Three Reasons for Expecting the Worst

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 5

Three Reasons for Expecting the Worst

(By Telegraph—Press As3n.— Copyright.'

Received Sunday, 8.50 p.m.

LONDON, June 27,

The semi-official newspaper Popolo d’ltalia gives three reasons why the invasion of Italy is regarded as imminent.

Firstly: The systematic air bombardment of Italian and Sicilian towns and ports.

Secondly: The increasing concentration of air, naval and landing forces in North Africa.

Thirdly: The presence of heavy British naval units at Gibraltar and their reinforcement by United States units.

Leaflets calling on the population to surrender were dropped by Allied bombers during the latest raids on Naples, says the Rome radio.

Fortresses had to shoot their way through swarms of enemy fighters to reach Messina in Friday’s raid, says the Columbia Broadcasting System’s Algiers correspondent. It is officially reported that the antiaircraft fire over the target was intense. Italian and German fighters pressed the attack from all directions, sometimes ignoring their own antiaircraft fire and forcing the Fortresses to fight during their bombing runs. One of our bomber flights was tailed to within sight of the African coast. “The lighters were as thick as gnats,” said one American gunner. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says 200 tons'of high explosives and incendiaries were dropped on Messina on Friday. A Rome communique admits that extensive damage was caused hy the Fortress raid on Messina. The casualties were 81 killed and 85 wounded. Reggio de Calabria, one of the two mainland terminals of the Messina ferry, was also raided. The Rome radio says the Allies have made 72 raids on Naples since April 30 and Neapolitans have spent 243 hours in air-raid shelters. Allied submarines in the Central Mediterranean are at present finding no targets, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. The British victory in North Africa seems to have cleared the Axis from the sea. One submarine commander summed up: “Submarine work is dull these days. Axis vessels are afraid to venture out and the few ships appearing hug the shore as closely as one hundred yards.” A Moscow message states that all political prisoners in gaols and concentration camps in Southern and Central Italy have been urgently transferred to North Italy where new concentration- camps are being built, according to a report from Geneva. A total of 300,000 prisoners is being transferred.