ALLIES WIDEN FRONT

Southland Times, Issue 25704, 13 July 1943, Page 5

ALLIES WIDEN FRONT

Bridgehead Gained By Canadians (Rec. 7.15 p.m.) LONDON, July 12. The Allies’ Sicilian front has been widened to 150 miles with the establishment by the Canadians of an important bridgehead near Porto Empedocle, midway along the southern coast of the island, says The Daily Mail. It is officially revealed in Algiers that the task of the air-borne units in Sicily was not to capture airfields, but to attack the coastal defences from the rear. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says the toughest resistance met in Sicily was near Cape Passero, where British and Canadian troops landed. The primary resistance was from Italians composed of _ semistatic coastal defence units. It, therefore, appears that . stronger mobile central reserves, including Germans, are being withheld until the Axis commanders are positive that the south-east corner is really the most threatened area. The Allies in this corner of the island have both flanks protected .by the sea and can lop off the entire corner of Sicily and build a “wall” across the neck forming an impregnable bridgehead. On the other hand the defenders may deliberately be delaying a counter-attack in the hope of inflicting more extensive damage on the landing forces. Morocco radio declared that the most important event yesterday was the failure of an Axis tank counter-attack near Licata. The Allies have won the first phase of the battle. Several thousand Canadian reinforcements landed in North Africa within 24 hours of the start of the Allied landings in Sicily. A substantial troop convoy carrying additional troops from England followed the ships containing the Canadian assault force. ENEMY AERODROMES WATCHED Spitfire night-fighters from Malta helped to form an air umbrella over the Allied landings on Sicily’s beaches. Malta-based Mosquitoes in the meantime watched Italian aerodromes for signs of the enemy attempting to send bombers to Sicily. Mosquitoes found only one Italian a/rodrome illuminated, but after their approach the lights were switched off and stayed off. Allied troops are now advancing with the beaches behind them firmly in the hands f fresh troops, more of which are still being brought in from the vast convoys protected by the Navy, the British United Press correspondent at the Allied Forward Headquarters. He adds that within 48 hours of the first landing the crisis of the Sicilian invasion had passed and troops were being disgorged on to the island in one great stream. There is little definite news of the land fighting, but it is known that one of the points where the troops first went in was Gela, a little port on the broad swe< p of the southern coast at the end of the Barogtio Valley. Gela’s normal population is 25,000 and the town commands a network of roads. An official "nrouncement from Algiers says that American troops with naval support have broken through the enemy trench positions at Gela. According to Algiers radio Canadian troops have established an important bridgehead 50 miles west of Gela. Surprise played an important part in the landings. Air-borne troops and glider troops landed first and then parachutists an hour later were dropped at pre-arranged points. The first men on the ground went to work immediately, attacking key-points of the communications system and other carefully selected ground targets. DESCENT OF GLIDERS The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent tells how British and American paratroops and air-borne commando units dropped behind the enemy lines paved the way for the invasion. Troop-filled gliders descended on the Sicilian mainland five hours before the assault forces disembarked on the beaches. Seventy minutes after the gliders had reached their objectives paratroops dropped under cover of darkness. Both forces seem to have surprised the enemy. The air-borne troops were over their targets before they encountered antiaircraft fire. Allied plane losses in this manoeuvre are officially described as negligible. No enemy fighters attempted to interfere and the anti-aircraft batteries were not very active. Searchlights picked up the huge transport machines, but the pilots, flying very low, manoeuvred sufficiently to put the enemy batteries off their aim. The planes bearing the paratroops loomed suddenly over their targets out of a heavy mist and they dropped their heavily loaded cargo from a low altitude despite anti-aircraft fire and barrages from pill-boxes concealed near the shore.