Looking Back: CProC during the Battle of the Liri Valley
By Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Thobo-Carlsen (Retired), CMPA Director of History & Heritage.
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Eighty years ago, the 1st Canadian Corps played a pivotal role in the Allied campaign to break through the layered German defences in south-central Italy in preparation for the liberation of Rome. Operation Diadem, which began on 11 May 1944, involved the British Eighth Army (including 1 Cdn Corps) and the US Fifth Army (including the Corps expéditionnaire français). This operation aimed to pierce the heavily-fortified "Gustav Line" and "Hitler (Senger) Line" defenses near Cassino and push up the Liri Valley in a northwesterly direction toward the Italian capital. 1 Cdn Corps was well supported by Canadian Provost Corps (CProC) units, including;
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Provost staff officers were also assigned to the main formations, including an Assistant Provost Marshal (major) and Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal (captain) at 1 Cdn Corps HQ, and an Assistant Provost Marshal (major) at each of the two Canadian divisional HQs. Also taking part was No. 3 Provost Section (CProC) assigned to the independent 1st Cdn Armoured Brigade, which fell under the British 13 Corps during Op Diadem.
The 1st Cdn Inf Div was the first of the two Canadian divisions to be committed to battle, so it is not surprising that a member of No. 1 Pro Coy was the first provost fatality during the Liri Valley battle. On 15 May 1944, Lance Corporal Kenneth D'Albenas was killed in action during a reconnaissance mission near Cassino when the jeep he was riding in hit an anti-tank 'Teller' mine. No. 1 Pro Coy suffered several other fatalities as the Liri Valley battle progressed: on 22 May Corporal John. F. J. Nelson was killed in action while directing traffic along 'Heart Route' when a German 88mm artillery shell exploded near his jeep; and on 31 May Corporal Donald G. Stackhouse and Lance Corporal Anthony Krasnuik were both killed in action when their motorcycles set off a 'Teller' mines while travelling on Highway No. 6, the main autoroute through the Liri Valley.
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Cpl Stackhouse (left) and LCpl Krasnuik (above, right) in Italy, 1943. Both members of No. 1 Pro Coy died in the Liri Valley on the same day in May 1944. (Credit: Left - Jack Smith/DND/LAC/PA-213689; Above - Unknown photographer/DND/via Canadian Provost Corps Silver Jubilee: 1940–1965, Ottawa: CFHQ, May 1965, page 19).
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On 22 May, after more than a week of intensive fighting, the 1st Cdn Inf Div managed to breach the Hitler Line near Pontecorvo and set the stage for the next phase of the plan, know as Operation Chesterfield. The following day, the 1st Cdn Inf Div went into reserve status and the 5th Cdn Armd Div took over as the spearhead formation for the push up the Liri Valley. As No. 1 Pro Coy got a bit of much-needed time for rest and maintenance, No. 5 Pro Coy was about to face its first major test in large-scale mobile combat operations.
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Major-General Hoffmeister, General Officer Commanding 5th Cdn Armd Div, inspects member of No. 5 Pro Coy on 10 May 1944, one day prior to the start of Op Diadem. The non-commissioned provosts on parade are all armed with Thompson M1928A1 sub-machine guns. (Credit: Left - E.S.S. Smith/Canada, Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/e003895003; Right - E.S.S. Smith/DND/LAC/e002113663-v6)
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Command of No, 5 Pro Coy had changed only two weeks earlier, with Captain A. J. 'Tony' Scotti taking over from Captain Hubert M. Childerstone who then became OC of No. 1 L of C Pro Coy in the 1 Cdn Corps Base Area.
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5 Pro Coy war diary entry re: inspection and change of command
(Credit: DND/LAC, R112-6756-X-E, RG24-C-3)
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Captain Scotti's jeep was riddled by mortar fire on 22 May while he was visiting forward Traffic Control Points to ensure they were ready for the impending divisional attack, His vehicle was a write-off but Scotti himself was uninjured. On the same day a lance corporal from the unit had to be medically evacuated for an operational stress injury. No. 5 Pro Coy suffered its first fatality of the Liri Valley battle on day one of Operation Chesterfield. On 23 May Lance Corporal W. J. 'Bill' Graham was killed during a mortar attack and Lance Corporal Brady was badly wounded. Lance Corporal Cosgrove was seriously wounded two days later during an air raid. 28 May 1944 saw the company's worst daily casualty count, when Private Leonard A. 'Len' Eisenman was killed in action by German shellfire and Lance Corporals Dickason, O’Handley and Perry were all wounded. Lance Corporal Russell was wounded on 29 May—the company's last casualty of the battle.
