ALLIES OCCUPY LAMPEDUSA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23973, 14 June 1943, Page 5

ALLIES OCCUPY LAMPEDUSA

Italians Surrender Island bombardment for I 24 HOURS 4. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1U p-in.) LONDON, June 13. “After 24 hours of intermittent naval and air bombardment, the Italian island of Lampedusa surrendered on Saturday an d is being occupied by the Allied forces,” says a special North African communique. White flags were seen on Lampedusa at 6.20 p.m. as Allied forces approached the island after pounding it for almost 24 <hours. An officer went ashore at 7 p.m. and demanded unconditional surrender, which was given by the officer commanding the garrison. Immediately the formalities were completed, the Allied officer informed the Italian commander (hat the Allied forces would take over, and later in the evening troops disembarked at a small port at the southern end and occupied the whole island. Relays of Mitchells, Bostons, and Baltimores, escorted by tVarhawks and Lightnings, had bombed Lampedusa, inflicting heavy damage. By the middle of the afternoon the island’s gun emplacements and batteries had been knocked out, and the radio station damaged. It is estimated that one-third of the town was wrecked. Lampedusa is the largest of a group of three islands lying about 90 miles south-east of Pantelleria. It is a barren, flattopped island, difficult of access from the sea. Near it are the two very small islands of Linosa, 25 miles to the north-east, and Lampione, 10 miles to the west.

The Allied air attacks were pitched from Pantelleria to Lampedusa 90 minutes after the first white flag appeared on Pantelleria. It is considered the fastest tactical changeover ever carried out by any air force Lampedusa was suddenly and without warning deluged with bombs There was no gradual crescendo, but a sudden unleashing of the attack that had been previously poured on Pan lelleria. Nevertheless. Lampedusa wo? given a chance to surrender by meslages dropped to the garrison from aeroplanes. Allied bombers saw the first white flag on Lampedusa in the middle )f Saturday afternoon, after the Nortii African air forces had plastered the island for 24 hours. The warships, however, did not see the flags and remained off the island until 7 p.m. when an Allied officer went ashore and dictated surrender terms to the senior Man officer on the island, who ac cepted them. The occupation of Lampedusa imnu diately followed. Allied troops on Saturday night were guarding the island The British United Press and Associated Press correspondents at an ad vanced North African base give another account of the Lampedusa surrender. They say that when Sergcan - . Filet Cohen, of the Royal Air Forcemade a forced landing on Lampedusa Island on Saturday, while the island was still shuddering under the blast of

Allie bombs. Italians with a white flag rushed towards him, shouting: “Can’t you do something about this 0 ’ The Italians, to Sergeant Cohen’s amazement, offered him the surrender of the island, which he accepted. Sergeant Cohen, during a flight from Malt-w had landed on Lampedusa because he was short of petrol. The engine of his aeroplane had been working badly, but the vibration of the Allied bombs inexplicably righted the engine. After sheltering for two hours from the Allied bombs. Sergeant Cohen induced the Italians to refum his aeroplane. Ho flew off to a North African base to report the island's surrender.

Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says that the Italian garrison on Lampedusa is estimated at about 3000.