WHIRLWIND ATTACK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 227, 22 June 1944, Page 5

WHIRLWIND ATTACK

60-Hour Struggle For Elba

LONDON, June 20. With white flags flying from the German positions on Elba, the Allied occupation of the island was completed after a 60-hour whirlwind attack, says the British United Press correspondent cabling from Napoleon’s Villa. French Goums and senegalese swept in to the last attack and the German garrison surrender-

ed. There are few signs in Porto Ferrajo of the town’s 6000 inhabitants. Most of the streets leading to the old town where Napoleon had his official residence are piled high with rubble. The people had either fled or been evacuated to the surrounding countryside. Napoleon’s summer villa was untouched by the fighting. It is estimated that there were at least three German “fortress battalions” on the island. Thirtytwo gun sites were found, with a total of more than 100 heavy and medium guns. There were not first-line infantry, the garrison being made up of fortress troops, older men than the German first-line troops. . , The prisoners seemed terrified of both the Goums and the Senegalese, just as they were on the Italian mainland. One German sergeant was so frightened when he was brought in that he could hardly stand, even when he was alone with a British colonel.