WELL OVER 20,000

Evening Star, Issue 24919, 17 July 1943, Page 5

WELL OVER 20,000

TOTAL AXIS PRISONERS ALLIES' HUSTLING TACTICS (Rec. 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, July 16. Prisoners taken in Sicily are believed to number well over 20,000. A correspondent at Allied headquarters says the American Seventh Army alone has taken 16,000. Apparently the anain resistance is being offered by the Germans between Augusta and Catania, but Allied, gains are recorded along the whole front. At Vizzini the British are at the railway running from Enna through Caltangirone to the iGulf of Catania. Equally important is the American capture of Canicatti, which cuts the railway from ' Caltanisetta to Agrigento. So far the Axis resistance has not taken the form* of a counter-offensive, but only counter-attacks. The enemy has been so hustled by the speed of the. Allied advance that it is thought doubtful' now whether, lie will be able to mount counter-attacks. His plan may be to try and block the avenues of advance to which the difficulties of the country to a large extent compel the invaders to confine themselves. Besides the German troops defending tbe plain of Catania there will be a very large amount of flak and artillery hitherto defending the Gerbini airfields which can equally be used against tanks. The Allied troops have made excellent progress considering that they have' hitherto proceeded on foot, carrying much of their equipment. In the disembarkation for invasion motor transport had a low priority. The country is very hot, with little water, and the going is mostly uphill. ' Allied air strength over the islandl is steadily getting much Btronger. It took only 48 hours for British engineers and sappers to get one airfield going. The enemy air effort continues to decline day by day. Catania aerodrome almost ceased to work by yesterday, and the enemy is alble to use only one or two satellite airfields at Gerbini nearby. General Eisenhower -and General Alexander have gone to Sicily. The Commander-in-Chief drove, arouncV in a jeep for a look round the front. General Alexander, who on Tuesday visited the American sector, travelled to the island again yesterday, and spent several hours ashore in a British sector, visiting General Montgomery at his headquarters. He N made the trip in a British destroyer.