GRIM AND SLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1943, Page 3

GRIM AND SLOW

ALLIED PROGRESS AGAINST MESSINA BRIDGEHEAD British Cruisers and Destroyers Shell Mainland Railway WITHOUT AIR OR SEA OPPOSITION GROWING MOVEMENT OF REVOLT INSIDE ITALY LONDON, July 30. The Allies in Sicily are biting more deeply into the enemy’s 'Messina bridgehead.. So long as the German resistance continues to be stubborn the going will be hard and the Allies are making /slow and bitter progress. The Canadians have gained more ground on the central front in face of very stiff opposition and the Americans further north are pushing forward towards Stefano, on the north coast. A correspondent at Allied Headquarters states that the total number of prisoners is now 77,000. In the air, the Allies have bombed Messina and four airfields on the Italian mainland, one 50 miles north of Rome and the others near Naples. . . Cruisers and destroyers of the British Navy shelled a stretch of railway in the Gulf of Taranto. There was no opposition from the air or the sea. Torpedo-boats sank an enemy merchant ship and set a destroyer and a torpedo-boat ablaze. There is little news of what is happening in Italy. Military staffs have been appointed to the railways, post and telegraph and radio Former Fascist officials are being recalled to the colours. , ... President Roosevelt has warned neutral countries against giving refuge to Mussolini and other war criminals. It is officially stated in London that the British Government warmly welcomed the President’s statement and associated itself with it.