EIGHTH ARMY PUSHING AHEAD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21153, 22 July 1943, Page 3

EIGHTH ARMY PUSHING AHEAD

AXIS POSITION HOURLY MORE GRAVE BATTLE TWO MILES FROM CATANIA (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Noon.) LONDON. July 21. By the fall of Lima after a joint American and Canadian attack yesterday, the Allies now occupy nearly half of bieily says a.*correspondent at North African Headquarters. The position of the Axis forces is growing hourly more grave, with the Eighth Army in control of the Catania plain and pushingforward with relentless impetus and with the enemy’s right flank gravely threatened. _ . The Germans, realising their peril, are making ferocious counter-attacks in the east while leaving the Italians in the west to face the music while they make good their escape. Iwo Italian motorised divisions are in full flight in the west and as the Germans have confiscated their transport many are on foot. express themselves bitterly about the desertion ot the Germans and the inadequacy of their supplies. A violent battle is raging south of Catania, where the Germans, particularly the Hermann Goering Division, are fiercely resisting, says the Algiers radio. The battle is irresistibly shifting towards the city. The British are now only two miles from its centre. The British have occupied several landing grounds at Gerbini and the other aerodromes are now useless to the enemy because of the close proximity of the front. The enemy High Command has given up sending supplies and reinforcements through the Straits of Messina, which the Allied navies and air forces completely control, and are increasingly using transport planes. The Paris radio says it is reported from Berlin that British forces this morning attempted a landing near Bari on the southeast coast of Italy but met with resistance from coastal batteries and coastal defence forces and the venture proved a complete failure.