Brooklyn Eagle (July 8, 1943)
19 waves of bombers pulverize Gerbini
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
Allied air fleets, smashing Axis defenses on the island invasion route to Italy, pounded airfields on Sicily and Sardinia for the fifth straight day yesterday and centered a day-long assault on Gerbini, where 19 waves of bombers pulverized enemy fighter defenses.
Flying Fortresses, Mitchells and Marauders blanketed Gerbini and its adjacent airfields with bombs, touching off big fires, without meeting an Axis plane. Raids on Gerbini have torn apart the Sicilian airdrome every day this week.
Eight Axis airbases, five of them on Sicily, felt the destructive weight of Allied bombs in the day and night attacks yesterday. At the same time, the raiders again blasted Italian communications in Palermo, Mazara and the Sciacca Harbor area, all on Sicily.
Order French coast cleared
Meanwhile, the French Ministry of Information in Algiers announced the Germans had ordered a number of areas on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast of France evacuated because they are “urgently threatened.”
The evacuation order was described as mainly a Nazi attempt to “drain France of her young and resistant elements before an Allied landing occurs.”
The areas affected included Sète (west of Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast, and Hendaye, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne and Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay. Several hundred thousand persons will be affected.
As the day for the assault against Europe appeared to be coming closer, waves of Allied bombers swept over to pulverize the Gerbini Airfield on Sicily and pile wreckage on Milis, Villacidro and Pabillonis Airfields on Sardinia.
Fighter opposition continued on a reduced scale, and of the few score Axis planes seen, Allied gunners shot down ten and dispersed the others. Five Allied planes were lost.
Final checks on Monday’s Flying Fortress raid against the network of Sicilian airdromes revealed that gunners shot down 35 Axis planes, five more than originally reported.
Fortresses concentrate on Sicily
Flying Fortresses, Marauders and Mitchells concentrated on Sicily. The Sardinia raids were carried out by RAF Wellingtons. Fighter-bombers patrolled Sicily and P-40 Warhawks hit at railroads, highways and ammunition dumps through western Sicily.
An Italian communiqué broadcast by Rome radio said the Allied raids caused only “slight damage” and that 19 Allied planes were shot down. The targets were identified at Trapani, Porto Empedocle and Catania. Two Allied steamers (totaling 30,000 tons) were probably sunk by Italian torpedo boats off the Tunisian coast, the communiqué said.
Comiso blasted again
Mitchells hit much-bombed Comiso, in southeast Sicily, dropping nearly 50 tons of bombs.
Two waves of fighter-bombers got direct hits with 500-pound bombs at Porto Empedocle on the Sicilian coast.
Boston night bombers caught many Axis aircraft on the ground in a raid on Borizzo Airfield in northwest Sicily.
Seen massing for showdown
London, England (UP) –
Reliable air observers here believed today that Allied and Axis air forces were being massed for a showdown battle for control of the air over the Mediterranean.
After some weeks of hesitation, the Axis had apparently decided to accept the challenge of the Allied blitz and may be committing substantial forces to the defense of Italy and the Italian islands.