FALL OF CATANIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1943, Page 4

FALL OF CATANIA

EXPECTED AT ANY MOMENT AMERICANS CLOSING FAST ON PALERMO. SICILY ALMOST CROSSED BY ALLIES. (By Tel°graph—Press Association -Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 22. The Algiers radio says Catania is still resisting strongly, but is expected to fall at any mpment. Stating that the fal lof Palermo is believed to be imminent, the Exchange Telegraph Agency's correspondent at Allied headquarters says this would mean that the Allied troops have crossed Sicily from south to north, completely cutting off the western section Another report states that the Americans are penetrating the last mouhtain range before Palermo and now are 15 miles from the city. In Western Sicily the United States Seventh Army has advanced 50 miles along the south coast and is now onlj r 20 miles from the western tip of island. Eleven more towns and two aerodromes in Sicily have been captured.

FULL SATISFACTION WITH PROGRESS OF CAMPAIGN. EXPRESSED IN ALGIERS. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON July 22. A feeling of complete satisfaction with the progress of the campaign in Sicily is expressed in authoritative circles in Algiers. Progress has been more rapid and losses fewer than was anticipated. The principal town captured in the eastern sector is Ramacca, 20 miles south-west of Catania. The capture of this town is particularly important, because the force which has taken it is now well clear of the marshland formed by three rivers which further eastwards are holding up the direct drive on Catania by the Eighth Army. In the west, the main town captured is Castelvetrano. The Americans here gained a valuable prize, because the town has one of the finest aerodromes in Sicily. It was specially built to cover the Sicilian Narrows. The Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent at Allied Headquarters reports that the famous reconstituted Bersaglieri Regiment, once the pride of the Italian Army, came to an inglorious end at Agrigento, when it surrendered without firing a shot. Its men are anxious to let their families in Italy know that they have given themselves up and did not fear Fascist reprisals. > The Columbia Broadcasting system’s Algiers correspondent says that almost the entire Italian 26th Casieta Division, in the west, surrendered to the American Seventh Army. It is officially disclosed in Algiers that the enemy in West Sicily is entirely disspirited and unwilling to fight. German officers are shooting Italians who wave the white flag.