GERBINI AIR BASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25298, 7 August 1943, Page 5

GERBINI AIR BASE

NOW IN ALLIED HANDS ; LONDON, Aug. 5.

The Allies have captured Paterno end Gerbini; Gerbinrs big air base and network of nine smaller fields, 12 miles west of. Catania, are now completely in Allied hands. • The fall of Catania has cracked open the whole enemy front, and gives the Allies the Opportunity for which the •< present offensivewas planned,, says ' Reuter's Algiers correspondent. The Eighth Army is pursuing the retreating Germans, who, facea with an untenable position on the southern slopes of . Mount Etna, are being forced to wiihdraw along the vulnerable coastal •a highway to Taormina and Messina. ' While the Algiers correspondent of the Mutual Broadcasting System declares that- the end is now only a matter of days, the Columbia Broadcasting System’s correspondent sayS that ' the capture of Catania does not mean that the Eighth Army.can now simply roll up the coastal highway. The German position in the new line north of the city will be just as hard to crack as was the; original, position. There is no wide coastal plain on the 60-mile stretch between Catania and Messina along which the Allies can thrust forward swiftly. There is only a highway when out in some places from high cliffs, with •an escarpment ’ plunging steeply to the sea. For great distances this highway has been damaged by demolition, and two or three well-placed demolitions can effectively hold up things.