NEW TRAGEDY IN NAPLES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 12, 9 October 1943, Page 5

NEW TRAGEDY IN NAPLES

Time-Bomb In Only Intact Building (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 8, 5.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 7. At least 100 civilians are believed to have been killed by a time bomb which exploded in the Naples post office while it was being reopened to the public, says a message from Naples today. An entire section of the post office collapsed after the explosion, burying victims in the debris. The casualties included soldiers. A correspondent representing the combined British Press describes the mining of the post office as one of the greatest atrocities of the war. Delayed-action mines were planted in the basement, and. they contained several hundred tons of high-explosive. Scores of Italian civilians, including many women and children, were blown to pieces, as the whole pavement in the Via Armondo Diaza, in front of the post office, was flung into the air. Almost everybody on the ground floor of the post office was killed, in addition to many people who were walking in the street a block away, and persons in adjoining buildings were also killed. The explosion occurred at the busiest time of the day when hundreds of Neapolitans were visiting the post office. endeavouring to communicate with relatives and friends in districts occupied by the Allies. The post office was the only building in Naples which the Germans had left intact after converting it into an immense booby trap. The Neapolitans' reaction is one of fierce resentment against the Germans. They have worked themselves up into a state of' hysteria and called for vengeance against their former allies. Germans Killed 800. Police and Red Cross workers in Naples estimate that about 800 persons were killed and thousands wounded during the five-day German terror in the city. .One of the Germans’ last barbaric acts before leaving Naples was .to seize 200 Italians at random from different houses and make them kneel in the square and shout “Heil Hitler,” says Reuter’s correspondent in Naples. The Germans then selected two Italian sailors and four soldiers, lined them up against the wall of the Naples Stock Exchange, and shot them. , The correspondent adds that over 500,000 civilians are wandering through the city like lost souls, looking for water. Men, women and children, carrying large jars and bottles, and even bath tubs, form long queues in thousands at water points which the Germans destroyed and which have been temporarily fixed. Some of the water supply lines to Naples are expected to be opened shortly, and though the main electrical power station was destroyed,. Allied naval and army experts have already temporarily laid on power. Nevertheless, for some days Naples faces a grim period. An Italian captain of marines told the Reuter correspondent that in the last two days before the Germans cleared out of Naples even poor Italian people attacked the Germans with rifles, pistols and knives, and Italian youths threw grenades into the Germans’ lodgings.