Editorial: Something wrong somewhere
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‘Conviction on suspicion’ described at FCC inquiry
Radio licenses held up until stations make personnel changes, witness says
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WAC dies in plane crash
Shreveport, Louisiana –
Flight Officer J. B. Ames of Ranger, Texas, and 2nd Lt. Barbara K. Young, 37, of Ruffs Dale, Pennsylvania, WAC stationed at Barksdale, were killed yesterday when an Army plane crashed six miles from the field. Lt. Ames and Lt. Young were on a routine flight when the crash occurred. She joined the WAC last January.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
Our troops have found Sicily on the whole perhaps a little better than North Africa. Certainly, the people are just as friendly, if not more so. So, this whole thing seems kind of ridiculous, when you sit down and think about it.
Here these people are our enemies. They declared war on us. We had to come clear over here and fight them – and now that we’re here, they look upon us as their friends.
If anything, their attitude is more that of a liberated people than was the case in French North Africa, and they seem to look to us more eagerly for relief from their hunger. In several of the smaller mountain towns, our troops were greeted by signs saying “Welcome,” in English, pasted on the walls of buildings, and American flags were fluttering from windows.
Of course there are some Sicilians who treat us as enemies. There has been some small sabotage, such as cutting our phone wires. But on the whole, the Sicilians certainly are more for us than the Arabs of Africa were.
Sicily is really a beautiful country. Up here in the north it is all mountainous, and all but the most rugged of the mountains are covered with fields or orchards. Right now, everything is dry and burned up, as we so often see our own Midwest in dry summers. They say this is the driest summer in years.
It’s like Garden of Eden
Our ceaseless convoys chew up the gravel roads, and the dust becomes suffocating, but in springtime Sicily must look like the Garden of Eden. The land is wonderfully fertile. Sicilians would not have to be poor and starving if they were capable of organizing and using their land to its fullest.
Driving over Sicily, you have a feeling of far greater antiquity than you get even from looking at the Roman ruins in North Africa. Towns sit right smack on the top of needle-point mountain peaks. They were built that way in the old days for protection. Today, a motorcar can’t even get up to many of them.
The houses are of a cement-colored stone, and they blend into the mountains so that often you can’t see a city at all from a few miles away.
In these mountain towns, the streets are too narrow for vehicles, the passageways are dirty, and the goat and burro are common.
In the very remotest and most ancient town, you’ll find that half the people have relatives in America, and there is always somebody popping up from behind every bush or around every corner who lived for 12 years in Buffalo or 30 years in Chicago.
Yum, yum, watermelons–
Farming is still done in Biblical style. The grain-threshing season is now on, and how do you suppose they do it? Simply by tying three mules together and running them around in a small circle all day long while another fellow keeps throwing grain under their hoofs with a wooden pitchfork.
We hit Sicily in the middle of the fruit and vegetable season. The troops went for fresh tomatoes like sourdoughs going for gold in the Klondike. Tomatoes and watermelons too. I’ve never seen so many watermelons in my life. They are mostly small round ones, and do they taste good to an old watermelon devourer like myself! Also, we eat fresh peaches, grapes, figs and even mulberries.
At first when we hit a new town the people in their gratitude gave away their fruit to the troops. But it didn’t take them long to learn, and soon they were holding out for trades of rations or other Army stuff. The people don’t want money. When we ask them to work for us, they say they will but that we must pay them in merchandise, not money.
The most sought-after thing is shoes. Most of the people are going around in sandals made of old auto tires. I believe you could take two dozen pairs of G.I. shoes and buy half the island of Sicily.
America’s war reporters –
Communications and censorship hurdles confront all foreign correspondents
Many live with troops, share their hardships; have every reason to regard selves as part of forces
By Gilbert Love
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Völkischer Beobachter (August 11, 1943)
Feindlicher Umfassungsversuch auf Sizilien mißglückt –
Schwerste Sowjetverluste bei Bjelgorod
Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 10. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Am Kubanbrückenkopf brachen von Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets zusammen. Während an der Miusfront durch überraschende eigene Angriffe dem Gegner ein wichtiges Höhengelände entrissen wurde, herrschte in den übrigen Abschnitten am Mius und am mittleren Donez nur geringe Kampftätigkeit. Im Raum von Bjelgorod dauert der Großkampf an. Durch wuchtige Angriffe der Luftwaffe hatte der Feind besonders in diesem Abschnitt schwere Verluste. Westlich von Orel scheiterten auch gestern alle Durchbruchsversuche der Bolschewisten in schweren und für den Feind verlustreichen Kämpfen.
