I REMEMBER SICILY.

SICILY (Italy); ITALY; CANADA

CANADIAN Broadcasting Corp.; BRITISH Broadcasting Corp.

Sixty years after the invasion, journalist Peter Stursberg recalls the landing of the Canadian Armed Forces in Sicily. It was an exciting and invigorating time to be in London that late spring of 1943. The weather was warm, and I remember how sunny it was when I went to a cricket match at Lords. But, above all, there was the great expectation of the next phase of the war, the prospect of a new and startling development, not the second front that the Russians wanted, but a new front, with all its dark uncertainties and dangers. I was a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) war correspondent and the talk in the Cock Tavern, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC)/CBC pub off Oxford Street, was of a landing in Sicily or Greece, or Yugoslavia, the soft underbelly of the Axis, but behind all the gung-ho chatter was the unspoken but ever-present memory of the disastrous landing at Dieppe. I had an interview that afternoon with H.G. Wells. It was to be recorded for use in a couple of weeks time. Through the Straits of Gibraltar, the weather turned hot, and the men spent most of the time on deck getting a tan. It could have been a Mediterranean cruise. However, heading north for Sicily, we ran into the invasion fleet; there were ships as far as the eye could see, big ships and little ships, warships and troopers, and swarms of landing craft. I had been acting like a print journalist, sending dispatches for later broadcast, and the CBC now cabled me to get to a radio station and make some voice broadcasts. I described the scene. It worked out wonderfully. The BBC used it on their short- wave service and the Seaforths were surprised and delighted to hear it the following night. It was called the "first sound out of conquered territory [in Europe]." It was, in fact, the first sound of liberation.