after knocking out two Italian coastal batteries with daring speed, they marched on the town of Gela itself. Allen ordered Darby's specially trained troops to draw the attention of the Italians away from the expansive parts of the beach three miles eastward, where he directed the 16th and 26th Infantry units to make the main assaults.

Darby's mission was accomplished brilliantly, but not without a toll to his forces. While the 16th and 26th met little initial resistance at the beach, Darby's Ranger's were quickly counterattacked by enemy rifle power, machine guns and light tanks. By dawn an entire platoon had been wiped out. Unknown to the Italians, however, their quick success was soon to be rebutted by the full fury of one of the most elite American fighting units of World War II.

Darby's men retaliated in the early morning hours. As Italian armor continued to advance on his Rangers, Colonel Darby personally took up a machine gun position in front of several of the approaching tanks and held the attackers at bay. Then, just as another tank veered towards his command post, Darby ran over to assist one of his captains in manning a captured anti-tank gun. Using the enemy's own weapon against them, the attacking tank was blown apart. Two hundred Italian soldiers surrendered within minutes while others retreated. By mid-morning Darby's Rangers occupied Gela. Two days later, Patton pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on Darby and offered him a promotion to full Colonel. Darby declined, knowing that it would take him away from his cherished Rangers.

Allen's diversionary strategy had worked beautifully. While Darby's men distracted the Italian coastal defenders, other mainly "second-line" troops tried in vain to hold off the 16th and 26th Infantry landings down the beach. The biggest ruckus occurred before the soldiers hit the sand when shore-based searchlights shined on some incoming landing craft. But, as George Patton had promised Eisenhower while he watched the 1st Division's practice landings back in Arzew, the lights were doused by incoming naval fire. The 1st's principal resistance on the beach was limited to Italian pillbox and machine gun detachments that were swiftly taken out. By 5:00 AM flashes reached the Monrovia and the Ancon, indicating the 1st Division was ashore.

At sunrise Terry Allen became the first US general on Sicilian soil when he established the Division's Advance Command Post in a grove of lemon trees on Gela Beach. While additional men and materiel flowed onto the Fortress of Sicily, Allen ordered elements of the 16th across the beaches into the hill masses beyond the bordering roadway. They quickly started tearing apart communication lines, disrupting telephone contact between the defending Italian divisions. Teddy Roosevelt's 26th Infantry overran several Italian battalions that retreated as quickly as their counterparts in the 16th's zone just a mile away. Roosevelt had reconnaissance patrols in the hills by early morning looking for Germans.

While Darby's Rangers and the 16th and 26th Infantries of the 1st Division established their fragile beachhead, Pfc. Baummer and the rest of the 18th Infantry waited in floating reserve for an assignment. Yet, while relegated to cruising back and forth off the Gela shore, the men were actually in the best seats to watch the Invasion of Sicily unfold.

The quick infantry success in landing was partially offset by the sorrowful tale of the 82nd Airborne landings. The one plane crash Pfc. Baummer witnessed in the early morning hours left the story of the other 265 C-47s transporting Colonel James Gavin's 3,045 member paratrooper combat team to Sicily unfinished. Like the infantrymen of the 1st Division, Gavin's men were not told what their mission was until moments before their "Gooney-Bird" transports took off from Tunisia on the evening of July 9th. Only then did they receive their Order of the Day:

Tonight you embark upon a combat mission for which our people and the free people of the world have been waiting for two years.

You will spearhead the landing of an American force upon the island of SICILY. You have been given the means to do the job and you are backed by the largest assemblage of air power in the world's history.

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of every American go with you.

The term American Parachutist has been synonymous with courage of a high order. Let us carry the fight to the enemy and make American Parachutists feared and respected through all his ranks. Attack violently. Destroy him wherever found.

I know you will do your job. Good landing, good fight, and good luck.

Colonel Gavin

Gavin received the word earlier that, despite the high winds aloft, the Invasion was still on. Therefore, his assignment was still on. His orders were to get every paratrooper onto Sicily. As Gavin later said, "No one would be returned. If a pilot or jumpmaster could not locate the exact drop zone, the troops would jump and fight the best way they could."

Gavin's jumpers were earmarked to land in four zones behind Gela Beach. Their principal mission was to block any enemy movement from reserve positions behind Gela towards the beaches where the 1st Infantry would be vulnerable to a counterattack. After years of planning airborne assault strategies and more years of training his men in the tactics of their work, Gavin would soon see his first important mission of World War II deteriorate into chaos not because of his men, but because inexperienced airmen flying the C-47s got lost on their way to Sicily.

Navigating the ninety miles across the Mediterranean from Tunis to Gela Beach should have been easy for the Troop Carrier Wing shuttling Gavin's forces to war. From their points of departure they were suppose to first fly a straight line to the small, but identifiable island of Linosa, pass over it, then maintain the same heading until they reached Malta, which had been lit up that night as a navigational aid for the pilots. Once they shot over Malta, the "Gooney-Birds" had been instructed to make ninety-degree turns to the left and then dead reckon for the landing zones.

Lack of experience and crosswinds changed everything. Many of the pilots were flying their first mission. There were no radio signals to home in on. Sophisticated navigational aids and instrumentation that would guide pilots in the future did not exist on the evening of July 9, 1943. Failing to calculate drift angles that would counter the offsetting direction of the strong winds and keep them on course, many of the C-47s missed Malta entirely. Confused, disoriented and undoubtedly experiencing sweating palms, many of the navigators could not fix their locations. The usual V-formations simply did not exist, so a lost pilot could not get reoriented by merely finding several other planes that knew where they were headed and join them in their flight paths.

