America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

Nazi fliers in Russia transferred to Sicily

Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
The Allies announced today that German airmen from the Russian front have entered the Battle of Sicily, some of them evidently shifted while the summer campaigning there was getting underway.

A joint statement of the U.S. Army Air Force and the Royal Air Force disclosed the presence in Sicily of Nazi airmen whose transfer must have weakened Germany. The statement recalled repeated statements by Allied leaders of intentions to ease the German pressure on Russia.

Notebooks and dictionaries brought from Russia were found in a German Air Force officers’ mess at the Comiso Airfield, Sicily, the announcement said.

Editorial: Bombed Rome

Editorial: Asking Congress to help

Defends war work –
Ickes turns his guns on harping critics

Interior Secretary says officials’ only reward ‘is to be spit upon as bureaucrats;’ New York, Washington and Chicago papers rapped

Völkischer Beobachter (July 21, 1943)

Die Schande von Rom zeugt gegen die Kulturbarbaren –
Einhellige Empörung über das geschichtliche Verbrechen

Jüdisch-sadistische Zerstörungswut tobte über der Ewigen Stadt

Erneut 562 Feindpanzer im Osten abgeschossen –
Sowjetangriffe brachen blutig zusammen

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 20. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Der Ansturm der Sowjets gegen die Ostfront scheiterte auch gestern an der erfolgreichen Abwehr unserer von der Luftwaffe hervorragend unterstützten Truppen, die dabei erneut 562 Panzer abschossen.

Am Kubanbrückenkopf scheiterten mehrere feindliche Angriffe gegen die Höhenstellung westlich Krymskaja, zum Teil wurden sie schon in der Bereitstellung zerschlagen.

Unter Einsatz weiterer Verstärkungen wiederholte der Feind seine heftigen Durchbruchsangriffe am Mius und am mittleren Donez, sie wurden in harten und wechselvollen Kämpfen abgewiesen.

Während im Raum nördlich Bjelgorod nur örtlich begrenzte Teilangriffe des Gegners gemeldet werden, halten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe im Kampfraum von Orel weiter an. Durch wuchtige Gegenangriffe wurden die Sowjets an einigen Stellen zurückgeworfen. An anderen Stellen brachten unsere Truppen in erbitterten Kämpfen den Angriff starker feindlicher Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte zum Stehen.

Auf Sizilien wurden zahlreiche Angriffe starker feindlicher Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte in harten Kämpfen und im Zusammenwirken mit deutschen Nahkampffliegerkräften abgeschlagen. Die deutsche und italienische Luftwaffe setzte ihre Angriffe gegen die Transportflotte des Feindes auch gestern mit gutem Erfolg fort. Bei diesen Angriffen wurde unter anderem ein feindlicher Frachter von über 10.000 BRT. durch Bombenwurf versenkt. In der vergangenen Nacht griffen deutsche Kampfflugzeuge Malta an.

Der brutale Terrorangriff auf Rom –
London begeistert, Washington befriedigt

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung

Rücksichtslose Ausnützung des Pacht- und Leihgesetzes –
Weltpläne der USA. für den Luftverkehr

166 Tote und 1659 Verletzte in Rom –
Feinddruck in Sizilien hartnäckig aufgehalten

dnb. Rom, 20. Juli –
Das Hauptquartier der italienischen Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Der verstärkte feindliche Druck auf die Stellung der Achsentruppen in Sizilien wird weiterhin hartnäckig aufgehalten.

Östlich von Sizilien versenkten italienische U-Boote einen Dampfer von 8000 BRT. und torpedierten einen weiteren Dampfer großer Tonnage. Ein Handelsschiff mittlerer Größe und ein Kriegsschiff von nicht näher bezeichnetem Typ wurden von unseren Torpedoflugzeugen getroffen.

Auf der Reede von Augusta und im Hafen von La Valetta beschädigten italienische und deutsche Bomber vor Anker liegende feindliche Schiffe.

Die Schäden, die von amerikanischen Verbänden, welche mit mehreren hundert viermotorigen Bombern gestern drei Stunden lang Rom angriffen, verursacht wurden, sind sehr groß. Unter anderem wurden Gebäude, die der Religionsausübung und der Wissenschaft geheiligt sind, sowie Arbeiterwohnviertel schwer getroffen und zum Teil zerstört, vor allem die Basilika San Lorenzo, der Friedhof Verano, die Universitätsstadt, der Gebäudekomplex der Poliklinik, die Wohnhäuser der Stadtteile Prenestina und Latina.