Immediately before, during and after Op Chesterfield No. 5 Pro Coy headquarters relocated five times to keep up with the 5th Armd Div advance. The unit war diary shows that the company HQ and its six provost sections operated under regular enemy shelling and air raids between 21 and 29 May. The division's prisoner of war (PW) cage was located near No. 5 Pro Coy HQ throughout the battle up the Liri Valley, and kept busy. The war diary indicates the company had handled 118 PWs through the cage as of 29 May. Documents attached to the war diary show the company's war establishment as 115 all-ranks (3-24-88), but on 27 May it had an actual strength of only 111 personnel due to recent casualties.
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LCpl Bill Graham, No. 5 Pro Coy, killed in action on 23 May 1944 (Credit: Toronto Telegram, unknown edition, May 1944)
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No. 5 Pro Coy headquarters locations in the Liri Valley, Italy, from 21 May–11 June 1944. (Credit: Map base layer via liri-valley.project44.ca)
Elements of 5th Cdn Armd Div liberated Pofi by the afternoon of 29 May and 1 Cdn Corps HQ directed that 1st Cdn Inf Div would take over again as the leading Canadian division during the night of 30/31 May. On 31 May 5th Armd Div went into reserve and No. 5 Pro Coy relocated its headquarters to an area southwest of main Pofi townsite. By 2 June all six sections of No. 5 Pro Coy had co-located with the HQ element and the entire company remained in the Pofi area until 11 June.
The movement of 1 Cdn Corps formations was greatly complicated by the fact there was only one main, paved autoroute traversing the Liri Valley—Highway 6. Most of the secondary roads in the valley were basic, narrow and poorly maintained, which created many traffic control problems for the Canadian provost's to help sort out. The frustration of this situation was expressed in the war diary of the 1st Cdn Inf Div on 27 May:
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5 Cdn Armd Div have been given priority on the rds, and have begun to use our brs [bridges] over the MELFA [River]. As theirs is a pursuit role, it is vital that they roll their armour as far fwd as possible before they make their spring. The situation, however, is not helpful to us, and has our hard worked APM and Provost Coy on the verge of nervous breakdown, beside preventing us from getting arty fwd or carrying out regrouping. [1]
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The 1st Cdn Inf Div's spearhead role was short lived. The Commander of the US Fifth Army was determined to beat the British Eight Army to Rome, and he ordered the French Expeditionary Corps—which had until then been operating on the left flank of the Canadians south of the Sacco River—to cut across the Canadian lines in a north/northwesterly direction and drive up Highway 6 to the Italian capital. The French corps did so on 3 June, effectively ending the 1 Cdn Corps' operation when the Canadian advanced elements were less that 50km from the centre of Rome. The US Fifth Army paraded into Rome as liberators on 4 June. The US Fifth Army's actions stung the Canadians somewhat, but this was tempered by the knowledge that they would avoid having to incur further casualties in a final push to Rome. An entry in the 1st Cdn Inf Div war diary on 5 June captured the prevailing feeling within 1 Cdn Corps:
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Provost (centre), probably from No. 1 Pro Coy (RCMP), surveys a long line of stalled traffic on a track created by the military engineers, south of Cassino, near junction of Liri and Rapido (Gari) Rivers, 21 May 1944. (Credit: W. H. Agnew/DND/LAC/PA-152280)
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All supporting Canadian Provost Corps units remained very busy throughout the Battle of the Liri Valley. The two divisional provost companies carried out their duties in particularly trying conditions, characterized by frequent enemy shelling, ever present anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, terribly heavy traffic and poor roads, long hours in hot dusty conditions, and ever-changing bivouacs. The six divisional provosts who were killed in action during the battle all now rest at the Cassino War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Thankfully, there were no fatalities in either of the two Corps-level provost companies (No. 3 Pro Coy and and No. 1 L of C Pro Coy) or in No. 3 Provost Sect attached to the independent 1st Cdn Armoured Brigade. Notwithstanding, these units also provided stalwart support under difficult conditions throughout the Liri Valley campaign.
