Catania Reported To Be In Flames

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 169, 19 July 1943, Page 3

Catania Reported To Be In Flames

FIGHTING IN SUBURBS Americans Driving Into Central Sicily (N.Z. Press Association and British Wireless—Copyright—2 p.m.) LONDON July 18. The situation of the Axis forces in Sicily is each hour becoming more critical. Catania, for which the Germans and Italians have fought their hardest in the campaign, is reported to be in flames and about to fall, jf it has not already fallen. The military writer of the Press Association to-night noted in Allied circles a tendency to agree that the end of the battle for Catania is in sight, but suggested that it would be a mistake to become over-optimistic concerning the subsequent phases of the campaign in that sector. It is officially announced that the Allied advance has continued in all sectors in Sicily in the past 24 hours. The Allies now hold one-third of the island. Prisoners taken total 30,000, two-thirds of whom have been captured by the United States Seventh Army. The Americans to-day captured Porto Empedocle, west of Agrigento. "Our forward elements attacking Catania are undoubtedly meeting with considerable resistance," says the military correspondent of the Press Association. "It must be expected that their progress, comparatively speaking, will be slow. There will be even harder fighting when we start up the coast beyond Catania. The British Eighth Army will be faced with natural obstacles as difficult as any yet overcome." The great prize for which the battle of Catania is being fought is the chain of airfields on the plain, from which all eastern Sicily can be dominated. Long range guns of the Allies in the hills to the south may already have the aerodromes under fire. Hundreds of truck loads of enemy infantry have been seen pouring down into the northern part of the plain from the "slopes around' Mount Etna. Whoever controls Gerbini airfields certainly controls the eastern half, which is the vital half of Sicily, and is in a fair way to set up an effective blockade of the western half of the island. One British Column Reported To Have By-Passed Catania Reuters correspondent in Algiers has meanwhile reported that one Eighth Army side column has by-passed Catania and is harrying towards Paterno. It is officially revealed, says Reuters, that the Allied air forces have attacked Paterno ahead of the advance of Allied land troops." This suggests that the column which by-passed Catania is now threatening Paterno, which is due north of Gerbini, and 11 miles north-west of Catania, at the foot of Mount Etna.

Reuters correspondent adds: The battle for Catania is in its final phase, with bitter, fierce fighting in the suburbs." A pilot who participated in a concentrated attack at dawn against Catania said the British were then steadily breaking up the enemy forces on the southern fringe of the city. American forces, who earlier repulsed a counter-attack in the Barrafranca area, about 20 miles inland from Gela, are now driving north to cut the main highway across Central Sicily, near Caltanissetta. They have advanced 22 miles into the interior of British United Press correspondent in North Africa reports that United States Commandos were first to enter Porto Empedocle after American artillery had shelled the town. American infantry followed and beat off a counter-attack by t e Hermann Goering Division. An Italian general Laveronto, was captured* He was the commander of the 207 th Coastal Division, the entire staff of which surrendered, as well as the staff of the .Tenth Regiment. Allied booty in Sicily includes several six-barrelled German smoke mortars, which fire compressed smoke shells. The Allied air offensive is being maintained at a high pitch, and during the night medium bombers attacked Catania, while other bombers were raiding enemy communications. An Allied communique from North Africa reports the destruction of 18 enemy aircraft in the latest operations, which included attacks on Southern Italy. The combined Allied' losses for all operations Was 1 3 planes An important attack was made by Mitchell bombers on the Sicilian town of Paterno, which is on the railway inland fiom Catania, in front of. advancing ground forces.