ARMY REINFORCED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 246, 28 July 1943, Page 3

ARMY REINFORCED

GERMAN FORCES IN SICILY. COUNTER-ATTACK AT ENNA. REPULSE AFTER SEVERE FIGHT. (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 27. Malta-based Bostons and Baltimores of the Tactical Air Force gaYe close support to army operations in Sicily and targets at Regalbuto were successfully attacked, says a message from tlie island. The 29tli German Motorised Division is~stated in London to have just ailived iii Sicily. This Avas one of the best divisions of the early days of the Avar, but Avas practically eliminated at Stalingrad. It has been recreated, but whether it arrived in Sicily fully armoured or only as an “attack force” is not known. Agency reports from Allied Headquarters say that German troops, evidently reinforced, have been identified along the northern coast of Sicily. The enemy apparently feared that the resistance of the Italian troops, to whom this sector had been entrusted, was weakening. The Germans, led by the 15th Panzer Division, made a A'iolent counterattack north-east of Enna on the,Canadian and American troops, avlio repulsed it after severe fighting. Allied patrols Avere very active- in the Bth Army sector. The German losses on the river Dittaina have been very heavy. Casualties sometimes amounting to 400 in one attack. —British Official Wireless.