OTHER LANDINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1943, Page 4

OTHER LANDINGS

THAN THAT IN ITALY INTENDED BY ALLIES WAR SURVEY BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. DESTRUCTION OF WAR-BREEDING GANGS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, September 17. In a 5,000-word message to Congress today, President Roosevelt said the Allies were now engaged in a very hard battle south of Naples and casualties were heavy, but Congress and the American people could rest assured that the landing in Italy was not the only landing the Allies had in mind. British, Canadian and American losses in killed, wounded and missing in the Sicilian campaign were 31,158, of which the American forces lost 7,445. German and Italian casualties were approximately 165,000, including 132,000 prisoners. Referring to the downfall of Mussolini, Mr Roosevelt said this was the first break in Axis leadership and he added that when Hitler and the Nazis went out, the Prussian military cliques must go with them. The warbreeding gangs of militarists of Germany and Japan must be rooted out if we were to have any real'assurance of peace. The President stressed the mistake of trying to divide the war into watertight compartments. We could not think of this as several wars, he said. It was all one war and must be governed by one basis of strategy. He added that the freeing of the Mediterranean through the capitulation of Italy would enable us to regain complete control of the waters of the Indian Ocean and enable us to strike at another of Japan’s vulnerable flanks.

The President also stressed the great increase in production by. the United Nations, stating that during the two months recess of Congress our factories had produced approximately 15,000 planes, there being an especially important increase in the production of heavy bombers in August, American shipyards were now producing almost five ships daily.-