POOR EQUIPMENT

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

POOR EQUIPMENT

NEW. YORK, July 10. " The Italian aircraft are mostly outmoded, their tanks are a miserable joke, and their artillery is ludicrous," says the ' New York Times ' correspondent in Sicily (Mr John Gunther). " This is the price the Italian people are paying for their false leadership. " British and American experts in Sicily are amazed at the pitiful inadequacy of the Italian equipment and material," the correspondent states. " Even the food supplies are grossly bad, the tinned meat is rotten, and the canned soup is like dish water. Many ration boxes were found to have a thin layer of provisions on the top with gravel beneath. The Italians are good mechanics and brave soldiers, but they enter battle in death-trap tanks which a single hit envelops in flames." One reason for the inadequate equipment was the unwillingness of Fascist industrialists to retool their plants, Mr Gunther added. Corruption abounded in civil and economic life. Every man was the complete boss of those below him and a complete slave to those above The Italians hated the Germans, who had dragged them into the tragedy. The Nazis were contemptuous towards their dilapidated allies. Our troops nicked up anti-German leaflets which were issued by the Italians in various areas.