MESSINA UNDER FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25306, 17 August 1943, Page 3

MESSINA UNDER FIRE

GERMANS’ HURRIED RETREAT L 'l INCESSANT AIR POUNDING f (United Press Association ) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 16. Messina is now within range of Allied heavy artillery, and one correspondent says that its fall may be expected very soon. The Battle of Sicily has now become a race for the docks and beaches of Messina. The Germans are, in fact, retreating so quickly that the Allied forces have lost contact with them. The American Seventh Army, advancing along the north coast, is within 15 miles of the town. Despatches from correspondents say that the Germans arp leaving the Italians to make the last stand, and they are also making the fullest possible use of road blocks and demolitions. They have finally given up and are getting away as Quickly as they can behind the Italians. The Axis remnants in the tip of Sicily are receiving the worst punishment from the air of any force in history, says the British United Press correspondent at an air base in North Africa. He added that he had never seen so many boihbers in the air as in the past few days, when the Allied air forces were pummelling the last Axis positions on both sides of the Messina Strait. Allied bombers have virtually besieged Italy’s toe. They have blocked the two main roads from the north, and what road traffic is moving to the toe is using temporary tracks. It is an offensive that never stops. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says the Eighth Army is approaching an area below Messina, which the enemy’s batteries of heavy artillery, situated south of the city, are able to cover. The north coast is free from such owing to intervening high ridges. The Americans* therefore may advance mdre rapidly in the climax of the campaign -and have a better chance of entering Messina first. An American general, discussing the demolitions and mining by the retreating Germans, said: “The Huns-are always willing to destroy other people’s property, but maybe when we drive into Germany we will not encounter so many demolitions, and we will certainly not find so many mines in the towns, where civilians are the worst sufferers. German mines and booby traps in this campaign have killed hundreds of Sicilians.”

An Algiers communique states that the Eighth Army has captured Taormina and Castiglione, and also Kaggi, about 10 miles east of Castiglione. The advance of Seventh Army units in a series of rapid thrusts has brought the American troops to the vicinity of Milazzo, thus denying the enemy the use of an important evacuation post.