FINAL DRIVE IN SICILY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 270, 10 August 1943, Page 5

FINAL DRIVE IN SICILY

Opposition Still Vigorous END INEVITABLE iHv Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright > (Received August 9, 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, August 9. The Eighth Army has broken through the heart of the enemy s Messina bridgehead, and yesterday our advance troops, after the capture of Bronte, were reported to be within nine miles of Randazzo, which has been battered from the air. Some big convoys were seen pulling out of Randazzo but our air crews later reported that this town was blocked to enemy traffic. Two main inland roads join at Randazzo, and the German forces from the central sector must pass through if they are to get to Messina. The American Seventh Army is attacking in the hills northeast of Troina and on the coast east of Santa Agata. The whole German line is “shrivelling up,” in the words of one correspondent, and every important town in Sicily with the exception of Messina is now in our hands. A report in London says there is no sign yet of a German sea evacuation having started. On the other hand the Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent says that hundreds of Allied planes are smashing against enemy attempts to evacuate second-line troops from Sicily across the Messina Straits. Our aircraft are ceaselessly bombing the beaches and small craft in the four-mile channel. The Germans are hurrying to get the troops away, and are now using boats in the daytime, singly or in small convoys. The enemy air resistance in the last 24 hours has been almost negligible.

Though commentators in London are sounding a note of caution in view of the fact that 40,000 to 00,000 Germans are still fighting in Sicily, the Press Association's military correspondent, summing up the general feeling, says that the end is inevitable. The Allies’ advance is continuing successfully steadily, with the Germans, in country which lends itself to defensive action, fighting determined rearguard actions and gaining as much time as possible with the lavish use of mines, booby-traps and demolitions. Large German forces are in peril of being trapped north-west of Mt. Etna between the Eighth Army, which has captured Bronte, and the American Seventh Army, which is still meeting with bitter resistance just east of Troina, says the “Daily Telegraph's" correspondent with General Montgomery's forces. The Eighth Army can strike north of Bronte up the Simeto River valley against the flank and rear of the Germans, who arc believed to have concentrated on hills round Cesaro. Americans’ Hardest Battle. The Algiers correspondent of “The Times.” referring to the reports from Allied pilots that Randazzo was blocked to traffic as a result of air attacks, says that this is a most important strategic point, the occupation of which would enable the Allies to cut Bffi.the Germans who have too long delayed a withdrawal eastward through trying to hold the Allies at Troina. The Germans have managed to get most of their troops from Troina, where they experienced one of the hardest battles of the campaign, reports the British United Press correspondent with the Seventh Army. Americans who had fought in Tunisia say that the battle for Troina was worse than anything there. One hill south of Troina was taken and retaken six times before the Germans were driven out under a hail of artillery fire and dive-bombing. A "New York Times” correspondent says that flic Americans on entering Troina found a town of horror, emptied of Germans but amazingly alive with weeping and hysterical men, women and children. The Germans had m’ade the town a fortress, and they deliberately neglected the elementary humanitarian duty of evacuating the civilians, who underwent two terrible days of bombing and shelling. The Germans shot civilians who attempted to escape, and they looted every house before departing. “Everywhere along the line the German resistance is most stubborn,” the correspondent says, “and the Allied strategy must be based on its continuance. There is no quick and easy solution for .fighting in such mountainous country. It is hard, determined slogging every day. in winch our artillery and air support and the steady pressure of the ground troops should unquestionably bring victory in the long nun.

“If the Germans could not hold Troina they cannot hold anywhere else. We have paid a fair price for the victory, but they have paid a heavy price to gain a few days more in Sicily.” American warships are taking part in day and night shelling of the coastal flank along which the American troops are advancing. It is revealed that the capture of Aderno was achieved by a brilliant combination of surprise frontal assault by the 78th Division and an outflanking threat by the Canadians, whose sudden advance was equally unexpected for the enemy. The British United Press correspondent says that the 78th Division’s campaign was a little military classic. They were brought up secretly, and the impact of a whole new division in an unexpected blow gave us Centuripe after a violent struggle. The success of the entire operation depended on a flanking force arriving north-west of Aderno at the time the other troops passed Biancavilla to threaten Aderno frontally.' Tho Canadians in an outflanking column used bulldozers and explosives to make a road between Troino and Regalbuto as far as the Simeto Valley, and within a matter of days a large force of Canadians with vehicles and guns was rolling down the Simeto Valley over a route which previously could be traversed only by mules. The Allies, when they tvere about to launch a general 'attack against the enemy’s hit. Etna line, found that the Germans were withdrawing hurriedly. The Germans got out as soon as they found the 78th Division was threatening them frontally and the Canadians were moving on their line of retreat round Mt. Etna. This enemy withdrawal hns given the Allies the western side of Mt. Etna except for opposition from isolated rearguard parties. Greatest Barrage. Correspondents agree that General Montgomery's outflanking movement which sealed the fate of Aderno was effected across the worst country yet encountered in Sicily. Reuter’s correspondent in Sicily says that the capture of Aderno means not only the loss to the Axis of the last east to west road, but also the cutting off of the Axis forces who are west of Catania. -The greatest barrage in the Mediterranean area since Allied guns opened the way to Tunis drove the Axis rearguards from Aderno; says the correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain with'the Eighth Army. A tremendous weight of fire from approximately 180 25-pound guns and larger medium artillery crushed the Germans in their final positions and forced them to evacuate the town. They retired to high ground north of the town.