The Pittsburgh Press (August 13, 1943)
Yanks bomb Rome; RAF raids Berlin
Allied fliers hit Holland, France, Belgium
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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Americans surge through broken Sicilian defenses
Two more towns seized on north coast of Sicily; Germans evacuating troops to mainland
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
Smashing toward Messina, U.S. troops have captured Naso and Brolo, on the north coast of Sicily 38 miles west of the Axis escape port. The British 8th Army was approaching Giarre, 37 miles south of Messina, while Allied forces in the center of the line were within four miles of Randazzo, key road junction. The north coast drive was speeded by the U.S. landing behind the German lines yesterday (arrow).
Allied HQ, North Africa –
U.S. troops plunged ahead eight miles on the north coast of Sicily, capturing Capo d’Orlando and two towns beyond it, in general Allied advances against fierce rearguard action covering a “quickening” German evacuation of the island, it was announced today.
As the campaign went into its final phase with tacit Axis acknowledgement that the Battle for Sicily was lost, the Allied bag of prisoners rose to 130,000, including another Italian general, this one named Fiumara, believed to be the commander of the Naples Division.
Capitalizing on the second landing behind the German lines, the U.S. 7th Army drove eastward behind a shattering sea and air bombardment. The united landing force and the main army swarmed through Capo d’Orlando, anchor of the Axis defenses, and forward to occupy the towns of Naso and Brolo.
8th Army advances
On the east coast, the British 8th Army moved up four miles to occupy the village of Torre Archirafi and threaten the neighboring towns of Giarre and Riposto.
While the wings of the Allied push reached within 35 miles of Messina, U.S. and British forces thrusting through the center at the key junction of Randazzo gained about four miles in the rugged mountain pass west of the town, which was already under light artillery fire.
Dispatches from the Sicilian front said the evacuation of Sicily by the main body of German troops was in full swing. Confirming the reports, authorities here said the rearguard fighting by the Axis forces was still bitter on both coasts and in the Randazzo sector.
A headquarters communiqué said the German resistance along the east coast “continued to stiffen,” apparently in a desperate bid to evacuate as many troops as possible across the narrow Strait of Messina to Italy before the Allies foreclose their narrowing northeastern Sicily bridgehead.
The reports made clear that the amphibious operation which landed U.S. troops around the Naso River behind the German lines Wednesday had been a complete success and had been backed up by the U.S. 7th Army in the Capo d’Orlando sector.
Blast bridges
Occupying Naso, three miles inland, the troops hammered eastward to take Brolo. Ahead of them, the warships, which had asserted in the landing, bombarded roads, railways and highway bridges from Piraino to Marina di Patti, probably destroying one highway tunnel.
British naval units, ranging to the edge of the Strait of Messina despite shore guns, aided the British push up the east coast road which had reached Torre Archirafi, three miles south of Riposto.
While light naval units were into the straits and operated off Capo dell’Armi, on the toe of the Italian boot, without meeting enemy ships, larger ships bombarded Taormina and Cape Ali, 22 miles northward, and the Riposto area Tuesday. Shore guns blazed away at the light craft.
The bitterest land fighting continued in the sector slightly south and west and Randazzo. The British forces, cooperating with the Americans, pushed through the mountainous terrain toward Maletto, four miles southwest of the road junction, and U.S. mobile troops on the Cesarò road above them made additional progress.
U.S. PT boats were working through waters off northeastern Sicily, aiding the aerial forces in stabbing at the shipping lanes across the straits through which the Axis is trying to take out its troops.
Roosevelt-Churchill talks may turn to Pacific plans
Disclosure Russia was not invited sets off new speculation on Anglo-U.S. conference
Washington (UP) –
Speculation that the Roosevelt-Churchill conference in Québec will concern the next Allied step after the fall of Sicily was being discounted here today on the theory that it, and possibly the next series of blows in Europe, have already been planned.
However, the official Soviet TASS News Agency’s statement last night that the Soviet Union was not invited to the Québec meeting “because of the nature of the conference” sent the guessers off on another whole series of speculations about what President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill will discuss.
Factors cited
The most logical guess, in view of the Soviet statement, was that the Canadian conference would deal with the Pacific situation. These factors are cited to support that theory:
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The Soviet Union is not at war with Japan and thus, as TASS said, could not expect to participate in such a conference.
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Canada, the locale of the latest Churchill-Roosevelt meeting, is as vitally interested as the United States and Great Britain in the outcome of the Pacific War. It has a long Pacific coastline.
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Earlier this week, President Roosevelt met with the Pacific War Council. The time of the Roosevelt-Churchill meeting has not been announced, but he presumably discussed the forthcoming conference in general terms with the council members, especially if it is to deal with the Japanese war.
Would welcome aid
Logical as that speculation seemed to be, one major flaw in it was President Roosevelt’s press and radio conference remarks of last Tuesday, he admitted then that no Soviet representative would attend the conference, but that that did not mean he wouldn’t be awfully glad to have them present.
Those who argue that the conference will deal with the Pacific War, contend that the President’s remake is not inconsistent with their speculation. They say that it has been no secret that Great Britain and the United States would welcome the assistance of Soviet Siberian air bases to the Jap homeland. Thus, they say, Mr. Roosevelt would be awfully glad if the Russians attended the conference, especially if it is to plan offensives against Japan.
The discounting of reports that the conference in Québec was for the purpose of planning something new and big in the way of an Allied offensive in Europe this year – maybe a knockout punch – was based on the fact that such offensives are not planned or prepared on such short notice.
There is always the possibility that an internal collapse in Germany might hurry things along, but in general there was little basis for belief that the conference would be planning operations for the immediate future, although plans previously formulated would be reviewed.
Canada may request French recognition
Québec, Canada (UP) –
Canadian observers predicted today that Canada might take advantage of the coming Roosevelt-Churchill meeting to urge the U.S. President and British Prime Minister to give early recognition to the French Committee of National Liberation.
All preparations for the conference of President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill were completed and all that remained was the arrival of the participants. Mr. Churchill, accompanied by his daughter Mary, visited Niagara Falls yesterday. They left Niagara Falls, New York, shortly after noon yesterday for an undisclosed destination.
While Washington has been reluctant to rush recognition, Canada, with her large French-speaking population centering around this conference city, is believed eager to have it done. Some reports say that her wishes in the matter have already been put before the other two powers.
Britain has been withholding recognition presumably so it will have a united front in the political field with the United States, thus avoiding the confusion that resulted when London was backing Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s Fighting French movement and Washington was dealing with Vichy.
Truman predicts era of comfort if task is met
Unprecedented prosperity and happiness to hinge on Americans’ ability to carry through technological developments
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Still on sideline –
Willkie calls for strong GOP post-war plans
Party can win only if liberal program is advanced
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Roosevelt pledges rescue of Filipinos and free republic
Equality with other United Nations stressed as reality – Quezon’s words reaffirmed
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Three airlines want U.S. rule after the war
Unity needed to combat crowded global lanes, they contend
By Jay G. Hayden, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Kirkpatrick: Maine Senator stumbles in tale of African wheat
Purchase of grain at higher price helps to save important shipping space
By Helen Kirkpatrick
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State of anarchy imminent throughout Italy
Allied raids to aid disintegration of regime
By Victor Gordon Lennox
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Kuril raiders battle swarm of Jap planes
Liberators drop 38,000 pounds of explosives on Jap bases
By Russell Annabel, United Press staff writer
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