Part 7 The fight near Ponte Dirillo

Art positioned himself and the few dozen stragglers he found on the high ground near Comico airfield.  On July 11, when approximately ten German tanks and a battalion of infantry began to assault their position, and all of his men were lying as low as possible, Art was on his feet, dodging incoming fire and moving around the position, bucking up his outnumbered men.  When one of the teams manning a captured anti-tank gun was all wounded or killed, Gorham sprang for the weapon, loaded it himself, and went after one of the tanks.  He hit the tank’s vulnerable side, setting it on fire.  Art then moved from point-to-point firing into the eye-slit of tanks, shouting encouragement to the men and directing their fire until the counterattack was repulsed.  For his actions on July 11, 1943, Gorham was awarded the nation’s second-highest award for bravery, the Distinguished Service Cross.

The next day, July 12, Art and his unit came face to face with another German tank unit near Niscemi, Sicily.  William B. Breuer in Drop Zone Sicily describes the action: Art “grabbed a rocket launcher and edged his way within range of a menacing Tiger Tank which had continued to roll forward.  Gorham, out in the open and in full view of enemy tankers, kneeled to take aim at the tank.  Gunners in the Tiger spotted the parachute leader and fired an 88mm shell at Gorham at point-blank range.  Gorham, hardnosed to the end, fell over dead.”

The citation for the Distinguished Service Cross he was awarded for his actions reports: “Lieutenant Colonel Gorham personally manned a rocket launcher and destroyed one tank.  While attempting to destroy another with hand grenades and a rifle, Lieutenant Colonel Gorham was killed.” The details of this story were later relayed to Gorham’s family by Chicago Tribune reporter John Hall Thompson in December 1943.

Bill Ryder first reported Art’s death in a March of Time radio broadcast on August 19, 1943.  “One of the outstanding examples of heroism was Lt. Col. Arthur Gorham, whose unit was attacked by tanks.  When one of his bazooka teams was wiped out by an approaching tank, he manned the weapon himself and got the tank single-handed before being killed himself by another tank on their flank.”  Ryder was the first American paratrooper and had jumped with Colonel Gavin in Sicily as an advisor.  Ryder would later return Gorham’s personal effects to my mother.

Colonel Gavin was to write to my mother, “Most of the combat success of the Regiment in Sicily was due to Art and the men of his command.”  After the war, Gavin, by then a lieutenant general, wrote in his memoir, On to Berlin, “Colonel Gorham and his small group of troopers… accomplished all of the missions assigned to the entire regimental combat team.  It was a remarkable performance, and I know of nothing like it that occurred at any time later in the war…His death was a great loss to the division.”

General Ridgway probably put this in the best perspective when he wrote, “The action which resulted in his death was typical of his inspiring leadership, for it was he that personally instilled the spirit of the attack at a time that those around him were thinking only of defense, and in person led the attack, which succeeded.  His indomitable spirit acknowledged no odds.”

Plaque Near Ponte Dirillo Ceremony to be here on 10 July 2023

Looking north west from the plaque to the fortification guarding the road

One of the bunkers overwatching Ponte Dirillo