The Pittsburgh Press (July 19, 1943)
Great battle rages near Catania; Canadians also seize town
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, North Africa –
Allied armies swept forward behind shattering air and naval bombardments in Sicily today and Army reports indicated that Italian forces were beginning to crack up all over the island except outside the east coast city of Catania where a big battle was raging.
On the main military fronts:
-
The Americans captured Caltanissetta, junction town in central Sicily while Canadians took Piazza Armerina. This American-Canadian pincer drive carried to within 10 miles of Enna, main Axis base in mid-Sicily.
-
The British and Canadians were hammering at the enemy within about three miles of Catania.
-
The Americans shoved forward in the west in a flanking operation intended to split and turn the enemy line.
Axis forces squeezed
The swift Allied advances were squeezing the Axis forces back into northeastern Sicily. At some points, the Americans were less than 50 miles from the north coast of Sicily, where they could cut the main communications lines from Messina to Palermo. The capture of Enna, in the middle of the island, would virtually cut the Axis defenses in half.
So rapid was the Allied advance in some sectors that the Canadians gained 20 miles in a day and Italian units were reported surrendering en masse. At least one German officer was shot when he attempted to prevent surrender to the Americans.
With more than one-third of Sicily in Allied hands and the vital Gerbini Air Base threatened, the Axis military situation appeared to be deteriorating rapidly except on the east coast road leading to Messina.
Italians pull punches
The Italians were showing their sympathy with the Allies by destroying Fascist symbols and pictures of Mussolini and pulling their punches on the military front despite Germans units scattered among them. The lineup of Axis forces in battle was based on having Italians troops in the center of each battle sector, with Germans on both flanks. Nevertheless, there have been many cases where the Italians surrendered and left the Germans on the flanks in a hopeless situation.
The British 8th Army under Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery battered its way through the strongest opposition, including Hermann Göring tank units, in the Catania plain.
The 8th Army, aided by paratroops which landed behind the enemy lines to seize key bridges, crossed the Gornalunga River and strengthened its bridgehead on the Dittaino River. Then the British seized the estuary formed by these two rivers and the Simeto River on the east coast, just south of Catania. One river had to be crossed twice because of its curving course.
City of Catania burning
Many German and Italian dead were left on the battlefields en route to Catania, which was burning after repeated air and naval bombardment. Allied planes and warships also ranged northward toward Messina smashing hard at enemy communications.
On the central front, Americans stormed into Caltanissetta, seizing the main axis communications to the west.
The American operations, thrusting northward at a point about 55 miles west of Catania, appeared to be threatening the enemy’s entire right flank in a splitting and turning movement.
Battle near Catania
Although there were reports that the Allied forces were actually in the outskirts of Catania, exact positions were unavailable in official sources and it were merely indicated that the battle was raging around and close to the city.
The number of prisoners was mounting rapidly and estimated at 35,000, including about 23,000 taken by Americans.
The London Daily Mail reported from Allied headquarters in North Africa that British tanks had entered the outskirts of Catania and were engaging Germans still fighting stubbornly to suburban streets and houses.
A London Daily Express dispatch, also datelined Allied headquarters, said that one British column had bypassed Catania and sped northwestward toward Paternò.
Front reports yesterday said that Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s veteran British 8th Army had seized the important Primosole Bridge only seven miles south of Catania and today’s operational communiqué reported that “progress has continued in the fact of strong resistance.”
Paratroops make stand
The Primosole Bridge, which spans three rivers near the point where they empty into the Ionian Sea, first was taken by British paratroops who held it until their ammunition gave out, two hours later, the main body of the 8th Army arrived to take up the fight.
Catania, Sicily’s second largest city, was in flames from repeated air raids, the latest by U.S. medium bombers Saturday night, and naval bombardments. It lies in the shadow of Mt. Etna and only 58 miles to the north is the important port of Messina, two miles across Messina Strait from the Italian mainland.
Threaten to split island
The U.S. 7th Army, to the west, was fanning out rapidly from newly-captured Agrigento and the nearby south coast port of Porto Empedocle. One column struck westward along the coast and another headed northward.
One report placed the Americans eight miles north of Agrigento. Thirty-five miles to east, another American column beat off an Axis counterattack south of the Barrafranca area.
Allied air fleets continued to pound enemy concentrations and communications in Sicily and other aircraft swept across to the Italian mainland to bomb the Monte Corvino and Pomigliano Airfields near Naples.
Axis troop planes downed
Eighteen enemy planes were shot down in the 24-hour period ended last night, including an entire formation of 15 Junkers troop transports, which were also favorite targets for Allied fighters during the Tunisian campaign, over the Tyrrhenian Sea between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Only four Allied planes were lost.
Monte Corvino, eight miles east of Salerno, and Pomigliano, eight miles northeast of Naples, were bombed Saturday night and bursts were observed across the runways and on airdrome buildings. Intruder aircraft from the Northwest African Air forces also attacked other airfields in Italy, but these were not identified.
Planes attack Greece
Medium bombers yesterday delivered a heavy raid on the focal communications point of Randazzo, near the foot of the north slope of Mt. Etna.
The North African Air Forces scored another impressive victory by shooting down 15 German Ju 52 transport planes between Sardinia and Ustica, a small island above Sicily.
Lockheed P-38 Lightnings spotted the transports Sunday and the ensuing fight gave the Allies their biggest bag of Axis transports since Easter Sunday when 50 were destroyed off the Cap Bon Peninsula.
Short on transportation
The use of aerial transports was taken as a tipoff that the Axis is short on transportation and trying urgently to rush vital supplies to Sicily.
RAF Halifax and Liberator bombers from the Middle East Command joined in the Saturday night offensive with an attack on railroad and port facilities at Reggio Calabria, across Messina Strait from Sicily. Bomb bursts were seen on railway sidings and munitions sheds and several small fires were left burning.
Beaufighters, also from the Middle East Command, carried out an offensive sweep against shipping in the Ionian Sea and scored hits on a two-masted schooner off the west coast of Greece. A train in western Greece was also attacked. All planes returned safely.
