REPORTED LANDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 207, 2 September 1943, Page 5

REPORTED LANDING

BRITISH IN ITALY ENEMY RADIO ACCOUNT i Recd. 7 p.m. London. Aug. 31. Reliable observers in London are convinced that Italy will be out of the war vMthin a matter of days, perhaps hours. All the evidence points to the | fact that Italy is prepared to lay down her arms, and it is believed that an announcement is imminent. The German overseas radio stated, that a minor British landing attempt on the Italian coast south of Reggio was immediately scotched. Expanding its report, the radio said: “It is learned from military sources in Berlin that a British force of about 400 men. brought by naval units, landed on the toe of the Italian boot south-east of Reggio on Sunday. The landing was discovered immediately’, and Axis forces took immediate counter-measures and wiped out all except 30, who escaped, into the inferior. Military quarters point out I that those who escaped appeared to i have taken to the mountains, where [they still are and where they represent no danger. Their rounding up is | expect:' l to occur in a very short I time. Experts believe this small landing manoeuvre was probably intended to serve as a preparation for a major bridgehead. The fact that the British had with them extensive communications and equipment which they attempt •! to set up immediately 7 they landed seems to point to that presumption.” According to the German news agency’s version of the landing, 300 I British troops escaped to the mountains. British sources have not yet confirmed. the German report of an Allied landing in southern Italy, but it is believed that too much importance I should not be attached to any landings which might have been made. An outstanding fact is that it will not be necessary to conquer the mainland of Italy by force. Rome radio said to-day that leaflets had been distributed in Rome calling for a fifteen-minute strike to-morrow afternoon. A Rome communique says that enemy’ aircraft yesterday raided the provinces of Cagliari and Naples.