In September, the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions (2nd Parachute Brigade) and the 10th, 11th and 156th Battalions (4th Parachute Brigade) took part in Operation Slapstick a landing from the sea near the port of Taranto in Italy. Their objective was to capture the port and several nearby airfields, and link up with the British Eighth Army, before pressing north to join the U.S. Fifth Army near Foggia. They landed unopposed on 9 September 1943, the only losses being 58 men of the 6th Battalion, lost at sea when their ship struck a mine. Pushing inland, the Paras captured the town of Castellaneta and the town and airfield of Gioia del Colle before the 4th Parachute Brigade was withdrawn from the theatre.