THE SICILIAN INFERNO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 91, 20 July 1943, Page 4

THE SICILIAN INFERNO

MOUNT Etna in all her association with heroic history has never looked down on scenes,, approaching those which now flow about her base. Sicily to-day is undergoing an intensive sea bombardment and land and air offensive the like of which could only be born of modern warfare. Literally ringed by the fleets of the Allied nations, harried by the endless squadrons of their air power and faced with a quarter of a million of some of the finest fighting: men in the world, the island can truly be. said to be facing the greatest moment in her history. The coastal belt which sheltered the main land defences has crumbled under the pulverising effect of the gigantic Allied bombardment. Up to the fertile plains of Catania the veteran Eighth Army has forced its way in spite of the bitterest opposition. In the South the American forces have functioned at Agrigento and a new offensive into the heart of the island is awaited from this quarter. But it is on Catania, the famed seaport and naval base that all attention is centred. From a strategical point of view the fall of Catania means the collapse of the main kernal of defence. The town is the centre of local military operations as well as the adminis-> trative headquarters for the island. It is the port serving the arterial road and rail routes to the centre of the island where the main forces of defence are said to be stationed. The capture of Catania means the cutting off of supplies reinforcements and munitions. It has been set down as a new task for the Eighth Army and it shall be done. Last night the suburbs of this important town had been entered. Its fall will have a big bearing on the behaviour of Italy towards the rumoured peace parley which despite the frantic denials of the Rome radio is gaining headway under the aegis of the Crown Prince Humberto, who as all the world knows, is no friend of Mussolini or of Fascism.