NOW OVERCOME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21148, 16 July 1943, Page 3

NOW OVERCOME

INITIAL HAZARDS LACK OF RESISTANCE ALLIED SHIPPING SAFE (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 15. British forces repulsed a strong German attack on Augusta and pushed on to the small coast town of Brugoii, four miles north. The fighting round the harbour of Augusta was severe, but the dash of the British troops made a famous German regiment retire with heavy losses. On the Eighth Army’s north-western front, the British and Canadians are fighting together. The latest advance here has been seven or eight miles in hilly country where the going was worse. The commander of the 54th Napoli Division surrendered with his staff and many of his troops when the Eighth Army captured Melilli, eignt miles south-west of Augusta. The battle for the bridgeheads is oyer and the Allies are entering the Sicilian battle as a mainland force With complete control of the mountain approaches in the south-eastern area, says Reuter’s correspondent in Algiers. The British, Canadian and American advances now gravely imperil Caltagirone at the central entrance to the Catanian plain, and also Lentini and • Carlentini, key villages on the road along which mo Eighth Army is advancing towards | Catania. The operations have now been cleared of the initial hazards and the situation appears to be more difficult for the Axis than for the Allies. Our advance along the coast still appears to be rapid. A combined British press party which landed in Sicily on Tuesday says: “We drove for many hours far inland through territory already in Allied hands after only three days of lighting. Everywhere there is evidence of how slight the defence has been. In the first place, it is remarkable to see scores of Allied ships lying with impunity oil' this hostile coast. Throughout the day we did not see a single enemy plane. Everywhere on the roads we met prisoners as smiling, docile and lightly guarded as those we saw on the roads of Tunisia.

“Here and there by the roadside we saw captured guns and tanks, mo.a;,v undamaged. Several towns had been bombed. It has been found that this brings the garrison out to surrender pretty promptly. Our troops report that much sniping is still going on in the areas from which the main body of the enemy has withdrawn.” , The Sicilians in some villages have blotted out “Evviva 11 Duce” and “Evviva Mussolini” signs on the walls and substituted “Evviva George Vi.” The population in other parts seems to be entirely inert and uninterested. Peasants and village folk sit on me pavements as the troops come in and scarcely look up. The people are not hostile when ,questioned, and show a marked antipathy to the Fascist regime and the Germans. A Royal Marine officer who was the first British officer ashore in Sicily was also the first British casually, says the Daily Mail’s correspondent, Mr. Noel Monks. The officer was leading an attack against an Italian coastal battery at Pachino after trie landing when a machine-gun posl opened up at point-blank range, lie was seen to fall. Another Royal Marine officer took his place, the machine-gun post was overwhelmed, v and the way cleared to the coastal battery. The Marines were given a tough assignment, most important to the navy, of capturing the coastal batteries. They did the job efficiently, inflicting five times the number of casualties they suffered. The Royal Navy’s mosquito Meet is now operating in the narrow Messina Straits, making the Axis task of sending reinforcements and supplies to Sicily most difficult, says the Daily Herald’s correspondent. Since the invasion began, small ships have been ranging the straits at night, when the enemy might send ships across, the j narrows. These high-speed motor I torpedo-boats and gunboats thus deny! the use of the straits to the enemy and, at the same time, cover Allied' . transports unloading troops and stores further down the coast from boat attacks. Early on Tuesday the Mosquito fleet met a flotilla of German E-boats coming through the narrows. They immediately attacked, driving two ashore in flames, and also damaged another E-boat in another brush with the enemy later. The British United Press points out that when the Eighth Army enters Catania it will have covered 2000 miles by land‘and sea since it started its victorious advance from AJamein.