"KNOCK ITALY OUT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 7

"KNOCK ITALY OUT"

General's Message to Men Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 3.

General Montgomery, in a message to men of the Eighth Army before the invasion of Italy, said:

"To the Eighth Army is given the great honour of being the first troops of the Allied armies, to land on the mainland of the continent of Europe. We have a good plan, and our air support is on a greater scale than we have ever had before.

"There can be only one end to this, next battle—another success. Forward to victory! Let us knock Italy out of the war."

defensive fighting. The coast all along the Italian mainland opposite Messina rises to 6000 feet a few miles back from the sea and offers good shelter for defending troops and guns. This mountain ridge runs right up the centre of the foot of Italy, and is so steep that transport can only move along the coast road. This road 'is very much, like the one from Catania to Messina, and it presents the enemy with a good opportunity for demolitions and delaying actions, which held up the Eighth Army's advance in Sicily. INVASION PREPARATIONS. Commando troops who carried out raids on the toe of Italy during the past three or four days spotted the enemy defences and interrupted his i lines of communications. While these raids were going on, and for some I days earlier, tremendous preparations were being made on the other side of the strait. For the last ten days large numbers of men and vehicles have been pouring to the invasion ports. One correspondent says: "If you imagine a pre-war London traffic jam magnified a hundred times, you get some idea of the state of the roads leading to those ports." Meanwhile, a great fleet of invasion barges was being brought up the coast i under cover of darkness to take the troops on board. Last night the Allied preparations were completed, and the silence over the straits was brdken by [ a terrific artillery barrage as the Allied guns opened up. Warships joined in the bombardment, while waves of bombers swept over the enemy beach defences, plastering strong-points and machine-gun positions. Under cover of this incessant bombardment, which knocked out a good number of the enemy's batteries, the fleet of invasion barges, troop landing-craft, and amphibious jeeps, crowded with men | and machines, began their journey to' the Italian mainland. They were es-j i corted by British cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, and small craft. An hour before dawn, the first part of the invasion fleet reached its objectives.

The Allied barrage was then lifted, and the men leaped ashore. The, lauding troops were soon scrambling up the beaches, and the first Allied foothold in Europe had been accomplished.