Backs world planning; business urged at convention to prepare to give jobs to servicemen after war
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But he still holds place as one of President’s six administrative aides
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Brooklyn Eagle (July 10, 1943)
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.
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.”
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.
Yank flier gives first eyewitness account of landings – tells of shelling by Allied ships
By Richard D. McMillan
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Pfc. Martens’ last note, from Corregidor begged family for news of Dodgers
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Meanwhile U.S. refuses to free his partner, Lepke, for execution
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Isle on path to Greece is battered
Cairo, Egypt (UP) –
U.S. heavy bombers smashed the Maleme Airdrome on the island of Crete in daylight yesterday and attacked Taormina and Comiso on Sicily, a communiqué said today.
The attack on Maleme on Crete, often called an invasion stepping stone to Greece, heavily damaged sheds and grounded aircraft.
London dispatches speculated that other blows against the European fortress soon would follow the invasion of Sicily. The attack on Crete and a new order closing the Syrian border with Turkey, presumably to guard military movements by Allied troops, centered attention on the Eastern Mediterranean.
In the attack on Sicily, U.S. heavy bombers hit the headquarters of the general post office at Taormina, 30 miles southwest of Messina, and battered the Sicilian air base of Comiso.
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
A communiqué from Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters today said the Allied air forces “continued their heavy attack” with good results on Sicilian airfields and “vital points” in the enemy defense system during Thursday night and Friday.
The communiqué said:
Enemy resistance was on a slightly increased scale, and during air battles we shot down 15 Axis aircraft. Ten of our aircraft failed to return.
London, England (UP) –
British military observers hinted strongly today that the Allied invasion of Sicily may be followed quickly by other and possibly more important landings around the northern rim of the Mediterranean.
With apparently intentional vagueness, informants asserted that the Sicilian operation should not be regarded as “the only landing or even the (capital) landing.”
Informants described the invasion as an “operation in force” which, according to latest reports reaching London, is “going according to plan.”
On the basis of the scanty reports available, military observers said, heavy and difficult fighting is expected before the invasion force succeeds in establishing firm bridgeheads.
Apparently because other operations may be impending, these observers were reluctant to describe the Sicilian attack as the opening of a “second front.”
Axis force put at 400,000
An estimated 300,000 Italian troops plus 100,000 Germans, including a division of combat troops and Luftwaffe units, are defending Sicily, it was believed.
The Italian forces included the Italian 6th Army, commanded by Gen. Alfredo Guzzoni, formerly Deputy Chief of Staff and Undersecretary of War, military observers reported. They include units especially trained for coastal defense.
Unofficial estimates set the bombload dropped on Sicily in the last two months of concentrated Allied air attack at approximately 5,000 tons. Several airfields were believed to have been knocked out by this softening-up process.
The observers set the Axis air strength in Italy at about 500 German fighters and 800 German bombers, supported by 1,500 German planes of doubtful quality.
London, England (UP) –
Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, until recently commander of the Hawaiian Department, has arrived in London for conferences of an undisclosed nature with Lt. Gen, Jacob L. Devers, commander of U.S. forces in the European Theater, it was announced today.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 10, 1943)
By Ernie Pyle
Fourth of five articles on the WACs.
North Africa –
There are some amazingly interesting individuals among the 283 WACs now serving in North Africa. For instance, one girl used to be a bartender. One was a reporter on an English paper in China. One is an heiress to Penney Store millions. One was a poetess. One was at Pearl Harbor. And two of them have sons in the service.
Five of the WACs have met their brothers here in North Africa. They are Lt. Sarah Bagby, of New Haven, Missouri; Lt. Susan Hammond, of Nahant, Massachusetts; Capt. Ruth Briggs, of Westerly, Rhode Island; Evelyn Pagles, of Tonawanda, New York, and Ethel Crow, of Houston, Texas.
