NOTE OF URGENCY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 August 1943, Page 3

NOTE OF URGENCY

TERRIFIC ALLIED ONSLAUGHT BOMBS & SHELLS. DEVASTATION OF THE TOE. i By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, August 20. While the Allied armies stand ready for the next assault, the air and naval forces are staging against the south of Italy one of the greatest bombardments in military history. There is a note of urgency in this terrific onslaught, but the correspondents are being left to guess where the next offensive will fall. The Allies yesterday scarred the toe of Italy with bombs and gunfire, blotting out enemy batteries, smashing bridges and tunnels, tearing up railways, wrecking power stations, and making roads impassable for the warweary Axis forces that fled from Sicily. These remnants of the German army of 75,000 men are not being allowed time to regroup, but must trek northward, menaced from the skies at every step. The Germans already appear to have decided that Southern Italy is too hot for them to attempt to hold. Telephone communication across the Italian-Swiss frontier was still cut tonight, and the trains are held up. Official news is non-existent, and is replaced by rumour. The “Daily Mail’s” correspondent from the frontier says that reports which are crossing the border support the belief that Marshal Badoglio has decided to capitulate, and he may already have given the word to surrender, but the news may not be known for days.