The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-09-12
ITALIAN BATTLESHIPS
SURRENDER AT MALTA
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The Germans said some ground
had been regained in fierce coun-
ter-attacks.)
Headquarters said several peck
cts of enemy resistance had been
wiped out around Salerno, and that
the prisoners taken, all of them
Germans, now total several hun
bred.
American Fifth Army units
were said officially to have borne
the brunt of German resistance
during the Salerno landings. Brit
ish units, which landed with little
opposition some distance away,
were attacked later by German
tanks, but these enemy forces
were repulsed.
Air Force Active
Official reports said the allied
aerial assaults have prevented
the enemy from getting rein
forcements over badly-battered
highways and railroads" to the
Naples area.
In addition to knocking out Ger
man reinforcement lines in a Co.
mile arc around Naples. the allied
air forces attacked Nazi land con-
voys moving northward toward
the Naples-Salerno area, head
quarters said. This would indicate
that the Germans may be with
drawing from areas farther south
to escape being cut off and per-
haps to hurl more weight against
the Fifth Army bridgehead.
The British Eighth army in the
south met scant opposition and
plunged forward at a faster pace
in spite of demolitions. Gen. Sir
Bernard L. Montgomery's forces
now hold virtually all the terri
tory south of the bottleneck form
ed by the Gulf of Squillace and
the Gulf of SAINT Eufemia-the
entire lower section of the Italian
toe.
In this area they reached a
line through the town of MAZDA,
70 miles from Italy's southern tip
and only about IS miles from the
rail and road center of Catanzaro.
Suffer Losses
Nazi troops between this inva-
sion area and Naples suffered
very heavy losses under attacks
by American dive bombers whose
repeated bombing and strafing
assaults pinned long motor con-
voys, northbound, to virtual
standstill throughout yesterday.
Allied heavy and medium bomb
ers also gave the Fifth Army
sturdy support in the grim bat
ties raging in the Salerno- Ma
Piles zone.
The 1uftwatfe threw carefully
boarded fighters and bombers in
to action in increasing numbe, :
but their efforts were aimed al
most entirely at allied ground
forces tanning out from beach
heads ner Salerno and American
and British planes were virtually
unmolested on bombing forays.
Can NBC correspondent said in
a broadcast from North Africa
that the Eighth Army had ad.
vanced IS miles northward so
fast that it was beginning to over
take the retreating Germans.)
Complete Occupation
At laramie, inside the heel,
British troops completed their oc-
cupation of the town and naval
base.
(Radio France at Algiers said
the British were moving ahead
from laramie in three directions. }
A small allied force landed on
the island of Ventoteen off Ma
pies, where the Germans surrend-
cred afr a stiff fight. Ninety-one
Germans were captured. The 1tal-
ians offered no opposition.
"a German communique de-
clared that the Italian naval base
of Pola on the Yugoslav side of
the Adriatic sea and the island Of
Rhodes in the Dodecanese had
surrendered to the Germans.
(The Nazi war bulletin asserted
further that ''our troops have
marched into Milan, Turin and
Padua." Another German broad.
cast declared that "the major
part of the Italian peninsula is
under the control of German
armed forces.")
Official information was lack
ing here on conditions in all parts
of Italy outside of those occupied
by the allies. Broadcasts from
Germany and other points in Eu-