EIGHTH ARMY IN SICILY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1943, Page 3

EIGHTH ARMY IN SICILY

Offensive Launched on Catanian Plain AMERICANS DRIVING IN FROM WEST AND CANADIAN FORCES IN CENTRE LONDON, August 2. The Eighth Army has started a big push against the Germans south of Catania. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters states that as General Montgomery’s men pushed forward they met fierce counter-attacks from German paratroops, fighting as infantry, and from men of the Hermann Goering Division. As the British soldiers got to grips with the enemy fighting became more and more bitter. The Desert Air Force is supporting the troops. , During the past fortnight, while General Montgomery s forces have been probing the defences and establishing bridgeheads, supplies have been rolling up behind the lines in preparation for this offensive. General Montgomery, in a message to his troops, said, ine enemy is now hemmed in in the north-eastern corner of Sicily. Now let us get on with the job. Together with our American allies we have knocked Mussolini off his perch. Now drive the Germans out of Sicily. Into the battle with stout hearts. Good luck to you all.” „ ~ ~ A correspondent reports that General Montgomery said the Germans could not get away. They had been driven into a position very much like that in which they found themselves m the Cape Bon Peninsula (in the final phase of the Tunisian Correspondents state that Canadian troops are making steady progress in the centre of the line, where they are providing" strong support on the left flank of the Earth Army. Enemy reports speak of strong Allied attacks. The Americans are reported to have captured San Stefano, on the north coast, and to have taken more than 10,000 prisoners, half of them Germans _ A correspondent at Allied Headquarters states that the whole front from the north to the east coast of the island, 60 miles long, is in movement and that the Allies are making steady Algiers radio has issued another warning to the Italians. The Allies, it says, had waited for eight days for a decision by Italy. Now their forces were on the move. The air force would start day and night bombing and soon the land forces would be fighting on the Italian mainland.