Evening star., 1943-05-29
100 Fortresses Attack Leghorn,
Important Port North of Rome,
In Forthest Flight Into Italy
Units of Musso|ini's
Fleet May Have Been
In Hurbor at Time
By EDWARD KENNEDY,

NORTH AFRICA, May 29-Al-
most 100 Flying Fortresses
striking the most distant objec-
tive yet assigned in the attack
on Italy from North Africa
bombed Leghorn yesterday and
left a smoky trail of devastat tion
In the oil refineries, docks and
shipyards of that large port 16O
miles north of Rome.
At the same time, Cairo dispatches
said. some two-score American Lib
orators smashed at Foggia and drop
ped 30 tons of bombs on that all
base 80 miles east of Naples.
dispatches from London said
large units of 1taly's fleet. which
has seldom ventured to sea since
the start of the war. may have
been at Leghorn-known as
Livorno to the Italians-when the
Flying Fortresses visited the
harbor.
(This was the first time that
Leghorn had been bombed)
Two waves of Liberators attacked
Foggia, near the Adriatic side of
the Italian Peninsula. and a United
State communique from Cairo said
direct hits we're made on several
hangers, numerous fires started
and at least 13 enemy bombers we're
destroyed or damaged.
Other Targets Battered.
British and American medium
bombers and bomb carrying fighters
also carried the air war across the
Mediterranean with unabated fury
to objectives in Sicily. Sardinia and
the stronghold of Pantelleria, the
nearest Axis-held territory.
Among these targets were the
Castelvetrano airfeld in Sicily,
which was attacked by Mitchells,
Marauders. Lightnings and War;
hawks. and the railway station and
oil installations at Augusta, Sicily,
which were attacked Thursday night
by big RAF bombers from the
Desert Air Force.
Leghorn is the seat of the great
Ansaldo shipbuilding yard. Many of
1taly's submarines were built there
and it is an important submarine
base
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower COM
munique said the shipyard was plas-
tered with bombs and great dam
age" done. Two large explosions
we're seen in the refinery area, and
they were followed by fires which
sent up such thick clouds of smoke
that further observation proved i'm
possible.
Three supply ships received hits,
however, and other large fires were
started in the railroad yards and oil
storage tanks.
Every Fortress returned from the
attack, meeting only light fighter
opposition and shooting down one
of the few planes which dared at
tack the closely packed formations.
The Fortresses made the raid alone,
without fighter escore.
The curious English form of the
name of the city-Leghorn-c
from British sailors who frequented
it when it was thriving commercial
port two centuries ago.
It is the home town of Count
Galeazzo Ciano. former Italian For
eign Minister and Premier Musso-
lini's son-in-law
Pantelleria, an island of volcanic
origin which was a place of banish-
ment under the Roman Empire and
which Mussolini converted into a
fortress designed to match Malta
was first raided by American War
hawks and later in the day by A2C
attack bombers escorted by Spitfires
Island Attacked Daily.
r. The island has been under daily
attack for the past week. Besides
Castelvetrano. airfields at Sciacca
Milo and Borizzo in Sicily were at
tackled by the American tWin-en-
gined bombers and fighters. And in
these sweeps l8 of the 81 enemy
planes shot down in combat yes
terday and the preceding night were
accounted for.
In the operations the Allies lost
two planes.
The Italian communique &C
knowledged the raids on Leghorn
and Foggia and also listed an at
tack on Lucera, about II miles
northwest of Foggia. Rome said
81 were killed and 349 injured
at Leghorn, while six were killed
and nine injured in the neigh
borhood of Lucera. The Italians
admitted very considerable dam
age to public and private build
ings" in LeghornD
& In the Aegean Sea at the othel
end of the Mediterranean, Alliee
aerial attacks on shipping yesterday
resulted in the damaging of an en-.
emy sailing vessel off the east coas
of Greece.
(The Allied announcements
listed two aircraft as lost. but
Rome claimed tally OF Is shot
down. six over Leghorn. four by
German fighters over Sicily and
five elsewhere.
(The Italians said Axis air
formations raided harbors at
Sousse and Bone, scoring direct
hits on installations
0PA Bars Memorial Day
IL NIL