SHATTERED TOWN
BOMBING OF CATANIA CAPTURE OF AIRFIELD REPORTED (Rec. 12.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 12. Tlie Allied airmen are undisputed masters of the Sicilian skies, and are causing terrific havoc along .the, roads, which are-"jammed with troop transports rushing reinforcements to the battle areas, reports Reuter's Algiers correspondent. Axis fighters vainly to stem the massed assaults. The scenes are reminiscent of those during Rommel's retreat from El Alamein. - Flying Fortresses bombed Catania so extensively before the capture of the airfield that a pillar of smoke, visible 140 miles away, rose over the shattered town. Fighter bombers carried out strafing and glide . bombing and dive-bombing attacks. Their most extensive and most successful attack was against a convoy of 200. vehicles in Eastern Sicily, in which Mustangs repeatedly pounded the enemy. Half the convoy was wiped out. Fighter bombers destroyed another 130 lorries in fierce attacks in two unspecified areas. Lightnings in other areas swooped on convoys of from 35 to 50 lorries, setting fire to some and forcing others off the road into ditches, where they were wrecked. Allied roving aerial wreckers met few enemy planes and only light flak.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 3
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189SHATTERED TOWN Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 3
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