MORE FEROCIOUS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 200, 25 August 1943, Page 5

MORE FEROCIOUS

AIR BATTLE OVER ITALY RAIL COMMUNICATIONS BATTERED (By Telegraph Press Association—Copyright) Recd. 8.30 p.m. London, Aug. 23. The air battle over Italy is reaching a new stage of ferocity with the Axis making desperate efforts to ward off massive Allied blows aimed at cutting the vital railway links with southern Italy.

Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says the enemy is losing fighters at a ruinous rate. Marauders during yesterday’s attack against Salerno battled with swarms of fighters for over half an hour after dropping their bombs. Fifty or sixty enemy fighters concentrated against the bombers, while 30 or 40 hung upon the escorting invaders. The bombers shot down 31 enemy fighters and the invaders two more. Returning crews reported that, despite the opposition encountered, a string of bombs fell across the marshalling yards. destroying tracks and rolling stock. The Italians barely begun the task of clearing the Salerno line when darkness brought another raid by Wellingtons, which carried out a most concentrated and successful attack. Algiers radio to-day rebroadcast an appeal to Italians telling them to do all in their power to stop the Germans pouring into Italy, particularly by sabotage against the railways at Bologne, through which a large proportion of the German troops and supplies is passing. “The time is running short. By the complacency of the Badoglio regime the Germans intend to continue the fight—Germany’s fight on Italy’s soil By sabotage you can force the Germans to evacuate Italy. Act now.”