Current Events July 20, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 20, 1943:

The First Separate Battalion of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps—557 strong

is in Britain to relieve men of the Eighth Air Force for combat duty.

The girls slipped quietly into this camp without publicity or fanfare

save a rousing welcome by a small group of soldiers on duty and a GI

band that played, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart.''

Rome felt the weight of Allied bombs for the first time in the war yesterday

as United States Army planes attacked military targets there in savage

emphasis of the message which President Roosevelt and Prime Minister

Churchill had delivered to the Italians three days before: "Die for Hitler

and Mussolini, or live for Italy and civilization."

Rome was bombed by the Allies yesterday for the first time in the war.

Roaring over the Italian capital just 72 hours after the Roosevelt-Churchill

ultimatum to surrender or die, American heavy and medium bombers dropped

high explosive for two and a half hours on military targets below, principally the

railway system through which troops pass en route to southern Italy and Sicily.

Organized resistance began collapsing everywhere on Sicily yesterday except in

the Catania sector.

Three miles in front of Catania units of the Hermann Goering division still

were fighting desperately to hold back the British Eighth Army, but elsewhere

Italian forces were reported cracking and surrendering in whole units.

First WAAC Battalion Arrives in the ETO

                   THE STARS AND STRIPES

Dally Newspaper of U.S. Armed the European Theater of Operations

         New York, N.Y.—London, England Tuesday, July 20, 1943

557 GI Janes

Here for Duty

With Air Force

Girls Will Release Soldiers

From Clerical Jobs for

Combat Duty

By Charles F. Kiley

- Stars and Stripes Staff Writer

WAAC REPLACEMENT DEPOT,

England, July 19—

The First Separate Battalion of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps—557 strong

is in Britain to relieve men of the Eighth Air Force for combat duty.

The girls slipped quietly into this camp without publicity or fanfare

save a rousing welcome by a small group of soldiers on duty and a GI

band that played, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart.''

The battalion will remain here about a week, easing sea legs and being processed,

before going to Air Force units as stenographers, telephonists, plotters at

operational stations and in other duties for which they are, or will be, trained.

                                            Represent All 48 States

Rome Bombed, Sicily Weakens

American Bombers

Hit Military Targets,

Avoid Cultural Sites

Rome Gets First Raid as Italian Resistance

In Sicily Shows Signs of Collapsing;

British Near Catania; Yanks Gain

Rome felt the weight of Allied bombs for the first time in the war yesterday

as United States Army planes attacked military targets there in savage

emphasis of the message which President Roosevelt and Prime Minister

Churchill had delivered to the Italians three days before: "Die for Hitler

and Mussolini, or live for Italy and civilization."

As Allied heavy and medium bombers punched home the meaning of the

"surrender-or-die" ultimatum, Italian resistance in Sicily already was

collapsing. Whole units were surrendering as American, British and

Canadian units stormed ahead. Only before Catania, where the Germans

maintained stiff resistance, was there still serious opposition to Allied forces.

U.S. Planes Pound

Rome 2 1\2 Hours

Rome was bombed by the Allies yesterday for the first time in the war.

Roaring over the Italian capital just 72 hours after the Roosevelt-Churchill

ultimatum to surrender or die, American heavy and medium bombers dropped

high explosive for two and a half hours on military targets below, principally the

railway system through which troops pass en route to southern Italy and Sicily.

Reports reaching Switzerland said the railway was heavily damaged.

The raiders had been drilled in precision bombing for months so that their missiles

would not hit the Vatican City or any of Rome's cathedrals and monuments,

prized not only by the Italians but by the cultural world generally.

Italians Surrendering

in whole units

Organized resistance began collapsing everywhere on Sicily yesterday except in

the Catania sector.

Three miles in front of Catania units of the Hermann Goering division still

were fighting desperately to hold back the British Eighth Army, but elsewhere

Italian forces were reported cracking and surrendering in whole units.

American troops advanced rapidly along the whole left flank in spite of

strong opposition. They took the important communications center of Caltanisetta,

25 miles inland on the railway from the south coast to the north and northeast,

then joined Canadians advancing through difficult country to capture the

town of Piazza Armerina, 30 miles west of Gerbini.

Late yesterday they were within ten miles of Enna in the center of the island,a town which dominates all east-west communications.

                                                            Advance is General