World War II - Sicily
After the Allied reconquest of North Africa, the next step was to begin the recapture of Europe from the Nazis and Fascists. The opening move was Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily from North Africa.
The video above, from Britain's Imperial War Museum, shows troops swimming from the ships that had gathered in the harbor at Sfax, Tunisia. The video was taken on July 6, 1943, a few days before the invasion. A couple of the troops had swimsuits, but the vast majority swam naked. In wartime in those days, it was not a big deal.
American, British and Canadian troops landed on the night of July 9th, 1943 and quickly defeated the Italian resistance. Above, Italian prisoners, some naked, on the beach.
(Photo by LIFE photographer Bob Landry, cropped to show detail)
This is why some of the Italian prisoners were naked. They had to wade out to board a landing craft, presumably taking them to a POW camp.
(Photo by LIFE photographer Bob Landry)
I used this photo in a previous post about Australian photographer Laurence Le Guay. Members of an Australian Royal Air Force fighter bomber squadron had provided air support for the invasion. Here they are afterwards in Sicily enjoying a bucket shower.
Showers were in short supply in wartime, and the troops took every opportunity to shower that they could get. This short clip from a newsreel shows an Operation Husky soldier taking an improvised shower.
Finally, this footage was taken for a British Pathé newsreel but was unused or not released. It shows Canadian troops in Sicily taking advantage of another improvised shower opportunity, using water dripping from a railroad water tower.
4 comments:
I had pictures of my dad and some of his fellow soldiers swimming in a hot spring in Iceland during the WAR. That generation and the men of the Korean War generation had no hang ups about being naked. As a kid,and until I was in college, nobody wore trunks at the YMCA. And my high school swimming classes were naked. Father-son nights saw swinging peters at both the Y and the school. Nakedness became sexualised in the 80s for a couple reasons.
I don't think those are swim suits...they're more likely to be standard military-issue boxers.
I really appreciate all the work that you put into your posts. Thanks.
That German Relm Path freight car from Linz must have come over on the railroad train ferry boat across the Straits of Messina. Italian railroad sleeping cars still make that voyage.
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