BOMBING OF ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1943, Page 3

BOMBING OF ITALY

CONTINUED METHODICALLY

HEAVY BLOW STRUCK AT SALERNO MANY TARGETS IN SICILY & ELSEWHERE. ENEMY MERCHANT SHIP SUNK. The Italian port of Salerno, 30 miles south of Naples, came in for attention yesterday in the carefully planned air offensive in the Mediterranean. Flames and smoke were still rising after Monday’s raid. Yesterday twoton block-busters were dropped on the railway yards.

Little interference was met with from the defences. Anti-aircraft gunfire was light and the Allied airmen did not see any fighters. Malta-based Mosquitoes attacked railway targets in Sicily and Southern Italy. Beaufighters sank a merchant ship 30 miles south-east of Sardinia.

Only one Allied plane is missing from all these operations. ’

HAVOC IN NAPLES FIRES STARTED IN ARSENAL & TORPEDO FACTORY. MUCH DAMAGE TO RAILWAYS & POWER PLANTS. LONDON, June 22. The Algiers correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System reports that photographs which were taken shortly after the Fortress raid on Naples showed 25 fires raging. There was a tremendous blaze in the heart of the industrial section and an explosionblast one mile in diameter, which meant that a gasoline plant had been hit. The Royal Arsenal and torpedo factory were also on fire. Reuter's Algiers correspondent says that the details of the attack indicate that the city was seriously hit. A sheet of flame a mile broad screened great areas.

American medium bombers attacked railway yards south of Naples. In the toe of Italy R.A.F. bombers of the Middle East Command attacked San Giovanni and Reggio di Calabria on Sunday night, and in daylight yesterday a big force of Liberators battered the same targets. These Liberators, without losing a single plane, shot down 20 enemy aircraft, half of an attacking enemy force. Mitchells which raided Salerno hit a trestle bridge and railway tracks and returned home without- the enemy firing a single shot from fighters or ground defences. Other Mitchells raided Battipaglia, directly hit a railway and the 25-times damaged power-plant. Spitfires from Malta which swept Sicily yesterday, shot up a road convoy, set fire to a staff car, and killed soldiers in trucks. Intruders bombed the Lamezia-Godia railway last night, and also gunned railway installations at Pizzo Mepaponto, where they left many fires. Intruders shot up train buildings at Trebisacce, and railway sidings at Sibari and Milazzo.

An Italian communique admits heavy damage to these centres.