Bruce Burchfield flew Kittyhawks in 3 Squadron. After consulting his log-book, he recalls his flying operations whilst at Cutella:
In early January 1944, 3 Squadron moved to a strip right on the beach just south of Termoli.
We were greeted by very strong winds making erection of our tents a problem.
On 6 January, snow fell intermittently and we did not get airborne for Ops until 9 January. Then followed armed recces Chieti - Teramo, and Aquila - Casoli. Gun positions in Ortona area, railway yards Popoli, anti shipping along Yugoslavian coast, freight trains Arsoli area etc.
8th Army were attacking along Sangra River - pretty tough going and we were doing strikes during February in the following areas: Rieti, Aquino, Terni, Avezzano and the Anzio bridgehead (Rome area) as well as anti-shipping in the Zara area (Yugoslavia).
March: Road sweeps East and South-East of Rome, close support for the attacks on Cassino, strikes anti shipping along Yugoslav coast, long range strikes on Rimini and Forli aerodromes (edge of Po valley) after Junkers JU88 photo reconnaissance aircraft - 11 aircraft destroyed.
April started much the same but yours truly out of action from Malaria (had the first attack in Sicily in the previous September).
May: Several long range trips to Iesi and Ancona and heavy concentration on close support in Cassino area - the Monastery captured on 18 May 1944. Shortly thereafter, the Squadron moved over the mountains to a drome north of Naples, called San Angelo for the final attack on Rome by 8th Army and US Army."
Bruce also recalled that the drome at Cutella was a convenient take-off point to attack Yugoslavia. Also conveniently, the Royal Navy had captured the island of Vis, which was about half way to the target area, and this allowed quite a few shot-up aircraft to crash-land on Vis.
At Cutella there were six squadrons flying P40 Kittyhawks (3 and 450 RAAF, 112, 250 and 260 RAF, and 5 SAAF) plus several Spitfire squadrons and an air-sea rescue Walrus (the pilot of the Walrus was killed when USAAF P-47 Thunderbolts mistakenly shot up the airfield).
See also Guiseppe Marini's beautiful
colour photos of the
Cutella landscape today.
3 SQUADRON’S LANDING GROUND AT CUTELLA, ITALY.
(Extracted from Neil Smith's 3 Squadron History)
4 January 1944 – 24 May 1944
After the Italian forces had unconditionally surrendered on 8 September 1943, the difficulties facing the Allied forces fighting their way into Italy as they moved northward following their decisive battle at Salerno, was the strong German resistance that was being formed as the German forces fell back along, what was later to be called, the Gustav Line.
As 5th US Army and 8th British Army advanced, the Germans fell back until, by March 1944, they had fortified their positions along a stretched line that ran north-east, from the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, through Cassino and up to the Pescara area on the western coast of the Adriatic Sea. One of the main fortifications the Germans set up was in the Monastery on Monte Cassino hoping to use it to block the road to Rome.
The broad Allied plan was to break through the Gustav Line so they could access the Liri Valley and begin a northerly drive that would rid Rome of its German occupation on their way to linking up with the Allied forces already fighting in Europe. To help achieve this, the services of the Allied air forces, including 239 Wing were involved providing air support to the advancing armies.
Before arriving at Cutella on 4 January 1944, 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force had already occupied five other landing grounds in Italy. Airfields at Bari, Foggia and Mileni had been their temporary homes since 23 September 1943 as they moved up the east coast with the rest of 239 Wing. At that time the Wing consisted of 3 and 450 Squadrons, RAAF, with 112, 250, and 260 Squadrons, Royal Air Force, and 5 Squadron, South African Air Force.
From
those landing grounds, the Wing had carried out strategic bombing of factories
and other industries located as far as Austria, oilfields in Romania and often
opportunity targets surrounding the Termoli area.
New Year 1944 had brought rain, hail, snow and a gale to greet a Squadron advance party who had travelled to Cutella to prepare for the Squadron's arrival.
But the weather cleared and bombing operations were commenced. At that time, Kittyhawk IIs were used by the squadron. These particular aircraft had the advantage of being equipped with blind-flying instruments although they lacked the higher bomb-carrying capacity of the newer Kittyhawk IVs.
After 239 Wing Leader, South-African Lieutenant Colonel Wilmot, had test-flown a Kittyhawk IV carrying two 500 pound bombs under its wings plus a 1,000 pound bomb under the fuselage, totalling the bomb-load of a Boston bomber, 3 Squadron began bombing with 1,000 pounders as they converted to the newer aircraft.
Flight
Lieutenant Jack Doyle had the honour of dropping the Squadron’s first ‘big’n’
and his direct hit was the first of many scored by the Squadron with thousand
pounders. As January 1944 ended, the Squadron was bombing targets closer to Rome
as part of the new offensive to capture the city.
Areas close to Cassino and Anzio which were heavily concentrated with German troops and tanks, became targets for all 239 Wing's squadrons of Kittyhawk fighter-bombers and particularly near Anzio where reinforcement Allied troops had landed.
