Private F. Ferris (left) of Lisburn, Co. Antrim, cleaning his Thompson submachine gun
during a break in fighting on the Salarola Front, Italy, 29 December 1943 (IWM).
The Italian campaign (1943-5) of the Second World War was overshadowed by D-Day and events in Normandy during 1944. However, it was just as deadly and strategically important to Allied victory in Europe. Fascist Italy joined Nazi Germany in the Axis powers in 1940, and failure in the North African campaign (1940-3) forced them to retreat. There was debate among the Allies about where they should focus their efforts next – the Americans favoured northern France, but the British convinced them of the importance of Italy. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had called it ‘the underbelly of the Axis’. The campaign began with Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily on 9 July 1943. It was the largest amphibious invasion of all time in terms of the size of the landing area and the number of troops landed on the first day, 160,000 (around 5,000 more than D-Day!).
The massed pipe band of the Irish Brigade playing in the square in front of
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican, 12 June 1944 (IWM).
Italy surrendered in September 1943, but fighting continued against the German forces in the country. The Allies captured the capital, Rome, on 4 June 1944, just two days before D-Day, and finally claimed victory on 29 April 1945 following the German surrender at Caserta. Present throughout the whole campaign was the 38th (Irish) Brigade, which was commanded by a Lisburn officer, Brigadier Nelson Russell DSO MC, between July 1942 and February 1944. The brigade consisted of the 1st Batt. Royal Irish Fusiliers, 6th (and later 2nd) Batt. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and 2nd Batt. London Irish Rifles.
Cpl. James Henry Gilmore (1922-44). Photo from Lisburn Standard, 16 June 1944.
There were 350,000 Allied casualties (killed, wounded, or missing) during the Italian campaign, and around 20 men from Lisburn died. One of them was Cpl. James Henry Gilmore. He was born in 1922 in Lear, near Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, but his family subsequently moved to Old Warren, Lisburn. Before the war, James worked for Lipton Tea on Bow Street. In 1940, he joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and in 1942 volunteered for the 4th Batt. Parachute Regiment, Army Air Corps. Having served in North Africa and Sicily, James was killed in action on 31 May 1944 near Salerno, Italy. His elder brother, George, a Company Sergeant Major in the Irish Guards, was killed earlier in the year near Anzio, also in Italy.