Allies attain mastery over Sicilian sky
Seven enemy planes down in latest action; two of ours lost
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, North Africa –
Allied mastery of the skies over Sicily and southern Italy was almost complete today as the Northwest African Air Force attacked practically every phase of Axis operations, including troops, trains, roads, bridges and escape shipping across the Strait of Messina.
Seven enemy planes were shot down in combat and they were almost the only Axis aircraft encountered in either Sicily or Italy. Two Allied planes were lost.
Planes comb beaches
British and Canadian Wellington bombers hovered over the beaches and Strait of Messina for eight hours last night, extending their heavy assaults to Cape Pellaro, 10 miles south of Reggio Calabria, and to Palmi and San Giovanni – all on the Italian “toe,” opposite Sicily.
U.S. Lightnings gave southern Italy a thorough going-over, shooting up a troop train and attacking a supply train, the locomotive of which exploded. Both trains were attacked near the Gulf of Saint Eufemia, and six other trains were shot up in the Gioia area on the west coast 25 miles north of Reggio.
Lightning pilots reported hits on a small barge off Capo Vaticano, 25 miles north of Messina; guns and powerlines at Gioia and an enemy halftrack vehicle at Capinga. They met no Axis planes.
Randazzo is hit
U.S. and British fighter-bombers attacked the communications center of Randazzo on the northern slope of Mt. Etna all day yesterday. Many cars of two troop trains were destroyed or damaged. Twenty trucks of a road convoy were wrecked and 70 damaged.
Spitfires flown by Americans raided shipping between Milazzo, on the north coast of Sicily, and Messina.
Marauder medium bombers attacked highway and railway bridges in the Angitola River region of Italy. Mitchell mediums bombed a bridge at Marina Porto di Catanzaro in southern Italy.