WITH THE FIRST GLIDERS

Evening Star, Issue 24918, 16 July 1943, Page 3

WITH THE FIRST GLIDERS

CORRESPONDENT'S STORY RUSE TO REACH SYRACUSE (Rec. noon.) RUGBY, July 15. The decision to undertake the Sicilian offensive was reached at the Casablanca conference between Mr Roosevelt and Mr Churchill, while General Eisenhower had decided the date before the end of the Tunisian campaign, according to the United States acting War Secretary, Mr Robert Patterson, who said the success of the Sicilian campaign was assured beyond doubt, although he warned that there would be hard fighting, . The latest reports from Sicily indicate that the Allied advance is continuing, though enemy resistance is stiffenin'l'. A correspondent who was in one of the first gliders' to land in Sicily reports that the men were armed with Bren guns, rifles, bayonets, knives, and grenades. Their equipment was not dropped separately, but was strapped to the men's backs. They wore red berets instead of steel helmets, as it had been decided that it would be a good thing for the Italians to learn quickly that the " red devils," as they term air-borne troops, had arrived. The lieutenant in charge of the halfplatoon in the correspondent's glider declared that he wa6 going to advance on Syracuse. Later it was learned that the others had decided to do the same, and they succeeded in getting past the military barracks, through hamlets and small villages, the local inhabitants evidently mistaking them for Italian detachments on the march. The invaders had a brush with the Sicilian Home Guard,. who bolted when the first shots were fired. „ ' . A bridge near Syracuse, which the troops had to capture and hold until the sea-borne invaders arrived, was defended by a machine-gun post, which one detachment attacked without success. The troops then attempted to get round the post, and the correspondent fell over a small cliff and • was separated from the air-borne troops for some hours. He rediscovered them in time to take part in the final dash on the bridge, which was reached with slight casualties. A bridge across two canals dn the main road outside Syracuse had been captured by troops who landed near it, after they had killed or captured twice their number of the enemy. A lieutenant-colonel took charge of the area, and with a force of under 100 able-ibodied men organised defences which withstood counter - attacks throughout the day. Their heaviest weapon was the Bren gun, and during the forenoon of Saturday the Italians managed to bring up guns and enfilade the bridge. By 3.15 p.m. the position became impossible and the British were forced to surrender. An hour later their captors led them into one of the forward reconnaissance units of the British attackers, and they marched what remained of their captors away as prisoners, and then returned to defend the same bridge again.