ALLIED MASTERY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 3

ALLIED MASTERY

MEDITERRANEAN AREA RELENTLESS POUNDING ITALY’S GROWING FEARS LONDON, June 3. Signor Mussolini has called up even his civilian Home Guards and guerrilla units as a precaution against an Allied invasion. Italy’s fears of invasion are reflected in the newspaper demands for a more savage fighting spirit in the Italian forces. The Rome newspaper, II Tevere, urges Italian soldiers to adopt a policy of utter cruelty. It advocates machine-gunning enemy pilots who bail out and concentrating Allied prisoners of war in target areas. The paper says: “If this war is to be total, then let it be. We must win at all costs. We must win in cruelty. The enemy has asked for it. He will get it.” „ ,

“The Allies in the past 24 hours have demonstrated their complete supremacy in the central Mediterranean by air and sea,” says the British United Press’ Algiers correspondent. “We have smashed an Axis convoy southward of the toe of Italy and sent its ships off hopelessly routed. We have bombed and strafed Pantellaria at will, and also from ground level attacked objectives throughout Sardinia. “The engagement against the convoy and the a\most unchallenged double bombardment of Pantellaria a day earlier demonstrate the complete mastery we now hold over the Sicilian Straits and elsewhere in the central Mediterranean. The convoy engaged off Cape Spartivento was relentlessly battered until it steamed off for cover. A merchantman which blew up is believed to have been laden with explosives. “Our medium bombers and fighterbombers yesterday roamed southern Sardinia. The objectives included Axis soldiers in camp areas, wireless stations, telephone installations, and military buildings in the Teulada area. Pantellaria got its daily dose of trouble from Marauders, Lightnings and Warhawks, which ceaselessly raided the island, attacking military targets and also dock-works in the tiny harbour. We managed to do there what the Axis failed to do to Malta —knock out the air opposition. The result was that we attacked at will and did not lose a single plane."