Die bisher festgestellte Zahl der Opfer unter der Zivilbevölkerung beträgt 166 Tote und 1659 Verletzte. Während und nach dem Angriff bewahrte die Bevölkerung Disziplin und Ruhe.

Sieben Flugzeuge wurden von der Flak und eines von Jägern abgeschossen.

In der vergangenen Nacht waren Neapel und kleinere Orte in Campania und Latium das Ziel feindlicher Luftangriffe. Es werden leichte Schäden und beschränkte Verluste unter der Bevölkerung gemeldet.

The Pittsburgh Press (July 21, 1943)

CENTRAL SICILY BASE CAPTURED
Yanks occupy Enna in drive toward coast

Canadians aid; half of island now held by Allied forces
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, North Africa –
U.S. and Canadian forces driving to within 28 miles of the North African coast today captured Enna, the main Axis communications center and base in central Sicily, while the British 8th Army pressed a hammer and tongs battle for the east coast port of Catania.

The fall of Enna, a town of 27,000 on a high horseshoe-shaped hill in mid-Sicily, cut off German and Italian rearguard troops and gave the Allies control of a network of roads leading to all corners of the island. French Goumiers, native Moroccan troops, participated in the Allied advance.

Hold half of Sicily

The Allied forces now occupy one-half of the 10,000-square-mile island of Sicily and a considerable number of Axis troops, including Germans, were believed cut off in the western part of the island.

The Canadians closed in on Enna from the southeast, breaking through stubborn enemy resistance, while the U.S. 7th Army reached the road junction from the southwest, after flanking operations that carried some units farther northward toward the coast.

The effect of the capture of Enna was to split Sicily in half, with the allies controlling all territory south of a line running from Catania on the east coast to Enna and thence southwestward to a point beyond Agrigento, where the Americans were still advancing. Enna represented an advance of about 35 airline miles from the nearest south coast port at Gela, but the troops covered many more miles in their offensive over mountain roads.

Vital road network

Of greatest importance, however, was the seizure of the road network centering at Enna. The Axis, with mid-island defenses crumbling, was being driven steadily back toward northeast Sicily and its main communication lines are vanishing except on the north coast.

The rearguard action fought by the enemy in the Enna sector as well as the fierce battle at Catania were regarded as designed to gain time while the main Axis forces fall back toward Messina, only a few miles from the toe of the Italian boot.

Two Axis armored divisions were among the enemy forces falling back from the Enna area.

At Catania, however, enemy resistance continued strong against the 8th Army of gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Field dispatches said that the battlefields south of Catania were strewn with German dead and wrecked tanks of the Hermann Göring Division, while Allied warships and airplanes hammered the coastal road leading northward to Messina.

The Algiers radio said today that Catania is now being attacked from all sides and is expected to fall “at any moment.”

Prisoners taken in Sicily were estimated to total around 40,000, more than half of them taken by the Americans. As usual, Italian prisoners complained that the Germans took their transport and fled, leaving the Italians to walk. They also complained that the Italian government had given them little equipment with which to fight.

Plane score even

During the last 24 hours, six enemy and six Allied planes were destroyed.

Marauder medium bombers attacked the Vibo Valentia Airfield in southern Italy. The field was covered the bombs among dispersed planes and hangars. The second wave found the hangars already burning fiercely.

Hangars were also set afire at the Monte Corvino Airdrome in southern Italy by Mitchell medium bombers. They bombed between 20 and 40 parked aircraft, setting fire to many.

Warhawks that gave Sardinia its first attack in several days aimed at airfields, factories, a reservoir dam and ammunition dump. They were credited with all Axis planes shot down during the day.

On another mission, Warhawks attacked railroad marshalling yards at Partinico and Alcamo in northwest Sicily.

Strike north of Naples

A large force of British and Canadian Wellingtons bombed an airfield at Aquino, north of Naples, Monday night, leaving eight large and 22 small fires burning.

Raddusa, midway between Enna and Catania, was hard hit by Mitchell bombers, which started big fires and caused explosions. The Allied planes encountered no Axis fighter opposition.

Medium bombers also attacked the focal enemy communications point of Randazzo north of Mt. Etna Monday night.

