FOLDED LIKE CONCERTINA

Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 3

FOLDED LIKE CONCERTINA

HOW THE BEACHES WERE OVERRUN CANADIANS' FIRST BRILLIANT COUP (Rec. 1 p.m.) July 12. Slicing through the Italian coastal defences in the night, and dawn landings on the'long crescent of beach, the Canadian assault thrust, with a crack British formation on their right flank, overran the Pachino Peninsula within 24 hours and established the invasion bridgehead, according to a detailed eye-witness accouut of the Canadian assault and the first 24 hours just received. The correspondent continued: It was one success after another in this. Canadian-ißritish sector, as the greatest combined operation in history was launched. The Canadians advanced into the hilly country northwest and west of Pachino. The Coastal defenders put up only a mild fight. The first wave of assault, companies from a famous Canadian regiment, landed on the sandy beach of the Costa del Lambra, four miles southwest of Pachino, at 5.15 a.m. on Saturday.

The Canadian casualties on the first day were very light, under 40 being reported. The Italian beach defences, which folded up like a concertina, were merely barbed wire and some machine-gun posts, which fired a few bursts' and then gaVe up. At one beach the enemy i was evidently counting on a sand bar 15 feet offshore as a natural defence, but the Canadians surprised them completely by coming in in the heavy surf and battling ashore through, water up to the waist. The coastal batteries shelled the boats, but their firing was erratic. The Canadians went through the beach defences in minutes and struck inland, mopping up groups of Italians en route. The (Royal Navy had been giving the. troops magnificent gun support the whole day, and not a single enemy aircraft was seen. The beach looked like a big traffic jam, with tanks, guns, and trucks ploughing through the sand to the roads leading inland. It was almost unbelievable to the Canadians that the first stage could be so easy. . At night bombers attacked the troops near the beach and tried to hit the ships under the glare, of flares. The raid only lasted about 30 minutes, and was not effective. Our ack-ack from the ships and snore was terrific. The Canadians, who were trained in Britain for the assault, sailed straight from there to Sicily without being attacked at any stage. They described the 2.000-mile unopposed journey as " fantastic."