Near bedlam proliferated as the already scattered transports began to encounter enemy aircraft and started taking hits from ground to air missiles. Eight were shot down and even Gavin's plane was jolted before he jumped off. Now in near panic, the commanders demanded the pilots just get them close to land so they could turn on the green lights and tell their men to jump.

Gavin's men were scattered over a thousand square miles in several undefined zones on Sicily by the time they landed between midnight and 1:00 AM on D-Day. Many of the paratroopers dropped into the British landing sites on the eastern part of the island while others fell west of Gela where the 45th Division was slated to come ashore. Amazingly, with the exception of a few broken bones, nearly all of Gavin's men landed safely.

While their dispersed locations obviated their initial mission to protect the 1st Division from counterattack, Gavin's men carried out the spirit of their Order of the Day. In Carlo D'Este's record of the Sicilian Invasion, the account of the 505th on May 9th and 10th was: "They quickly discovered that by assuming a guerilla role they were able to raise havoc all over southeastern Sicily. The tough training given to this elite force now began to pay enormous dividends as they demonstrated their ability to disrupt an enemy force. Enemy patrols were ambushed, telephone lines cut, weapons captured and turned on the enemy, leaving most convinced they were being attacked by a massive force that was all around them."

However, there was one small contingent of Gavin's men that did land near their target zone and they were determined to carry out their mission. Early intelligence reports gathered about Sicily showed the tactical importance of controlling a road junction around Piano Lupo behind Gela Beach. Left in control of the enemy, it would provide the most direct route to the beachhead and expedite the expected counterattack on the 1st Division. The junction also provided unrestrained access to a secondary road leading to the nearby Ponte Olivo airfield, whose capture was also assigned to the Big Red One.

With only fifteen paratroopers in position, control of the intersection appeared hopeless. Yet, in the middle of the night as the 1st Division was just crawling onto the beaches, this small contingent of Captain Edwin A. Sayer's Company A encountered an Italian strongpoint near the junction and came face-to-face with the machine gunners who had fired up at them before their chutes collapsed on Sicilian soil. Although uncertain about the size of the forces against him, Sayer ordered his men to attack. Personally leading the initial strike, Sayre "carried his carbine in his right hand, a grenade in his left and another between his teeth." His first charge did not dislodge the enemy, but undaunted and soon reinforced by additional forces, Sayre's men struck again with their arsenal of grenades and two 60-mm. mortars. When the dust settled, a door had been blown off the Italian bunker where the enemy was holed up. Sayer quickly threw one of his grenades through the open passageway and within minutes fifty men threw up their arms and surrendered.

Sayer's efforts led to more than merely establishing control of the important road junction standing between the enemy reserve units and the 1st Division. In addition to confiscating twenty machine guns and nearly a half million rounds of ammunition, he bagged the first Germans on Sicily. After some interrogation, Sayer was able to identify ten of his prisoners as a unit of the Hermann Goering Division. The discovery of the Germans was quickly passed along, leaving little doubt at Terry Allen's command post about the identity of the counter attackers poised to strike at Gela Beach.

Meanwhile, back on his LCI, Pfc. Baummer continued to witness the unfolding of the Invasion. Before dawn brought its first light to the Gela beaches, he experienced sensations and saw actions that made him wish he were a painter. War and beauty are an oxymoron, yet to those who thrive on battle, the picture depicted in the early morning hours of July 10th was both glorious and terrifying. As war correspondent Jack Belden described it:

"I was caught up in some inner turmult at the magnificence of the scene before me. The whole panorama was one of the most purely spectacular I had seen in many years of war. As if all the army, navy and air ministers of the world had combined to produce it, the whole terrible, logical culminating menace of modern industry, the whole theater of war - a very World's Fair of War - land, sea, air lay here before me in all its gigantic, splendid, overwhelming meaningless. The hallow bowl of the sea formed by the descending twilight was filled with ships of every conceivable tonnage, size and purpose. The rim of the horizon ten miles out to sea was lined with transports ...... majestic assurance that our supply lines were still intact. And from the transports, tiny craft, like water bugs, were scooting toward the shore to add their own heaped-up loads and the chattering of their own roaring engines to the riot of confusion already on the beach. Above this scene planes dove and rolled. Below them the flames of a burning oil tanker out at sea and the landing craft near at hand lifted up their scarlet hands, tingeing the gray ships and the olive vehicles and the drab uniforms and the dull sand and the green bushes with ghostly quality. I was stifling with the harsh and menacing opulence of it, sick and fainting with the movement and vast indigestibility of it all. The whole thing seemed utterly impossible."

Yet it was up to the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division to make victory possible. Pfc. Baummer saw what Jack Belden eloquently depicted, but Belden's words did not describe what he was personally feeling. He watched the explosion of guns all around him as the Navy continued to throw big bursts out of their 16-inch cannons towards the shoreline. He swallowed the bile building up in his stomach and prayed the blasts landed beyond the edge of the beach where thousands of his comrades were going ashore.