Captain Scotti and No. 5 Provost Company: the Protection of Women and Girls from Atrocities near Castro dei Volsci
Recent research in Italy has shed new light on events that took place toward the end of the Liri Valley battle, but which have not previously been recorded in written Canadian military police histories. [3] Certain details of these events have been known in Italy for some time through the work of Professor Antonio Grazio Ferraro in his book Cassino: dalla distruzione delle geurra alla rinascita della pace. [4] Ferraro and his bother were both eyewitnesses to one incident. Historical researcher Poalo M. Sbarbada later took an interest in the story and interviewed professor Ferraro, before his death in 2015, in order to learn more. What follows is a summary of the known events drawing upon information discovered through Mr. Sbarbada's continued research. [5]
The Corps expéditionnaire français, which operated on the left flank of the 1 Canadian Corps during the advance up the Liri Valley, included a number of irregular light infantry units whose soldiers were known as Goumiers. Largely recruited from Berber tribes in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the Goumiers were fierce fighters and greatly feared by the German defenders in Italy. However, the Goumiers' military training was lacking and they were apparently under looser control than were the regular North African colonial troops. From mid-May 1944 onward, widespread acts of sexual brutality against the local Italian population were attributed to these Moroccan irregulars.
One particular incident resulted in a definitive response by Captain Tony Scotti and some of his troops from No, 5 Provost Company, which at that time was headquartered in the southeast area of Pofi. The exact date of the incident is not clear, but was likely at the very end of May. Sixteen year-old Antonio Grazio Ferraro and his family were sheltering in a farmhouse south of Pofi near the Sacco River, not far from the main townsite of Castro dei Vosci (which was located on the south side of the river). Ferraro heard screams and gunshots coming from near the river where some Moroccan troops has crossed and broken into a home to loot and pillage. He and some other inhabitants were then forced a gunpoint to witness a teenage girl being beaten and raped by multiple Moroccan soldiers. The marauding soldiers subsequently fled when some French officers arrived in a vehicle, but they quickly left without offering any assistance. Ferraro and his older brother subsequently reported the incident to some Canadian soldiers who were patrolling in the area, and they in turn took the pair to a location in Pofi where they met with Captain Scotti. The brothers explained what had occurred to Scotti, who fortunatley spoke Italian since both of his parents had immigrated to Canada from Italy.
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The next day, the Ferraro brothers led Captain Scotti and a group of his troops to the scene of the incident. While they were still at that site a group of Moroccan soldiers came down from the hills shouting and began to cross the river—very likely for another round of looting and sexual violence. After they ignored the verbal warnings of Captain Scotti (who was also fluent in French) he fired several warning shots into the air with his revolver. When this also failed to stop the French colonial troops from advancing further, the troops under Scotti's command opened fire—hitting some and forcing the others to turn back. Subsequently, Captain Scotti had the local population leave their homes near the river for few days and take shelter farther north where the Canadians could better protect them from any marauding French colonial troops. He also arranged for the Ferraro family to stay with another family near the No. 5 Provost Company headquarters in Pofi.
Another eyewitness to a separate violent attack by two Moroccan soldiers recalls that Canadian provosts responded to that incident since he remembered them wearing black "MP" armbands and carrying pistols on their belts. The provosts arrived in time to prevent an elderly woman from being further disfigured by the Moroccan troops who had been torturing her with a knife to learn the whereabouts of another person. They fled when the provosts arrived, but the Canadians chased them and opened fire as they were crossing the river—apparently hitting and wounding one of them. This eyewitness also recalled that for a few days afterward the Canadians set up a machine gun on a hill near the railway station between Pofi and Castro dei Volsci to discourage further river crossing attempts by the French colonial troops.
