ALLIED GAINS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25301, 11 August 1943, Page 3

ALLIED GAINS

FIGHTING IN SICILY STEADY PROGRESS DESPERATE ENEMY DEFENCE (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10. The Allied troops in Sicily continue to make alow but steady, progress all along the front. Giving this information, to-day’s communique states that the Germans’ position is becoming more difficult every day, and they are desperately resisting the Allied forces. The Algiers radio reports that the Eighth Army is five miles from Randazzo. General Montgomery, summing up the operations, said: “The Germans in Sicily are doomed. Their days are numbered.” The bulk of the German defence line around Mount Etna is now in Allied hands. The British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army reports that the Allies yesterday captured Trecastagni and Acis Antonio, west of Acireale, on the slopes of Mount Etna, completing our hold on the territory south-east of Mount Etna. Both villages fell after brief skirmishing. The suicide squads which are still being left behind to hold up the Eighth Army forces advancing to the north on the coast road east of Mount Etna are being slowly but surely knocked out. Reuter’s correspondent says that German evacuation from Sicily, which began 10 days ago with non-essential

personnel, now appears to be speeding up as the Allies press back the enemy’s rearguard screen along the whole front. The Germans are not attempting to dispute Allied air supremacy, but they have thickened their antiaircraft defences around Messina Straits till they are now “heavier than the inner artillery of London,” according to Air Marshal H. Broadhurst, the air officer commanding, who added that it was the heaviest flak he had ever seen in the Mediterranean.

Randazzo, on which the Eighth Army from Bronte and the Americans from Cesaro are now converging, has become the focal point of the German defences. Enemy resistance to the Anglo-American thrusts is expected to be desperately heavy. Once Randazzo, which is reported to be in flames, falls, the Germans in the coastal corridor east of Etna and in front of the Eighth Army’s right wing will be greatly endangered.

When that moment comes, what at present is a valuable defence bottleneck wili become a trap which, if the Allies push through Randazzo east to the coast, may be sealed off. The Germans at present are mainly relying on mines and demolitions, behind which small rearguards with mortars and machine guns are desperately attempting to hold up the Allied advance. The Americans east of Cesaro have been delayed by particularly heavy demolitions, and the British at present are slightly nearer Randazzo than the Americans. Great interest is being aroused in the friendly race for Messina which must inevitably develop at the end of the campaign.