CATANIA IS KEY TO ITALIAN MAINLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 164, 13 July 1943, Page 3

CATANIA IS KEY TO ITALIAN MAINLAND

STRATEGY OF ALLIES "Biting Off South-Eastern Corner Of Island" N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, July 12. "Catania is the key. . Its plain opens the way to Italy," states the military correspondent of. the Daily Express. The piain of Catania,, lie explains, is tank country, and in the centre is Gerbini, where the enemy's main air bases are situated. Across the plain runs Sicily's one crosscountry railway and the excellent roads leading to Messina and linking Sicily with the mainland. "The enemy's difficulty," the correspondent writes, "is that while there is now a threat, plain to see, staring him in the face in this area, if he starts moving troops from the western part of the island he may be 'caught out by Allied landings around the coast from Palermo to Agrigento." The correspondent adds that the Italians have mostly oldmodel tanks with which to supplement the German tanks. Push Up Eastern Coast The military expert, Captain Liddle Hart, writing in the Daily Mail, states: "It is significant that General Eisenhower made' landings on the African side at Cap Passero as well as along the eastern half of the southern coast. That suggests a plan of biting off the whole southeastern corner of the island by a converging advance from the directions of Syracuse and Gela with a view to a concentrated push up the eastern coast towards the Straits of Messina. "The farther our forces can push along this line the closer they will carry the threat to the enemy's communications with the Italian mainland. Much may depend upon the speed of the Allied forces in fostering an uneasy feeling of isolation by the rapid development in depth of the threat to the enemy's communications and line of retreat across the straits." Gerbini Has Nine Airfields Gerbini has nine satellite airfields and is probably the biggest and best striking base for German fighter planes, which explains the reason for the terrific pounding these airfields received. It is considered that once Gerbini has been neutralised a great step will have been taken. The military correspondent of the Evening Standard states that the main Axis force appears to be disposed in two diagonal positions across the island. The main line stretches from Catania by way of Caltahissetta to Palermo and the second shorter line extends from Cantania by way of Misretta to San Stefano in the north. Tne correspondent adds that, seen as purely land defences, these positions look formidable.