Current Events July 17, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 17, 1943:

The British Eighth army of Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, the winner in the most decisive battle yet fought for Sicily, was smashing on at the environs of Catania today in a drive to strangle the resistance of the Axis defenders.

The imminent prospect of a clean-cut victory in Sicily has confirmed the

Allied formula for an amphibious assault on Western Europe and suggests

strongly in the view of some observers that the same pattern

will work against Adolf Hitler's Atlantic wall of Western France.

The German high command has thrown two

new divisions, one armored and one Infantry, against the Russian spearhead

now threatening Orel, front dispatches said today, but the Red

army was reported repulsing all Nazi thrusts and continuing to advance.

             The Portsmouth Herald

                              PORTSMOUTH, N. H., SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 17, 1943

British Eighth Army

Hammers at Catania

In Sicilian Advance

Allied Headquarters in North Africa July 17—(AP)—The British Eighth army of Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, the winner in the most decisive battle yet fought for Sicily, was smashing on at the environs of Catania today in a drive to strangle the resistance of the Axis defenders.

An Allied headquarters communique, announcing the capture of four more towns in a general advance all along the curving front, by Americans and Canadians as well as British, said the Montgomery men had captured both Lentini and Scordia, at the entrance to the Catania plain. Previous headquarters advices said German armored resistance was smashed at those points in hard fighting.

Sicily Success

'Foreshadows

Europe Assault'

London, July 17 (AP)—

The imminent prospect of a clean-cut victory in Sicily has confirmed the

Allied formula for an amphibious assault on Western Europe and suggests

strongly in the view of some observers that the same pattern

will work against Adolf Hitler's Atlantic wall of Western France.

There is no intention to imply, these sources pointed out, that the

Germans are relying on mere scarecrow from defenses. However, reports

the Mediterranean front of surprisingly low Allied casualties

and rapid progress throw a clearer light on, the Nazi theme of impregnability.

The ascendency of Allied air power leaves little doubt, it was said,

that the RAF and the Eighth U. S. Air Force will be able to lay down

the same ruinous preliminary bombshower and maintain the same efficient

umbrella over an Allied landing on the French coast as over

Italy's sorely-stubbed Sicilian toe.

Nazi's Battle

To Save Orel

Moscow, July 17 (AP)—The German high command has thrown two

new divisions, one armored and one Infantry, against the Russian spearhead

now threatening Orel, front dispatches said today, but the Red

army was reported repulsing all Nazi thrusts and continuing to advance.

One wing of the,. Red army's smashing counter attack was reported

to have rolled to within 25 miles of the heavily fortified Nazi

base as the Germans frantically rallied all available manpower and

equipment in. a desperate effort to stave off a major break-through.

The dispatches said the Russians were sending motorized infantry

with tanks and mobile cannon to comb the forest clearings for Nazi

troops.

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Current Events July 18, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 18, 1943:

Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND CALIFORNIA, SUNDAY, JULY 18, 1943

7 Jap Ships, 49 Planes Bagged

Allies Near Victory At Catania •

200 U.S. Bombers Pounce on

Nip Fleet at Buin, Riddle

Enemy Fliers Defending it

City Afire as Fleet Blasts

Path for 8th Army; Yanks

Capture Agrigento, Key Base

Warship, Planes

Lambaste Kiska

Jap Aleutian Base

Attacked Four Times,

Says Communique

by JOHN M. Hightower

WASHINGTON. July 17 AP

The North Pacific Command, increasing its pressure on Japan's

Kiska island outpost, threw heavy and medium bomber* as well a*

warships into the most recently reported onslaughts against the enemy

garrison there, the Navy disclosed today.

An American warship, probably a cruiser or destroyer started the

assault which could be in the nature of softening-tip operation for

a landing on Kiska. with an attack on Gertrude Cove, southwest of

Kiska Harbor.