BADLY BLOCKED

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

BADLY BLOCKED

AXIS COMMUNICATIONS

BRENNER PASS ROUTE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

Rec. noon

LONDON, Sept. 3,

Photographic reconnaissance shows that the vital railway from the Brenner Pass, along which German reinforcements have been pouring into Italy, is now cluttered with wreckage.

Reuters Algiers correspondent says that Flying Fortresses made a round flight of nearly 1500 miles to bomb Bologna, Trento, and Bolzano. The destruction of the highway, the railway, and bridges means that the communications between Germany and Italy have been seriously blocked or broken. Landslides caused by heavy bombing at Bolzano have blocked the railway lines to the Brenner Pass.

Members %£ the crews .of Flying Fortresses saw yellow and orange debris where cliffs had crashed down.

The 80-mile single track through the Brenner Pass is the most overworked railway in Europe. It carries the major part of Germany's military traffic to Italy, and the only remaining passes of value to the Germans are the Sirnplon and the Saint Gothard, both of which belong to Switzerland, which hitherto has not permitted the passage of military materials.

It has long been realised that air bombardment could close the Brenner Pass, where the road and the railway run over innumerable bridges and viaducts through 27 tunnels.

It is highly probable that a group of airmen was specially trained for the attack.