ITALIAN FEARS OF INVASION

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23945, 12 May 1943, Page 3

ITALIAN FEARS OF INVASION

STATEMENT BY ROME RADIO “ VERY' BAD DAYS LIE AHEAD ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 10. With the Allies now in the position they wanted for operations in 1943, comes evidence of mounting Italian fears of invasion. Rome radio said to-day: “The fall of Tunis and Bizerte is a serious blow to the Axis, and particularly to Italy. Tunisia was an advanced Italian defence position, and its fall means that Italy is directly menaced. “Very bad days lie ahead. Our cities will be destroyed by devastating air raids, and Italy’s fair soil will very soon be a theatre of bloody fighting; but Italians, with their immense courage, can stand up to adversity. We must be certain that fallen Africa, drenched with Italian blood, will see us back as victors. We owe this to our dead.” A message from Zurich says that the Italian press is taking great pains to assure the people that the evacuation of Tunisia will not affect the security of Italy. It claims that the Allies reached Tunis and Bizerte too late to open an qttack against southern Europe in 1943, but neutral observers report an atmosphere of depression' among the Italian public. German Comment Germany is still explaining that the events in Tunisia do not constitute a defeat. The military commentator on the Berlin radio (General Dietmar) claimed that the Axis forces had not been defeated but only compressed by material superiority. “In the last four years we Germans have gone through many a victorious campaign, but we won our victories without ever having had such crushing superiority.” General Dietmar said. “The enemy’s overwhelming superiority has come into its own. but the result of the Tunisian campaign docs not surprise experts, who are astonished that the inevitable has only now occurred. “Our jump to Tunisia and our long delaying action have been fully justified. In the meantime we have been able almost to complete the Atlantic wall, consolidate the military and political situation in south-eastern Europe, and consolidate the Eastern Front to a degree beyond all expectations. We have also prevented the launching of a second front when it would have been most awkward for the Axis. The enemy’s organisation is chiefly responsible for his success.” The Ankara correspondent of the Associated Press of Groat Britain says that the smashing assault which toppled the Axis defences at Bizerte and Tunis has impressed the Turks, who await events with intense interest and some tension. They expect a British and American invasion of Europe at least partly through the Mediterranean area. Turkey and the Balkans The chief question in Ankara, he adds, is whether th<! blow will fall in the eastern Mediterranean on Turkey’s doorstep or in the central Mediterranean. Recent Axis propaganda shows that the Axis believes that there is a strong possibility that Turkey may collaborate in the liberation of the Balkans. The Turks have never failed to make it plain that they are squarely opposed to Germany’s domination of their Balkan neighbours. The Berlin radio announced that. Anton Pavelic, the Croat Premier, had been dismissed, with all deputy leaders, party commissars, and commissars of the central organisation of the Croat Fascist Party. The purge followed an announcement that Himmler, the Ges : tapo chief, was visiting Zagreb, where he conferred with Pavelic. "Axis authorities are rushing the evacuation of civilians from the French Riviera at top speed,” says Reuter's Zurich correspondent. “The Axis is also speeding up work on the Riviera fortifications, camouflaging and reinforcing light artillery. They are also said to be installing long-range guns, with big stores of weapons and ammunition. at certain points. “New U-boat bases are slated to be established along the French Mediterranean coast. Many new airfields and seaplane bases are being built, and reinforcements of Italian seaplanes arc expected.”