CRITICAL HOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1943, Page 3

CRITICAL HOURS

GENERAL EISENHOWER’S VIGIL PROGRESS OF OPERATIONS WATCHED. MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 10. In the early hours of this morning General Eisenhower heard that the landing in Sicily had been made and that everything was going according to plan, writes the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent in the first account of the invasion of Sicily for the combined British Press. The correspondent says: “General Eisenhower always carries seven old coins, including an English gold fiveguinea piece: As the invasion fleet approached Sicily last night to begin the great assault on Europe the General gave the coins a good rub for luck. In fact, as one of his aides said-, he gave them several rubs.

“General Eisenhower spent all night at the headquarters except for a. brief period when he drove to the coast with a small party of his staff to watch an Allied air fleet leaving. Climbing out of the car, he stood in the moonlight with his hand raised to the salute as the air armada was airborne. The period of waiting between the planning of the assault and its coming into being was over. “Returning to the headquarters, General Eisenhower went at once to the naval section, where he was joined by his staff, and he followed closely the movement of operations on a chart. He spent some time in the fighter command room from which the air umbrella covering the operations was controlled.

“At 1.30 a.m. the General, apparently satisfied with the progress of the operations, went to bed next to the war room, and he slept for three hours till he was awakened at 4.30 by an aide, who informed him that the assault troops had landed and everything was going according to plan. The Royal Navy served the General with a cup of tea and he then returned to the war room, where reports were coming in regularly. “He remained there till he heard the 8.8. C. broadcast his message telling the people of France that this was the first stage of the invasion of the European Continent, which would be followed by others. General Eisenhower then left the war room, but only for a change of clothes, and he returned within a short period to follow, with the commanders, the progress of the operations.”