NOTES ON THE WAR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3271, 2 June 1943, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR

ITALY VERY VULNERABLE 5326 MILES OF COASTLINE NAVY AND AIRFORCE BATTERED More than ever«just now the Allied air offensive dominates the scene. Everywhere it is the same, but the hardest blows are falling on Italy and Italian islands in the Mediterranean. The Axis air forces are being swept away in this area—an obvious prelude. Strategically, Italy and her island possessions are exceedingly vulnerable to attack from the air and from the sea. From land attack Italy has now, as ever in her long history, the protection of the Alps, but even these have been pierced many times in the two thousand years between Hannibal and Napoleon. Italy’s land frontier is comparatively short, just over 1100 miles, including 446 miles coterminous with neutral Switzerland, 319 with France, 258 with Germany, and' 162 with Yugoslavia. But the coastline of the Italian peninsula —hei’ sea frontier—measures 2592 miles — of Sicily 700>; of Sardinia 562, and of Elba and tne nniiiiiiiiiniiiiitn>iiiiinmi»iii!iiiii'iii»iitiiimiii»inmiuiii!iii-.niii:iini»,i>i,

small islands 1172. The total length of Italian coasts is thus 5326 miles. From the military standpoint Itaiy is virtually an island or a group of islands for which the appropriate means of defence are sea power and air power, for to fortify''a coastline of such an extent would be impossible. Italy has always been a fairly strong naval power in number of ships, and at the beginning of the war possessed a large air force. Both navy and air force have been whittled down considerably in the course of the present war, and neither can be considered formidable now in Italian hands, though there have been times when much might have been accomplished for the Axis, if the Italian fleet had been handled with greater vigour and enterprise.

Its present strength is not geneially known, but it can hardly, now, after losses at Taranto, Matapan, and many minor engagements, together with the bombing of naval bases at Genoa, Spezzia, Naples, Palermo (in Sicily), and Cagliari (in Sardinia), be as strong as it was at the outset. Italy’s air force (Regia Aeronautica) has been reduced by losses and obsolescence to practically innocuousness, the burden of defence falling more and more on the German Luftwaffe. What is happening in the Italian Mediterranean area is clearly indicated in to-day’s news. The Allies from North Africa are “smashing the Axis air bases and communications in Sicily and Sardinia in a mighty air assault , . .The destruction or neutralisation of the key airfields in Sardinia and Sicily would leave Italy wide open to attack.” The British Air Minister (Sir Archibald Sinclair) adds: “We shad pursue the enemy from North Africa into Europe and.the R.A.F. will continue to hammer him.” All this has been made possible by

the conquest of the last Axis stronghold in North Africa, with its airfields, in the Tunisian tip. Sicily and Sardinia and the “toe” of Italy are now Italy’s front line. Sicily and Sardinia are large islands, ".Sicily. 9935 square miles and Sardinia 9300. Sicily is almost as famous in history as Italy itself and as frequent a battleground. It was the battleground for centuries between the Greeks and the Caithaginians and for over half a century between the Romans and the Carthaginians. Here the Saracens were overcome by the Normans about the time William the Conqueror invaded England, and the Sicilians, Spaniards, and French fought over the island for centuries afterward, until it was finally freed by Garibaldi and his legion, including many British, in 1860, and united to Italy. It is a mountainous country with rich soil and a splendid climate, but is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from Etna. Its population is nearly 4,000,000, and Paleimo the much-bombed capital, has about half a million inhabitants. Otherlarge cities mentioned in the news

are: Catania/ 250,000; Messina, 200,000; Trapani, 65,000. Sardinia is more primitive and less populous, with under a million inhabitants. The climate is extremely hot and unhealthy in the lower areas. It is famous for its fisheries of tunny, sardine, and anchovy. Cagliari, the chief port and naval base, has a population of just over 100,000. “ Italy’s Malta ” Pentelleria, often in the news now, is Italy’s Malta, a tiny island, 45 square miles in area, entirely volcu,nic in origin, with an extinct volcano as its highest point, 2743 ft. above sea level, and lies some 40 miles to the east of the Cape Bon Peninsula of Tunisia. It has a small harbour and airfield heavily fortified under the Mussolini regime but it lacks fresh water.

The population is given as 9051. It was used as a place of banishment under the Roman Empire and also by the Fascists in recent times. It has at present mainly a slight nuisance value to the Axis, but could hardly be capable of prolonged resistance to Allied attack, if capture were necessary.