This spring on our program, we previewed the Walton Arts Center's upcoming Broadway season when it was announced. In a few minutes, we'll survey the rest of the venue's 35th anniversary season, from Lyle Lovett to Samara Joy to a stage production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
But speaking of that Broadway season, one of the national tours landing on the Walton Arts Center stage in May is Operation Mincemeat. That musical is based on a real counterintelligence plot to trick the Nazis into believing the Allies were on the verge of invading Greece when Sicily was actually the target.
That successful operation was based on Germans finding a floating dead body with alleged top-secret documents outlining the bogus invasion of Greece.
I bring all of this up now because 83 years ago this week, the Battle of Sicily was raging, and because the fighting in Italy has a deep connection to Fort Smith and Fort Chaffee.
This week, I spoke with Emma Makowski at the Chaffee Barbershop and Military Museum, where she is the museum's collections coordinator. She said the fight in Italy was a showcase for the Allies' determination.
"In general, [it] just kind of goes to show that we were not backing down at all. There was a lot of pressure on the Americans during that time, and just the Allies in general, to penetrate Hitler's occupied Europe, and that just wasn't happening."
Among those involved in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the launch of the Italian campaign was Fort Smith native William O. Darby, the founding commander of what became the U.S. Army Rangers.
"So we know men like General Darby and other really trailblazing Americans created different branches of commandos, and they were the ones who really got us that footing in place. And when that battle was taking place, we actually had nurses that were present for it that trained here on Fort Chaffee. So we have that connection to the battle.
"But I do know that the front is really overlooked, and Dwight Eisenhower actually deemed it a failure. Unfortunately, he did not view the campaign as a full-blown success because it took us so long to get to Sicily. And I do know that the fact that we were able just to even get to that point just kind of goes to show just how hard we were trying to get there."
General Eisenhower's evaluation aside, by mid-August the Allies were victorious in taking Sicily and thus paving the way for the Italian campaign that removed Italy from the war and eventually resulted in Mussolini's removal from power.
The conversation with Emma Makowski took place in front of the Chaffee Museum's tribute to a nurse who trained at Fort Chaffee before being sent to Italy.
"So this is 2nd Lt. Ellen Gertrude Ainsworth. She was 24 years old, and we know that she was in many major campaigns in Italy, particularly in Anzio, which is not that far from Sicily. She wound up sacrificing herself for 43 of her patients at just age 24."
The exhibit at the museum explains that 2nd Lt. Ainsworth was in a field hospital in February 1944 that came under heavy enemy bombardment. She chose not to run to a bunker but to stay in the hospital. She was mortally wounded when a German artillery shell exploded next to her tent.
"So she did her training on here. But we do know from a memoir that one of her good friends wrote that the shelling was consistent. So what's very interesting about the Italian front, too, is that it was almost like a test run for the Allies to see how nurses would perform in an environment like that. We already had the Pacific theater taking place, but this was kind of like, 'Hey, let's see how well they can react and act.'
"These ladies were also building their field tents and hospitals. They were taking care of men during active shelling. They were getting shot at. And a lot of the men were actually very angry they were there because they felt as though it was a liability for them to be there. And unfortunately, that proved to be a little true because we lost seven nurses in total during that campaign."
Second Lt. Ellen Ainsworth and her fellow nurses who served on the Italian front leave a legacy that is honored at the museum.
"And these women really, I'll say, lived very similar to the men. They didn't really change anything up other than maybe wearing red nail polish and lipstick on occasion. One of my favorite stories is that after Ellen had passed, her friend wound up wearing one seersucker dress, and then all the other nurses followed suit because they didn't think they'd have the opportunity to wear it again.
"It really kind of showed just how war is senseless, and it doesn't matter who you are, you could still be a casualty of it. And they all wore that seersucker dress, and she said she was freezing so much to the point where one of her patients actually wound up giving her his leather jacket. He was a pilot that had been shot down, and they were able to rescue him safely. But the Italian front in general just kind of was a way for the women to really prove themselves in the European theater. And I think they did accomplish that. A lot of the men had a lot of respect for them after the war."
Emma Makowski is collections coordinator at the Chaffee Barbershop and Military Museum. She spoke with Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams earlier this week. The Battle of Sicily was taking place 83 years ago this week, and the museum covers much more of Chaffee's role in Arkansas and American history. We'll hear more from Emma as she discusses the museum on an upcoming edition of Ozarks at Large.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
