CATANIA AS KEY TO SICILY

Southland Times, Issue 25705, 14 July 1943, Page 5

CATANIA AS KEY TO SICILY

PLAIN SUITABLE FOR TANKS

LONDON, July 12. “Catania is the key to Sicily. Its plain opens the way to Italy.” That is the opinion given by The .Daily Express military correspondent. “The plain of Catania,” he says, “is tank country and in the centre is Gerbini, where the enemy’s main air bases are situated. Across the plain runs Sicily’s one cross-country railway and the excellent roads leading to Messina and linking Sicily with the mainland.” The enemy’s difficulty is that—while there is now a threat to Catania 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. OLD ITALIAN TANKS The Italians have mostly old model tanks with which to supplement the German tank units. Captain Liddel 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 a converging advance from the direction of Syracuse and Gela with a view to a concentrated push up the eastern coast towards the Straits of Messina. The farther our forces can push along this line the closer they will carry their threat to the enemy’s communications with the Italian mainland. Much may depend on the speed of the Allied forces in fostering the uneasy feeling of isolation by the rapid development in depth of their threat to the enemy’s communications and line of retreat across the Straits of Messina.” Gerbini has nine satellite airfields and is probably the biggest and best striking base for the German fighters, which explains the reason 1 for the terrific pounding these airfields have received. It is the opinion that once Gerbini is neutralized a great step will have been taken.

AXIS POSITIONS The Evening Standard’s military correspondent expresses the opinion that the Axis forces appear to be disposed in two diagonal positions across the island. Their main line stretches from Catania by way of Caltanissetta to Palermo. A second shorter line extends from Catania by way of Misreta to San Stefano in the north. The correspondent adds that, seen as purely land defences, these positions look formidable.

According to Allied sources the enemy forces defending Sicily may consist of 12 divisions (about 150,000 men). Of these, perhaps 25,000 men are probably German and the remainder are Italian—five coastal divisions and five infantry divisions. The com-mander-in-chief of the Axis forces is General Guzzoni, who is over 60 years old and who commanded the Italian landing in Albania in 1939. He was placed on the retired list in 1941, but was recalled to take command this year. .

ANTI-FASCIST GROUP

PROGRAMME FOR ITALY LONDON, July 12. The anti-Fascist group in Italy has agreed on a policy for a constitutional and democratic republic. This united anti-Fascist front has called on all Italians who want to co-operate in the work of reconstruction to join the movement. It says that after Fascism has been destroyed the Italians who have been forced into the Fascist Party, under the threat of losing their jobs will be given another chance, but the financial and industrial groups who waited until they saw that Italy was likely to lose the war will be treated differently. The latest trend in Italian propaganda is indicated by the Italian News Agency’s circulation of 12 conditions which, it says, the Allies will impose in the event of a successful invasion of Italy. The points are: Surrender of the Italian Fleet; suppression of the metallurgical and engineering industries; reduction of the Italian Army to the bare minimum necessary for the maintenance of order; abolition of the Army’s tanks, artillery and machine-guns; cession of Pantellaria, Tobruk, La Maddelena and other strategic bases to Britain; cession of Istria, Pola t and Trieste to Yugoslavia; cession of several lonian and Aegean islands to Greece; surrender of Italy’s colonial empire for an indefinite period; suppression of the cultivation of cereals and the limitation of agriculture to vegetable growing; suppression of many universities and the abolition of classical teaching to prevent Italian youth from learning of the greatness of Rome.