The Campaign for Sicily, 1943

 Four photographic units, two each from the 196^th and 163^rd Signal Photographic Companies, accompanied the landing force into Sicily. Each unit consisted of one officer cameraman and six enlisted cameramen. Actual photographic coverage began some 30 days before the invasion date when the cameramen made a complete pictorial record of the vast preparations then under way.

The primary purpose was to furnish scenes to be used for a projected full-length feature film on the invasion, but as it turned out they were widely used for other purposes. Newsreel companies used the films extensively to demonstrate to audiences the thoroughness with which the Army prepared for an invasion. The War Department Bureau of Public Relations characterized the film as “magnificent” and rated it “the most perfect war coverage in the photographic medium seen during this war.”

All together, 38 Army combat photographers covered the campaign. Thirty-two of them were attached to various tactical units, and six men, specially assigned, were under the direct control of Seventh Army. The men assigned directly to Seventh Army proved highly effective because they could be shifted about whenever and wherever their services were required. Once again, as in North Africa, the advantages of a flexible organization were demonstrated. Two cameramen volunteered for duty with the 82^nd Airborne Division. One of them, T/Sgt. Cecil M. Campbell, was assigned to a glider unit, but the other found himself attached to the 505^th Parachute Infantry. Although he had never made a parachute jump before, he dropped with the unit behind the enemy lines on the night of 9-10 July.

During the period 10 July to 31 August, Signal Corps photographers sent the War Department 3,200 still pictures, 56,500 feet of 35 mm negative, and 1,650 feet of 16 mm. picture Kodachrome. The War Department Board of Review, judging the material “extremely interesting,” forwarded an official recommendation to the Seventh Army for the “prompt and efficient” manner in which photographic coverage of the campaign was handled.

-- Source: United States Army in World War II: The Technical Services – The Signal Corps: The Outcome. Author, Thompson, G. R. and Dixie R. Harris.  Washington, D.C. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1966.

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