As dawn approached, he started scanning the flashing sky above him for enemy planes. Bobbing in circles in landing craft, the 18th Infantry should have been sitting ducks for the German and Italian air forces. But, with the exception of a few enemy fighters, the defenders of Sicily flew only sporadic missions until later in the day. Suddenly Pfc. Baummer flashed back to Tunis and remembered listening to all those sorties as they flew off to bomb the hell out of the Sicilian strongpoints. As sick as he felt, he wished he had a glass of Oran wine he could toast those guys with.

Then, just as he was about to raise his hand in a mock tribute, a lone German fighter came out of the early morning sun and dove down on a Field Artillery landing craft that had just beached itself. The first hit came in on the deck just above the white diamond that was painted on the LST's (landing ship for tanks) side. Within seconds, Pfc. Baummer saw a "deuce and a half" explode and erupt into flames. Then the entire LST erupted into a violent torch, sending beams of shooting sparks everywhere, igniting pieces of the ship and flinging fragments into the air. Then the stored ammunition blew up. Men ran from the ship as fast as they could. Some escaped off the bow ramp, which had fortunately been put down just before the bomber struck. Others jumped onto lower decks, breaking legs and arms. Some simply jumped overboard and landed in the safe refuge of the water only to discover the strong undercurrent wanted to carry them away from the shore. The survivors joined hands in a human lifeline that eventually pulled the shocked and exhausted soldiers to the beach. Pfc. Baummer then watched another LST courageously approach the burning inferno, running its bow right into the fantail of the dying vessel so other soldiers could get off before being burned to death. Then suddenly it was over. The rescuing LST pulled away while the charred remains of the victim of the sole enemy plane at Gela Beach was aglow to the waterline. Everything was lost except for some of the howitzers that had previously been brought to shore by other amphibious landing craft.

D-Day in Sicily was destined to be handicapped by the absence of tanks and air support. But, as we shall see, there was an abundance of courage on the Gela beaches supported by an incredibly determined United States Navy which more than compensated for the late arrival of armor or aircraft.

The morning pressed on and, as it did, the sights on the beaches grew bleaker. General Bradley later counted 200 assault craft lying at the beach edge. Their cargo of 1st Division soldiers was safely ashore, but the LCIs were dead, many with their engines burnt-out from pushing hard into the sandbars. Others were hurled in on the surge of crashing waves and were thrown sideways onto the beach. But, as the morning wore on bulldozers started flattening makeshift roadways through the sand and dragging pallets of supply from the water's edge to the grassy dunes over the beach. Despite losses, more than 700 six-wheelers were unloaded safely and they began ferrying Terry Allen's supplies into the 1st Division zone. Some of the chaos finally settled into near order by the end of the morning.

However, at the headquarters of the Hermann Goering Division, Generalmajor Paul Conrath was outlining his plans for the counterattack against the US 1st Infantry on the Gela beaches and on the 45th Division farther to the west. After hearing the Invasion had started, Conrath quickly organized the Hermann Goering into two units, each about the size of a reinforced regiment. One was "infantry-heavy;" the other "tank-heavy." His plan called for a simultaneous attack and he began to move some of his units out as early as 4 o'clock in the morning. Unknown to Pfc. Baummer, his destiny in the Invasion of Sicily was defined by the first movement of Conrath's forces. Before late afternoon, the 18th Infantry would be called from its floating reserve position just off Gela Beach to meet the Hermann Goering head on.

Generalmajor Conrath was anxious to move his forces into action as quickly as possible. He wanted to be on the beaches before 9:00 AM so his tanks and infantry would not be forced to attack directly into the sunlight. However, Conrath's panzers failed to traverse the precipitous hills and mountain terrain near their point of departure quickly enough. Instead, his huge tanks were held up by constricted roadways and stone walls, forcing substantial delays in their advance towards Gela Beach. Rather than reaching the 1st Division zone by the appointed hour, the Hermann Goering instead found itself still working towards the Piano Lupo road junction, where an Allied airplane spotted them about three miles away at 9:00 AM.

Meanwhile, a separate Italian Division was advancing towards Gela and had chosen to use the same routes Conrath wanted. Luckily, however, the aircraft that spotted the movement of the Hermann Goering also saw the presence of the Italian Division. Pounding naval gunfire from the cruiser Boise was laid on them within ten minutes and, for the moment, these forces were held up by her big guns.

Elements of the 1st Division's 16th Infantry were also approaching the Piano Lupo road junction at the same time and calling for even more Naval support fire. Between accurate shelling and the effective tactics of the 16th, the Italian threat was stopped before it reached this important crossing. Instead of advancing on the Gela beaches, the Italians hurriedly withdrew into the foothills to the northeast. But, the Hermann Goering steadily advanced on Piano Lupo.

The 16th then joined forces with Captain Sayre's small band of defenders near the road junction and waited for the Hermann Goering. Nearly five hours later than their anticipated arrival for the counterattack, Conrath's forces finally reached Piano Lupo. His tank-heavy contingent pounded directly south while the infantry-heavy regiment came in from the east.

The effectiveness of the US Navy's gunboats proved to be the deciding factor in this first engagement between the 1st Division and the Germans on Sicily. The 16th Infantry was dug in and, as Conrath's forces converged, his infantry was peppered with small arms fire by this assault team. The result was chaotic as the German forces split up, failed to regroup and did not renew their attack. Then, US destroyers offshore opened up on Conrath's tanks and created a rain of fire that prevented any further advance by the armored component of the enemy regiment. The result was definitive. Conrath's forces scurried back into the hills looking for cover. Back at the 1st Division Command Post on Gela Beach, a relieved Terry Allen received an exhilarating radio message from one of his officers who reported, "Tanks are withdrawing; it seems we are too much for them!"

