FRENCH RISING IN CORSICA

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 307, 22 September 1943, Page 7

FRENCH RISING IN CORSICA

Favourable Turn

Of Events

COMMANDOS HELP

LONDON, September 20. Following upon the withdrawal of the Germans from Sardinia to the French island of Corsica, seven miles away, French commando troops have landed in Corsica. This was announced tonight in a broadcast by Algiers radio in the name of General Giraud. The broadcast said that immediately on the news of the Italian armistice French Corsican patriots took up the fight against the Germans. French commando troops had been landed to back up the patriots, and events had taken a favourable turn. A correspondent at the Allied headquarters says that the French bold the capital of Corsica, Ajaccio. Another savs that the Germans are reported to be moving along the east coast trying to reach the port of Bastia, to be ready for their evacuation to the Italian mainland. He says that the French landing in Corsica was one reason why the Germans got out of Sardinia so quickly. 'They could not: hold on to Sardinia while trouble was developing in their rear. Radio France in Algiers issued a statement in tl.: name of General Giraud, addressed to tlie German authorities in Corsica. which said that any man who wore a white armlet, black death s-head and a bead-band must be considered as a regular soldier in the French army. Reuter’s military correspondent says there is reason to believe the Germans avc beginning to evacuate Corsica from Bastia. He adds that the German seizure of the island of Elba, off the Italian coast, was probably to. provide a stepping-stone for their retreating troops. The Associated Press says that the first engagement in Corsica was one in which the French ambushed a German column and killed 300 men. Italian Feeling. “The Italian troops answered a Berlin radio appeal to help to defend. Sardinia against Allied invasion by driving the Germans from tlie island. This is a good illustration of Italian feeling, says the Algiers correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” The Germans are believed to have had only enough troops in Sardinia to protect the airfields. Two Italian divisions forced them to withdraw to. Corsica across the two-inile Bonifacio Strait. Military observers in London say that the German withdrawal to. Corsica can be oulv a temporary expedient, and the Germans are believed already to be preparing. to evacuate the island. Once the Allies occupy Sardinia and assemble a reasonably strong ah - force there the Germans’ position in Corsica will become untenable. Sardinia has four main airfields, five satellite airfields, one seaplane base, and three flying-boat anchora°The German news agency says that German troops evacuated Sardinia according to plan. “The evacuation was a complete success, in spite of adverse circumstances,” it says. “Naval units took off all the troops and all their equipment, in spite of the scarcity of shipping and rough seas.” .