Auch südwestlich und westlich Wjasma griffen die Sowjets nach Heranführung neuer Kräfte und unter Einsatz von Panzern, Flammenwerfern, Salvengeschützen und Schlachtfliegern ununterbrochen an. Mit Unterstützung starker Kampf-, Sturzkampf- und Schlachtfliegergeschwader der Luftwaffe wiesen unsere Truppen alle Angriffe unter hohen feindlichen Verlusten ab und schossen eine große Anzahl von Panzern zusammen.
Südlich des Ladogasees wurden die auch an dieser Front wieder aufgenommenen Angriffe der Sowjets abgewiesen, zum Teil bereits in der Entwicklung zerschlagen. Am gestrigen Tage verloren die Sowjets an der Ostfront 215 Panzer. In Luftkämpfen wurden am 8. und 9. August 119 Sowjetflugzeuge vernichtet.
Im Nordabschnitt der sizilianischen Front wurden feindliche Angriffe abgewehrt. Den Versuch, unseren Nordflügel mit schwachen Kräften über See zu umfassen, vereitelten unsere Truppen im Gegenangriff. An den übrigen Frontabschnitten herrschte nur örtliche Kampftätigkeit. Bei der Bekämpfung von Schiffszielen an der Nordküste trafen schwere deutsche Kampfflugzeuge einen feindlichen Zerstörer. Im Seegebiet vor Augusta wurden drei mittelgroße Frachter versenkt sowie ein Kreuzer und zwei kleine feindliche Einheiten beschädigt.
Nach Tagesangriffen feindlicher Fliegerkräfte gegen einige Orte der besetzten Westgebiete warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Verbände der britischen Luftwaffe Spreng- und Brandbomben auf die Stadt Mannheim. Es entstanden Brandschäden in den Wohngebieten. Die Bevölkerung hatte geringe Verluste. Nach bisher vorliegenden Meldungen wurden 13 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht.
Deutsche Seestreitkräfte, Bordflak von Handelsschiffen und Marineflak schossen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 10. August 42 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
Deutsche Sizilienkämpfer im Urteil des Gegners –
‚Unvorstellbare Verteidigungskraft‘
dnb. Stockholm, 10. August –
Die Kommentatoren des Londoner Senders berichten über die Kampfhandlungen auf dem Kriegsschauplatz Sizilien, daß sich die Deutschen immer hartnäckiger und wilder verteidigten. Es sei unvorstellbar, mit welchem Fanatismus die wenigen deutschen Divisionen den von allen Seiten gegen sie mit größter Übermacht vorgetragenen Angriffen Widerstand leisteten. Von englischen Militärkritikern wird unumwunden zugegeben, daß die Widerstandskraft dieser deutschen Verbände bewunderungswürdig ist, um so mehr als sie einer vielfachen Übermacht gegenüberstünden. Daß es Montgomery bisher nicht gelungen ist, trotz des gewaltigen Einsatzes der englisch-amerikanischen Luftwaffe und schwerer Schiffseinheiten die deutsche Front zu erschüttern, stelle den deutschen Soldaten an der Ätnafront das beste Zeugnis aus.
Ein verwundeter englischer Offizier, der in ein Lazarett nach Gibraltar gebracht wurde, äußerte sich über die Härte der Kämpfe auf Sizilien, wie Lavoro Italiano aus Tanger meldet:
Wenn die Eroberung der Apenninenhalbinsel uns so viele Opfer kostete wie die Besetzung Catanias, so besteht die Gefahr, daß wir Engländer uns daran erschöpfen.
Rücksichtslose Ausplünderung
dnb. Berlin, 10. August –
Die ernsten Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den anglo-amerikanischen Besatzungstruppen und der Zivilbevölkerung in Sizilien nehmen täglich zu, wie die schwedische Zeitung Dagsposten am 6. August aus Lissabon erfährt. Das Auftreten der nordamerikanischen Soldaten ist herausfordernd und demütigend für die Bevölkerung, die auf Schritt und Tritt bewacht wird. Der gesamte Verkehr auf den Straßen unterliegt strengster Kontrolle.
In einem besonderen Befehl werden die anglo-amerikanischen Truppen aufgefordert, den Italienern zu mißtrauen. Die Beschlagnahme aller Lebensmittelvorräte auf Sizilien für den Bedarf der Besatzungstruppen hat zu Unruhen geführt. Der Wechselkurs, der von den Besatzungsbehörden für die Lira im Verhältnis zu Pfund und Dollar festgesetzt wurde, ist außerordentlich ungünstig und ist in Wirklichkeit rücksichtslose Ausplünderung. Für diejenigen Leute unter der sizilianischen Bevölkerung, die den Versprechungen der Nordamerikaner und Briten Glauben geschenkt hatten, ist das Auftreten der Besatzungstruppen eine bittere Enttäuschung.
