MANY SURPRISES

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

MANY SURPRISES

AXIS REVERSES LANDINGS UNEXPECTED

FUTURE OF LUFTWAFFE

(By Tfcluijraiili—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (S|n i-i:il I 'un-i siKimlont.)

i 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 15. The news from the European theatre of war is regarded as surprisingly good, both from Sicily and Russia. There have been many surprises. First the Italians. They were surprised by the attack against Sicily. “We thought it was just a sabotage raid and sent word through to Rome,” said Captain Bruno Preney, naval liaison officer to General Achilles Davet, both of whom were taken prisoner. Captain Preney added: "My general, who was the divisional commander for all the invasion area, thought the Allies would not invade in moonlight and proceeded to -take steps to deal with parachutists, but suddenly everything went poof.” Another surprise has been the Axis failure to hit back and the continued failure to mount a major counteroffensive has caused much comment. It is now being surmised whether.the Axis is capable of so doing. Then lhe landings on the beaches went surprisingly well, the troops having experienced less opposition than was expected. Apparently the only failure, according to the Axis, was the initial landing near Catania, where a sudden storm blew the lava from Mt. Tena to a height of 6000 ft. and raised so rough a sea that the landing operations had to be abandoned.

This invasion of Sicily is stated to be the greatest combined operation ever undertaken. One estimate is that 3000 vessels of all types were taking part, while the Germans expressed the opinion that the Allied forces were using two-thirds of their available shipping. One fact which lias given much quiet satisfaction is that Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who supervised the extrication of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, planned this first invasion of Europe.

Luftwaffe’s Poor Showing

From the air point of view, of course, the biggest surprise has been the Luftwaffe’s poor showing, which is believed to be explained By the fact that the Axis simply has not got the aircraft to spare. It is the opinion li.at in the whole of the Mediterranean area the Luftwaffe has fewer than 1500 aircraft divided between Italy, Sicily, Greece, Crete, the Dodecanese, the Balkans, and southern France. It is estimated that there must be fewer than 500 fighters and fighter-bombers in Sicily and southern Italy, which is puny compared with the Allied strnegth. The Daily Telegraph has suggested that the Axis air force motto should be “Ichabod” (The glory has departed). It is estimated that in the rst four days of the invasion of Sicily the Axis lost 137 aircraft and the Allies 55. One of the most interesting features of the operations was the British glider attack, which, on the whole, was successful and showed an improvement on the Nazis’ technique in Crete.

The Times’ Stockholm correspondent, commenting on the Russian front, says it is not apparent yet what either side intends as the next step, both having sustained heavy losses of men and material. “But the most important fact,” it r.r.ys. “is that the German enterprise failed in its objective, the first failure of any German summer offensive anywhere in Europe.” The emphasis here is to treat the good news cautiously in view of the many difficulties ahead, but at the same time it is admitted that the general trend is very encouraging.