Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1943. INTO FORTRESS EUROPE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1943. INTO FORTRESS EUROPE.

> A LANDING on the Italian mainland by Allied troops who have crossed the narrow Straits of Messina is but ’one ol a number of great events taking shape as the war enters on its fifth vear. Account has to be taken also ol the grand assault in which the Russian armies, setting new standards of victorious achievement, are putting more than a breaking strain on the so-called elastic defence of the Germans along hundreds ot miles of battlefront. The shattering and devastating blows that aie being struck by the air armadas of the United Nations have their own claims to attention. So, too, has the ascendancy that has been gained, by valiant and devoted efforts, m the campaign against the U-boats. There is, in addition, the massing of powerful. British and American forces in southern England 111 the German news agency perceives, no doubt with lull justification, the prelude to an invasion of Europe from Britain as a base. Although it is an item only in this great unfolding pattern of ivar, the landing on the Italian mainland has its own special interest and promise. At time of writing little more than the bare fact of the landing is made known, but it is stated that hard fighting is expected. This implies that the Germans mean to defend and hold the southern part of the Italian peninsula as long as they can. On apparently weighty grounds it has been thought likely that the Germans would abandon Southern Italy' and concentrate on the defence of a line based on the River 80, north ofc the Etruscan and the Roman Apennines. The country of the southern. Italian provinces is mountainous and in that respect lends itself to defence, but armies holding it are dependent on coastal communications which arc not only' vulnerable in a high degree to air and naval attack, but are liable to be cut by new Allied landings. The principal railway' from the north runs down the west coast by' way of Rome. Another railway' down the east coast and some cross-country lines are described as of relatively' poor capacity. If the Germans are intent upon a resolute defence ot Southern Italy' their decision will indicate that they' feel bound to do everything in their power to prevent or delay' the capture by the Allies of air bases in Italy—bases from which enemy Avar factories in Central Europe could be bombed as intensively as have,been those of the Ruhr and Rhineland. That the Allies can long be prevented from taking and using these air bases seems improbable. No doubt the present invasion is being made in adequate strength and will be pressed with the same determination as was the invasion and speedy' conquest of Sicily. The situation holds far-reaching possibilities. It is not unlikely' that the landing in the south may be followed up by attacks on Sardinia or Corsica or by' further landings well to the north of the toe and heel of Italy. The importance of the Italian peninsula from the standpoint of the Allies is self-evident. The conquest-even of its southern part would give them not only air bases within comparatively' short bombing range of Central Europe and the Rumanian oilfields, but advantageous springboards for the invasion of enemy-occupied territory in the Balkans and Southern France.