Italienische Fliegererfolge
Verbände der italienischen Luftwaffe haben sich an den Einsätzen gegen die Häfen von Augusta und Palermo sowie gegen Schiffe in diesen Häfen während der letzten Tage und Nächte mit großem Erfolg beteiligt. In den angegriffenen Zielen wurden starke Brände und Explosionen von den Besatzungen der italienischen Kampfflugzeuge beobachtet. Italienische Jagdflieger haben in den letzten zehn Tagen 26 feindliche Flugzeuge mit Sicherheit abgeschossen. Die Vernichtung von weiteren fünf feindlichen Maschinen ist wahrscheinlich.
Feindlicher Schiffsraum versenkt
dnb. Rom, 10. August –
Wie der italienische Wehrmachtbericht vom Dienstag meldet, torpedierten italienische Flugzeuge in der Nähe von Sizilien einen Kreuzer sowie zwei Handelsschiffe von insgesamt 8.000 BRT., während deutsche Kampfflugzeuge in den Gewässern bei Augusta drei Dampfer mittlerer Tonnage versenkten und außerdem einen Kreuzer und zwei kleinere Einheiten trafen.
Neuer Innenminister
König und Kaiser Viktor Emanuel III. ernannte den Präfekten z. D. Senator Umberto Ricci an Stelle von Rono Fornaciari, der seine Demission eingereicht hat, zum italienischen Innenminister.
U.S. State Department (August 11, 1943)
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt
London, 11 August 1943.
Most secret
407.
Former Naval Person to President. Most secret and personal.
I have just arrived after a most swift and agreeable journey on which it has been possible to work continuously. The Warden Family are looking forward keenly to their visit to Hyde Park where we propose to arrive the afternoon of the 12th. Are we right in thinking we should all bring our thinnest clothes?
I send you herewith (see my next telegram) the draft of the monthly announcement about U-boats which I have prepared in concert with the Admiralty. Let us discuss it when we meet and a day or two’s delay beyond the 10th in its release is not important.
Warmest greetings to all.
President Roosevelt to Prime Minister Churchill
Washington, 11 August 1943.
Most secret
344.
Your number 407.
Regret delay in replying. Suggest thin clothes but be prepared for a variety of weather. Delighted to see you in any costume.
ROOSEVELT
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt
London, 11 August 1943.
Most secret
409.
Former Naval Person to President. Personal and most secret.
Eden suggests that our Tangier representative replies to Badoglio’s Emissary Berio as follows.
Badoglio must understand that we cannot negotiate but require unconditional surrender which means that the Italian Government should place themselves in hands of Allied Governments who will then state their terms. These will provide for an honourable capitulation.
The instructions would continue:
Badoglio’s Emissary should be reminded at the same time that Prime Minister and President have already stated that we desire that in due course Italy should occupy a respected place in New Europe when peace has been reestablished and that General Eisenhower has announced that Italian prisoners taken in Tunisia and Sicily will be released providing all British and Allied prisoners now in Italian hands are released.
This is simply made up of our existing declarations. If you approve it in principle, please cable at once direct Eden at Foreign Office as I shall be on the move. If text does not meet your view, we can discuss it on arrival. I think Italians ought to have an answer as soon as possible. It will, at any rate, make it easier for them to decide who to double cross.
I have also received what follows in my next from U.J. You will see I am restored, if not to favour, at any rate to the court. I have sent reply which also follows.
It is quite cool here and very pleasant and everything is ready for you in Citadel which is admirably suited to our needs. It was indeed a happy inspiration which led you to suggest this particular rendezvous at this particular moment in Canadian politics.
President Roosevelt to the British Foreign Secretary
Washington, August 11, 1943.
Secret
Priority
Personal and secret to Winant for Eden from the President.
I fully approve Former Naval Person’s proposed reply to Badoglio’s emissary Berio in Tangier as recommended by you.
ROOSEVELT
740.0011 European War 1939/30658: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden to the Secretary of State
Stockholm, August 11, 1943.
2516.
Acting Chief Political Division Foreign Office states that reports from Rome have convinced Foreign Office that Badoglio tried to make an arrangement with Germany for removal of German troops from Italian soil. If successful, he had intended to capitulate, but as he was unable to persuade Germans to agree to this his next step is indefinite.
Same officer states as his personal belief that holding tactics still in practice on eastern front indicate continuation of modified “Hitler strategy” hence he believes Hitler still controls military forces and that this will shorten war by causing a quicker depletion of German military power than if generals had their way and shortened front immediately without sure loss of men and material as present strategy demands.
JOHNSON
The Pittsburgh Press (August 11, 1943)
ITALIAN NAVY BASE SHELLED
Randazzo’s fall near as Allied forces advance
8th Army and Yanks join at vital pass, push ahead despite Nazi demolition tactics; shores of Italy sighted
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Driving up the coast of Sicily, the British 8th Army has captured Guardia at the end of the Allied advance line on the island (broken line). Allied troops drove toward Randazzo (arrow), the center of the Axis prepared defenses (solid line). British warships moved into the Gulf of Naples to shell the Castellammare di Stabia naval yards, and also bombarded railway bridges at Cape Vaticano, on the instep of the Italian boot (lower left map).
