MUNDA HAMMERED
Planes, warships, guns batter Japanese at New Georgia base
Ground push gains; enemy’s counterblows to ward off assault are declared weak
By Tillman Durdin
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MUNDA HAMMERED
ROOSEVELT VOICES DOUBT ON MAKING LEWIS OBEY WLB
He asks at press conference how to force someone to sign against his will
Order to ward is cited; he declares he could take property but probably could not seize union
By Samuel B. Bledsoe
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SICILY ‘SOFTENED’ BY AIR POUNDINGS
Concentrated Allied attacks began with capture of Pantelleria June 11
Axis planes knocked out; our raiders also hampered island’s supply by attacks on links with mainland
Sicily was singled out for intense mass bombings by the Allies after the end of the Tunisian campaign in May. Previously there had been destructive raids on the Italian island, but little concentrated bombing until Pantelleria had been taken. The capture of that Mediterranean isle was the signal for the all-out onslaught on Sicily.
This began on June 11, the very day that Pantelleria fell. The principal objectives were the main airfields and the tangled lines of communications that form a network through Sicily. One of the first cities to feel the might of the combined Allied Air Forces was Palermo.
On the first day, 400 U.S. heavy bombers unloaded their racks on a thoroughly frightened city. Many German planes rose to the defense, but the Allied fighters that accompanied the bombers just about cleared the skies.
The Comiso and Milo Airfields were next. Reports from the returning pilots indicated that many Axis planes had been destroyed on the ground and that the attacking force so outnumbered the defenders that it was practically no contest.
Malta joins in attack
At about the same time, other bombers were converging on Sicily from Northwest Africa and the Middle East. Royal Air Force squadrons from Malta applied pressure.
After incessant attacks on the numerous and well-fortified airfields including Boccadifalco in West Sicily and Borizzo, the attack was shifted to the harbor facilities on the Strait of Messina, where the train ferry from the Italian mainland has its terminus. The extent of the damage at this point was great.
Meanwhile, heavy bombers showered destruction on the numerous mountain strongholds that spot the island. In one day, Allied pilots reported that they had knocked 73 Axis planes out of the skies during these attacks.
While this was going on, reports from European sources said that thousands of civilians were being evacuated from the Sicilian towns, especially Messina.
Axis shipping blasted
Aside from the damage done to airfields and principal cities, one of the most damaging blows to the Axis was the day-by-day destruction of ships carrying reserves, armaments and supplies to the besieged island. Practically every port was subjected to intense bombings in the around-the-clock raids.
One of the main targets in recent raids was the natural harbor east of Palermo at Termini Imerese, where a chemical plant produces carbon sulfide. Large refineries and stores are located at this point.
All of Sicily’s ports were fortified strongly against possible invasion several years ago and were again strengthened after June 1940, when the first Allied bombings started after Italy entered the war.
AXIS KEPT GUESSING ON SICILY INVASION
Propagandists said ‘weary’ Allied troops were being treated to a ‘rest’
Enemy caught napping; foe had expected action, but did not succeed in picking the time and place
Nine hours before this morning’s announcement of the start of Anglo-American-Canadian operations against Sicily, the German DNB Agency said in a dispatch for European consumption that one reason for recent Allied troop movements in the Mediterranean area was a desire on the part of the Allied commanders to “rest the battle-weary troops” and remove them “beyond the range of German and Italian bombers,” the Office of War Information reported.
A survey of Axis press and radio propaganda this week by the OWI indicated that the Germans and Italians had been expecting some sort of action against Europe, but there was no indication that they expected the next blow to come against Sicily or that it would come so soon.
An hour and 20 minutes of silence after the announcement of the Anglo-American-Canadian landings on Sicily, Axis propagandists made their first mention of the operation, the Office of War Information reported this morning.
The Nazi Transocean Agency, operating for foreign consumption only, made two bare mentions of the story, in German-language telegraphic code transmissions.
Not yet having developed a “line,” the Transocean Agency, as is customary for it in such situations, carried the story straight, mentioning London and Washington announcements of the landings.
Up to 2 a.m. EWT, however, neither the U.S. foreign broadcast intelligence service nor the OWI monitoring representatives overseas had reported any Axis mention of the landings on any voice broadcast. There was no indication that either the Italian home audience or the German home audience had heard from their own broadcasts about the landings, although United Nations transmitters were telling the story to them.
One indication that the Italians did not expect so immediate a blow came in a German-language broadcast to Europe by the British radio at 6 o’clock last night. The broadcast quoted a report that Carlo Scorza, Secretary of the Fascist Party, had called Fascist officials from Sicily to Rome for “instructions.”
Ship movements and troop concentrations, easily established by aerial reconnaissance, gave the Axis a clue that something was afoot, but the Axis propagandists were unable to put their finger on just what was about to happen.
