VALUE OF FOGGIA TO ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 5, 1 October 1943, Page 5

VALUE OF FOGGIA TO ALLIES

Comment In London MUNICH ONLY 450 MILES AWAY (Received September 30, 7.25 p.m.) LONDON, September 29. There is general endorsement here of President Roosevelt’s statement that the capture of Foggia airfield- is one of the most important successes yet achieved by the Allied forces in Italy. Foggia has 13 airfields lying round it. It is only 450 miles from Munich, 400 miles from Vienna, and 350 miles from Bolzano, which is just south of the Brenner Pass. The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent in North Africa comments: “That Field-Marshal Kesselring could not defend Foggia is proof that all his available forces are grouped round Naples, and that they are insufficient to enable him to fight at both of them. He chose to defend Naples in spite of the fact that Foggia will provide the Allies not only with bases for the tactical air force, but also for the strategic air force which is brought within easy range of the whole Balkans as well as Austria and southern Germany.” The correspondent adds that while the Germans are bound to have left extensive mining and demolitions, the airfields can be put into operational order within two or three days. . The “Daily Telegraph” in an editona. comments that possession of Foggia suggests that Allied reinforcements have been pouring in through Taranto, Brindisi and possibly Bari. Should Prove Decisive Factor.

The “iNews Chronicle’s.” military correspondent considers the fall of Foggia a “great triumph.” but suggests that time will ibe required to build up an organization for bombing fleets and amassing stores, spares and accessories,. in addition to supplying fuel, ammunition nnd bombs. The correspondent adds: lue occupation of I\>ggia should prove a decisive factor which will vastly accelerate the completion of Allied operations in Italy. With Foggia in our hands, the fall of Naples is bound to follow soon. Foggia’s bases, of course, provide fighter cover as far as Rome. The “Daily Express” correspondent, Alan Moorhead, says that a sudden vast change has overtaken the area behind the battlefront in Italy. . The Italians, who greatly outnumber the British, and Americans, are beginning to administer the country for the Allies “just as though there had never been such a thing as the Axis. They are starting to man roads, railways, ports and military encampments. “We have instructions not to treat this as occupied territory, but as the country of a friendly ally. The King and Marshal Badoglio are setting up an entirely new government on Italian soil. In. the astonishingly short space of one fortnight, the Italians without any notable exceptions are turning their guns round on their former allies.”