GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 163, 12 July 1943, Page 3

GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

Two Months In Planning Of Amphibious Operations MOST LIKELY LANDING PLACE Rec. 9.30 a.m. LONDON, July 11. "It is a remarkable achievement to have prepared and launched major amphibious operations in two months," says Lieutenant - General Sir Douglas Brownrigg in the Evening News. "There is nothing surprising in the place chosen for the first landing. Its proximity to Malta and the North African mainland has always made Sicily the most likely landing place to feel the first tread of Allied feet "Sicily offered the best facilities for the following reasons:— "(1) Our bombers based on North Africa could bomb every inch of the island and destroy aerodromes and planes on the ground, and thus neutralise any counter-action whicb might be taken by Axis shore-based fighter planes against our ships as they crossed the narrow waters and our troops as they went ashore. "(2) Even if the action of our bombers was not sufficient entirely to neutralise the hostile air defence, our own North African single-seater fighters were still close enough to provide umbrellas over the landing places."