APE-MAN CONDUCT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1943, Page 4

APE-MAN CONDUCT

GERMANS’ LAST DAYS IN NAPLES SAVAGE AND BLOODTHIRSTY CRIMES [ PEOPLE LEFT WANDERING LIKE LOST SOULS (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, October 7. The Police and Red Cross officials in Naples estimate that about BGO persons were killed and thousands wounded during the five-day German terror in the city. Among the last barbaric acts of the Germans before they left Naples was the seizure of 200 Italians, at random, from different houses. The Italians were then made to kneel in a square and to shout “Heil Hitler!” says Reuter’s correspondent in Naples. The Germans then selected two Italian sailors and four soldiers, lined them up against a wall of the Naples Stock Exchange and shot them. The correspondent adds that over half a million citizens are wandering through the city like lost souls, looking for water. Men, women and children, carrying large jars, bottles or even bathtubs, form long queues in thousands at waterpoints which the Germans destroyed and which have been temporarily fixed. Some water supply lines in Naples are expected to be opened shortly, and although the main electrical power station was destroyed Allied Naval and Army experts have already temporarily laid on power. Nevertheless for some days Naples faces a grim period. An Italian captain of marines told the Reuter correspondent that during the last two days before the Germans cleared out of Naples even poor Italian people attacked the Germans with rifles, pistols and even knives. Italian youths threw grenades into German lodgings. TIME-BOMB IN POST OFFICE At least 100 civilians are believed to have been killed by a time-bomb which exploded in the Naples Post Office while it was being reopened to the public, says a message from Naples today. An entire section of the Post Office collapsed after the explosion, burying victims in the debris. The casualties included soldiers. The Catholic newspaper “Universe,” published in London, quotes a report that the Germans are speeding up preparations for the demolition of Rome on a grand scale. Moreover, the Germans apparently are making preparations to wage a fierce battle to keep a stranglehold on Rome, which for their own purposes they until now have been insisting is an open city.