ITALIAN REVOLT

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 304, 18 September 1943, Page 7

ITALIAN REVOLT

Troops & Civilians Fight Germans

WIDE OPERATIONS

LONDON, September 16. Simultaneously with reports of the spread of Italian revolt against the Germans in Nazi-occupied Italy, the Germans have 'declared martial law throughout the northern part of the country, says the Swiss radio. Reporting that clashes between Italian and German troops are continuing Algiers radio said that Bologna is in°italian hands and that 2000 Italian soldiers at Turin encircled a strong German formation and took several hundred prisoners. Como and Verona are also said to be in Italian hands. Italians control the whole of the province of Tuscany and the greater part of the Abruzzi. In Milan Italians are meeting German tanks with machinegun fire. . Italian patriots are fighting bitterly against the Germans in Trento and along the railway leading to the Brenner Pass. Ibe whole area between Bologna and Home is now under the control of Italian patriots. Elsewhere patriots are mining railway lines and bridges and food and ammunition dumps. Bitter fighting is occurring iu Piedmont, in many areas ot wiucu Italian workers refused to return to work and opened fire on the Germans. According to an ordinance issued oy the German military commander in Milan, all industrial enterprises in northern Italy are now subject to German legislation. All industrial and commercial enterprises must resume activities at once. The Germans have banned ad listening to radio transmissions, and a ban has been imposed on strikes. Nazis and Vatican. Reuter’s Zurich correspondent says that a diplomatic courier who recently arrived from Rome reports that fighting between Italians and Germans was sun going on in the Trastevere Quarter of the city, adjoining the Vatican, where Italian workers built barricades and fortified houses. All attempts to wear down the Italian defenders failed, liie Germans were not allowing worshippers to enter St. Peter's. The Germans cleared the square in front of St. Peters, though under the Lateral) Treaty the square belongs to the Vatican. Other reports from the Italian liontier state that 10 anti-aircraft guns are mounted in St. Peter’s Square below the Basilica steps, and that machinegun posts have also been established in tne Colonnade. The German parachutists who are guarding the Vatican seem intent on keeping tne Allied diplomats from contact with the outside world. _ “The Germans have cut all communications between the Vatican and abroad, states an underground Italian radio station which calls itself “Free Milan. “The Germans now control the Vatican radio and the Pope is a prisoner. The “New York Times, commenting on the orders issued in Mussolini’s name which-were cabled yesterday, says: Inn presence of German troops m the V ati can City has put the final blot of shame on Mussolini’s treachery.” _ The food position in Rome is reported to have become worse. A correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain on the Italian frontier reports that , the Germans today fired on hunger-driven crowds which were storming food shops. All public services are paralysed, and nothing is entering the city from the outside.