AMAZINGLY LIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 24920, 19 July 1943, Page 3

AMAZINGLY LIGHT

ALLIED CASUALTY LIST HALF-HEARTED ITALIAN EFFORTS LONDON, July 18. An Italian report says that detachments of. Allied troops are constantly being dropped from the air behind the Axis forces. The Allies have already landed at least 11 divisions with heavy equipment. Three Italian divisions concentrated at mainland! ports to reinforce Sicily are still in port, kept there by the Allied blockade. Vichy radio claims that largo Axis infantry reinforcements, supported by strong air and armoured forces, have arrived, on the Catania Plain. The British First Army is participating in the assault against Catania. A correspondent with the United States forces says that thousands of American tanks, many- manned by Tunisian veterans, are being lauded in support of the American Seventh Army. They are being ferried to the beaches from a gigantic Allied transport fleet. Allied warships are gradually silencing Axis land batteries trying to shell tank-landing craft. The compilation of reports for tho last seven days shows that the Allied casualties aro • amazingly light, states the Algiers correspondent of the American Associated Press. There are proportionately fewer Americans injured than British and The greatest number of killed and missing are among the air-borne troops. One British division effected a landing on the east coast of Sicily without a single fatality or serious, injury. The hospitals prepared in North Africa for from 10,000 to 20,000 wounded are actually caring for a fraction of what was expected. Italian prisoners told an American doctor of Italian parentage: "We did not shoot to kill. We shot to perform our duty until we could decently surrender. Wo knew six days before you started that you were coming to "Sicily. All tho Italians secretly wanted you to land and save us "from this abominable war." The Algiers' correspondent of the ' New York Times ' says that a British naval officer who interviewed 450 prisoners, reported that for the first time in his experience he found Italians hostile to Mussolini and Fascism, the favourite saying among the Italians, which was culled from Allied leaflets, being: " The Germans will fight to the last Italian." . , A correspondent says that the Allies are hitting Sicily so hard that the island's defenders' only hope of. averting complete collapse is the Arnim plan—a rearguard action on the pat•tern which enabled the Axis to hold out for six mouths in Tunisia. Eighth Army tanks and! artillery are concentrating terrific fire power north of Lentini. and the Axis forces, including the Fifteenth Panzer Division, are suffering heavily. The main battles of the campaign are about to he decided. The Catanian Plain, the features of which favour defensive tactics, is seared with streams and river beds, forming excellent natural barriers. and trenches •across our advance. The Germans are estimated to form a quarter of the Axis strength. The Italians showed previously that they can fight well if.they are strongly entrenched ahd their flanks are well secured. The fall of Gamcatti, which is the most northerly point the Americans have reached, marks the Allies' steady progress towards Caltanissetta, one of Sicily's most important road and rail centres. Its capture would jeopardise the supplies and mobility of the Axis forces. The tall of Biscari gave; the Allies their eighth airfield in Sicily. When Catania falls the Axis troops based in the mountains to the westward will be in serious danger of being cut off from full supiplies. ■ ' , ~ " The Sicilians seem a beaten lot, states a correspondent in Sicily. " Their cities are dirty, their manner is weary and unkempt, they do not seem to" have much affection for Italy, thev have had no macaroni for four months, and no sugar for three months. Their wine, oil; and produce have been plundered until they considered it not worth while producing commodities."