MOMENTUM GROWS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21143, 10 July 1943, Page 3

MOMENTUM GROWS

ATTACKSON ITALY PALERMO SMASHED CONCENTRATED ATTACKS (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, July 8. Allied bombing against the Axis ring of aerodromes in Sicily and Sardinia is growing in momentum. The Columbia Broadcasting System's correspondent in Algiers says that the attacks went on all Tuesday night when enemy resistance was most feeble. Flying Fortresses. Mitchells and Marauders, in the course of 19 missions over Gerbini did not encounter a single enemy plane. Photographic reconnaissance reveals that Palermo, as a result of the Allied bombing, is a total wreck and useless for military purposes, but on Tuesday night Royal Air Force Wellingtons went to Palermo to make sure and dropped high explosive bombs on the railway yards. In the Mediterarnean our aircraft have been carrying out heavy all-day attacks on the group of airfields around Gerbini in Sicily. Yesterday the air assault on these aerodromes reached a new peak of intensity, with 19 separate raids. It was the third successive day oi concentrated attack by heavy bombers on this important group of airfields and installations.

The attacks went on all day but the enemy resistance was again weak. A correspondent says that the enemy yesterday was either worried or smothered so completely that not a single attacking machine came up. This is all the more remarkable* because on Monday 100 fighters defended these targets. Palermo was also bombed yesterday as well as objectives on the southern coast of the island and three otherobjectives.

Sardinia is getting its share oi bombs and three airfields there have been pounded by Royal Air Force Wellingtons. All these raids cost us five aircraft. The enemy lost 10. The Berlin radio broadcast a new Italian labour agreement for areas in Italy liable to air raids. It provides lor the ending of work by sunset, loans by employers to workers to evacuate their families and payment for workers in bombed-out factories.

The Rome radio reported that Signor Scorza has expelled three chiefs in the Taranto area from the Fascist Party for participating in a banquet, thus violating the moral laws of the country as war.