NOW OCCUPIED BY ALLIES IN SICILY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1943, Page 4

NOW OCCUPIED BY ALLIES IN SICILY

Spearheads Twenty Miles From Coast LARGE SCALE BATTLE EXPECTED SOON ENEMY FORCES COMING DOWN FROM NORTH (By Telegraph—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.50 pan.) LONDON, July 13. The Allied forces in Sicily are making good progress southeast and along the east coast, state the latest despatches from the invasion front. The general picture is that the Allies now have a gre.at belt of South-Eastern Sicily in their hands, including a valuable 40 miles strip of railway. The spearheads are at places 20 miles from the coast, with reconnaissance units, including tanks, even further inland. Artillery duels are being fought and local enemy counterattacks have been dealt with. Our troops are moving forward to engage enemy forces coming down from the north and a large-scale battle is expected soon. “The Times’’ Algiers correspondent says prospects of an advance by Allied mechanised units well into the heart of the island seem fairer than hitherto, as a result of the occupation of points on the borders of the Catanian Plain. The capture of Palazzola (on the railway at least 20 miles inland from Syracuse), which almost .overlooks the Catanian Plain, is of considerable importance. The town is astride the only road and only railway westward from Syracuse. Its capture thus closes one of the avenues which the enemy might have sent forces against that port. The bitterest fighting thus far has been east of Gela, where the advance at best has been slower than on the right of the Allied line. Germans are now appearing in this sector, in which Italian field troops are proving better fighters than their comrades of the coastal divisions.