AEGEAN ISLANDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1943, Page 3

AEGEAN ISLANDS

OCCUPIED BY ALLIES GERMAN REIGN OF TERROR IN RHODES. INVADERS RESISTED IN ROME AND NORTHERN AREAS. .{'Ey Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 20. The Eighth Army has advanced northward, and troops in the west have captured a town midway between Taranto and Bari, both of which are in Allied hands The British have captured Castelorizo, the most easterly of the Dodecanese Islands, which is four miles off the Turkish coast and 90 miles east of Rhodes. Reporting this, Reuter’s Istanbul correspondent says that British troops on Saturday also disembarked in the Greek island of Samos, to the north of the Dodecanese. A delayed dispatch from Turkey states that Italian refugees arriving at Bodrum from Caselorizo on Saturday reported that a large Allied fleet was hovering near the island. The refugees also confirmed an earlier report that the Allies had seized the islands of Leros and Cos, which are also north of the Dodecanese. Italian military and civilian refugees who arrived at Bodrum, stated that the Italians on Rhodes surrendered after a 14 hours’ fight against the Germans. Following upon the announcement of the Italian armistice, 5000 German troops, including panzer units, outmanoeuvred and crushed the garrison of 20,000 Italians. The worst fighting was centred in the town of Rhodes, where Italian artillery engaged mobile German units in a night-long duel. German motorised infantry also fought Italian garrisons at practically every strategic point on the island, culminating in fierce attacks by German dive-bombers from Crete. The Germans immediately after the Italian surrender instituted a reign of terror, machine-gunning crowds in the streets of Rhodes and other places, and many civilians were killed or wounded. ITALIAN VOLUNTEERS. The islands of Ischia and Procida, near Naples, have been secured for the Allies by units of the Italian Navy and a British naval officer, according to Press messages (says a British Official Wireless message). Seven Italian boats were at Capri when the Allied force arrived. The crews insisted that they should be allowed to fight as part of the Royal Navy. They were allowed to go to Ischia and then proceed to secure them against the Germans. They were accompanied by one British officer. ’Already refugees from central and Jjbrthern Italy are pouring into territory occupied by the Allies. In one village a self-constituted interpreter, an old Italian who had returned to finish his life in retirement after living and working in the United States, told a correspondent that he had already met about 1000, who had arrived, dusty and footsore, after trekking from as far away as Trieste and Bologna. FIGHTING IN ROME. A refugee from Rome described fighting between Italian and German troops in the streets when the Italians were trying to hold out against the demands of their former allies. The Germans bombed the city, the refugee stated. It is learned that street fighting is still going on in Rome. Before the Germans entered Rome all weapons in the Royal Arsenal were handed out to the people. Throughout Italy the railwaymen are striking and the German authorities themselves are having to control the whole communications system. Underground resistance is causing the Germans anxiety in Naples. Refugees from there brought a copy of a proclamation by the German general officer commanding, stating that reprisals would be made for the continued assassinations of German soldiers in the city. A full-scale war is raging in the Cuneo area, about 50 miles south of Turin, where members of the Italian Fourth Army, which was formerly sta-

tioned in France, are resisting the Germans, says the Berne “Die Tat’s” correspondent on*the Italian frontier. Pockets of Italian resistance are also reported to exist still in the Venice area. German troops in the Turin area fired on demonstrating crowds of workers, many of whom were killed or wounded. The Turin workers are still refusing to return to the. factories. As the Germans retreated into Corsica from Sardinia they were attacked by the French inhabitants »