EIGHTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1943, Page 3

EIGHTH ARMY

FIGHTING HARD NORTH OF AUGUSTA TIGER TANKS KNOCKED OUT BY AMERICANS. ALLIES NOW A MAINLAND FORCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 15. Following upon reports yesterday afternoon and last night of important successes in Sicily, where the Allies were advancing on every part of the front, messages this morning giving the latest position state that the Eighth Army is engaged in hard fighting north of Augusta, and the Americans have knocked out some Tiger tanks on the Gela sector. At least six airfields are in Allied hands, and more than 12,000 prisoners have been taken, over 8000 of them by the American Seventh Army. The Eighth Army is attacking toward Catania. German troops, counterattacking, managed to infiltrate into our positions but were driven out again. North-east of Augusta the enemy threw in a number of tanks, some of which were knocked out. British warships have been shelling Lentini, in this area. Airborne troops have been landed north of the town. “The battle for bridgeheads is over, and the Allies are entering the Sicilian battle as a mainland force with complete control of the mountain approaches in the south-eastern area, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. “The British, Canadian and American advances are new gravely imperilling Caitagirone, at the central entrance to the Catanian plain, and also Lentini and Carlentini, key villages on the read along which the Eighth Army is advancing toward Catania, “The operations have now been cleared of the initial hazards, and the situation appears more difficult for the Axis than for the Allies. Our advance along the coast still' appears to be rapid.”