THRUST INTO ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 October 1942, Page 3

THRUST INTO ITALY

WOULD SERVE SAME PURPOSE AS INVASION OF WESTERN EUROPE. POSSIBILITIES DISCUSSED IN NEW YORK. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, October 29. The newspaper “P.M.’s” military commentator says an Allied thrust in Southern Europe would serve the same purpose as a ninvasion from the west, and its diversion value would be identical, despite the fact that it is superficially harder to cross the Mediterranean than to span the Chanel. Many military experts are convinced that the southern operations would be the less difficult, because Italy’s coastline is virtually undefended, and Italy is ripe for revolution and invasion, whereas the strongest defence lines in the world had been built by the Nazis along the western coastline of Europe. The possibility of such an ambitious undertaking, it is added, rests entirely on the outcome of the campaign against Rommel. The complete destruction of Rommel’s army and a hard and fast control of the entire South Mediterranean obviously is an imperative preliminary to an invasion of Italy.