REPORTS & RUMOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 September 1943, Page 3

REPORTS & RUMOURS

STORIES OF OTHER ALLIED LANDINGS AND OF ITALIAN ATTACKS ON GERMANS. DETAILS RATHER CONFUSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, September 9. The Algiers radio states that General Eisenhower flew to Italy as recently as last Sunday and met Marshal Badoglio “somewhere on ,the Italian mainland” for last-min-ute surrender discussions. It is officially announced that Allied forces under General Mark Clarke landed early this morning in the area of Naples. A correspondent says the landings were made by Americans. The Tunis radio said that British, American and Canadian troops have landed on the Italian coast to the north and south of Rome. ' A cdrrespondent of the Stockholm “Dagens Nyheter” says that strong Allied forces have landed at Gaeta Civitavecchia, which is 40 miles northwest of Rome, and also at Pisa. The same correspondent says that German troops were, still in Rome late yesterday afternoon. CONTROL IN MILAN. Reports from Switzerland state that the Germans have taken over Control in Milan and other large northern Italian towns. The British United Press correspondent on the Italian frontier says all frontier traffic has been interrupted, and no trains reached the Swiss frontier from Italy yesterday. The British United Press Stockholm, correspondent says it is reported from Italian military sources that the Italian garrison in Corsica .<as overpowered the Germans and taken control of the island, and also that the Italian garrison in Milan is prepared to fight the Germans if they try to occupy the city. The “Svenska Dagbladet’s” Berne correspondent says that an Italian fleet, including three 35,000-ton battleships, has sailed from Spezia for Sicily. A correspondent of the United Press of America on the Swiss frontier says that an American fleet has anchored at Genoa. . . ’ Reports from the Italian frontier indicate that the northern Italians expect a virtual state of war between Germany and Italy, since the Wehrmacht, far from withdrawing material, Kas concentrated large forces to counteract the “treacherous stab in the back,” says the “New York Times” Berne correspondent. It is also reported that within an hour of the announcement of the surrender the Nazis arrested 4000 Italian hostages and took them to Germany in lorries. STRANGE ARMISTICE. The American Broadcasting Corporation’s correspondent, speaking from Algiers, said: “The strangest armistice in history has turned Italy into a bloody battlefield instead of a victorious parade. - The Allies face a violent, longdrawn battle, which has already been partially joined.” , The Exchange Telegraph Agency s correspondent at Allied headquarters says it can now be revealed that a pitched battle occurred three days ago in Italy between the retreating Germans and the Italians. The fighting lasted for several hours. The Germans lost 200 men killed and the Italians about 100. The United Nations radio, at Algiers, broadcasting through Tunis, says that leaflets which have been dropped on Italy begin with the words “Powerful British, American, and Canadian armies are landing at various points in the heart of Italy.” Algiers reports that the landings in the Naples area this morning were made under the protection of the Royal Navy and United States Navy. The landing of munitions and equipment is proceeding according to plan. All the Allied forces in Italy are under the command of General Alexander.