Mrs. Mary McCurl, of Baltimore, has a son in the Merchant Marine, and Mrs. Florence Byrns, of Cincinnati, has a son in the Army. Miriam Stehlik, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was a model before joining the WACs. Virginia Stacy, of Seattle, was at Pearl Harbor and now works for the Navy here.
Alice Hesse, of Boulder Creek, California, had a book of poetry published. Sgt. Nana Rae, of New York, has become a poet since arriving here. She came out with one on the G.I.s’ most unfavorite pill. The title is Atabrine, and the poem follows:
If I should die before I wake,
At least I won’t have pills to take,
And after doses one to three
The Lord can have the rest of me.
One of my favorite WACs is Betty Jane O’Leary, of Pittsburgh. She is a beaming blond with impish eyes. She does secretarial work at WAC headquarters. The first time I appeared there without my having identified myself or anything, she began committing favorably upon my dogs, my picket fence at home, my good looks, and the general quality of genius apparent in these columns. Smart girl, that O’Leary.
Sgt. Mary Murray is 43, with a young face and graying hair. She has traveled all over the world as a fur salesman. She married into the Navy and lived for many years in China. She saw the Japanese invasions of Manchukuo and Shanghai in 1931 and 1937. Now she is chief cook at one of the three WAC messes, and she says she never enjoyed anything more in her life.
Every afternoon there is a string of G.I.s at her back kitchen door waiting for coffee and a chance to talk to Mary. She hears more battle stories than any other WAC. For some reason, the men want to tell her everything. Dogfaces just back from the front unburden their horror stories to her, and what some of them have been through almost makes her cry at night when she relays the hair-raising experiences to the other girls.
There isn’t a more popular WAC with the soldiers than Murray, and she thinks they are all wonderful. Slightly tipsy soldiers weep on her shoulder and occasionally ask to kiss her because she reminds them of their mother.
She kisses them back, but wishes their impulses were stirred by something less maternal.
Stampa Sera (July 10, 1943)
L’azione decisamente contrastata dalle nostre forze - Combattimenti in corso lungo la fascia costiera sud-orientale - Paracadutisti e poderose forze navali ed aeree impegnati dall’avversario
La «carta» del nemico
Il nemico «deve» giocare una carta. Ha troppo proclamato che bisogna invadere il continente. Lo dovrà tentare, questo, perché altrimenti sarà sconfitto prima ancora di aver combattuto. Ma questa è una carta che non si può ripetere. Fu concesso a Cesare di invadere per la seconda volta la Britannia, dopo che un naufragio gli aveva disperso i legni coi quali aveva tentato la prima invasione.
MUSSOLINI
Il Quartiere Generale delle Forze Armate comunica:
Il nemico ha iniziato questa notte con l’appoggio di poderose formazioni navali ed aeree e col lancio di reparti paracadutisti l’attacco contro la Sicilia.
Le forze armate alleate contrastano decisamente l’azione avversaria. Combattimenti sono in corso lungo la fascia costiera sud-orientale.
Durante le azioni effettuate ieri dall’aviazione su centri della Sicilia, le artiglierie italiane e germaniche distruggevano ventidue velivoli, dei quali quindici a Porto Empedocle; altri undici apparecchi venivano abbattuti dai cacciatori tedeschi.
Nelle acque della Tunisia nostri aerosiluranti hanno colpito e gravemente danneggiato tre piroscafi di complessive 29 mila tonnellate.
Gli aerosiluranti che hanno colpito i piroscafi nell’azione segnalata nel Bollettino odierno erano condotti dai seguenti piloti: tenente Pagliarusco Vasco, da Barbarano (Vicenza); sottotenente Degli Angeli Carlo da Cesena (Forlì); sottotenente Avantini Giampiero, da Formio; sergente maggiore Guerra Aldo, da Padova; sergente Scagliarini Guido, da Finale Emilia; sergente Gineprari Radames, da Perugia.
I velivoli abbattuti dalle artiglierie contraeree sono precipitati nelle seguenti località: 15 a Porto Empedocle, 2 a Trapani, 2 a Sciacca, uno a Villa Oliva (Siracusa), uno ad Aragona (Agrigento), uno a Falconara (Caltanissetta). Alcuni equipaggi sono stati catturati.
