Current Events July 8, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 8, 1943:

American troops have landed at two points near the

Japanese air base at Munda on New Georgia island, the high command

said Thursday.

Soviet Russia claimed Thursday that the red

army had dealt the mini war machine the greatest blow in its his-

tory and had thwarted for the moment the huge German onslaught

on the central fronl by killing 30,000 destroying or damaging 1,539;

tanks and shooting down MS airplanes in the first three days of fighting.

Massed Allied air power smashed through on the fourth day of the nonstop

blitz against Sicily, drenching German and Italian airports with

explosives in round-the-clock bombing.

The British Eighth Army, veteran of the African campaign, is now concentrated in

Iraq, Iran and Syria, in Asia Minor, according to reports in an Italian news-

paper. Gen. Bernard Montgomery was reported in Baghdad.

New oil fields have been discovered in Azerbaijan which

were expected to become second in importance only to Baku, capital of this

region, Izvestia disclosed. The fields were said to be remarkable not only for the

quantity but the quality of the oil which would permit the production of 100

octane aviation gasoline.

                 The Billings Gazette

        BILLINGS, MONTANA, THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 8, 1943

Yankees Land Near Munda;

Japs Lose 9 Ships at Kula

Americans Within

Four Miles of

Enemy Air Base

Allied Headquarters in Australia,July 8.—(AP)

American troops have landed at two points near the

Japanese air base at Munda on New Georgia island, the high command

said Thursday.

Reds Claim Nazis Stopped

With Loss of 30,000 Men.

1,539 Tanks and 649 Planes

Moscow, July 8.—(/I1)—Soviet Russia claimed Thursday that the red

army had dealt the mini war machine the greatest blow in its his-

tory and had thwarted for the moment the huge German onslaught

on the central fronl by killing 30,000

destroying or damaging 1,539;

tanks and shooting down MS airplanes

in the first three days of fighting.

THE STARS AND STRIPES

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

Vol. 3 No. 211 New York, N.Y.—London, England Thursday, July 8, 1943

Nazis Halted in War's Fiercest Battles

Reds Claim

1,271 Tanks

Knocked Out

Foe decked in Ferocious

Combat after Capture •

Of Two Villages

MOSCOW, July 7 (UP)—

Hurling as many as 400 tanks into attacks in narrow sectors and repeating their

assaults as many as 16 times a day, the Germans have still failed to force

a breach in the Russian lines on the Orel-Kursk-Belgorod front.

Toward the end of the third day reports were that the slight penetration

achieved by Nazi armor on the Orel-Kursk sector was being wiped -out.

In ferocity, intensity and the weight of armor used the present fighting on the

Orel-Kursk and Byelgorod sectors of the Russian front surpasses any battle that has

yet taken place in the whole war, it was said in Moscow.

On the Byelgorod sector possession of the two villages taken by the Germans—

the sum total of their successes on this front—was being hotly disputed. The

German advance beyond the villages had been stopped.

Lose 10,000 in Day

Non-Stop Raids

On Italy's Ports

Allies Destroy 110 Axis

Planes in Four-Day

Air Onslaught

ALLIED HQ., North Africa, July 7 (AP)—

Massed Allied air power smashed through on the fourth day of the nonstop

blitz against Sicily, drenching German and Italian airports with

explosives in round-the-clock bombing.

Only two enemy aircraft were destroyed in combat yesterday, but the total for

the four-day offensive was 110. Five planes were missing in yesterday's attack.

Allied losses for the four days totaled 39.

Six Jap Ships

Believed Lost

In Solomons

Battle in "Narrow Strait

Cost U.S. a Cruiser;

Air Blows Continue

WASHINGTON, July 7—

Six Japanese ships were probably sunk and four others damaged in the naval

battle in Kula gulf, while the U.S. lost the light cruiser Helena, a Navy

communique announced today.

The action, precipitated by a Japanese thrust into the eight-mile wide

gulf north of New Georgia island, was one of a half-dozen

engagements disclosed during the day, including a dogfight over Darwin which

cost the Japs probably 11 planes and a new naval bombardment of Kiska in the

Aleutians.

Meanwhile Col. Frank Knox, Navy Secretary, told 10,000 Puget Sound navy

workers at Bremerton, Wash., that he had received word that the Japanese had

taken "a damned good licking." He did not make clear whether he spoke of

current operations in the Solomons or previous naval engagements.

Second U.S. Ship Lost

Eighth Army Reported

In Iraq, Iran, Syria

BERNE, Switzerland, July 7 (AP)—

The British Eighth Army, veteran of the African campaign, is now concentrated in

Iraq, Iran and Syria, in Asia Minor, according to reports in an Italian news-

paper. Gen. Bernard Montgomery was reported in Baghdad.

Reds Find New Oil Fields

MOSCOW, July 7 (AP)—

New oil fields have been discovered in Azerbaijan which

were expected to become second in importance only to Baku, capital of this

region, Izvestia disclosed. The fields were said to be remarkable not only for the

quantity but the quality of the oil which would permit the production of 100

octane aviation gasoline.