Current Events August 4, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 4, 1943:

Advance guards of the British 78^th Division are only six miles from Aderno and the vital road running round Mt. Etna, which, when cut,will split the Axis forces in the

Messina bridgehead in Sicily into two parts.

Huge fires raged yesterday through the Ploesti oilfields of Rumania, according

to reports reaching Ankara. Turkey. Liberators of the Ninth U.S. Air Force,

in their surprise blow Sunday, hit everything worth hitting in the entire mile-long

pumping and refinery district which supplies Germany with one-third of its oil,

eye-witness reports said.

American Army and Marine forces, slashing through jungles and Japanese forts dug out .of solid coral, yesterday advanced another 500 yards and within a mile of Munda airport, today's official communique reports. Considerable amount of equipment

already has been captured in the yard-by yard push against the stubborn Jap defenders

of New Georgia.

Cass Hough, who didn't like his civilian job as vice-president of the Daisy Air Rifle Co., got the DFC for diving a P47 and then a P38 so fast that the speed is a military secret—and; for picking up some valuable information on the way

down.

    STARS AND STRIPES

Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations

                 New York, N.Y.—London, England Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1943

Allies Threatening Sicily Defense Line

Regalbuto Taken,

British in Position

To Divide Germans

Four Columns Aimed

At Road Around

Mount Etna

ALLIED HQ, Aug. 3 (UP)—

Advance guards of the British 78^th Division are only six miles from Aderno and the vital road running round Mt. Etna, which, when cut,will split the Axis forces in the

Messina bridgehead in Sicily into two parts.

They are the foremost of four Allied spearheads aimed at the road. The other three are:

1—Canadians advancing furthW eastfrom Regalbuto are at the most about 12

miles from Aderno.

2—Americans who took Troina and passed on were last reported about 14 miles from Bronte, on the road round the volcano northwest of Aderno. (TheAssociatedPress,quoting Algiers radio, reported that with Troina captured,

the road to Messina was now open to the Allied advance. The same report said

two battalions of the reconstituted Hermann Goering regiment "have been completely

annihilated.")

3—Canadian forces south of the 78^th Division have established an important

bridgehead over the Dittaino river near Catenauova which may either push

directly towards the Etna road, or be used in a turning move against the Axis

forces holding Catania. The Eighth Army forces attacking on the Catania front have won important artillery duels and are throwing out more patrols, but no news has yet come of any frontal attack on Catania itself. The position of Ade no is quickly becoming

almost untenable for the Germans, although they will probably try tohold it as long as possible.

Softening Up Aderno

Allied air forces have kept their attacks on this point, obviously to soften it up,

and are hammering at other important communication points in the center of the

Messina bridgehead such as Randazzo. Along the north coast Gen. Patton's

troops are pushing along the coast road, but the position of their advance guards

at the moment is not clear. In the Troina region Americans operating along the southern side of the Nebrodi mountains took Capizzi and Cerani, both about seven miles northeast of Nicosia.

Pushing over what dispatches have described as a "carpet of German dead"

the Americans advanced about 14 miles to Troina, half way between Nicosia and

Bronte, where the road from Nicosia joins the road and railway running round Mt. Etna.

                                             Next Goal 1,500 Feet Up

Ploesti Fields

Still Blazing;

Raid Success

Fliers Were Told Raid

Might Equal Year's

Drive by Army

Huge fires raged yesterday through the Ploesti oilfields of Rumania, according

to reports reaching Ankara. Turkey. Liberators of the Ninth U.S. Air Force,

in their surprise blow Sunday, hit everything worth hitting in the entire mile-long

pumping and refinery district which supplies Germany with one-third of its oil,

eye-witness reports said.

The importance of the attack was emphasized in Cairo meanwhile by the disclosure

yesterday of what Col. John R. (Killer) Kane, of Shreveport, La., who

commanded one group of the attack fore- told his crews before they started out on

the 2,400-mile bombing mission. "It would take an army the size and strength of the Eighth Army one year to fight its way up and wipe, out this target," he said. "We are going to do it in one day with 2,000 men. If we are 100 percent successful, the war in Europe may be over by Christmas."

New Push Puts

Yanks Within

Mile of Munda

Jap Equipment Taken

In Stubborn Fight

For Vital Base

ALLIED HQ, Southwest Pacific.

Aug. 3—

American Army and Marine forces, slashing through jungles and Japanese forts dug out .of solid coral, yesterday advanced another 500 yards and within a mile of Munda airport, today's official communique reports. Considerable amount of equipment

already has been captured in the yard-by yard push against the stubborn Jap defenders

of New Georgia.

In New Guinea, Salamaua airfield has now come under artillery fire from

Allied field guns, which are reported to have destroyed enemy aircraft on the

ground and scored direct hits on A.A. Batteries. Sixty feet of bridge over San Francisco

river, Which enters the sea just south of Salamaua, have also been demolished.

The guns are probably U.S. 105, landed recently from barges in Nassau Bay.

Cass Hough, the 780-mph DFC,

Only Pilot With Two Fighters

By Andrew A. Rooney

Stars and Stripes Stiff Writer.

A U.S. TRAINING FIELD, England,

Aug. 3—

Cass Hough, who didn't like his civilian job as vice-president of the Daisy Air Rifle Co., got the DFC for diving a P47 and then a P38 so fast that the speed is a military secret—and; for picking up some valuable information on the way

down.

He makes these dives with a carved wooden skunk in his pocket which came from Tucson or maybe Phoenix, Ariz., and cost ten cents. He is a lieutenant colonel today at 36, was a second lieutenant J8 months ago, and has never been a first lieutenant. He

is the only man in the ETO with two fighter planes assigned to him. Hough (pronounced Huff writes, a weekly informal news sheet for fighter pilots, and the story he likes to tell on himself is the day, not long ago, when he wrote a strong denunciation, in the

sheet, of the pilots who were too stupid or careless to avoid taxiing accidents, and went out and had a careless taxiing accident on the field that afternoon himself.

That, roughly, is the kind of guy Cass Hough is.