ITALIANS BETRAYED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 July 1943, Page 3

ITALIANS BETRAYED

BV THEIR NAZI ALLIES AND BY CORRUPT FASCIST PROFITEERS. DEFECTIVE WEAPONS & ROTTEN FOOD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 16 “The Italian aircraft are mostly outmoded and their tanks are a miserable joke. Their artillery is ludicrous,” says the “New York Times” correspondent in Sicily, Mr John Gunther. “This is the price the Italian people are paying for false leadership. British and American experts in Sicily are amazed at the pitiful inadequacy of the Italian equipment and material. Even the food supplies are glossly bad. Tinned meat is rotten anl canned soup is like dishwater. Many ration boxes were found to have a thin layer of provisions on top and gravel beneath. The Italians are good mechanics and brave soldiers, but they enter battle in deathtrap tanks, which a single hit envelops in flames. One reason for the inadequate equipment was the unwillingness of Fascist industrialists to retool their plants. Corruption abounded in civil and economic life. Every man was the complete boss of those below him, and the complete slave to those above. The Italians hate the Germans, who have dragged them into tragedy. The Nazis are contemptuous towards their dilapidated Allies. Our troops have picked up anti-German leaflets issued by Italians in various areas.