For propaganda purposes, the DNB dispatch went on to say that the troop movements were being carried out for the added reason of diminishing “the constant clashes between American and British troops.”
Following weeks of Nazi reports of Allied ship movements, the German Transocean Agency, in a wireless telegraphic-code dispatch for American consumption today, said that a big Allied convoy had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar Thursday without stopping at Gibraltar. The dispatch, however, did not hazard a guess as to the destination of the convoy.
Italian propagandists this week also anticipated some sort of action against Italy without knowing just where and when the move would come.
The Fascist scare propaganda line for domestic consumption was clearly delineated by Premier Benito Mussolini in a speech released in Italy last Monday, 11 days after Mussolini had delivered the speech before a meeting of the Fascist Party directorate in Rome. Mussolini told the Italian people that a defeat would relegate Italy to the position of “fourth or fifth place among the great powers.”
ARMY DECORATES 33 NEW YORKERS
12 New Jerseyites also distinguished themselves in North Africa
One award posthumous; son of William Mulhall of the Bronx mortally wounded trying to rescue officer
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U.S. PLANES RAID IN TUNGTING AREA
Japanese barges bombed and field strafed by Americans in central China
Burma bases attacked; our fliers and British in wide aerial assaults – Haiphong suburbs reported hit
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ARMY KEEPS CURB ON HAWAIIAN LABOR
Military governor says workers on war projects are like frontline soldiers
Court decision quoted; Gen. Richardson stresses ruling on California Japanese as justifying stand
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SEAFARING WOMEN ASK JOBS ON SHIPS
Delegation from union pleads with Adm. Land to restore them to Merchant Marine
‘Battlefront,’ he says; ‘It’s our service,’ their leader retorts, demanding right to put training into war work
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ASKS EARLY VOTE ON EQUAL RIGHTS
Professional women’s board wires plea for action by Congress in September
Backs world planning; business urged at convention to prepare to give jobs to servicemen after war
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Mellett drops out as OWI film head
But he still holds place as one of President’s six administrative aides
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Brooklyn Eagle (July 10, 1943)
Hard fighting rages in Sicily
300,000 give stiff battle as Allied army pours in
Invasion theater
Allied forces were battling on Sicily today after crossing the Mediterranean bottleneck from North Africa. Landing forces traveled varying distances – 88 miles from Cape Bon and up to 150 miles from other Tunisian coast towns – and probably also came from Pantelleria, 70 miles away, and Malta, 80 miles from the nearest point in Sicily.
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
The United Nations opened the battle of Europe today by sending powerful invasion forces swarming onto the beaches of Sicily, and the first eyewitness report said a bombardment by Allied warships had “started a chain of smoke and flames” stretching 10 miles into the island.
A mighty aerial umbrella aided the Allied invasion forces which were made up of U.S., British and Canadian troops. Meager and unofficial reports said the invasion aided by heavy naval support was “proceeding according to plan.”
Indications were that the Axis defenders were putting up a stiff fight.
Axis communiqués reported that the fighting was heavy on the southeastern coast of Sicily, and said decisive counterblows had been struck against the invaders. British sources suggested other and more important blows might be struck against the fortress of Europe soon.
The Allied amphibious operations under command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower began after two weeks of mounting aerial onslaught that was continued by hundreds of airplanes up to yesterday, when U.S. Liberators from the Middle East smashed Comiso and Taormina, 30 miles south of Messina, causing heavy damage.
Fifteen Axis planes were shot down yesterday when Allied aircraft from the Northwest Africa Command encountered increased opposition, losing 10 airplanes.
A furious naval barrage that illuminated sections of the Sicilian coast opened the invasion operations in darkness as the Allied meet – including battleships – threaded through the enemy minefield and put assault troops ashore in tank-carrying barges. There was no immediate indication that Mussolini’s scattered and battered Italian fleet accepted the challenge to fight the invasion.
Designed to establish bridgeheads
The first phase of the attack on Sicily, regarded popularly as the opening move in establishment of a second front, was designed to establish bridgeheads, and strong Axis opposition was anticipated in the air and on the ground.
London reports describing the greatest Allied offensive of the war suggested that parachute and airborne troops were used by the Allies to crash through the strong Sicilian defenses, manned by an estimated 300,000 Italians and Germans. Radio Morocco reported the landings were “being consolidated” on the west coast of Sicily, but it was believed many landings had been made around the shores of the island, with the ports of Catania, Palermo and Trapani as well as Comiso, Catania and Gerbini Airdromes as the main objectives.
The reported landing at the western tip of Sicily indicated that the first Allied objectives included the important Axis air bases of Trapani, Marsala, Mazzaro, Milo and Castelvetrano, all on the western end of the island and are linked by a network of good roads with the big port of Palermo.
The Allied invasion forces, specially trained in American-built landing barges for many weeks, were reported meeting “strong resistance” in the first phase of fighting on European soil just two months after the last Axis forces were driven from Africa.
