ENEMY REPORTS

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

ENEMY REPORTS

. LIQUIDATION OF INVADERS (Rec. 0.30' a.m.) LONDON, July 12. ■ Rome radio claims that more Allied parachute troops were dropped over Sicily last night, “but they were quickly located and made harmless. The*process of liquidation of enemy forces is proceeding in a most satisfactory manner. The fighting is extremely violent and incessant, but its general development indicates that enemy hopes have been shattered.” According to Berlin radio the Italians and Germans have dispersed the British and American units, cut them off from their supplies, wiped out all the parachute troops, and narrowed down the bridgeheads. Axis circles, however, do not deny that the hardest fighting is still to come. “Allied attempts to penetrate the island have been frustrated,” Paris radio claims. “ Mass air battles are going on.” The Berne conrespondent of the New York Times says that, psychologically speaking, the materialisation of what has hitherto been regarded as a vague threat seems to have welded the Italian nation into a single bloc. Should operations reach a stalemate. Signor Mussolini’s popularity is indefinitely assured.