Allied HQ, North Africa –
British warships, steaming one-third of the way up the Italian west coast, bombarded a naval yard in the Gulf of Naples while Allied ground forces pounded along the Sicilian coast to within sight of the Italian mainland, it was announced today.
One British 8th Army column captured Guardia in a two-to-three-mile advance along the east coast road bordering Mt. Etna and came within sight of the toe of the Italian boot for the first time. Only 14 miles to the north lay the Axis base of Taormina.
Other 8th Army forces consolidated their junction with the U.S. 7th Army north and west of Bronte, 22 miles to the northwest, in a general advance toward Randazzo Pass, controlling the last good road between the Sicilian east and north coasts.
Sea control asserted
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s communiqué said:
Progress continues to be made whilst our troops overcome enemy resistance and deal with obstacles he is having.
A strong force of British cruisers and destroyers boldly asserted the Allied command of the sea and air around Italy by steaming up the west coast to the Gulf of Naples Monday night and sending a stream of shells into the Castellammare di Stabia naval shipbuilding and repair yard only 20 miles southeast of Naples.
It marked the deepest penetration yet of Italian waters and carried the British naval forces more than 200 miles north of Palermo.
Allied advance slowed
Simultaneously, another Allied naval force shelled railway bridges at Capo Vaticano on the instep of the Italian boot below the Gulf of Saint Eufemia, over which Italian military trains for southern Italy must move.
The Allied advance toward Randazzo on the northwestern slope of Mt. Etna was in the face of fierce resistance, including murderous mortar bombardments from German guns mounted on heights commanding roads from Bronte and Cesarò.
The British and Americans were also slowed by extensive enemy demolitions. Blasted roads and bridges enforced halts of several hours while sappers and bulldozers filled in the craters and built makeshift bridges.
Germans face trap
Of the 120,000 prisoners announced yesterday as in Allied hands, the U.S. 7th Army captured 92,000 and the British 8th Army 28,000. It has not been specified who took the 5,000 prisoners who have since been taken.
A British broadcast heard by CBS placed the Americans within two miles of Randazzo, but emphasized that the report had not been confirmed.
The fall of Randazzo would put Italo-German armies in their worst predicament since the Allies blasted through the Tunis plain and swarmed onto the Cape Bon Peninsula in May.
British and U.S. bombers continued to concentrate to concentrate their cargoes on Axis transport clogging the roads running north and northeast from Randazzo toward the evacuation ports of Messina and Milazzo.
Planes in action
Other planes kept up constant patrols over Messina Strait to break up evacuation attempts.
An Italian communiqué reported that Messina was “intensely and repeatedly bombed.”
On the north coast, the U.S. 7th Army consolidated the positions reached in the successful landing at the mouth of the Rosmarino River some 45 miles west of Messina.
A German broadcast said that a violent Axis artillery barrage thwarted fresh American landing attempts east of Sant’Agata on the north coast.
Mainland in sight
The advance to within sight of the Italian mainland was made by the British troops moving up the east coast. From a vantage post on the side of Mt. Etna the British could see, some 35 miles distance, the Italian promontory known as Capo dell’Armi, where there is a small fighting village of the same name.
They could also see, looming up in the distance behind this point, the 6,000-foot Aspromonte Range.
The 8th Army advance netted the important communications point of Guardia, where the Messina-Catania highway swings inland for several miles. The area also has four railroad tunnels.
Messina bombed, Italians say
London, England (UP) –
Messina, on the eastern corner of Sicily, was “intensely and repeatedly” bombed by Allied air forces yesterday, an Italian communiqué broadcast by Radio Rome said today, and Axis troops are engaged in “hard defensive” fighting on the island.
Italian torpedo planes were said to have damaged an Allied light cruiser and two medium-sized vessels off Sicily last night.
A supplementary announcement said 124 persons were killed and 352 wounded in recent air raids on Turin, Milan and Genoa.
Germans claim hits on ships
London, England (UP) –
German bombing planes in attacks on Allied-held Sicilian ports hit and damaged 16 vessels, including a large warship and a destroyer, in attacks yesterday and last night, a German communiqué broadcast by Berlin radio said today.
The communiqué said vaguely that Allied attacks were repulsed in Sicilian land fighting.
Admitting local Soviet breakthroughs south and southwest of Vyazma on the Russian front. The communiqué said 348 Soviet tanks were destroyed yesterday, including 61 near Belgorod.
Fourteen bombers were said to have been shot down over Nuremberg last night during an air raid which caused some damage to residential and public buildings.