Airborne Troops Hastened Success

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1943, Page 5

Airborne Troops Hastened Success

(Received 3 p.m.) (Special) ' LONDON, July 22-. An interesting feature of the Sicilian fighting has been the pai't of airborne troops, General Montgomery has stated. “Operations of air-borne troops, which landed in the enemy rear on the Eighth Army sector, have advanced our operations by a week.” This v/as made known in London by Major-General J. M. Swing, of General Eisenhower’s staff, who is now with Lieujtl.--General J. Devers. American Commanding General, European theatre. Mc;jor-Gen-eral Swing declared that Sicilian operations had proved that air-borne division troops had been landed on a bigger scale than ever before. “If air-borne troops are important in the British sector, they were even more iirnportant to American landings near Gela. There enemy armoured forces struck at our forces during actual landings. Fortunately, one air-borne combat team with light howitzers and other infantry weapons, had landed rnd taken up positions covering the juncture point of our two task forces. They took the brunt of the German attack and stood off panzers all dry Sunday and well into Monday before they finally got reinforcements and threw off the German threat and advance. First In History “If that one lone combat team had not been on the spot where the German attack was delivered, then the whole operation might well have ended in fatal delay in that one area at. least. The Germans could have rolled up our whole line if they had been able to drive our troops here into the sea.” Major-General Swing stated that Americans, armed with light anti-tank weapons, knocked out 13 German tanks. Casualties were very light “It is Ihe first time in history that n self-contained unit, complete with its own engineers, artillery, ammunition and quartermasters was committed'to battle from the air. It was no raiding unit: it was a powerful force —a complete division ready for action and able in firepower to compare favourably with an infantry division.” It is known that British glider troops landed in Hcrsa gliders and Amercans in Waco. This aspect of airborne fighting is observed with much interest in London as an indication of what may be expected in subsequent invasions.