February saw the Squadron resume long-range bombing runs over the Adriatic to Split Harbour in Yugoslavia and attacking and sinking enemy vessels along the way. 5th Army requested a bombing attack on the Monte Cassino Benedictine Monastery that the Germans were using as an artillery-spotting headquarters.
On the 16th of February, four squadrons from 239 Wing set out
for the target but the shocking weather conditions made crossing the Apennines
difficult and all aircraft except those of 3 Squadron were forced to turn back.
3 Squadron pressed on by themselves and bombed the target with excellent results
and, the next day, they flew back again to continue the bombing although this
almost impregnable fortress continued to withstand the punishment.
On the 22nd of February, Brian Eaton D.F.C. now a Wing Commander, was appointed Deputy Sector Commander for 1 Mobile Operations Radio Unit, Desert Air Force. Squadron Leader Murray Nash, D.F.C. replaced him as the Squadron Commanding Officer and he remained C.O. until the 11th of April when his tour of duty ended.
Squadron Leader Jack Doyle took over the Squadron temporarily before his posting as C.O. to 450 Squadron.
Acts
of courage and instances of outstanding service were happening regularly in the
day to day routine of the Squadron and many of the pilots involved were
decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Two D.F.C.s awarded in March were
quite typical of the Squadron's style in action.
The first was awarded to 24 year old Flying Officer Ken Richards who'd neatly dropped his bomb down the funnel of a 3,000 ton vessel destroying it completely. Within a few weeks, he'd split a 6,000 ton ship in two with another direct bomb hit.
The second D.F.C. was awarded to 26 year old Jack Doyle who'd dropped the Squadron's first 1,000 pounder and continued his strong leadership on many occasions particularly when attacking 88mm gun emplacements and ammunition dumps a few months earlier.
Courageous
acts weren't limited to action in the air. On the 29th of April 1944, an
American pilot flying a P-47 Thunderbolt mistakenly strafed Cutella airfield
obviously thinking it was a German base. At the time, L.A.C.s S. Reginald (Slim)
Moore and K. M. Harris were servicing a Kittyhawk in the dispersal bay next to
two other Kittyhawks that already had bombs loaded. Bullets from the P-47 set
one of the Kittyhawks alight but before the flames spread, these two men,
ignoring the possibility of the bomb exploding, unshackled it and rolled it
clear of the burning aircraft.
Then they taxied the other two Kittyhawks away from the fire. By doing so they may have saved a fire-holocaust in the dispersal area. Sadly, the distraught American who'd made the mistake, committed suicide the following day by deliberately crashing his aircraft shortly after he'd left the Squadron where he had attended with his Commanding Officer to make formal apology for his action.
3
Squadron formed part of the Allied Armies' air support during the last weeks of
March when they made their third attempt to capture Cassino in an effort to open
up the way to Rome. But the enemy was too firmly entrenched in the caves and
rocky terrain around Cassino, so the attack was abandoned and it was the 12th of
May before another attack was tried. On that day, the Squadron's Kittyhawks
carried 2,000 pound bomb loads and made several attacks on enemy gun
emplacements in the Cassino area and on long-range gun emplacements in Atina.
Already the Squadron was quite experienced in dropping two 500
pounders and a 1,000 pounder in a single bomb load as their first 2,000 pound
raids had been carried out a month earlier when they and the rest of 239 Wing
breached the iron sluice gates of the Pescara Dam in a low level attack which
had the effect of temporarily destroying a major Italian source of
hydro-electric power being used by German forces, as well as flooding the town
and area surrounding German occupied Pescara.
This took place about the same time that Squadron Leader Rex Bayly, D.F.C. relieved Jack Doyle as C.O. in anticipation of his posting to Mobile Operations Radio Unit where, shortly after, Doyle and five others survived the blast of a time bomb which killed fourteen others and destroyed the chateau that they were using as a high observation post. Doyle’s escape from death was miraculous as he fell several stories from the tower to the ground when the bomb went off.
Eventua1ly, on the 18th of May, the monastery at Cassino was captured by the Al1ies in a tremendous battle against crack German troops who had fought fanatica1ly to hold this strategically important gateway to Cassino, and therefore to Rome.
After spending five miserable months at Cutella … and this was the longest period the Squadron had ever spent in one place … 239 Wing moved inland across the Apennines to San Angelo on the West Coast of Italy and here they found far more picturesque surroundings. The pilots flew out of Cutella on the 24th of May and, on the way to San Angelo, bombed the Roccagroga area but one of the twelve Kittyhawks, flown by Warrant Officer Jennings, went down. For Jennings, this was the start of an extraordinary adventure during which he was disguised by some Italians and spent five long days dodging Germans until he walked back to the Allied front line.
At last, on the 25th of May, the enemy began to evacuate Rome after their much-vaunted Adolf Hitler Line, formed outside the city, crumbled under the onslaught of the now linked forces of 5th and 8th Armies. 3 Squadron flew constant sorties for the next week against the retreating enemy on the roads around Rome and they had a field day on the 30th when they found 200 transports jammed nose-to-tail and three wide on a road south of Subiaco. The end result of the day, after other Squadrons from the Wing joined them, was a long charred column of wrecks.