Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-13

UTSt ptcIuTCS o. tHc SCutuH tu"u
inos. and the following first eye
4Uitness story OF the Allies light
ming capture of Licata. Mr.. White
joined the A. p. in, Washington
in 1882, and in January. 1912.
,Uas assigned to Panama os a pool
photographer. He left on his
latest assignment in December,
1912, and arriped in Cairo Feb
rudry 4, I943,)
BY the Associated Press.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA. July 13.-Ameri-
can forces landed and captured the
Sicilian town of Licata with more
than 800 prisoners at cost OF four
dead, Herbert White. Associated
Press photographer, disclosed last
night.
Boy! Our American warships
we're crackerjacks-they knocked out
every pillbox ashore" the grizzled,
unshaven cameraman exclaimed as
he came back tired but happy to an
African port.
Mr.. White, whose home is Wash
ington, D. c., brought back the first
pictures received at African head
quarters of American troops lnvad-
ing Sicily.
The infantry landing craft
started for the beach at about 2:45
am. and our Navy poured 1t on
each pillbox that tried to get tough.
I would see a fash from shore
gun and Immediately naval shells
would start whistling over my head
and smash the enemy into silence.
Bombs Were Futile.
Enemy bomberS came over In the
darkness, dropping flares before
they let go with bombs, but they
didn't hit thing.
: After daylight I went ashore to
see the equipment unloaded from
my landing ship on tanks and it was
q pretty exhibition of efficiency to
see loads of artillery and vehicles
and supplies moving from sea to
land like an assembly line in De-
troit factory.
The skipper of my ship, 1t. H. r.
Flick of New York City, is World
War veteran and dean on the skip
pers of this kind of vessel. He
made the causeway to shore with a
pontoon and our tanks and other
things rolled into Sicily ready for
action.
No enemy planes bothered us
from dawn until about pm, when
three bombers came over and dld
very poor job. They missed with
everything they dropped.
Counterattack RumOred.
"Licata is built on rolling hill
TO our flank and our infantry went
into it in a jiffy. A battery or two
in town and a railroad battery be-
hind a hill finally decided to do a
little fighting, so our warshlps
cracked down again. They plastered
those Italians and that was that.
ON the beach military police kept
everybody stepping toward noon
when there was report that the
enemy inland might be preparing to
counterattack. But it hadn't de-
yeloped by the time left at 3 pm.
All our dead were gathered on
the beach-two soldiers and two
sailors. And we had practically no
wounded.
our first ship carried doctor
and eight medical attendants ex-
pecting we would have to bring back
considerable wounded. but as 1t
turned out we did not bring back
even one.
The Italian soldiers who were
rounded up sat rather glumly on the
hillside watching the American
Army whiz post them.
There must have been from 300
10 $50 Italians in that batch OF
prisoners"
Didn't Fire Round.
~ went over on what they call
the L. S. T.-landnig ships. tanks
and our gunners never had to fire a
round either going or coming back,
Our escorting cruisers and destroyers
took care of that" Mr.. White said.
I'VE didn't see single submarine
on the entire round trip.
1T was blowing a IS to 40-mile-
An-hour wind Friday night as we
approached Sicily and the L. c. l. S
landing craft infantry-were nearly
buried under the waves and lot of
soldiers aboard must have got plenty
keasick.
But at midnight the wind died
down-it was almost miraculous
and offshore it was almost like a
lake.
There were couple funny things
about the trip I can't forget.
You know what we carried besides
tanks? Donkeys! Yes sir. some of
those little animals we used to see
the Arabs driving around in Tunisia
And we never had to fire round
from our own guns all the time. We
did all our fighting before we ever
started. The night before we left
Africa our gunners knocked out an
enemy bomber. 1t was mighty
nifty piece of shooting.
Il can't say too much in praise of
our Navy. They're crackerjacks and
every doughboy in Licata will back
me up
RiII DoIo,e;nn SiIvor