THE PLAIN OF CATANIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25277, 14 July 1943, Page 3

THE PLAIN OF CATANIA

GOOD TANK COUNTRY (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, July 12. Catania is the key to Sicily. Its plain opens the way to Italy. This is the opinion of the Daily Express military correspondent. The Plain of Catania is tank country, and in the centre is Gerbini, where the enemy’s main air bases are situated, Across the plain run Sicily’s one cross-country railway and excellent roads leading to Messina and linking Sicily with the mainland.

“The enemy’s difficulty,” he. adds, “is that while there is now a threat plain to see staring him in the face in this area, if he starts moving troops from the western part of the island he may be caught out by Allied landings around the coast from Palermo to Agrigento.” He says the Italians have mostly old-model tanks with which to supplement the Germans. Captain Liddell Hart, in the Daily Mail, says: “It is significant that General Eisenhower made landings on the African side at Cape Passero as well as along the eastern half of the southern coast. That suggests a plan of biting off the south-eastern corner of the island by converging the advance from the direction of Syracuse and Gela with a view to a concentrated push up the eastern coast towards the Strait of Messina. The farther our forces can push along this line the closer they will carry the threat to the enemy’s communications with the Italian mainland. Much may depend on the speed of the Allied forces in fostering an uneasy feeling of isolation by rapid development in depth of the threat to the enemy’s communications and line of retreat across the straits.” Gerbini has nine satellite airfields and is probably the biggest and best striking base for German fighters, which explains the reason for the terrific pounding these airfields have received. It is the opinion that once Gerbini is neutralised a great step will have been taken.

The Evening Standard's military correspondent expresses the opinion that the Axis forces appear to be disposed in two diagonal positions across the island. The main line stretches from Catania via Caltanissetta to Palermo. The second and shorter line extends from Catania via Misretta to San Stefano in the north. The correspondent adds that, seen as purely land defences, these positions look formidable.