AXIS ATTEMPT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1943, Page 3

AXIS ATTEMPT

TO DEFEND CORNER OF SICILY Menaced by Rapid Allied Advance ONLY PART OF FORTIFIED LINE WELL PREPARED LONDON, July 25. Axis forces are resisting desperately in the north-eastern corner of Sicily. With less than a fifth of the island still in their hands, they are trying to organise a strong ring of defences. Half of this ring, south of Catania to a distance 30 miles island, is already well prepared and is held by crack German troops in considerable force. The other half is not well prepared and is manned mostly by Italians. The Axis forces in this area have had to fall back very swiftly to avoid being cut in two by the Canadians and Americans. Much depends on the speed of the advance of the Allied forces along the north coast of the island. The Canadians in the centre of the island are engaged in some very bitter fighting. There is no fresh news from the Americans. An Italian communique reports an intense Allied attack on the northern flank of the front. In the air the Allies are keeping up their heavy attacks on Italian airfields. Flying Fortresses yesterday attacked Bologna, in Northern Italy. The attack took the enemy completely by surprise and good results were achieved. All rail traffic from Germany must pass through Bologna. An ammunition train was blown lip. Other railway targets in the southern half of Italy were heavily bombed, besides an airfield. Enemy ships off Sicily and the mainland were hit by fighter-bombers and by torpedo bombers.

AIR RECONNAISSANCE AND PRECISION BOMBING VITAL AIDS TO WINNING WAR. WASHINGTON, July 25. Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, the President's second son, who is chief of the combined Allied photo reconnaissance in North Africa, at a Press conference, described precision bombing teamed with aerial reconnaissance as the best

answer to the question of how to win the war. Colonel Roosevelt flew over Rome securing photographs which were later used to distinguish military and nonmilitary points for the Rome raid, He added that the camera’s eye saved untold lives in Pantelleria and Sicily, because they made possible the precision bombing which knocked out the Axis air forces before the beginning of the invasion. Colonel Roosevelt added that the photographs were handed to the military authorities 40 minutes after the landing of the photographic plane.