INVASION OF EUROPE

Grey River Argus, 5 June 1943, Page 5

INVASION OF EUROPE

IN THE SOUTH GIBRALTAR CONVOY 137 Ships in Mediterranean ALLIED AIR MASTERY [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.l LONDON, June 3. One of the greatest convoys ever assembled off Gibraltar, comprising 137 Allied ships, is now sailing into the Mediterranean, according to a report from La Linea. The ships include troop transports, tankers, ferighters and one hospital ship. Bri< tish battleships and aircraft carriers which have been at Gibraltar Bay have also sailed and the harbour is emptier than it has been for several months. Seventy of the ships in the giant convoy, including the troop transports and the tankers, went directly into the Mediterranean from th e Atlantic. The remaining 67 sailed from Gibraltar and joined the Atlantic section. The Associated Press says that the convoy’s sailing follows quickly on the Axis invasion alarms. Italian newspapers and radios fill day and all night are pouring out invasion warnings, exhorting the people to fight to the last and to emulate the people of ‘Britain who refused to give up in 1940 when disaster seemed imminent.

The Axis Powers are more openly discussing the probabilities of an Allied invasion. They admit invasion > is possible, but claim the Allies are not likely to achieve more than costly footholds. Lord Selborne, who is Minister of Economic Warfare, in a speech here referred to invasion of Europe, saying: Hitler doesn’t know where it is going to come. He doesn’t know when it is going to come. T’he secret has been well kept, like the landing in North Africa. The whole underbelly of the Axis is exposed. The whole topside of the Axi s is also exposed. The attack may come from Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Belgium,' Denmark, Holland and Norway, .but Hitler doesn’t know. We have now come to a great crisis of the war, and in the next few months four tremendous issues will be decided, upon the fate of which the outcome of the war will depend. These issues are: The battle of the Atlantic, impending German attack on Russia, Allied bombing offensive, and the impending Alied invasion of the Continent. The Berlin radio stated: A BritishAmerican invasion of southern Europe would be an extremely risky venture, because transport difficulties would be similar to those that the Axis armies experienced in North Africa. The British and Americans might nevertheless succeed in crossing the Mediterranean, and affecting a landing. British-American chances of invading Norway are far from good. German air reconnaissances are keeping Norwegian coastal waters and also British invasion ports unde/ constant observation. Any BritishAmerican invasion fleet would be reported early enough to enable the German authorities in Norway to take effective counter-measures. The British-Americans might still succeed in obtaining a costly foothold at some points on the Norwegian coast. The Rome radio commenting on British-American raids on Italian cities say's: “Counter action and reprisals are the onlv medicine that will cure our enemies. Sardinians' hatred of British-Americans has so increased that for a century no British and no Americans will be able to set foot in Sardinia, without being torn to shreds. The Sardinians hate more deeply than they love. They will therefore repel an enemy invasion attempt with any weapon available.” Mussolini has called up even his civilian home guards and guerrilla units as a precaution against an Allied invasion. Italy’s fears of invasion .are reflected in the newspaper demands for a more savage fighting spirit in the Italian forces. A Rome newspaper “Il Tevere,” urges Italian soldiers to adopt a policy of utter cruelty. It advocates machine-gunning enemy pilots who bale out and concentrating Allied war prisoners in target areas. The paper* says: If this war is to be total then let it be. We must win at all costs. We must win in cruelty. The enemy has asked for it. He will get it. A Malta message says that enemy aircraft crossed the coast yesterday, and Spitfires intercepted them. One enemy plane was probably destroyed. A few bombs fell harmlessly in the sea. There was heavy anti-aircraft action.

Algiers radio stated that in attacks on the Italian mainland and islands from May 22 to last Friday, 1400 tons of bombs were dropped. The attack started with the raid on Leghorn, which was severely damaged, and continued with increasing intensity throughout the week. Warhawks of the North African Command yesterday attacked San Pietro Island off the south-west coast of Sardinia, and medium and fighter-bombers attacked Pantellaria. Long-rang e fighters of the Middle East. Command were again over the Aegean Sea. They sank two ships at anchor and damaged another, which was abandoned by her crew. All the Allied aircraft returned.

.The Admiralty announced that a small force of Allied destroyers without suffering casualties or damage, smashed up an Axis convoy off the southern tip of Italy, crippling a destroyer and sinking three ships. The destroyer was set on fire and driven ashore.

The Algiers correspondent of the British United Press stated: “The Allies in the past 24 hours have demonstrated complete supremacy in the central Mediterranean by air and sea. We smashed an Axis convoy on the southward toe of Italy, and sent its ships off hopelessly routed. We bombed’-and strafed Pantellaria at will and also from a ground level .attacked objectives throughout Sardinia. T'he engagement against the convoy and the almost unchallenged double bombardment of Pantellaria a day earlier demonstrate the complete mastery we now hold of the Sicilian Straits and elsewhere in the central Mediterranean. A convoy engaged off Cape Spartivento was relentlessly battered, until it steamed off for cover. A merchantman which blew up is believed to have been laden with explosives, Our medium bombers and fighter-bombers yesterday roamed Southern Sardinia. The objectives included Axis sodliers in camp areas, wireless stations, telephone installations and military buildings. The Teulada area of Pantellaria got a daily does of trouble from Marauders, Lightnings and Warhawks, which ceaselessly raided the island attacking military targets, also dockworks in the tiny harbour. We managed to do there wh.at the Axis failed to do at Malta, to knock out . air opposition. The result was that we attacked at will and did not lose a single plane.”