Meanwhile, a second regiment of Conrath's infantry-heavy forces approaching from the north was held up in a thick grove of olive trees. This poor positioning allowed a minimal force of American defenders from the 45th Division to block the German advance, seemingly adding the second and final blow to Conrath's plans to counterattack at Gela.

However, by now Generalmajor Paul Conrath was fuming. After learning two of his battalions had been held in reserve, he quickly renewed his thrust, repositioning force locations such that his infantry and tanks started to work together. The results were immediate. The 45th's task force was inundated and a battalion commander was captured, creating the break Conrath had been looking for all morning.

With the roadway now cleared, Conrath began his advance towards the 1st Division on Gela Beach. However, unknown to the Generalmajor, a reserve battalion of the 45th had been called into action and they stopped Conrath’s infantry-heavy advance for a second time. In the end, the first German counteroffensive of the Sicilian Invasion was thwarted by the deadly effectiveness of naval gunfire, the 16th's actions against the German tank-heavy regiment and the 45th Division's intimidation of Conrath's foot soldiers. Back in the city of Gela, Darby's Rangers had again gallantly held off brutal counterattacks that threatened this important position throughout the afternoon of the 10th.

General George Patton stayed aboard his command ship during the first full day of the Invasion. As he said, "(I was) feeling like a cur, but I probably did better here." Reports filtered back to the Monrovia throughout the day indicating the German and Italian forces were being held off, but Patton was certain a renewed attack would commence by the following morning. Realizing he had little time to strengthen the forces already ashore, Patton began ordering the floating reserves to head to shore. This included the 18th Infantry and for the first time in Sicily, Pfc. Baummer's Second Battalion had definitive orders.

General Allen wanted the 18th to be on the beaches by morning so the men could help fend off the anticipated counterattack from the eastern side of the 1st's position on the Gela plains. Yet, while all elements of the Regiment would finally make it to shore in time, the landings were not destined to go as smoothly as anyone would have liked.

Pfc. Baummer had just finished eating a K-ration dinner when Captain Murphy told his men to put on their equipment. As he struggled into his lifebelt, he took another look at the pale moon, lit up a cigarette and waited. His LCI circled for what seemed like hours, its naval commander looking for an opportunity to go for the beaches. Overhead, enemy air was beginning to show itself in stronger numbers. Pfc. Baummer watched a fighter come in close to where the artillery companies were landing and he saw the plane drop a load of bombs on the smaller craft transporting their men and arms ashore. Suddenly, this single air attack triggered the firing of shore guns. The flotilla of 18th Infantry landing craft quickly found itself under intense fire, as the enemy exhibited a determined effort to keep them from joining forces with the invaders already on the beaches. Pfc. Baummer watched the sequence of the attack continue as a dozen more planes suddenly came into the zone, again dropping their bombs into the Gulf of Gela. He was relieved to see that none of the ensuing explosions seemed to make direct hits, but he watched the whitecaps created by the impact of the shells swamp many boats. His hopes for his fellow soldier’s safety were rapidly dashed away when he spotted equipment and gear, even men, being blown into the air off one boat. Ominous smoke soon started to fill the sky and he began to fear another squadron of bombers might attack his LCI.

Soon enough, another strike did start. Pfc. Baummer watched a huge bomb crash into the hold of one of the larger landing craft about a quarter of a mile away. Grimy black smoke started to swirl throughout the doomed vessel. Then he suddenly felt his own LCI increase speed and, with steady helmsmanship, it turned sharply towards shore. He had lost track of time. It was dark, sometime after midnight in the early morning of July 11, 1943. He sensed that this could be it. The naval men running the LCI were either dodging more incoming enemy fighters or they were speeding towards shore.

But, as the momentum of his landing craft picked up, Pfc. Baummer felt the bombs were less likely to hit and it was more probable he would soon feel solid ground. As he looked ahead and saw the faint shadows of the shoreline approaching, familiar feelings of anticipation, excitement and fear ran through him. Soon the ramp would be lowered and he would step onto Sicily. Yet, his intuition told him it would not happen that easily.

When he was about seventy-five yards from shore, he suddenly felt the LCI run hard aground. For a brief moment it was quiet and the only sounds that could be heard were waves slapping on the sides of the hull. The silence was quickly broken when he heard Captain Murphy say calmly, "Get, ready. Let's go; we are not going to get any closer." The clamor of the lowering ramp could be heard and within seconds the beach was in full view. Remembering the drill, Pfc. Baummer lined up behind the men in front of him and pulled the valves on his lifebelt. It filled up almost immediately, which was fortunate because the man in front of him was already in water up to his chest.

A line had been tied from the LCI to a piece of wreckage on land. The rope served as a guide. After slipping down the ramp, Pfc. Baummer grabbed it with one arm and, at the same time, held his rife and mortar equipment over his head with the other. A taller person might have been able to touch bottom, but Pfc. Baummer soon found his forearm strength would be the key to his success in reaching the beach. He tugged hard and was soon rewarded with the feeling of his feet touching the sandy bottom. Then he began to wade in. Within yards, the water was only waist-deep, then knee-deep and suddenly he was speeding up towards the beach itself. Finally he was standing on a harder surface, but his feet were soaking wet. His first thought was to open his clothes so the water in his shirt and pants could rush out. But, the beachmaster told him to move out between the two stripes of white tape laid in the sand that would lead him to the exit point off the beach and into the bivouac area where he would join up with the rest of the Second Battalion as they came ashore.

