Operation Herring
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Operation Herring (Herring 1) was the last World War II airborne combat drop in Europe.
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[edit] Background
The April 1945 Allied offensive on the Italian front, which was to end the Italian campaign and the war in Italy, was to decisively break through the German Gothic Line, the defensive line along the Apennines and the River Po plain to the Adriatic Sea and swiftly drive north to occupy Northern Italy and get to the Austrian and Yugoslav borders as quickly as possible. However, German strongpoints; bridge, road, levee and dyke blasting; and any occasional determined resistance over the Po Valley plain might hamper and slow the planned sweep down. Allied planners felt that dropping paratroops onto some key areas and locales south of River Po could help wreak havoc over the German rear area, attack German communications and vehicles columns further disrupting the German retreat, and prevent German engineers from blowing key topographical features up before Allied spearheads could get near. Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery, commander of the Commonwealth 8th Army, had a number of Italian paratroopers at hand for the task.
[edit] History
In March 1945, the whole 114-strong Italian paratroops “F” Recce Squadron (12 squads under Captain Carlo Gay), and 112 volunteers – four platoons, each made up by three squads, led by Lieutenant Guerrino Ceiner - from the Italian Nembo Paratroops Regiment, were picked for Operation Herring. They received a rapid but thorough training update under the supervision of the British paratroops Major Ramsay, who was reportedly pleased by the paratroopers’ excellent performance.
The mission would entail eight battle drops on as many areas south of Po River, southeast of Ferrara, the Mirandola area, and Poggio Rusco and the Modena-Mantua highway. It would last 36 hours. Every paratrooper would be equipped with an Italian Beretta MAB submachinegun with 400 rounds, high explosive charges, four hand grenades, dagger, maps, and foodstuff for 48 hours.
In the night between April 19 and 20, 1945, the Italian paras (plus at least one British paratrooper who had joined them) jumped off fourteen C-47 aircraft and on their drop zones. Scattering was considerable, but it did not significantly hinder the paratroops’ effectiveness. A few were captured upon their landing, but their comrades proved very aggressive – perhaps even too much as several German prisoners were murdered in cold blood by their captors, a cruelty the Germans reciprocated in kind by killing some Italian prisoners as well as a few civilians[citation needed]. 16 paras surrounded by German forces and barricaded inside a farmhouse died - all of them but two - fighting to the last round. Other groups were more successful, inflicting heavy damage and suffering light casualties. Two F Squadron squads (18 men) seized two little towns, Ravarino and Stuffione, capturing 451 Germans and holding out until the arrival of the first Allied ground forces elements. To be fair, one must note that in general the war-weary, demoralized Germans were rapidly cracking and melting away under the pressure of the ongoing Allied offensive, and easily giving up most everywhere, although resistance still was fanatically tough here and there.
[edit] Upshot
Operation Herring lasted over 72 hours instead of the 36 initially foreseen, but it turned out to be a success. With some help on the part of the local partisan groups, according to some sources 481 German soldiers were killed, 1,083 surrendered, 44 vehicles were destroyed and many captured including some tanks, armored cars and guns, 77 telephone lines severed, three bridges taken intact, an ammunition storage site blown up. The price the Italians paid for the success was 31 dead (including a British paratroops sergeant) and 10-12 wounded. An Italian Lieutenant and a private were posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Valor.
