Imperial Valley press., 1943-09-03
Eighth Army in
Invasion Attack

ried out under cover of a tremend-
Gus land, sea and air lombard
ment. It was made across the mar
row Messina Straits against the
Italian beach in the regions OF
Reggie Calabria and Scilla.
SearchlightS on the Italian coast
tried to pick out targets for the
Axis guns as the invasion fleet
moved across the straits, but they
were dealt with quickly by the
British navy.
Mortars in the first wave of as
sault boats carpeted the landing
zones with smoke shells, making
the dark night even blacker and
turning the Axis fire into con-
fusion of blasts instead of precision
gunnery.
MONITORS BUSY
The Monitors kept all their guns
in action, maintaining deadly
fire which had knocked out some
mainland guns before the first
landing boats crammed with he'll
meted infantrymen and sapperS
crunched onto the beaches.
CThe Axis radio reports of the
invasion said the Allies had landed
on both sides of Reggie Calabria,
that the situation cannot be un-
derestimated" at the moment; and
that the landing force was about
division strong)
Although a dispatch from Eighth
army headquarters in Sicily said
that our first foothold in Europe
has been established" spokesman
emphasized the difficult nature of
the landings and urged against any
feeling that the task would be a
walkover.
The Eighth army veterans prob
ably will meet more German troops
in Italy than they ever have before,
headquarters commentator said.
EXPECT DELAY
Indications that some delay must
be expected in the issuance of an
official account of the invasion, the
spokesman said the next communi-
que probably would be issued at
noon Saturday.
After Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
had flown to a Sicilian invasion
port for a final checkup with
Montgomery and Gen. Sir Harold
Alexander, the British and Canad-
ian troops struck out across the
strait and hit the beaches before
the mountainous Calabrian area at
4:30 a. m. Q0:30 p. m. EWT Thurs
day.
1t was a moonless night, and
only the stars were alight as the
invasion force-"vaSt numbers" Of
men who had been streaming into
the invasion ports for 10 days
headed out over a sea that had
been calm for more than a week.
Practically every man in the bat
tie tried force had landed on enemy
soil before, and the invasion barges
and the mosquito fleet were the
same as those that carried the AL
lied force to Sicily.
Several hundred Allied planes and
Allied guns in northeastern Sicily
laid down a pulverizing lombard
ment against the marked
toe yesterday, where Allied cruiS-
ers. destroyers, monitors, gunboats
and other craft joined in the actual
crossing of the strait.
The invasion followed a series
of commando raids carried out by
units of the Eighth army over
period Of days. The raids were
described as successful today in
their tWo-fold purpose-reconnais-
ance and nuisance.
The raids never were intended to
hold any positions. They determ-
ined that the area was heavily
fortified, indicating that the first
wave of troops spilling out of the
invasion barges must have had to
attack through barbed wire, pill
boxes, and prepared positions.
Official reports of the invasion,
announced in special communique,
credited the land operations entire
ly to the Eighth army, making no
mention of Gen. George S. Patton's
Seventh amy previously teamed
with the Eighth in the invasion of
Sicily.