Current Events August 24, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 24, 1943:

Kharkov, chief Nazi base in southern Russia, fell to the .Red Army yesterday. A Berlin statement by DNB (German news agency) said German troops left the city during the night according to plan "after destroying all military installations and without being subjected to enemy pressure," but a Moscow announcement last  night revealed that the city was captured by the Russians in fierce fighting

The port of Naples, where the I t a l i a n s expect the Allied invasion to begin, was cut oftf yesterday from all railroad connection with the rest of Italy.
A devastating night-and-day aerial attack on the important rail junction of Salerno. 30 miles south of Naples, cut the final link Sunday after American Marauders fought a 35- minute running battle with nearly 100 Luftwaffe fighters and shot down a record bag-of 33. Mustang Invaders, escorting the daylight .raiders to their target, set up "a long-distance record for Their type of single-engine fighter-bomber, flying" nearly400 miles round trip from bases on Sicily. Only five Allied planes were lost in all the day's operations 

The Germans are using a type of rocket gun. slung beneath two-engined fighters, against Flying Fortresses. American airmen returning to this base from the initial U.S. shuttle raid to Africa revealed today

Allied landing operations in the Mediterranean, accompanied by terrific air and sea bombardments of Naples, Taranto and Brindisi. are believed here to be imminent and may even be announced as a climax to the Roosevelt-Churchill conference.
           THE STARS AND STRIPES
            Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces In the European Theater of Operations
                     New York, N.Y. — London, England Tuesday, Au». 24 1943



      Reds Capture Kharkov, Vital Nazi Base

Soviets Race
Far Beyond
Rail Center
Worst News for Reich
From Eastern Front
Since Stalingrad
Kharkov, chief Nazi base in southern Russia, fell to the .Red Army yesterday. A Berlin statement by DNB (German news agency) said German troops left the city during the night according to plan "after destroying all military installations and without being subjected to enemy pressure," but a Moscow announcement last  night revealed that the city was captured by the Russians in fierce fighting.
It was the third Russian victory on the Eastern front within three weeks, coming soon after the recapture of Orel and Byelgorod on Aug. 5. , Kharkov was the hinge on which the German lines in southern Russia swung.
A key railroad center, its six railroads radiated to all points in the south. In peace time it was a clearing center for the agricultural and mineral products of the Ukraine.
'Worst News' For Germany
Its capture, achieved by a giant enveloping movement which swept
Russian columns nearly a hundred miles in the city's rear, brings the Red Army within 120 miles of the Dnieper. A thrust to this line probably would force the Germans to withdraw from the Donetz
basin, the Kuban and the Crimea

Bombs Sever
Rail Contact
With Naples
Road South to Reggio
And:Two Lines North
Are Disrupted
The port of Naples, where the I t a l i a n s expect the Allied invasion to begin, was cut oftf yesterday from all railroad connection with the rest of Italy.
A devastating night-and-day aerial attack on the important rail junction of Salerno. 30 miles south of Naples, cut the final link Sunday after American Marauders fought a 35- minute running battle with nearly 100 Luftwaffe fighters and shot down a record bag-of 33. Mustang Invaders, escorting the daylight .raiders to their target, set up "a long-distance record for Their type of single-engine fighter-bomber, flying" nearly400 miles round trip from bases on Sicily. Only five Allied planes were lost in all the day's operations.
Three Rail .Lines Smashed
The latest attacks cut the railroad leading south from Naples to Reggio after the two main lines running north and northeast of the big port had been wrecked in previous raids.

Nazis Using Rocket Gun Fighters
Shuttle Raid Crews Return from Africa
Report Desperate Enemy Attacks With
Bombs and New Type Guns
By Richard Wilbur
Stars and Stripes Staff Writer
A USAAF BOMBER STATION. England. Aug. 23—
The Germans are using a type of rocket gun. slung beneath two-engined fighters, against Flying Fortresses. American airmen returning to this base from the initial U.S. shuttle raid to Africa revealed today.
The airmen, who stormed across the heart of Germany to shatter the Messerschmitt plant at Regensburg and fly on across the Alps, came back to their base wearing red fezzcs and lugging musette bags tilled with tropical fruits. Their reports to intelligence officers told of unusually determined fighter attacks by planes firing a projectile about the size of an indoor baseball from a device like a rocket gun, and also of Luftwaffe interceptors armed with 37mm. cannon instead of the usual 20mm. The rockets, fired from beneath twin engined Messerschmitt 110s and 2IOs, arched at the Forts with about 30 in a string, and exploded in a brilliant flash "like a Fourth of July rocket," crewmen explained. There also were repeated stories of enemy fighters once more attempting to drop bombs on the bombers.

QuebecExpects
Invasion of Italy
Signal for Attack May
Be Given from There;
FDR Sees Knox
. QUEBEC, Aug. 23 (UP)—
Allied landing operations in the Mediterranean, accompanied by terrific air and sea bombardments of Naples, Taranto and Brindisi. are believed here to be imminent and may even be announced as a climax to the Roosevelt-Churchill conference.
There is an atmosphere of expectancy in Quebec. With the arrival of Col.Frank Knox. Secretary of the Navy, the heads of all the American armed services were present, and it was widely expectedthe signal for the attack on Italy may be given from here. Although Italy would be the main target, the next Allied of[ensive in the Mediterranean, it is felt, would also involve the Allied forces in the Middle East in a drive against Crete and Greece.
While Mr. Churchill and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King toured Quebec today. President Roosevelt conferred with Col. Knox and T. V. Soong, Chinese Foreign Secretary. Sumner Welles. Under Secretary of State, who left Washington for an unknown destination today, also may arrive.