MASSED AIR ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1943, Page 3

MASSED AIR ATTACKS

ON ITALIAN ISLANDS & COASTS MAINTAINED BY ALLIED FORCES. NO EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION BY AXIS FIGHTERS. LONDON, May 27. The Mediterranean air forces are keeping up mass attacks against Sicily, Sardinia and Pantellcria. In Sicily yesterday Flying Fortresses and Marauders dropped a heavy weight of fragmentation bombs on the chain of airfields along the south of the island. The Fortresses fought their way through a sixty mile an hour gale and started large fires among grounded aircraft. Fifty German fighters attempted to intercept them. Three were shot down and the rest sheered off. Elsewhere, Allied aircraft met with no effective opposition. In Sardinia Lightnings and Warhawks ranged all over the island, attacking docks, shipping, power stations and airfields. The heaviest attack was on a power station in the centre of the island. This station supplies a large part of the island with light and power. Several bombs made direct hits. In Pantelleria Warhawks were out again attacking the much-battered harbour and airfield.

GROWING MASTERY OVER THE APPROACHES TO ITALY. BRIDGEHEADS TO BE MADE UNTENABLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 27. The Allies’ air mastery over the approaches to Italy is rapidly transforming the outlying Mediterranean islands from a string of defences to bridgeheads like that of Tunisia which will inevitably become untenable. Reuter's correspondent in Algiers says that the war in the air is still one for aerodromes and supplies. The enemy’s heavy losses are no longer continuing at the same rate as last week, but this is only because the Axis commanders have been forced to clear the aerodromes of the massed planes, most of them bombers, with which they had hoped to give the Allies a dose of their own medicine. On the supply front, which is the ultimate factor in the Mediterranean war, the Germans and Italians will have to make supreme efforts to keep the islands equipped because the. Allied air offensive has not yet reached its peak. The Rome radio yesterday denied a rumour that enemy forces were crossing the Sicilian Channel, and it referred to Corsica, Sardinia, Elba, Sicily and Pantelleria as “gigantic aircraftcarriers and fortresses.” An Italian commentator said: “Italians must resist to the last this war of nerves and these criminal attempts to undermine tfieir morale.” The German radio stations are busy reassuring the German public that Italy will stand firm, and that the war of nerves, against Italy is having no effect. Berlin radio quoted the Italian newspaper “Tribuna” as saying that 100,000 mines have been laid for the defence of the Italian coast. BELATED REPLY

MADE BY ROME RADIO. TO MR CHURCHILL'S ADVICE . TO ITALY. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. The Rome News Agency says Italy’s defences against aerial attack are now properly organised and that Allied planes will no longer have it all their own way when they attack Italian cities. The Rome radio, commenting for the first time on Mr Churchill’s statement that Italians would have a place in the life of the new Europe if they overthrew their leaders and sued for peace, said: “We had experience of British justice and never again are we having any. Mr Churchill’s words say precisely what Italians think the British ought to do. However we are not such fools as to expect that. We know perfectly well that public opinion in England counts for nothing under the dictatorship of Churchill and the money power of the Jews and Roosevelt.”