BLOCKED OR BROKEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1943, Page 3

BLOCKED OR BROKEN

VITAL ROUTE THROUGH BRENNER PASS MANY BRIDGES DESTROYED. ACCURATE BOMBING BY FLYING FORTRESSES. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, September 3. Photographic reconnaissance shows that the vital railway from the Brenner Pass, along which German reinforcements have been pouring into Italy, is now cluttered with wreckage. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says Flying Fortresses made a round flight of nearly 1,500 miles to bomb Bologna, Trento and Bolano. The destruction of highway and railway bridges means that communication between Germany and Italy is seriously blocked or broken. Landslides caused by heavy bombing at Bolzano blocked the railway lipes to the Brenner. The crews of Flying Fortresses saw yellow and orange debris where cliffs had crashed down. The 80 mile single track through the Brenner Pass is Europe’s most overworked railway. It has carried the major part of Germany’s miiltary traffic to Italy. The only remaining passes of value to the Germans are the Simplon and Saint Gothard, both belonging to Switzerland, who hitherto has not permitted the passage of military materials. It has long been realised that air bombardment could close the Brenner Pass where the road and railway run over innumerable bridges and viaducts and through 27 tunnels. It is highly probable that a group of airmen were specially trained for the attack.

“FORWARD TO VICTORY” GENERAL MONTGOMERY’S MESSAGE. (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, September 3. General Montgomery, in a message to the men of the Eighth Army before the invasion of Italy, said: “To the Eighth Army is given the great honour of being the first troops of the Allied armies to land on the mainland of the Continent of Europe. We have a good plan and air support on a greater scale than we have ever had before. There can be only one end to this next battle —another success. Forward to victory! Let us knock Italy out of the war!”