IN FULL STRENGTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1943, Page 3

IN FULL STRENGTH

ALLIED AIR ONSLAUGHT ON SICILY HEAVY AND CONCENTRATED ATTACKS. » ON AIRFIELDS AND OTHER TARGETS. LONDON, June 16. Allied bombers from North Africa were out in great force yesterday, when they hurled their full strength against Sicily. All day long Flying Fortresses, Marauders and Mitchells pounded live big airfields in the western part of the island. These attack's came on top of a raid by Wellington bombers on the preceding night. Axis fighters put up particularly fierce opposition and many battles took place, in which the enemy lost eleven aircraft, without being able to hold the bombers from their targets. Four more enemy machines were destroyed on Monday night, making a total of 16, against the loss of seven Allied planes. Fighter-bombers from Malta raided enemy airfields in Sicily and last night Mosquitoes attacked road and railway communications in Sicily and on the Italian mainland. When Messina was bombed on Saturday night Wellingtons used two-ton block-buster bombs and incendiaries on shipping and the ferry terminal. Further study of the damage at Spezia caused in the raid on June 5 shows that a battleship of the Littorio class received a direct hit on the forward deck, where the plates were buckled, and it is likely that the forward gun turret suffered damage.

NAPLES CASUALTIES IN Yl BOMBING ATTACKS. (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) LONDON, June 16. The “Popolo Di Roma” says 2,300 Italians have been killed and 7,700 wounded in Allied air raids on Naples, which has had 183 alerts since the outbreak of war. Bombs were dropped on 71 occasions.