FULL BATTLE NOT YET JOINED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23998, 13 July 1943, Page 5

FULL BATTLE NOT YET JOINED

Axis Counter-Attack Near Licata ALLIED THRUST IN PENINSULA (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. July 12. The main body of Axis troops has not yet been engaged and it is presumed that the enemy is holding his strongest forces in reserve until the main Allied thrust is disclosed. r, The Morocco radio declared that the most important event on Sunday was the failure of an Axis tank counterattack near Licata, The Allies, it said, had won the first phase of the battle. Allied forces driving towards each other from the south-west and northeast may cut off the whole peninsula forming the south-east corner with Cape Passero as the nose, according to Reuter’s military correspondent. He believes that a 50-mile advance from either side would establish a line which would give the Allies control of about 100.000 square miles, in which are several airfields suitable for immediate use. The Allied landing beaches, he comments, already seem well beyond the range of the enemy’s artillery, and are exposed only to air attack, which is unlikely to be very fierce in view of the Allies’ supremacy In the air. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says that the toughest resistance met in Sicily was near Cape Passero, where British and Canadian troops landed. The primary resistance was from Italians, composed of semi-static coastal defence units. "It therefore appears,” he adds, “that stronger, mobile, central reserves, including Germans, are being withheld until the Axis commanders are positive that the south-east corner is really the most threatened area. “The Allies in this corner of the Island have both flanks protected by the sea, and can aim to lop off the entire corner and build a ‘wall’ across the neck, forming an Impregnable bridgehead. On the other hand, the defenders may be deliberately delaying a counter-attack in the hope of inflicting more extensive damage on the landing forces.” “Resistance Not Strong” A 8.8.C. correspondent says that on the whole 100-mile string of landing points, enemy resistance has not been strong and the Allied forces are pushing inland and linking up with the parachute troops who were dropped before the initial landings. The attack came as a tactical surprise to the enemy, the 8.8.C. correspondent adds, and up to the present the defenders have been unable to check the Allied troops. Supplies and men are still pouring ashore covered by the guns of the Navy and the air forces. Barges are busy between the big ships and the shore, and the beaches are full of men, guns and materials. Further inland, aircraft are blasting military targets throughout the island. On one field, between 30 and 40 Axis machines wore found wrecked. Allied troops in Sicily are now advancing with the beaches behind them firmly In the hands of fresh troops, more of whom are still being brought in from vast convoys protected by the Navy, says the correspondent of the British United Press at Allied forward headquarters. He adds that within 48 hours of the first landing the crisis of the Sicilian invasion had passed and troops were being disgorged on the island in one great stream. The whole coastline along the 100-mile invasion front is in Allied hands. It is known that one of the points ■. whore the troops first went in was Gela, a little port on the broad sweep of the southern coast at the end of Maroglio valley. Gela's normal population is 20.000. The town commands a network of roads. SOVIET PEOPLE TOLD OP LANDINGS (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 11. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the news of the Sicilian landings spread like wildfire round the Soviet capital yesterday. It electrified me public, whose predominant emotion is a tense expectancy. "The big query in everybody’s < he adds, “is whether this will really lead to a successful large-scale Intervention on the Continent and draw off big German forces from the ; Russian front.” i

AXIS REPORTS OF FIGHTING

GERMANS SPEAK OF COUNTER-ATTACK

INTENSE AIR ACTIVITY (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 11. The Berlin radio says that German and Italian reserves counter-attacked in Sicily early to-day. To-day’s Italian communique says: “Fierce fighting is progressing all along the coastal stretch of south-east Sicily. Italians and Germans are energetically engaging the enemy landing forces and are effectively holding their pressure. Air activity is intense on both sides.’’ Both the German and Italian communiques claim that Axis fighters are active. The German communique says that 64 enemy aeroplanes have so far been shot down over Sicily. Both communiques claim that Axis torpedocarrying aeroplanes repeatedly attacked enemy convoys, and sank two steamers and one unidentified vessel. Two cruisers and numerous merchantmen were seriously damaged. The Luftwaffe repeatedly hit a light cruiser, seven transports, and numerous landing craft, the sinking of which is regarded as certain. The Rome radio said that the Allied landings in Sicily were the best organised best prepared, and biggest since Gallipoli. The British and Americans, it added, carried through their plans with ample supplies. The Berlin radio said: General Eisenhower apparently intends to build up the south-eastern tip of Sicily into a large-scale bridgehead. The southeast tip is relatively unpopulated. Access to this part of the island is dimcult as it has few roads. The Americans brought up many transports landing barges and warships, includin o a number of battleships, to land their forces. This fleet penetrated the south and eastern coasts of Sicily. Immediately after the landing, air-borne troops, under the protection of heavy artillery from the fleet and also masses of aeroplanes, landed near Cape Passero The defenders successfully beat off another landing attempt north ol Sy “A second group of landing vessels under cover of many warships, including battleships, penetrated the Gela bight and formed two bridgeheads near Licata, From this point the Americans carefully went forward in the mountain area to the north. Their advance was soon stemmed by local Axis troops. Fierce fighting developed. “A landing attempt north-east of Marsala failed owing to the resistance of the defenders, who wiped out the invaders or compelled them to retreat. “Only Axis coastal defences have so far been engaged. However, Axis reserves launched a counter-attack early to-day.” MORE CANADIANS ARRIVE CONVOY REACHES NORTH AFRICA (Bee. 9 p.m.) LONDON. July 12. Several thousand Canadian reinforcements landed in North Africa within 24 hours of the start of the Allied landings in Sicily. . A substantial troop convoy, carrying additional troops from England followed ships containing a Canadian assault force.