page_title: Durham Light Infantry
section_title: Sicily, Italy and Greece 1943–45
hierarchical_section_title: Durham Light Infantry / History / Second World War / Sicily, Italy and Greece 1943–45
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in Sicily 1943 Men of the 6th Durham Light Infantry chat with an American paratrooper in Avola, 11 July 1943.
context_page_description: The Durham Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th Regiment of Foot and the 106th Regiment of Foot along with the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham.
  The regiment served notably in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II, the Korean War and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. During times of peace it had duty in India, China, West Germany and Cyprus.
  In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the King's Shropshire Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry, which again amalgamated in 2007 with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form a new large regiment, The Rifles, which continues the lineage of the regiment.
context_section_description: The 151st brigade was chosen as an assault brigade for the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943 with the 6th and 9th battalions leading. Due to poor weather both landed late and in the wrong place but against light resistance. After advancing inland and breaking up attacks from the 54th (Napoli) Division on 12 July, the Durham battalions were ordered to Primosole bridge after its capture by British Paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Brigade arriving on 15 July after a forced march of 25 miles and the paratroopers had been forced from the bridge. After 2 days of ferocious battle against men of the 1st Fallschirmjager Division the bridge was retaken at a cost of 500 casualties to the brigade. After entering Catania on 5 August after the Germans withdrew the advance northward was contested in a landscape of terraced hillsides and stone walls. With the end of resistance in Sicily the brigade rested and was informed it was to return to Britain in October.
  The 16th battalion landed in Italy at Salerno as part of British X Corps, attached to US Fifth Army, on 9 September in the second wave, and defended the perimeter of the beach-head until 15 September. The 18th battalion was also part of the landings at Salerno (with two companies) in its role as a beach group. The 16th battalion fought toward, and entered Naples on 6 October, then on 12 October made a silent crossing of the River Volturno reaching its first objective before the Germans noticed. It held the bridgehead it established for 8 days until relieved. The battalion took part in the forcing of the Winter Line, at the end of October at the Bernhardt line, (after which it was reinforced by drafts from the regiment's 70th battalion) and in January 1944 forcing the main Gustav line.  In February, the 46th Division was withdrawn for rest and retraining to Egypt and Palestine, where the battalion aided the civil authorities during a riot in Tel-Aviv. Returning to Italy in July, it fought hard on the Gothic Line advancing along the road to Gemmano in early September and crossed the Cosina Canal in November. In December the battalion was sent to Greece as part of the efforts to keep the peace and then to forestall a communist take over. Initially deployed to Athens, a platoon accidentally occupied the Acropolis after turning left instead of right.  It became involved in fighting ELAS at Phaleron and in January 1945, Patras. The battalion returned to Italy in April 1945, but did not see action.
  Meanwhile, the 1st battalion had returned to Italy in May 1944 the where it joined the 10th Indian Infantry Brigade in the 10th Indian Infantry Division and by 19 May was back in the line north of Ortona. Transferred to the Tiber valley in June, it fought toward the Gustav Line until September, then was transferred once more to the Adriatic coast fighting though the Gothic Line when it was relieved in February 1945. Returning to the Adriatic coast in April it crossed the Sillaro on 15 April, the battalion heard news of the Armistice while in billets in Ferrara.
caption: Men of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry chat with an American paratrooper of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, in Avola, 11 July 1943.
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