The night had become chilly and he could feel a shiver coming on. His feet squished around in his boots. The beachmaster made it clear mines were everywhere and he told everyone to stay inside the white lines. So Pfc. Baummer steadied himself, fixed his sight between the lines and took his first steps onto Sicily.

While the 18th Infantry struggled ashore on the night of July 11th, General Allen was busy working with his staff of intelligence officers. Looking over terrain maps of the entire Gela vicinity, Allen marveled at the detail his G-2 section had been able to identify in the area. With lights, obstacles and hill locations beautifully marked, he could figure out what routes Conrath's counterattack forces were likely to take the next morning. After calculating the time it would take the Hermann Goering to move from their current positions to the beaches, Allen determined the best places for the 1st Division forces to be located in order to ward off the expected daybreak assault.

Meanwhile, several miles away in the hills of Sicily, Italian Commanding General Guzonni and German Field Marshall Albert Kesselring sent orders to their separate forces to regroup after the their defeats of July 10th and be prepared for a co-ordinated strike the following morning. Their directives were simple - resume the assault and destroy the invaders. Generalmajor Paul Conrath, still smarting from the humiliation his troops suffered during the D-Day setbacks, drew up his plan of attack. He split his forces into three units -two tank and one infantry. The tank elements were to converge from separate locations where they would join forces and eventually head down the Niscemi-Piano Lupo Road.

Conrath's scheme called for his infantry unit, after starting from a point of departure farther east, to come westward and join up with the tank battalions near Piano Lupo. The combined forces of the Hermann Goering would then proceed down Route 115, completing an east to west movement into the 1st Division zone on Gela Beach. Meanwhile, Guzzoni ordered the "best Italian unit on Sicily," the Livorno Division, to attack from the west. If the counterattack went according to plan, the 1st Infantry Division was slated to be thrown back into the Gulf of Gela by mid-morning.

One of the advance routes the combined enemy forces planned to use on their way to Gela Beach was the Gela-Victorio roadway, which ran parallel to the coast. Pfc. Baummer and hundreds of other freshly arrived 18th Infantry soldiers were drying out in the orchards and on the fertile green slopes along the fringe of this scenic route. Colonel Smith had set up the 18th's Command Post in a ravine just off the road's edge. His standing orders from General Allen were to be prepared to move out towards Niscemi and the Ponte Olivio airdrome.

The Invasion planners had bickered repeatedly about the necessity to capture the airstrips behind Gela Beach and their concerns turned out to be well founded. Enemy aircraft had been attacking infantry units of the 1st and 45th Divisions and dive bombing cruisers in the Gulf of Gela throughout D-Day. The 1st had taken hits for over two hours in the early evening and then suffered from continued attacks throughout the night and into D+1. Presuming the Germans and Italians were unable to stop them, the 18th's mission was critical to II Corp's ability to break out of the Gela beachhead.

After General Allen put the final touches on his planned maneuvers to thwart the counterattacks, he wasted no time in issuing final orders to his regimental commanders. It was not Terry Allen's intention to allow the Germans to strike first. Instead, while the 18th Infantry was completing its landings, he sent elements of the 26th out in the middle of the night towards Ponte Olivio to capture positions near the airstrips. Units of the 16th were ordered onto the beaches and farther inland in the hills near the Piano Lupo junction where they would meet the Hermann Goering head on.

The German and Italian counterattack started at 6:15 AM on the morning of July 11, 1943 as Conrath set up his first strikes. General Roosevelt, who was operating with a communications group at the 26th's Command Post on the Gela-Ponte Olivio Road, was the first to notify Terry Allen of the German advance. At 6:40 AM, he sent this telephone message to the 1st Division Command Post back on Gela Beach:

"Terry - look, the situation is not very comfortable out here. The Third Battalion has been attacked by tanks and has been penetrated. The Second Battalion is in support, but that is not enough. If we could get a company of medium tanks, it would sure help. If we are to take Ponte Olivio airport, we must have those medium tanks."

Back on the beaches, the enemy was still launching a combined air offensive aimed at both the 1st Division on the beaches and the flotilla in the Gulf of Gela. However, despite these attacks, every effort was being put forth to unload the Cannon Companies of each Regiment and to get badly needed medium tanks off the LCTs of the 2nd Armored Division. Terry Allen quickly ordered all available pieces of artillery and anti-tank guns up to Teddy Roosevelt's zone. At the same time, he hailed Admiral John L. Hall aboard the Samuel Chase and asked for more naval gunfire support. Finally, he put another request in for US air force fighters to help ward off the attack. Despite everything, Roosevelt's 26th Infantry was quickly inundated with enemy tanks as Conrath's forces launched attacks from both sides of the Gela-Ponte Olivio Road at 9:00 AM.