The special communique at 5:10 a.m. from Allied Headquarters said:
Allied forces under command of Gen. Eisenhower began landing operations on Sicily early this morning. The landings were preceded by Allied air attack. Allied naval forces escorted the assault forces and bombarded the coast defenses during the assault.
The crossing of the 90-mile “moat” from Tunisia to the rugged island of Sicily, which once had 4,000,000 population, was made in all types of naval craft, including special landing barges brought under their own power from the United States to strike at Italy just three years and one month after Mussolini stabbed France in the back.
There was no mention of French troops taking part in the invasion of Sicily.
For two weeks huge Allied air fleets based in Northwest Africa and the Middle East had hammered at Sicily with thousands of tons of bombs, seeking to knock out Axis air power, demolish air bases, destroy railroad facilities and’ ports and isolate the island from the Italian mainland. For the last seven days the air attack had been almost continuous, day and night.
Then the converted freighters, the big battleships, the fast destroyers, the heavily armed cruisers and the new type landing barges – heavily armed and heavily protected – were assembled by the hundreds and put out in darkness from the African coast. Crouching in the barges and jammed aboard the transports were U.S. troops that had been practicing invasion assaults for weeks and were toughened and ready for the hardest battle of their lives.
There were Canadian troops, too – the rough-and-ready soldiers who had been waiting (presumably until recently in England) for the chance to avenge their comrades who fell at Dieppe and had long been promised the honor of spearheading the invasion of Hitler’s European fortress.
The British forces, which chased Nazi Marshal Erwin Rommel across Africa and into the sea, were the third part of the Allied team which struck at Sicily in an, operation that found land, sea and air forces cooperating magnificently under Eisenhower’s command.
Crouched in the landing barges, with their heads tucked down against their shoulders turtle-fashion, the Allied troops led by engineers and sappers were off the Sicilian coast in the dark hour before dawn came over the Mediterranean.
The engineers, given the toughest job in such a hazardous operation, carried Bangalore torpedoes – a gadget about 15-18 feet long and encased in a two- or three-inch pipe – used to shove into barbed wire entanglements in order to blast open a path for the assault troops.
Big guns open up
Allied force from Malta, only 60 miles from Sicily, were presumed to have joined the invasion units somewhere off the island coast.
And then, in the last period of darkness, the big guns of the naval armada opened up.
The guns flashing out in the darkness may have been the first sign that the nervous Axis defense forces received that the battle to knock Italy out of the war had begun. But the enemy had been predicting the assault for days, reporting the massing of Allied troops and barges and trying desperately to guess where the first blow would fall.
Although the steady pounding of Allied airplanes had knocked out the main Sicilian harbors closest to Italy, there were late reports that Nazi and Fascist reserves had been rushed to the island and there was little question that the struggle for the mountainous stronghold would be a costly and probably a long one.
Resistance fierce
Preliminary reports indicated Axis resistance was fierce and that enemy airplanes were attacking desperately, often diving through their own anti-aircraft fire in their efforts to get at Allied bombers.
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the Nazi air expert who had commanded an air fleet on the Russian Front, was reported directing the Axis aerial defenses with the aid of Baron Wolfram von Richthofen, who had also been on the Eastern Front.
The Axis reaction by radio was also slow. The first Axis word of the invasion came from the German Transocean News Agency in a dispatch datelined “London.” It said that according to an official announcement Allied forces had started landing operations in Sicily. The same agency next flashed a Washington announcement of the landing. Berlin radio later repeated the news.
Radio Vichy told the people of France that the Americans had made “important” troop movements for an imminent invasion of Sicily.
The first great Allied assault against the European fortress was started after a coldly, scientific day-and-night aerial bombardment that accelerated steadily for two weeks.
Air assault hits crescendo
As the aerial assault reached a crescendo, fighters and fighter-bombers in large numbers joined in the attack to shoot up Axis trucks and railroad equipment in order to hinder or halt the movement of enemy forces when the invasion began.
Radio Algiers, broadcasting to Italy, said that:
The Battle of Africa is ended and the Battle of Europe has begun. The warnings of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill have come true. Italy, dragged by Mussolini into Hitler’s war, has become a battlefield. The German rearguard action is being fought on Italy’s soil.
Algiers reports Allies 260 miles from Rome
By the United Press
The Allied forces on the road to Rome are less than 260 miles from the Fascist capital.
Radio Algiers said that the first Allied landing in Sicily was on “the rocky western tip of the island, 260 miles from Rome.”
Italians here take invasion news calmly
Brooklyn residents of Italian descent took news of the Allied invasion of Sicily calmly and stoically, their chief reaction summed up in the terse statement:
Let’s get it over with fast.
Many, with relatives in both armies, expressed hope that Allied victory, uppermost in their thoughts, would be accomplished with as little bloodshed as possible.