Gli avvenimenti del fronte orientale hanno influenzato irresistibilmente la situazione strategica generale. Era interesse dei russi, che premevano in tal senso a Londra e a Washington, di non essere lasciati soli a combattere sui campi di battaglia europei. Era interesse degli anglosassoni approfittare, per le loro progettate operazioni offensive, del momento in cui l’esercito tedesco è impegnato contro le armate sovietiche. Gli Stati Maggiori delle Nazioni Unite sono stati così costretti ad affrettare i preparativi, e a rompere gli indugi. Molti segni facevano presagire le decisioni che maturavano; e il silenzio improvviso della stampa nemica sul problema del secondo fronte avvalorava l’ipotesi che l’ora dell’azione stesse per scoccare.
L’Italia è messa oggi dal precipitare degli eventi di fronte alla sua grande prova. Il primo tentativo in forze dei due grandi imperi coalizzati contro l’Europa sì compie contro di noi; ed è sul suolo italiano che saranno decise le sorti del conflitto. Bisogna guardare con animo fermo, senza clorotiche paure, questa dura realtà. Bisogna che tutti gli italiani dimostrino la stessa tenacia, lo stesso spirito di sacrificio, la stessa impavidità di cui statino offrendo esempio i soldati che, sui limiti sacri del territorio patrio affrontano con le armi in pugno il nemico. Bisogna che tutti si dimostrino della stessa tempra delle popolazioni civili martellate finora dalla offensiva aerea avversaria. Le truppe inglesi e americane prendono terra in Sicilia nella convinzione di trovarci, tanto per usare una espressione coniata da loro, «ammorbiditi». Dobbiamo disilluderli. Bisogna che trovino il granito. Bisogna che sulla sponda siciliana essi sentano battere gagliardo il cuore della Patria italiana: con lo stesso ritmo con cui batté sul Piave, venticinque anni fa, in un’ora ugualmente solenne e decisiva della vita nazionale.
La posta in giuoco è immensa: si tratta dell’esistenza del popolo, di tutto il popolo. La vittoria ci schiuderà un avvenire di prosperità e di potenza, ai cui benefici tutti saranno ammessi, nessuno potrà sottrarsi alle fatali conseguenze dì una sconfitta. E’ l’ora dell’estrema solidarietà nazionale. Il nemico giuoca la sua ultima carta. Di tentativi tipo Dieppe se ne possono ripetere a decine; un’operazione come quella, che risulta iniziata stamane, non si ripete una seconda volta. Se fallirà, il nemico dovrà convincersi che l’impresa di battere l’Asse è irrealizzabile, e dovrà arrendersi ad una realtà più forte della sua volontà. E’ dunque l’esito dell’intero conflitto che verrà determinato dagli sviluppi di questa nuova fase della guerra. Senta ognuno la tremenda responsabilità del compito, e sia ogni animo all’altezza della grande ora.
By the time this message reaches Your Holiness a landing in force by American and British troops will have taken place on Italian soil. Our soldiers have come to rid Italy of Fascism and all its unhappy symbols, and to drive out the Nazi oppressors who are infesting her soil.
There is no need for me to reaffirm that respect for religious beliefs and for the free exercise of religious worship is fundamental to our ideas. Churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that it is within our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead. Throughout the period of operations, the neutral status of Vatican City as well as of the Papal domains throughout Italy will be respected.
I look forward, as does Your Holiness, to that bright day when the peace of God returns to the world. We are convinced that this will occur only when the forces of evil which now hold vast areas of Europe and Asia enslaved have been utterly destroyed. On that day we will joyfully turn our energies from the grim duties of war to the fruitful tasks of reconstruction. In common with all other nations and forces imbued with the spirit of good will toward men, and with the help of Almighty God, we will turn our hearts and our minds to the exacting task of building a just and enduring peace on earth.
