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.
