ITALIAN MAINLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1943, Page 3

ITALIAN MAINLAND

DAY AND NIGHT HAMMERING BY ALLIED AIRCRAFT United States Warships Shell Bridges and Power Installations REPORTED DEVELOPMENTS IN ROME LONDON, August 19. With Sicily now occupied, Allied aircraft are maintaining’ day and night attacks on the southern portion of the Italian mainland. Powerful formations of the Strategic and Tactical Air Force are engaged in this sustained hammering. Correspondents point out that in the Italian toe there are only two main routes leading but of it. On these roads and railways the aircraft have found first-class targets, including marshalling yards and vehicles. Bombers first of all create good traffic blocks and then fighters and fighter-bombers attack the vehicles with bullets and cannon fire. The enemy has been forced to use sea traffic off the coast. Malta-based Mosquitoes on Tuesday night ranged over Southern Italy from toe to heel, bombing whatever railway objectives they could see. They left a sea of fire at one place a quarter of a mile long. The United States Navy added to the Axis confusion by shelling bridges and power installations on the Italian mainland north of Messina Strait. There is no news of how Italian officials are reacting to the fall of Sicily. All broadcasts by the 8.8. C. to Italian people today began with these words: “This is the 26th day of Badoglio’s war against the United Nations. The responsibility for the continuation of the German war on Italian soil rests only with the Italian Government, led by Marshal Badoglio. Swedish correspondents in Rome declare that a major development occurred in Italy yesterday, but that the censorship is preventing the disclosure of the news.