Intruder planes attacked railroad and highway communications in Italy Monday night.

Eisenhower: Axis planning stand opposite Italian mainland

Enemy in Sicily receiving some reinforcements, general reports
By Donald Coe, United Press staff writer

Planes blast six Jap ships

Three and possibly four war vessels sunk
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer

Another Rome raid reported

Fire bombs dropped on suburbs, Berne hears

Wartime fashions –
Carrots, pea and cabbage adorn milady’s new gowns

Influence of victory gardens shown in the newest creations of New York’s designers
By Maxine Garrison, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Ours was boy, parents say in baby suit

Half million demanded by Los Angeles pair in ‘mistake’

Warships shell Kiska; Japs bomb Funafuti

parry2

I DARE SAY —
Holiday

By Florence Fisher Parry

I used to have a little wire called “Hey-Wire,” which I had to get rid of for a very sad reason. Although he ecstatically welcomed every visitor to the house, when the time came for the guests to depart, he viciously bit their ankles. This was carrying hospitality a little too far and there was nothing to do but consign him to a domicile where visitors were not the order of the day.

Personally, I had great sympathy for Hey-Wire’s unorthodox approach to the social amenities. Conformity, as well as consistency, is the hobgoblin of little minds, and I have always felt a sneaking attraction for those who have the courage of their own eccentricities.

I dare say we all nurse peculiarities. There is no family which does not indulge in its own funny little habits which, to the outsider, appear ridiculous.

Take this morning, for instance: I am what is called “sick in bed.” I am dictating this column through a blanket of cerebral fog.

But is my plight cause for commiseration? Indeed, no! It is, instead, cause for general rejoicing, and always has been. For to my family, my being sick means one happy thing: IT MAKES ME STAY HOME. And so always has been regarded by my progeny at least as a red-letter holiday.

This blithe attitude toward sickness has extended also to them. All their lives they have rejoiced at their every passing brash, for it meant that I would have to stay home from work, and wait on them, and read to them, and be, indeed, a mother.

Sick-a-bed day

Looking back over the years of their children, I am seized by a pang past describing. I dare say this spasm of nostalgic regret is suffered by all busy mothers who have been cheated of a normal home life. But looking back upon the compromise my children have been made to accept, I have come to the conclusion that no mistake a mother can ever make is so grievous as that of foregoing a normal home with her children while they are growing up. No compensation, no reward, can justify the loss.

I look upon the time I had to spend away from my own children with the most bitter resentment; and, if I had my life to live over, I would undertake any compromise that would permit me to be home with them through their growing years.

Frankly I just cannot understand women who, given the alternative, deliberately and selfishly choose a career to the rearing of their own children.

It is all right to say that you can do both. That you can have your cake and eat it. I rise to testify that it cannot be done. One or the other will suffer, and it is usually the children who do.

My advice to all young widows left with small children is to marry again and at once, and provide, if possible, by this recourse, a normal home for their children.

My children can tell me ‘til the cows come home that they had a happy childhood; but I cannot be fooled. I know now there was something wrong somewhere, if only because, when I was sick in bed or they were sick in bed, it was a signal for general rejoicing.

Too late now

There is never a spring comes around that when I see a violet growing. I don’t remember the times that we were going out in the country to pick Johnny-jump-ups, and never did, because I was busy and had to go to town.

I never see a picnic table along the highway that I am not rebuked, remembering the picnics we were to have and didn’t have, because I was too busy.

All around me I see young mothers doing just what I did, young mothers left widows, so easily attracted into the rut of a career, so easily persuaded to get someone to look after the children while they follow their own selfish paths! I never see one that I don’t feel like standing before her, stopping her in her tracks, and warning her against the mistake that I made and have lived to rue.

For nothing vanishes as quickly as childhood. Now it is here, heartbreakingly beautiful and importunate; and then it is gone, and cannot be recovered. Such a few years until they are grown. Fools, we, that we do not grapple them to our hearts and make the most of them, while there is still time!

Texas sheriff nabbed by FBI

Aided in jailbreak, accusers say


Roosevelt orders study of race riots

Equalized gas ration studied

Byrnes promises decision within next 10 days

Yank troops stab first, ask questions afterward

Americans near Munda sleep with hands on hilt, set to repel Jap night attackers
By George E. Jones, United Press staff writer