Word: barrafranca
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...Tunisia. They were ready for Sicily, for Gela, where the Germans counterattacked to the beaches and Terry Allen said: "Hell, we haven't begun to fight. Our artillery hasn't been overrun yet." They were ready for the inland march, for battle at Ponte Olivo and Barrafranca, for fierce and clever battle with the Germans at Nicosia last week...
...Trapani, naval bases where there was no Italian Navy and no fight on land; Termini, Imerese and Cefalú, east of Palermo on the upper coastal route to Messina and Italy. In twelve days the Seventh Army had fought for its beachheads in southwestern Sicily, fought inland past Barrafranca (see p. 34}, fought for Caltanissetta and (with the Canadians) for Enna in central Sicily. After that, the Italian Army in western Sicily simply quit fighting. Two divisions, the 206th Coastal and 4th Livorno, had shown some spirit. Others, including the 26th and the 28th Infantry Divisions, fought little...
First important step in this drive was the capture of Barrafranca, a town of stone houses at the end of a narrow valley, guarded on either side by three rugged hills and many smaller ones. The veteran 1st Division's 26th Infantry Regiment was assigned to take these hills, thus opening the way into the town. With the regiment's 2nd Battalion, one of three in the action, was TIME Correspondent Jack Belden. His report, which arrived last week, is of a battle as it looks to the soldier in battle, with all its desperation, irrelevance and confusion...
Sweeping out of Barrafranca, thirteen Mark-IIIs and Mark-IVs had overrun our 3rd battalion, forcing it to evacuate its position in the plain. Temporarily unopposed by infantry, the tanks came on down the valley between the hills, shooting up at us as they came...
That evening, with the ist battalion and the tanks, we drove into Barrafranca...
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