C-47 unload supplies - Australian Forces | Gallery

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#1

C-47 unload supplies

Grottaglie airfield, summer Italy. 1943. Official caption of this photo: "Italian airmen at Grottaglie airfield in Italy, now in Allied hands, watch RAAF airmen of No. 3 (Kittyhawk) Squadron RAAF, unload supplies from a transport aircraft flown across from Sicily. These transport aircraft, flown by American, British, and Dominion pilots maintained an incessant shuttle service of supplies from the day allied troops landed in Italy". Note: today a the large airport of Grottaglie, near Taranto, in Puglia, is based the Naval Air Station of Italian Navy with AV-8B Harrier. Again there is the factory of Alenia Aeronautica for production of fuselage sections in carbon fiber of NBoeing 787 Dreamliner. Victor Sierra

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/australian-forces/41693/c-47-unload-supplies
#2

The Italians in this picture would be POWs or not?

#3
#4

ELK
that would be hard to say as the Allies landed (3rd Sept) and almost right away the Italians signed the armistice (8th Sept) with the Allies. The Co-Belligerent Army was formed on the 28th Sept.

Some Italian units continued to fight on the Axis side others joined the Allies, some units were disarmed by the Germans and became labour while others just disbanded and the troops went home as best they could.

#5

The Armistice was signed not the the September 8, 1943, but at 17,30 (local time) of 3 September 1943 at Cassibile, Sicily (short armistice) with effect only after the official announcement. Were the Allies to start off the official announcement of Armistice, late in the afternoon of 8 September 1943, confirmed by Italian Government in the evening of same day. This is the reason that why the Armistice Italy-Allies is knew like Armistice of 8 September 1943. The Italians in picture, perhaps taken in the first days of September 1943, isn’t POWs. VictorSierra