INVASION BEGUN : ALLIES LAND IN SICILY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25275, 12 July 1943, Page 3

INVASION BEGUN : ALLIES LAND IN SICILY

SUCCESS OF OPERATION BRIDGEHEADS GAINED POWERFUL AIR COVER (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) . (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) RUGBY, July 11. It was officially announced in London at 6.33 a.m. on Saturday that the Allies had landed in Sicily. A communique from General Eisenhower’s headquarters, broadcast by the Algiers radio, announced that Allied forces in the Mediterranean had begun the invasion of Sicily. Operations began early on Saturday morning, preceded by a naval and air bombardment. A Washington message states that British, American, and Canadian troops were engaged in the landing operations. , “All the Allied landings have been successful, and the troops are advancing,” says the Algiers correspondent of the Associated Press. An American broadcaster from Algiers stated that the 100 miles of shore line along which the Allies landed in Sicily extends north-eastwards from Cape Passero on the south-eastern tip to soipe where towards Syracuse and westward to Licata. Reuter's correspondent at Allied North African headquarters says that the Allied assault forces completed the initial landings on Sicily without the loss of a single ship. The vessels completed the hazardous mission without meeting submarine or other attacks. german military quarters declare that the invasion is the “greatest and most daring undertaking in the history of the war.” It is announced officially that the German troops in Sicily have been reinforced. Numerically they are only a fraction of the total forces, but they form a valuable stiffening for the Italians. The Madrid correspondent of the British United Press, quoting French reports, says that Allied troops have overrun Sicily’s coastal defences and are in close contact with the Axis troops beyond the plain between Syracuse and Catania. LANDING MADE WITHOUT SERIOUS LOSS Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says the huge Allied force landed on the beaches of Sicily without serious Joss. Swarms of fighters from the North-west African Air Force patrolled the beaches while the ground troops disembarked, and they met negligible fighter opposition. Hundreds of planes kept up a mammoth assault all day on Saturday against Sicily’s airfields and communications, particularly the vital strategic airfield network of Gerbini., An Algiers message says that from dawn onwards the landing of troops took place on the south-east coast of Sicily. British, American, and Canadian troops landed with plenty of equipment and supplies. The correspondent quotes an eye-witness as saying that the coastal waters of Sicily were black with invasion barges and supporting naval craft, and all the waters between Sicily and Tunisia were full of boats shuttling back and forth. The invasion started about 3 a.m. The Allied forces landed on the rocky western tip of Sicily, which is only 260 miles from Rome. The landings were made in good weather. The Italian and German air forces put up a fierce resistance. The defenders blew up harbour installations. The Algiers correspondent of the British United Press says Allied troops landed under a heavy barrage of naval/ fire from British and American battleships and cruisers, which hurled broadsides into the enemy positions. ’ - BROADSIDES FROM NAVAL ARMADAS “The flotillas of small craft which were used in the landing operations offered visible targets to,the 75’s and machine guns of the island defenders,” says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. “As day broke the naval armadas off shore, whose flashing broadsides piercing- the blackness had offered only the barest targets to the Sicilian coastal ~batteries, became exposed to greater dangers from direct coastal fire, air attack, and possible lurking submarines. Engineers carrying 15-foot torpedoes which were pushed into the barbed wire defences to blast a path for the troops were among the forces landed.” • The success of the Allied landings was announced in a special communique issued in Algiers to-night. The full text reads: “In spite of unfavourable weather conditions and a swell in the Sicilian channel, the first Allied landings which started before dawn, proceeded according to plan. Many of the beaches and landing places used for these operations extended over a distance of about 100 miles. “ By about 6 a.m., under heavy fire from the covering force of cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, and other naval units, enemy opposition was checked and the success of all the landings was fully assured. By about 7.30 a.m. our troops were advancing, and artillery was being put ashore. Fighting continues, while more troops, with guns, vehicles, stores, and equipment are being landed by the Royal and United States Navies. Units of the Indian, Dutch, Polish, and Greek Navies are participating in the naval operations.” A separate communique gave details of our continuing air attacks on Sicily. . “Additional to the attacks on the new aerodromes still being used by the enemy,” it stated, “‘ our heavy, medium, and fighter-bombers attacked roads and communications throughout Sicily. Air operations are proceeding according to plan.” Sicily, which is separated from the toe of Italy by the Strait of Messina, in places only about two miles wide, has an area of 9926 square miles. It is roughly triangular in shape, and is laa miles in length from east to west and 120 miles wide. With the exception of narrow maritime strips, larger in the south-east and in the Plain of Simeto, south of Mount Etna, almost the entire island is over 1000 feet in height. The mean altitude is ■i 1445 feet, and the Madonian Mountains (6480 feet) and the Monti Nebrodici (6000 feet) stretch from east to west, through the north-eastefn portion of the island. In some parts are mountains isolated from the rest, the chief of these being the volcano, Mount Etna (10,874 feet), near the east coast. The rivers are small and are not navigable. The harbours are Palermo, in the north, Trapani, in the west, and Messina, Augusta, and Syracuse, in the east. The . population of Sicily, very mixed in origin in accordance with the chequeted history of the island, is about 4,000,000. »