The Wilmington morning star., 1943-07-23
Big Castelvetrano Bastion
Falls To Patton's
u. S. Troops
ENEMY FALLING BACK
Italian Armies Reported
In Debacle Compara-
Bile To Libya
ALLIE D HEADQUAR-
TIERS IN NORTH AFRICA,


TIERS IN NORTH AFRICA,
July o. (P) American
armored columns, sweeping
north and west with a break
neck speed, were approaching
Palermo on Sicily's northern
coast through the last noun
tain range guarding the is
land capital today after cap
turing the big air base Of
Castelvetrano and six other
towns.
whitening under the hot
breath of lightning war, the
Italian armies of northern
and western Sicily were fall
ing into a debacle comparable
with that suffered at the
hands of the British in Libya
in 1910 as Allied armies swept
over considerably more than
half of the island.
(Acting Secretary of War
Patterson in Washington said
late reports indicated the
American Seventh Army had
reached the outskirts of Mar
sala at the extreme western
tip of Sicily.)
Marsala Said Abandoned
(The Morocco radio, in broad
cast heard by Reuters, said that
Axis forces had already fled Mar
sala, indicating that the Ameri-
cans might already be entering the
western port
| In a week the roles Of the Brit
ish Eighth Army and the American
Seventh Army had been complete
| ly reversed, with Gen. Sir Bernard
L. Montgomery forces still fight
ing bloody war of position at the
edge of Catania while Lieut.. Gen.
George S. Patton, Jr.'s Americans
speedily herded all Axis resistance
into the northeastern part of the
island around Mt. Etna.
Sciacca, San Stefano Quisquina,
San Caterina, Menfi, Caltabellotta
and Bivona, as well as Castleve-
trano, fell to the Americans driv-
ing loops westward along the south
| 4,
land to the north coast, it was an
nounced at Allied headquarters.
Castelvetrano, one Of the "big
three" airbases in Sicily, was cap
tured before dawn yesterday BY
American infantry and q big arm
ored column, after a three-day
march of so miles which placed
Gen. Patton's fighting veterans
only about 20 miles from Marsala
at Sicily's western tip and less
than 80 miles rom Trapani on the
northwest coast.
The fall of San Caterina to the
Americans plunging northward
from Caltanissetta placed the van-
guard within about % miles of the
north coast, and the capture of San
Stefano Quisquina to the west gave
another northward column posi-
ton only about 80 miles south Of
Palermo.
Ramacca, % miles southwest of
Catania, where Canadian troops
were driving remnants of the 18th
German armored division toward
Mt. Etna, also fell to Allied arms.
Moving in to complete encircle-
ment of the batting Axis garrison,
a strong British naval force bonn
barded the Italian mainland at
Crotone in the Gulf of laramie yes
terday morning.
This second bombardment Of tho
war by surface naval forces lasted
five minutes and obviously was de-
signed to tear up links of the cir
cuitous eastern railway by which
supplies and reinforcements might
be moved down from northern TIA
ly, now that repeated aerial at
tacks have crippled the western
line through Rome and Naples.
The sheling coincided with an
aerial bombing of the Crotone air.
) field and another sweep by Allied
: motor gunboats into Messina straits
Continued on Page Two; Col. y