Memorial
In July 1943, the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped at night into the hills north of Gela, Sicily, to disrupt enemy communications and to slow reinforcements to the invasion beaches. Even though high winds and navigation errors caused mass confusion among the airborne units, the officers and NCOs (noncommissioned officers) gathered stragglers together to get the job done. In one hard-fought action (described on another day of this month) a series of enemy pillboxes were eliminated along a strategic resupply route leading into Gela.
Sixty-one years later a group of U.S. Navy and Italian officials joined together in a ceremony to honor the American paratroopers who fell in this action. A memorial was built on the site where three German pillboxes are still visible. The names of thirty-nine Americans who lost their lives in the battle are inscribed on the memorial.
The acting mayor of the nearby Sicilian village of Niscemi said, “ These young American Soldiers defended the ideals of freedom and democracy upon which western civilization was founded.”
“ We give thanks to the American soldiers who fought and died for our liberation, an event that changed the history of our country,” said the mayor of Gela. “ Yet we see them not as foreigners, but as our heroes for what they did.”
During the ceremony a minister talked about the courage of the fallen paratroopers and the courage of those American and Italian soldiers serving in the present. “ We ask you to continue instilling that same courage in (these soldiers) who at this moment are putting their lives on the line on foreign soil so that people may be free.”218
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
—Philippians 1:20
Infantry advancing with tanks. (National Archives)
Soldiers making friends during campaign on Sicily. (National Archives)