ALLIES ADVANCING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 July 1943, Page 4

ALLIES ADVANCING

BEACHES HELD FIRMLY BY FRESH TROOPS VAST CONVOYS LANDING REINFORCEMENTS. ATTACKS ON COMMUNICATION KEYPOINTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 11. The Allied troops in Sicily are now advancing, with the beaches behind them firmly in the hands of fresh troops, more of which are still being brought in from vast convoys protected by the Navy, cables a British United Press correspondent at Allied forward headquarters. The correspondent adds that within 48 hours of the first landings, the crisis in the Sicilian invasion had passed and troops were being disgorged on the island in one great stream. The whole coastline along the hundred mile invasion front is in Allied hands. There is little definite news of land fighting, but it is known that one of the points where the troops first went in was Gela, a little port on the broad sweep of the southern coast, at th<? end of the Maroglio Valley. Gela’s normal population is 25,000. The town commands a network of roads. An official announcement from Algiers says American troops, with naval support, have broken t through enemy trench positions at Gela. According to the Algiers radio, Canadian troops have established an important bridgehead 50 miles west of Gela. The stiffest resistance so far has been encountered near Cappassero. Only Italian troops have been engaged so far.