Late War News ENEMY GAINST IN DODECANESE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 10, 7 October 1943, Page 6

Late War News ENEMY GAINST IN DODECANESE

Report From Turkey BTH ARMY EFFORT IN ITALY (By Telegraph—Press Assn.-Copyright.) . Received October 7, 12.50 a.m.) LONDON, October 6. Press reports say that fighting is occurring on the island of Samos,. in the Dodecanese, where the Germans have occupied important positions, says the Exchange Telegraph’s Ankara correspondent. The> Germans also appear to control Leros and Kos, where resistance ceased on Monday night. However, todav’s communique from the Middle East headquarters says there has been continued fighting on , Kos, . where the position was unchanged. The German News Agency admits the evacuation of Volturara, in Italy, 35 miles west of Foggia, on the Eighth Armv front. Algiers radio says that Allied pilots report that Kesselring Is already withdrawing from the J <>•- lurno line which it was predicted he might make a stand. Reports from Italy suggest that General -Montgomery is exerting heavy pressure from the newly-captured town ot Volturara along the main trn “ s ""“ ppe '.‘’ hie highway running H’om 'oltium through Isneria to Rome. The British and Canadian forces are stubborn resistance to Montgomery s bid to squeeze the Germans from , the Volturno River line by this flanumg threat. . . General Clark’s Americans sire at pi.csent held up at the Geilugni Canal, which runs parallel with'the upper Voiturno about five miles.south of the river. Outlook for Vatican. Diplomats accredited to the Vatican joined those whom foreign correspondents throughout Europe have so frequently ■ ■ reported since 1939 as hastily burning their secret documents in the expectation of the early arrival of the Germans. The "Daily Mail’s” Madrid correspondent deciares that the diplomats in the Vatican City no. longer believe the Germans will respect the Vatican’s neutrality when the time comes to withdraw from Rome. Even the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Maglione, is reported to be destroying documents from informants within Germany. .... Something like a mild civil war between factions led by members of the House of Savoy threatens'to develop in Italy, says the ’“Daily Mail’s” correspondent with the Eighth Army. Count. Calvi Dibergolo. who married King Victor Emmanuel's daughter Yolanda, commands. an Italian puppet army round Rome, while Mussolini’s Government is, trying to organize troops to fight alongside the Germans in central and northern Italy. Mussolini will be unable to lead the troops, because he is neither physically nor mentally in a condition to be more than a mere figurehead. Presumably no honourable Italian general will agree, to operate against. King Emmanuel and Marshal Badoglio, but just as Count Ciano turned' against his father-in-law Mussolini, so Dibergolo has turned against his father-in-law, Emmanual. fi’he “Telegraph’s” correspondent in Italy stresses Mussolini’s failing health ami mental powers, and says: “There is ground for thinking his mantle has fallen on Dibergolo, who may become the Italian Quisling, or perhaps one should ■say the leader of the Free Fascist-move-ment.” Major-General Klopper, who walked • into Foggia after an 18 days’ journey over mountain sheep trails after his. escape from an Italian prison camp, told friends that he had written during his captivity a long and comprehensive report on the capture of Tobruk in June, .1942. The report was secretely buried, and can be recovered later and sent to tiie authorities.