Teddy Roosevelt was one of the most inspirational general officers to ever walk the battlefields of World War II. Brandishing a walking stick as he roamed from one zone to the next during Conrath’s attacks, he demonstrated complete contempt for personal danger. His presence in the line of fire, in light of his rank, provided the ordinary GI with a sense of confidence and pride that could be matched by few. He was always full of enthusiasm, even in the worst of circumstances. His voice was powerful, described by those who knew him as "a bellow only a few decibels higher than a moose call," and he used it to inspire his men. Roosevelt was again showing his magnificent spirit to his troops in the middle of the German counterattacks. Poking his walking stick at an approaching enemy tank, he barked, "These guys can't hit me! They've been trying through two World Wars. And if they can't hit an old grandfather like me, they surely can't hurt you!" Moving to the next area he ran into a corporal who was having a hard time keeping his squad from retreating. The young corporal looked up at Roosevelt's familiar face as the General said, "What's going on, Corporal?" The answer was direct. "Some of the guys are pulling back, sir. It's pretty hot here. They're on both sides. They've got tanks."

Roosevelt then shouted out, "Why go back to the sea? We just got here. Do you know who those bastards are? The Hermann Goering Division. We beat their asses in North Africa and we're going to do it again. We'll hold this ground until our tanks land. OK, Corporal? Your men aren't backing up are they?"

"No sir, we're here to fight," said the corporal. Suddenly, everyone within hearing range found renewed courage and jumped to their feet to resume the attack.

Other than blind faith, Roosevelt had no other immediate reason to be confident. Pragmatically, he went back over to the communication group at his Command Post and put in another call to Terry Allen, telling him, "The Third Battalion was (still) being attacked by tanks and has been penetrated. We haven't any anti-tank protection yet. If we could get a company of medium tanks it sure would help! Is there any possibility of hurrying those medium tanks?"

While Roosevelt was making his second plea for support, General Patton was starting his own majestic entry onto Sicilian soil. At 9:30 AM he made his first appearance on Gela Beach. Carlo D’Este in "Patton – A Genius For War" captured the essence of the moment. "As Signal Corps cameramen recorded the scene, Patton waded ashore, resplendent in an immaculate uniform complete with his necktie neatly tucked into his pressed gabardine shirt, knee-length polished black leather boots, and his ever-present ivory-handled pistols strapped to his waist." After ducking shell fire which landed as close as thirty feet away, Patton worked his way over to Colonel Darby's Command Post in Gela just in time to see a formation of seven Italian tanks coming in from the north across the open plain directly towards town.

As two Hurricane bombers dropped their loads on the street while German "88's" opened up on the building Patton was standing on, the Seventh Army Commander immediately went to work. Spotting a naval officer with a radio, he barked; "If you can connect with your goddamn Navy, tell them for God's sake to drop some shell fire on the road." The cruiser Boise responded almost immediately with direct hits on the incoming tanks. In what Patton would call in his diary "the first day in this campaign that I earned my pay, where I never heard so much screaming," he left the beachhead, but not before ordering one of Darby's captains to "kill every one of the goddam bastards."

Patton hopped into his de-waterproofed scout car soon afterwards and took off towards the 1st Division Command Post to see Terry Allen. On his way, he ran into Teddy Roosevelt, who had left his post to jeep down to see what he could personally do about getting tank support back up to the 26th and 16th Infantries. According to Patton, "I talked to him about the failure of the 1st Division to carry its objective last night." Patton certainly understood why this had not happened, even stating in his diary, "The chief reason, as I can see, is that the division attacked without anti-tank guns and without moving up our artillery." Roosevelt obviously knew this and quite likely did not appreciate the Seventh Army Commander's failure to grasp the dangerous situation that was developing around Gela.

Patton then continued towards the 1st Division Command Post, but before getting there he met General Allen on a hill where they both halted. Against the backdrop of an effective 1st Division anti-aircraft attack on fourteen German bombers that were coming in overhead, Patton and Allen began a sharp exchange about the Ponte Olivio airfields. But the strafing of the bombers forced both of their cars off the road, where, as Patton remembered, "quite a number of fragments hit five to ten yards away."

Allen drove off towards the action, but Patton continued to the 1st Division Command Post, where he propped his feet up on a field desk, lit up a big cigar and waited for Allen to show up. When the dogged-tired 1st Division general finally appeared, Patton looked up and said, "How is the Division doing?" Allen, somewhat taken aback by his friend, simply replied, "It's no tea party - the Division is doing OK, but we need additional artillery support." Patton, starring blankly onto the beaches and enjoying the aroma of his fat cigar, waved his hand towards Allen and, without looking said, "I'm now an Army commander. Take this up with Bradley." Then, after giving Allen hell one more time about capturing Ponte Olivio, Patton left.

Returning to Gela Beach, he watched an 18th Infantry Liberty ship bearing supplies for the troops ashore blow up in a massive explosion that threw white and black clouds several thousand feet into the air, leaving the ship literally blown into two. Nevertheless, he made his way back to the beach edge where, while waiting for a boat to take him back out to the Monrovia, he advised some soldiers shoveling foxholes near several hundred unexploded bombs to "dig somewhere else." But, at this same moment, another sortie of Hurricane bombers came over the beach and the soldiers dove back into the holes they had started digging. According to Patton’s diary, "After walking up and down, shaming them into getting up I returned to the Monrovia, completely wet."

