MADE BY THE ALLIES IN SICILY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1943, Page 3

MADE BY THE ALLIES IN SICILY

Important Gains on All Main Fronts AGRIGENTO TAKEN BY AMERICANS IN WESTWARD THRUST EIGHTH ARMY ON NEAR APPROACHES TO CATANIA LONDON, July 18. Important headway has been made by the Allied forces on several lines of advance in Sicily. In the west the Americans have taken the railway junction of Agrigento, considerably extending their front. The Canadians, in the centre, have captured Caltagirone and the Eighth Army, in the east, is within seven miles of Catania. With an escort of cruisers and destroyers a famous capital ship of the British Navy, at dusk last evening, entered Catania Bay and shelled the barracks and the coastal road about seven miles away. In a bombardment lasting for 30 minutes, scores of high explosive shells were sent into the selected targets. A British correspondent says the great shells tore into the buildings and left them a mass of rubble. The battleship was five miles from the city, and broadside after broadside was poured into the objectives. . British motor torpedo boats, operating m the Straits of Messina last night, torpedoed an 8000-ton Italian cruiser. They went as close as 400 yards to make the attack. The Eighth Army was last reported only seven miles from Catania. It has met very strong German resistance and has captured a vital bridge on the road to the city, after a fierce struggle in which British parachutists played a great part. Parachutists captured the bridge and held it for 22 hours against tremendous odds, awaiting the arrival of the Eighth Army. The Eighth Army was delayed by very strong German resistance at Lentini, but late on Wednesday evening it burst through the bottleneck there and raced towards the bridge. It arrived three hours too late, as the parachute troops, with their ammunition exhausted, had been forced to withdraw and the bridge was again in German hands. The enemy lit fuses leading to explosive charges intended to blow up the bridge, but nothinghappened. The parachute troops had replaced the fuses with dummies and the most the Germans could do. was to damage the central span with an aerial bomb. The bridge is now in British hands. The Allied front has been extended considerably to the westward, following {he American capture of Agrigento. South-west of Agrigento the Americans have occupied Porto Empedocle. Other Allied troops are pushing on towards the interior of the island. NAPLES HEAVILY BLASTED A British Official Wireless message says that Naples, the focal point of shipping, railway and manufacture in Southern Italy, was plastered yesterday by the greatest air assault ever launched upon the Axis from the African theatre. The attack was carried out by 500 aircraft. It was started by Wellingtons, in early morning darknes, when they dropped two-ton block busters and many thousand-pounders. Flying Fortresses then made a daylight attack. Marauders and Mitchells followed. Then the Flying Fortresses went back to finish off. A large number of Liberators from the Middle East were also in the attacking force. The attack continued for more than an hour and 20 minutes, in the course of which there were two tremendous explosions, one from the Royal Arsenal and the other from an ammunition train.