Yank bombers severe Messina’s mainland link
Fortresses halt all traffic and batter industrial sections
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
Allied air forces supported the land campaign in Sicily today with systematic, devastating attacks on the supply link from the Italian mainland, Sicilian airdromes, troops and trains.
U.S. Flying Fortresses bombed traffic to a standstill between the eastern Sicilian port of Messina and the nearby mainland ports of Reggio Calabria and San Giovanni.
An earlier communiqué said Allied air fleets sank or damaged five transports and two destroyers carrying Axis reinforcements to Sicily.
Two Axis supply ships were sunk, a third was damaged badly and two destroyers were left aflame from bow to stern by torpedo aircraft under the command of Air Vice Marshal Sir Hugh Pugh Lloyd.
The planes caught the ships in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Sardinia and Sicily. The destroyers were damaged so badly that they probably sank.
Two other Axis troop ships were reported hit in Sicilian waters.
Two important railway bridges were destroyed at Messina and explosions were caused in large industrial sections.
Axis airports blasted
Medium bombers covered many Axis airports in Sicily with bomb craters. Other Allied planes continued attacks on trains and troops.
Possibly because of damage to airfields, enemy fighter plane opposition was sporadic during the last 24 hours. Some Allied air units had things their own way. Of the enemy planes that ventured out, 28 were shot down, against loss of 11 Allied aircraft.
Set fire to vehicles
One formation of Lockheed Lightnings located four enemy land convoys, setting fire to 35 out of 115 vehicles and damaging others. Another Lightning formation surprised a column of gun-carrying trucks and destroyed 15. Still another flight scored two direct hits on a convoy of 40 vehicles.
Mitchell medium bombers made a daylight raid on Marsala at the western end of the island after British Wellingtons had carried out a night attack on that port.
Wellingtons also bombed Trapani in western Sicily and Mazara del Valla, 15 miles southeast of Marsala.
Dusk-to-dawn raids were carried out by the new type (A-36) Mustang diving fighter-bomber which has just been put in action in this theater. They attacked trains and motor convoys in central Sicily.