DRIVING INLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25276, 13 July 1943, Page 5

DRIVING INLAND

ALL OBJECTIVES REACHED AERODROMES CAPTURED RUGBY, July 11. .v North African communique, quoted by Algiers radio, states that three Sicilian aerodromes are in Allied hands. All objectives have been reached according to plan. British and American troops have made contact with Allied parachutists who had been dropped previously. It seems that contact between the Allied forces and the main Axis forces has not yet been made. The fighting so far seems to have been against the enemy’s coastal defence units. British and Canadian troops captured and hold the town of Pachino and the airfield nearby, states an Algiers correspondent. Pachino has a population of 20,000, and is three miles inland from Cape Passero, the southeastern extremity of the invasion area. The other two aerodromes captured are near Gela (Terranova), another town on the southern coast, which was also captured. An American correspondent says all the coastline along the 100 miles’ invasion front round the south-east corner of the island is in Allied hands. An agency correspondent, cabling from Algiers, said Canadain units push, ing ahead from the landing beaches have already captured a group of vitally important hills a mile and ahalf inland.

The Allied casualties so far are reported to have been light, and possibly the reason for this is that the attack on the island came as a tactical surprise. Earlier* resistance was weaker than might have been expected. There has been no sign of Italian naval activity, in spite of the broadcast from Rome that the Italian Navy was in action.

All airfields and key points on the island have been subjected to a continual battering. Most of the airfields have been put out of commission, and in one case over 40 wrecked Axis machines were found.

It is thought that the enemy is holding his main strength in reserve until he is sure where thd main Allied attack will be developed. More than 2000 ships of all kinds took part in the landing. One group of Italian E-boats made an appfearance while the landing was in progress, but made off at high speed.

A continuous fighter cover is being provided for the attacking Allied troops, and the ground staffs of the aerodromes from which they come are working at high speed refuelling and reservicing aircraft. Carla Scorza, secretary of the Fascist Party, has convened an urgent meeting o' the Fascist Directorate for to-night. Mussolini has asked the King to address the Italian people.