II Corps Commander Omar Bradley debarked from the Ancon earlier the same morning because he was anxious to give a hand to the operations ashore before Conrath counterattacked. After landing near Scoglitti, Bradley remembered, "Off to the west in the sector of the 1st Division I could hear the rumble of guns, too angry and incessant to be dismissed as a routine attack." Anxious to make contact with Allen's Command Post and after learning a wet and unworking radio set could not be fixed quickly enough to do this, he told an assistant, "I'm going to run down to see Terry Allen. There's too much noise and dust down there. Maybe he's gotten into trouble."

As he approached Gela, Bradley quickly discovered that the 1st Division was fighting for its life against a panzer counterattack that was near to breaking through to the beaches. When he got to the Command Post, he found Terry Allen waiting for him, as Bradley described, "with his eyes red from loss of sleep and his hair disheveled."

It was now obvious to Bradley the Division was under serious attack. Concerned, he said, "Do you have it in hand, Terry?" Allen, shaking his head affirmatively while rotating his aching neck, wearily answered, "I think so, but they've given us a helluva rough time." Allen then went on to detail for Bradley just what he meant by this.

By now it was mid-afternoon and reports had been coming into Allen from across the zone. Conrath's forces had successfully broken through the 26th Infantry near Ponte Olivio and were gaining strength as the Hermann Goering converged on the 16th Infantry. First word of the enemy's armor strength had reached Terry Allen's Command Post from positions at the Gela-Niscemi road. At least 30 Mark IV tanks were spotted about 1200 yards in front of the Regiment. Colonel George Taylor, who commanded the 16th, had not yet seen the first of his artillery or cannon companies arrive. This left him with just the ordinary weaponry of his infantrymen to face the Germans. Undaunted, Taylor delivered this order to his men:

"Everybody stays put just where he is! Under no circumstances will anyone be pulled back. Take cover from the tanks! Don't let anything else get through. The cannon company is on the way. Everyone to hold present positions."

While infantrymen dove into their foxholes, the German tanks came up to fire at them from point-blank range. Then bazookas, mortar rounds, machine guns and every other weapon of the regular issue foot soldier's arsenal opened up in return. This amazing stance of the 16th Infantry showed Allen's fighting men at their spirited best. One of the bazookas took the tread off a German tank. A mortar round was hurled right into the turret of another tank, killing its crew and rendering the thundering monster useless. Amazingly, even a 37-mm. "Peashooter" took out another Mark IV. The 16th withstood the enemy attack, but at a great cost.

The First Battalion's commander, Lt. Colonel Charles Denhold, was seriously wounded during the morning's actions while personally manning an anti-tank gun. Over his loud protests, he was evacuated. Soon afterward, Lt. Colonel Joseph Crawford, who commanded the Second Battalion, was also seriously wounded and removed from the battlefield. While the 16th chalked up nearly twenty tank kills, at least six broke through by early afternoon. Meanwhile, Conrath was reinforcing his losses with more armor. Somberly assessing the developing situation, Colonel Taylor then sent a message to the 1st Division Command Post saying:

"We are being overrun by tanks. In our Second Battalion area, the enemy has ten tanks in front of the Battalion and has ringed them with an additional thirty. We have no idea what is going on to the east of us at the moment. The Third Battalion is covering the main road."

Within a short period of time, Conrath broke through and some of his tanks actually reached precarious positions no more than a mile from the water's edge. There were reports that the lead tanks had fired into supply dumps and were shooting at landing craft waiting to come in. Conrath was getting his revenge and his panzers were starting to close the circle around the 1st Division on the Gela Plains.

Colonel Taylor may have had no idea what was going on to the east of his location, but the men of the 18th Infantry could have provided the answer. A second column of Conrath's tanks was heading down tree-lined Highway 115 towards the Regiment's positions. Being closer to the water's edge, the 18th found itself with some limited support. Most of their armor was still not ashore, but five medium tanks had managed to make it into the zone. A field artillery battalion rushed in on some "deuce and a halves" and its men set up firing positions at the edge of the sand dunes. Even Teddy Roosevelt participated in the 18th's buildup by sending a cannon company via ferry across a nearby river to join the artillery battalion at the dune line.

It was one of the most terrifying moments of the war for Pfc. Baummer. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the same Liberty Ship George Patton watched go up in smoke before he returned to the Monrovia. The men were cursing all around him. Captain Murphy said he figured a good third of the Second Battalion's transport vehicles was gone. However, his estimates were wrong. After the toll of the disaster was counted, only four of the Battalion's sixty jeeps survived.

But, at that moment, the immediate threat of the Hermann Goering was growing far more troublesome. Pfc. Baummer counted at least forty tanks in front of the Second Battalion columns by late morning. He obviously didn't like what he saw. He wondered what Captain Murphy's order was going to be. By noon, he spotted twelve new German Mark IVs approaching. At 3:00 in the afternoon, the tanks were only a thousand yards away from his position and a half-hour later an officer "officially" placed the enemy tank count at fifty. This lieutenant also said his unit was witnessing "the greatest attack by German armor since El Guettar."

Adding to the confusion, Pfc. Baummer observed one of the most puzzling actions he had ever seen at an officer level. Suddenly he was watching Colonel Smith's headquarters party running away from the safety of their trenches in apparent retreat. But he still waited for Murphy's order, for he knew the 1st Division was not a unit that backed down from a fight and he frankly wondered what the hell was going on. In the midst of this confusion, a runner came up and said the enemy's strength had grown to over a hundred armored vehicles that were all attempting to surround and isolate the Regiment from the rest of the 1st. Looking out, Pfc. Baummer guessed that most of them were now well inside a thousand yards.

