Evening Post TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1943. SICILIAN WAR: SECOND PHASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 11, 13 July 1943, Page 4

Evening Post TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1943.

SICILIAN WAR: SECOND PHASE

That air superiority that counts for so much in the reducing of army and navy losses looms large in today's Sicilian-Italian picture. Besides protecting the troops and the ships, the Allies' aircraft attacked the Axis land forces that were being moved south in Sicily to repel the invasion of Sicily's south and south-east coastal areas. The enemy troops, it is stated, "provided good targets for our bombers," and "Mustangs destroyed or damaged 400 vehicles laden with troops or supplies." Besides being protective of Allies' troops, and preventive of the free movement of enemy troops, the Allies' air forces were able to maintain fierce pressure on the Italian mainland, on its airfields, its coastal waters, and the Straits of Messina. Airfields on the Italian mainland were the particular target of American Liberators. Interception by Spitfires of enemy aircraft trying to attack the Allies' fleet and shipping was a feature of the picture; an official report describes shipping losses as "negligible." The Allies' invasion ships and the landing beaches were covered by the aircraft of gallant Malta. It will be seen that air action flashes in and out of the operations, like a bright never-tiring shuttle, active in all parts of the very wide field. It is clear that air superiority means much, and air mastery will mean more. "Enemy interference by air was on a slightly increased scale," but the Allies' air forces destroyed 45 enemy aircraft, losing only nine.

Beating their swords into ploughsshares, the Italians turned that peaceful implement, the plough, into a formidable weapon, ploughing up runways of airfields that they could no longer hold. But the Allies have all the means for repairing captured-air-fields (some of which they are reported to be already using) and of sweeping mines from harbours; therefore it is likely that the important port of Syracuse and other captured Sicilian ports will soon be available for the disembarkation of various kinds of war weapons that cannot be landed on invasion beaches, or which can be brought through surf only with difficulty. Indeed, the reported captures of ports and airfields is one of the most convincing portions of the news from Sicily. At the same time, nothing can be taken for granted. Sicily is not yet won. The power of the enemy to concentrate against the deployed Allied forces, or his power to prevent or limit their deployment, has still to be tested; and an important object lesson is being provided in the matter of tying-up hostile land-forces by air attack and thus limiting their ability to manoeuvre. One report contains the interesting statement that the Allies have repulsed seven enemy attacks made with tanks;' taking "at least Ktwo thousand prisoners." But these piecemeal reports of local successes must not blind readers to the fact that the full strategic picture is not yet revealed. The world knows no more (perhaps less) of the battle dispositions in Sicily than it knew of the Tunisian strategy on ,the eve of that final phase which proved so sudden, so swift, so, completely disastrous, for the Axis.

Already this story of : what Mr. Cordell Hull calls "the second great historical step towards the invasion and occupation •£ of. the Continent of Europe" has been" dominated by air terms, but it is necessary to add that air warfare again exerted its influence through the glider. "Inside the gliders were men of British air-borne units who had spent more than two years training for this, their first effort, while in the transport planes were British and American parachutists who had won laurels* for their work in Tunisia. It is a tribute to their training that though the wind was very high it is reported that almost all the gliders landed within a mile of their target." News to hand as we write shows that "Allied land forces are now holding a strip of territory a hundred miles long and in some places more than ten miles deep. Inside this strip, and firmly in our hands, are ten ports and small towns. The enemy has made seven counter-attacks so far, one near Gela with 45 tanks. Each one was thrown back. The troops say the civil population of Sicily is friendly, and the local officials are co-operating with our troops. It is revealed that Air Chief Marshal Tedder is in charge of the air, and Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham is in charge of naval operations. The supreme commander, as announced, is General Eisenhower, with General Alexander as his deputy." There is a distinctly winy flavour in Mussolini's message to the Axis forces in Sicily: WI am with you in spirit." Not so long ago he was v/ith them in person,^ waiting in Libya for the gates^ of Egypt to open, but now Mussolini" has said good-bye to all that; his greatness can be summed up in one word— ichabod. On the whole, today's news is very encouraging, but.public opinion would do well to take its keynote from the utterance of the Canadian Prime Minister, who says that, for the Canadian forces, the first critical period has passed, but the most critical period now begins. That is a fair summary of the whole enterprise.