Italian Operations

The most interesting part was in Italy where the German forces were in a narrow front. Italy is very narrow, so they could concentrate. So we were not moving, or the army was not moving as quickly as, because there was the mountains and things of this nature. From Naples up to Rome became very rigid. The road from Naples to Rome was up what’s called the Liri Valley, L-I-R-I Valley, and the control, one of the controlling points to activity on the Liri Valley was a Roman Catholic Mission on top of a mountain called Cassino, Monte Cassino. And there the German troops had affixed themselves very, very strongly and they controlled all the approaches on the ground up to Rome and to take Monte Cassino was a major operation involving the Brits, some other regiment, Canadians and the famous 8th Army. We were providing daily control at Monte Cassino, giving ground support. To dislodge the Germans from Monte Cassino required constant daylight bombing, majority of it done by the American Air Force with Mitchells and Marauders. We would provide top cover for them, because if the, if the German Air Force, the Italian Air Force was defunct, if the Germans would send down their fighters to shoot down the Mitchells, we provided top cover for them and as a result we’d be 1000, 2000 feet above them seeing them going in and seeing the absolute indescribable devastation of the bombs on Monte Cassino. And many bombs missed and hit our own troops, as you can imagine, and many of the anti-aircraft guns were missing the bombers and hitting some of us. So that was, that was exciting. Then after when they decided to move around and swing out to the sea and come in at Anzio which is at the mouth of the Tiber, as you recall near Rome, that was to be, to cut in behind this, that was exciting because we provided all the support for that operation.

Mr. Yarnell describes the 601 Squadron’s operations in Italy in support of Monte Cassino and Anzio.

Cyrill St. Clair (Cy) Yarnell

Mr. Yarnell was born August 9, 1920 in Carlow, Ireland. He moved to Canada when he was 8 years old. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 at the age of 20. Mr Yarnell received his initial pilot training in Victoriaville, Quebec where he learned to fly the Fleet Finch, he then graduated on to the Harvard. He received flying instructor training in Trenton and trained pilots from many countries. After instructing for a year, Mr. Yarnell was sent overseas. He flew missions over North Africa, Italy and Germany and was involved in the battles at Liri Valley and Monte Cassino. Following the war, Mr. Yarnell continued with the RCAF, retiring in 1975 as a colonel. He is a member of the Air Force Association of Canada and is very active with the Air Force Museum in Trenton, Ontario. Mr. Yarnell and his wife, Phyllis, have three children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.