FATE OF SICILY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1943, Page 4

FATE OF SICILY

HANGING IN THE BALANCE LIKELY TO BE DECIDED. BY BATTLE ON CATANIAN PLAIN. (By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright) (Received This bay. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON. July 20. The battle for Sicily has entered cn a new phase, following on the reinforcement of General Montgomery’s forces on the Catanian Plain, according to the latest reports reaching Allied Headquarters in North Africa. “It is regarded as practically certain that the battle on the Catanian Plain will decide the fate of Sicily,” says a British United Press correspondent. “The Germans, who comprise a majority of the Axis troops in Catania,, are putting up a desperate resistance, since this is the only point at which an Allied drive against Messina can be held up for any considerable time. The Germans, attempting to push back the Allied bridgeheads' over the last river barring our passage, have been coun-ter-attacking fiercely. Both sides are using armour unstintingly. The bridgeheads have been held. The enemy is using paratroops as infantrymen m this area.” , “The situation in Sicily is developing hourly in favour of the Allies, reports Reuter's Algiers correspondent. “Despite heavy and rugged resistance, the Allies on the whole front are now only 20 miles from the northern range of hills forming the west-east backbone of the island. The Axis forces have been thrown back on to the last. lateral highway linking Messina with the west.” A British Official Wireless message reports that the advance against stiff German opposition still continues rapidly. The Allies are half-way across Sicily. The main east to west railway was reached between Caltanisetta and Enna. This places enemy communications between the western and eastern parts of the island in a precarious position. Apart from that, the enemyhave a railway and road along the north coast which are liable to be attacked from the sea, like the route along the east coast.

ALLIED AIR FORCES STRIKING WELL AHEAD OF ARMIES. ATTACKS ON CATANIA’S BACK DOOR. (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, July 20. The Americans and Canadians, though meeting stiffer resistance, are pushing into the interior. The fall of Enna is believed to be imminent. General Porcinari, commander of the 54th Napoli Division, who has been captured, is the fourth Italian divisional commander captured in Sicily. Allied medium bombers and fighterbombers, operating far ahead of our armies, struck powerful blows against the communications centre of Randazzo (north of Mount Etna), which is Catania’s back door, says Reuter's correspondent at an advanced base. Mitchells dropped 46 tons of high explosives and fighter-bombers swarmed over the roads of Sicily, particularly around Mount Etna and dive-bombed with good results convoys travelling to the front.

It is officially announced from Allied Headquarters that a number of German airmen from the Russian front are operating in Sicily. An Associated Press correspondent aboard a British cruiser say’s six bull’s eye shots from a cruiser’s guns unroofed Catania’s main railway station, at which road and railway intersect. Axis troops must cross this junction moving south as reinforcements, or north in retreat. More than 20,000 inhabitants who deserted Augusta hurriedly before the British arrived are now begging for food. They will be permitted to return to the town as soon .as the water system has been repaired. Commenting on the strengthening impression that the Italian troops in Sicily have not much heart for the war, the “Daily Telegraph’s” military correspondent says: “This incipient demoralisation has assuredly spread to the Italian mainland and even more rapidly to the Italian forces in the Balkans and Dodecanese Islands. Thus it would not be a surprise to find the Italian Army generaly disintegrating. The effect would be two-fold, the direct effect being to bring the Sicilian operations to a very speedy close. We may expect the concentrated drives developing through Enna and Catania to clear up the situation in North-Eastern Sicily almost within a matter of days. The indirect and far-reaching effect would be entirely to unbalance the Axis military budget.”

EIGHT AXIS PLANES DESTROYED BY MALTA SPITFIRES. ATTACKS ON ENEMY TRANSPORT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY. July 20. Malta-based Spitfires patrolled Sicily again yesterday and destroyed eight enemy aircraft, states a message from the island. Six of the enemy planes were shot down during an attempted attack by Italian fighter-bombers on shipping. Two Spitfires destroyed three bombers and three of the Italian fighter escort were shot down by another Spitfire. Beaufighters and Mosquitoes, out on the previous night, destroyed an Italian bomber which dived into the sea in flames. Intruders attacked a goods train and trucks in Southern Italy and in Sicily and transport a few miles south of Rome was shot up.