The exact extent of the atrocities committed by French colonial troops in the Liri Valley is still a matter of debate. However, around 300 rapes are believed have taken place in the Castro dei Volsci area alone. [6]
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Captain Tony Scotti, OC No. 5 Pro Coy, poses with 14-year old Olivetta Molinari somewhere between Castro dei Volsci and Pofi, early June 1944. Olivetta's family were victimized by Moroccan troops who stole some of their animals and slaughtered a calf. She had to go into hiding to avoid being discovering and assaulted. Afterward, she helped do laundry for the Canadians (Credit: Unknown photographer/via Adam Scotti)
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To recognize the actions of Captain Tony Scotti and men of No. 5 Provost Company (CProC) in helping to prevent further Italian women and girls from being sexually assaulted and brutalized, the municipalities of Pofi and Castro dei Volsci have each erected commemorative monuments in their honour.
Tony Scotti was a former policeman in Westmount, Quebec who joined the Canadian Provost Corps in 1940. He was quickly promoted to corporal and then sergeant, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1942. He finished the war as Assistant Provost Marshal for the 5th Canadian Armoured Division at the rank of major. Major Scotti was 'Mentioned in Dispatches' and awarded the Military Cross for his wartime service. He remained in the provost corps after the war and went on to become the Commandant of the Canadian Provost Corps School (1960-62) and the Canadian Army Provost Marshal (1962-64). Colonel Scotti then served in several other staff positions until his military retirement in 1968. He subsequently worked for ten more years as a senior official in the Quebec Public Security Department and was instrumental in setting up the provincial police training centre at Nicolette, Quebec. Tony Scotti passed away on 7 November 1995 in his 80th year.
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Colonel Anthony J. Scotti, Cdn Army Provost Marshal, Jan 1962–Jul 1964. (DND)
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Commemorative plaque unveiled in the Municipality of Pofi on 17 Oct 2023 (Credit: Comune di Pofi)
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Commemorative plaque unveiled in the Municipality of Castro dei Volsci on 14 May 2024 (Credit: John Hosgrove)
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Notes:
1. War diary entry, 27 May 1944, 1st Cdn Inf Div General Staff Branch, as reprinted at https://map.project44.ca/.
2. War diary entry, 5 June 1944, 1st Cdn Inf Div General Staff Branch, as reprinted at https://map.project44.ca/.
3. In Canada, the story appears to have known only to the participants and those to whom they passed it on verbally. Colonel Tony Battista (retired Military Police Officer) first learned of these events in vague terms in 1995. The story was also later mentioned to him by the widow of Colonel Tony Scotti (retired Provost Corps Officer, who was a participant).
4. Antonio Grazio Ferraro, Cassino: dalla distruzione della guerra alla rinascita nella pace (Cassino, Italy: F. Ciolfi, 2007).
5. Poalo M. Sbarbada, Una Storia di Guerra: report storica-fotografica sul passaggio delle guerra a Castro dei Volsci, Maggio 1944 (Frosinone, Italy: self-published, 14 May 2024)
6. Sbarbada, Una Storia di Guerra, 66; and Norman Lewis, Naples 44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005), 131.
Notes:
1. War diary entry, 27 May 1944, 1st Cdn Inf Div General Staff Branch, as reprinted at https://map.project44.ca/.
2. War diary entry, 5 June 1944, 1st Cdn Inf Div General Staff Branch, as reprinted at https://map.project44.ca/.
3. In Canada, the story appears to have known only to the participants and those to whom they passed it on verbally. Colonel Tony Battista (retired Military Police Officer) first learned of these events in vague terms in 1995. The story was also later mentioned to him by the widow of Colonel Tony Scotti (retired Provost Corps Officer, who was a participant).
4. Antonio Grazio Ferraro, Cassino: dalla distruzione della guerra alla rinascita nella pace (Cassino, Italy: F. Ciolfi, 2007).
5. Poalo M. Sbarbada, Una Storia di Guerra: report storica-fotografica sul passaggio delle guerra a Castro dei Volsci, Maggio 1944 (Frosinone, Italy: self-published, 14 May 2024)
6. Sbarbada, Una Storia di Guerra, 66; and Norman Lewis, Naples 44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005), 131.