As he watched the headquarters company cross the road and disappear into a bamboo grove, he suddenly jumped as he heard the deafening sound of a 105-mm. howitzer opening fire on the lead German tank from a hidden position on the roadside. At first Conrath's tankmen were equally stunned, but they quickly regrouped and started shelling the surrounding area. Then the German infantry opened up and laid machine gun slugs into the head columns of the Second Battalion.

On a knoll not more than a couple of hundred yards away, General Allen and Teddy Roosevelt were watching the actions from a slit trench and contemplating their next move. Over the deafening sound of the attacking panzers and infantry, someone yelled out to Allen and asked whether he would order a retreat to the beach. General Allen stood up with his pistol waving in his hand and loudly yelled back in his raspy voice, "Retreat? Hell no, they haven't overrun our artillery yet!"

With this, Allen jumped out of his trench and started running directly down on the advancing Germans. Suddenly Captain Murphy ordered the men of Company H to head over to the artillery batteries and help the gunners move their cannons into position so they could aim right at the tanks. With the Gela beachhead hanging in the balance, Pfc. Baummer ran as fast as he ever did in his life. Perspiring and terrified, he reached a 33rd Field Artillery battery station a few minutes later and helped set up direct fire positions which would let the gunner platoons slug it out with Conrath's forces.

The 18th would eventually suffer the same fate as the 16th. The German offenses were just too strong to be completely stopped and some of their panzers did break through. But the men of the 18th were convinced they were fighting the most crucial battle on Sicily and were not going to give up easily. In one of the most vivid descriptions of the day's actions, Lieutenant Franklyn A. Johnson, who commanded an 18th anti-tank company, observed the fate of a lone 105-mm. howitzer and the men who had dared to take on the lead German tanks:

"The outfit's back is to the Mediterranean and that leading German tank followed by tens of others is about to cut off all lateral communications and then stab through to the sandy beach itself. Just at the darkest moment, the 105 gets lucky and hits on three of the tanks. As they flame brightly, the last round of 105 ammo is slammed into the breech and the gunner desperately aims at the leader's tank, now starting to cross the road. He sets the ambitious monster afire, and we breathe again, for this action is followed by two others; other tanks, apparently not knowing how near victory they are, take fright and turn clumsily about, then scuttle back up the plain to their mountain hideout. And five of our medium tanks, hastily brought ashore in this hour of danger, clank up in time to destroy several of the fleeing tanks of the hated Hermann Goering Panzer Division. The beachhead, at least momentarily, is safe, thanks to an old burned out 105 and its battered crew. That smoking weapon should be in a museum and its crew decorated with hero's medals."

The 18th had made a "Custer's Last Stand" at the edge of the sea. Before the German retreat, sixteen of their big monsters were destroyed or burning on the plains between Highway 115 and the Gulf of Gela.

Conrath resumed his attack later in the afternoon with far fewer tanks than he had started his day with. But this time the United States Navy was ready for them. The cruisers Boise and Savannah, along with a multitude of other destroyers, relentlessly fired round after round of salvos, building an impregnable barrier for Conrath to punch through.

A forever grateful Terry Allen later gave credit where credit was due. When he summarized the actions of July 11, 1943, he said, "Admiral John L. Hall, who commanded the US Navy fleet and took the Division to Sicily (aboard the Samuel Chase), will always be remembered by the 1st Division for his courageous support in their landing at Gela. He not only landed the Division there with maximum efficiency and seamanship, but he kept his ships close-in offshore and gave the Division highly effective naval gun fire support during the critical days of the landing."

Allen then closed his factual summary with, "One of his destroyers, the USS Edson, thereafter sported 13 miniature German tanks, painted on the forward smoke-stack. The skipper of this gallant little ship claimed that this was an authentic score of verified German tank casualties while supporting the 1st Division in Sicily."

After his second grueling try, Generalmajor Paul Conrath lost another third of his tank strength and his counterattack on the 1st Division was stopped. In the end, none of his tanks ever got across the highway bordering Gela Beach. As General Bradley later wrote, "The enemy turned and ran for the hills where the Navy could not pursue him. Allen had barely squeaked through, for those tanks had advanced to within 2,000 yards of the beach before they turned. I question whether any other US Division could have repelled that charge in time to save the beach from tank penetration. Only the perverse Big Red One with its no less perverse commander was both hard and experienced enough to take that assault in stride. A greener division might easily have panicked and seriously embarrassed the landing."

The counterattacks on the 1st Division by the Hermann Goering and Allen's ability to withstand them ultimately convinced every Allied commander that the Big Red One was an extraordinary unit. But, as the campaign to conquer Sicily continued to unfold, politics and egos amongst both American and British generals would result in a modified and somewhat convoluted strategy to slice the island in half.

After Gela Beach, the 1st Division began a grueling twenty-four day advance wrought with what Terry Allen called "hard fighting, fatiguing marches and rapid maneuvering." The Fighting First would slug its way up the island and then turn towards its center, where the effective use of night attacks would constantly surprise and defeat the Germans. Like the push up the Tine Valley in North Africa, Terry Allen and his men were destined to play the key role in the final phases of the campaign for Sicily. Their last drive would culminate in the bitter battle for the hilltop town of Troina that finally, as Allen put it, "broke the hinge of German resistance in Sicily and opened up the central route for the Allied forces to the Straits of Messina."

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