BIG BATTLE RAGES CLOSE TO CATANIA
British Army 15 miles from Sicilian port
Over 20,000 prisoners, many tanks, guns captured
By Edward Gilling, representing combined Allied press
15th Army Group Command Post, Sicily, Italy (UP) –
The enemy fought fiercely on Thursday to prevent the 8th Army from entering Catania Plain and there was exceptionally heavy fighting on the read north from Augusta before our armored units broke through.
Later motorized infantry followed through after overcoming the stiffest Axis defenses.
This suggested that the 8th Army had broken through to the Catania Plain and was advancing northward after a big battle in the Lentini sector, 15 miles south of Catania.
All day Thursday, the enemy, mostly Germans, put up the stiffest resistance to hold up our advance toward Catania.
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, North Africa –
The fiercest battle of the Sicilian campaign raged only 15 miles south of the east coast port of Catania today after Allied forces had smashed through Vizzini in a see-saw battle on the central front and Americans seized the road junction of Canicattì on the western flank.
Capturing more than 20,000 prisoners and many tanks and guns, the Allied offensive surged forwards against increasingly desperate Axis resistance as Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s 8th Army fought its way into the Lentini area on the edge of the Catania Plain and beat back heavy counterblows in which the Nazi Hermann Göring Division suffered severely.
Delayed dispatches from Sicily said Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was at the front but it was not immediately clear whether these reports referred to his earlier visit.
Gen. Montgomery, who told correspondents that he was “quite satisfied” with progress so far, hurled his veterans northward from Augusta to the mountainous and narrow Lentini front, where the enemy had massed considerable strength for a counterattack. The reformed Nazi 15th Panzer Division as well as the Hermann Göring Division were in action. But the 8th Army smashed back everything they could offer at the edge of the plain.
At last reports, heavy fighting was still in progress near the edge of the plain and only 15 miles from Catania port, which is the key to the Axis lines protecting Messina, 60 miles farther north at the toe of the Italian boot.
Today’s communiqué told of the capture of 13 additional towns (some of which had been reported occupied yesterday) and field dispatches disclosed important gains all along the front, including extension of the western flank in hard fighting by the U.S. 7th Army under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
In the center of the line, which is now between 30 and 40 miles inland at some points, the Allied forces plunged northward from Vizzini, which changed hands five times before the Axis was finally ousted for good.
The Americans, who had taken 15,992 prisoners in all, pushed forward over difficult terrain in the Naro or extreme western sector near Agrigento and captured Canicattì, which is a road junction only 15 miles from the key town of Caltanissetta, in the middle of Sicily.
Smash 10 tanks
The Americans knocked out at least 10 Mark IV tanks, which are equipped with long-barreled 75mm guns, and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. The American gains were more than four miles and at some points, patrols advanced still farther. A large part of the prisoners captured were Germans.
The Allied advance continued with support of powerful aerial bombardment extending to Palermo, Messina, Naples and other bases in southern Italy and with the aid of naval forces which ranged along the east coast and shelled Catania.
Allied air forces operating from Sicilian fields ranged the length and breadth of the island in support of ground troops, laying down a “rolling barrage” of bombs to soften up Axis resistance.
Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa announced that a Canadian air squadron is operating in Sicily under command of Maj. Gen. James A. Doolittle.
Axis planes scarce
Field dispatches said Axis planes were so scarce on some front sectors that ground forces found it unnecessary to use the foxholes which they had dug hurriedly.
A dispatch from United Press correspondent Donald Coe, at an advanced case, said:
Instead of enemy planes, there are now patrols of Allied aircraft sweeping the sky for hours without encountering opposition.
The communiqué indicated that allied aerial domination was continuing to increase as the ground troops plowed ahead.
The communiqué also announced capture of Riesi, 168 miles northeast of Licata, and Niscemi Airdrome, about the same distance northeast of Gela. These advances extended the American front well inland from the south coast.
Seize Vizzini
Vizzini, a road junction 22 miles east of Caltagirone, was also occupied, while U.S. troops took over Palma di Montechiaro, on the south coast west of Licata.
Other towns taken were: Canicattì, Bagni, Vittoria, Campobello, Sortino, Modica, Comiso and Biscari airdrome, some of which had been previously reported seized.
It was believed the enemy might have decided to fight a rearguard action all the way back to the northeastern tip of Sicily, making the best possible use of the mountainous area across the base of the northeastern strip running from Catania through Mt. Etna to the northern coast, probably around Capo d’Orlando.
The key to the whole campaign, however, may depend on what happens in the next few days on the Catania Plain, since the fall of Catania would endanger the whole Axis line and threaten to cut it off from the Italian mainland.
The Allied naval forces supporting the 8th Army ranged all along the coast and a destroyer operating north of Augusta sank one enemy torpedo boat and probably damaged or sank another.
Both sides were using tanks in the east coast, where the Germans have some of their big 60-ton vehicles in action.
The German communiqué today said that the Allies suffered heavy losses in tanks” south of Catania and that Axis planes successfully attacked Allied shipping, sinking or damaging several transports to boost the total of invasion vessels sunk to 52.
The German radio said that two Allied cruisers, five destroyers, one submarine, two other warships and 27 merchantmen were sunk in the first two weeks of June in the Mediterranean. In addition, many other ships, including 18 cruisers, were damaged and 426 planes shot down, the Nazis claimed.