"A DEFENSIVE SHIELD"

Evening Star, Issue 24916, 14 July 1943, Page 3

"A DEFENSIVE SHIELD"

ALLIES USING THE MOUNTAINS LONDON, July 13. The Allies are turning tho mountains of south-east Sicily against the enemy by using them as a defensive shield during < the establishment of bridgeheads," sa}-s the military writer of the ' Daily Express,' Mr Morley (Richards. " Tho establishment of bridgeheads is the main task before an advance can be made in force. To put an infantry division into the battlefield requires 12,500 tous'of war stores packed in more than 179,000 cases. This excludes tanks and field pieces, which have to be landed separately. It was a gigantic undertaking when it is remembered that, the enemy has a field army of 200,000 men and nearly as. many men again in static defence on the island awaiting the invaders." The ' New York Times ' says: " There is no doubt that the Allies have achieved initial success in Sicily with a military precision and co-ordination, of all arms unequalled m any military campaign." " Gela looked like an American amusement park on 'the 4th of July as American troops poured in from invasion craft," says the correspondent of the (British United Press. " British and American cruisers and. destroyers engaged the defences as the men w t ent in. The captain of one landing barge said: ' Flares burned. There were great red and yellow spurts of flame in the defeuces, tracer bullets slithered over the beaches and machine gun bullets whipped across the waters above us. Junkers 88's and tho shore guns began to open up, and. shells plopped all around. Tho troops were_ pouring ashore from the barges continuously. They stormed their way towards the town, where they met the enemy in some force. In spite of resistance the men hurled the enemy back to the cliffs. Parachute troops were fighting their way towards the town. The fires on the airfield added to the light.' " Glider-borne troops were responsible for the comparatively slight resistance met by some of the Sicilian landing parties, says an eye-witness with the air-borne troops. This correspondent tells a remarkable story of being captured with the survivors of one party of 70 who held" their objective for 14 hours against increasing Italian opposition before surrendering when their ammunition was exhausted. Within an hour, however, a British reconnaissance party appeared and beean shooting nt the guards, enabling the prisoner's to escape.