SCENES OF ACTIVITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1943, Page 3

SCENES OF ACTIVITY

WITNESSED BV GENERAL EISENHOWER DURING VISIT TO SICILY. LANDING IN AMPHIBIOUS JEEP. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 12. The scene on the beach where General Eisenhower went ashore in his visit to Sicily was one of intense activity. Groups of men, bare to the waist, unloaded ammunition and stores from landing craft, putting them into lorries, which sped over the beaches on to roads which engineers had hastily, built through the vineyards. At the far end of the beach landing craft were putting more troops ashore. General Eisenhower and his party crossed in a British destroyer, arriving off the Sicilian coast just as dawn was breaking. The general stood on the bridge as the destroyer sailed through the long lines of the huge invasion armada. Approaching Licata, there was a big cruiser turning toward the land. A correspondent with the command-er-in-chief’s party says: “This was followed by the flash and boom of her guns and we wondered what the target could be. Then we saw a puff of dust far inland on a hillside and realised that this was just another combined operation. A small party of the enemy was holding up the army, which was finding it difficult to get guns into a good position to attack the target, so the big guns of the navy took on the job.” At Pachino Peninsula General Eisenhower went ashore. He climbed down the side of the destroyer into an amphibious jeep which carried him across the harbour to the beach. During his drive round the countryside the com-mander-in-chief met a number of Canadians. He halted the jeep once to ask an officer to convey a message to the Canadian general welcoming the Canadians to his command. General Eisenhower visited General Patton’s headquarters, where he heard of the progress which ‘the American troops were making. He also heard how warships broke up an enemy tank attack on Saturday.

GALLANT PART PLAYED BY GLIDER-BORNE TROOPS. IN THE INVASION OF SICILY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 12. Glider-borne troops were responsible for the comparatively slight resistance which was met with by some of the landing parties in Sicily, says an eye witness who was with some of the air-borne troops. This correspondent tells a remarkable story of being captured with the survivors of one party of 70 who held an objective for 14 hours against increasing Italian opposition before surrendering when their ammunition was exhausted. However, within an hour, a British reconnaissance party appeared and began shooting at the guards, enabling the prisoners to escape. WAR ON FASCISM DECLARED BY ITALIAN GROUP. PLOT AGAINST MUSSOLINI DISCOVERED. LONDON, July 12. The anti-Fascist group in Italy has agreed on a policy for a constitutional democratic republic. This united antiFascist front has called on all Italians who want to co-operate in the work of reconstruction to join in the movement. It says that after Fascism has been destroyed Italians who have been forced into the Fascist Party under threat of losing their jobs will be given another chance, but financial and industrial groups who waited till they saw it was likely that Italy would lose the war would be treated differently. The Fascist police have discovered a plot against Mussolini in Taranto Province says the Moscow radio, quoting an Istanbul report. Dr Vorelle, Prefect of Taranto, and Dr Peronne, local secretary of the Fascist Party, were arrested, and there have been mass arrests among Fascist district leaders in Taranto.