Belfast Telegraph
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74th Year                                                Tuesday, June, 6, 1944                                   Three-Halfpence

I N V A S I O N

     An official communiqué states :
     Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the Northern coast of France.
     Airborne landings were carried out.  The naval bombardment went "in the manner planned."
     The German news agency says the airborne landings in Normandy were made in great depth.
     Minesweepers swept the way into the coast and bombarding ships got into position to engage coastal batteries.
     The landings took place between 6 a.m. and 8-15 a.m.
     The Allied "alert" call has been sounded in Holland, Belgium, France and Denmark.
     His Majesty the King will broadcast at 9 p.m. to-day.
     Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind enemy lines.

HERE IS THE INVASION COAST NEAREST ENGLAND IN DETAIL.

     The following is the full text of the Order of the Day issued to-day by General Eisenhower to each individual of the Allied Expeditionary Force :

     "Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force.
     "You are about to embark upon the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months.
     "The eyes of the world are upon you.  The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
     "In company with our brave Allies and Brothers in Arms on other fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine.
     "The elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and security for ourselves in a free world.
     "Your task will not be an easy one.  Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle hardened.  He will fight savagely.
     "But this is the year 1944.  Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41.  The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle, man to man.
     "Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground.
     "Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
     "The tide has turned.  The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
     "I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle.  We will accept nothing less than full victory.
     "Good luck and let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."

     The Order was distributed to assault elements after their embarkation.
     It was read by commanders to all other troops in the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Broadcast to Europe

     General Eisenhower, broadcasting to Europe, said :

     "All patriotic men and women have their part to play in the achievement of final victory."

     He instructed resistance movements to follow the instructions they had received.

     "Patriots not members of organised resistance groups, continue your passive resistance, but do not needlessly endanger your lives.

Eisenhower to France

     "Citizens of France :
     "I am proud to have again under my command the armed forces of France.
     "Because the initial landing has been made on the soil of your country I repeat to you my message to the peoples of other occupied countries in Western Europe - follow your instructions."

     After warning against a premature uprising of the Patriots, General Eisenhower declared:  "Be patient!  Prepare!"

     "As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces there is imposed on me the responsibility of taking all measures necessary for the prosecution of the war."

     Appealing for prompt and quick obedience, he said that the effective Civil Administration of France would be provided by Frenchmen.  All citizens should continue in their present offices.
     When France was liberated Frenchmen themselves would choose the form of government under which they wished to live.

     "Those who have made common cause with the enemy or betrayed their country will be removed.
     "In the course of this campaign for the final defeat of the enemy you may sustain further loss and damage.
     "Tragic though that may be, they will be part of the price of victory.
     "I shall do all in my power to mitigate your difficulties and hardships.
     "The heroic deeds of Frenchmen who have continued the struggle against the Nazis and their Vichy satellites have been an example and inspiration to all of is.
     "This is the opening phase of the campaign.  Great battles lie ahead.  I call upon all who love freedom to stand by us.
     "Together we shall achieve victory"

ROOSEVELT IN TOUCH

     Washing, Tuesday - President Roosevelt is being kept informed of developments, according to an unofficial White House source.
     Mr. Elmer Davis, Director of the Office of War Information, came to his office and stood by waiting for news from Allied sources.
     The War and Navy Departments' night staffs held off a barrage of telephone callers with the statement : "No confirmation, no denial, no comment." - Reuter.

GERMANS FALL BACK FROM 5TH ARMY

No Line for 150 Milles

     Fifth Army troops across the Tiber are pressing on beyond Rome close behind the Germans retreating up the three main roads to the north - Highway I, II and III, cables David Brown, Reuter's special correspondent at Allied advance headquarters, last night.
     Kesselring's forces are falling back towards Viterbo and Terni and along the Tyrrhenian shore.  Their jammed convoys are paying a fearful price, as far as 50 and 60 miles north of Rome.  Allied fighter bombers are meeting out terrific punishment to them, leaving burning and wrecked vehicles sandwiched bumper-to-bumper between wrecked bridges and bomb craters.
     The Germans now have no impressive natural defence line for another 150 miles - the historic Apennine ramparts stretching from coast to coast between Pisa and Rimini.  But the whole way back is roughly comparable to the rugged country through which the 8th Army has been driving the Germans for the past fortnight.

ADRIATIC POSITION

     There are still no signs of the Germans pulling out on the Adriatic, but their east coast positions are becoming increasingly hazardous as the 5th Army extends its control along Highways IV and V radiating from Rome to the Adriatic.
     Reports from Rome reaching Advanced Headquarters late to-day indicate that the Germans have blown up communications, but other utilities, such as the water supply, are still functioning, and the damage to the buildings is not great.
     The 8th Army's advance in the past week has covered 25 to 30 miles despite the Germans' grand-scale demolitions and rearguard actions.  The fall of Rome, with its enormous political and psychological reaction to the Axis, is the culmination of a steady 25 day advance in which General Alexander's armies smashed, demoralised and rolled up Kesselring's formidable South European defences.

ATTACHED FROM AIR

     R.A.F. Wellingtons flew out last night to attack Terni, important road centre 40 miles north-east of Rome.  Their task was to crater and block the roads which meet here, including Highways III and IV.  A square and street junction at the southern end of the town were the targets.  They were clearly identified and a heavy concentration, including block-busters, was placed round the road junction and river bridge.
     One crew claimed that a 4,000-lb bomb scored a direct hit on the bridge, while two sticks of bombs fell across it.

SAW BATTLE

     General Alexander, standing in front of his war maps at his headquarters, discussed with Mr. Peter Fraser, Prime Minister of New Zealand, the strategy and progress of the campaign during the latter's visit to the Italian front, says an official New Zealand war correspondent.
     At Sora, north of Highway VI, Mr. Fraser saw the battle for Italy in progress from the front line itself - Reuter.

TRANSPORTS DESTROYED

     F. Reynolds Jones, Reuter's special correspondent at Allied Headquarters,  Mediterranean, on Monday cabled that fighter-bombers attacking north of Rome found German highway traffic relatively light, although by mid-afternoon they had destroyed at least 150 transport and damaged many more.

CITIZENS CELEBRATE

     Ralph Howard, N.B.C. commentator, in a broadcast on Monday afternoon said :-
     "Rome is filled with British, American and French soldiers marching or driving through the crowded streets in pursuit of the Germans.
     "One thing is outstanding as you drive through the city : Rome has been left untouched.
     "Since early morning the citizens have been out in the streets waving flags and welcoming our troops.
     "Here in Rome it is a holiday and everyone is having a good time," - Reuter

SOMEBODY ELSE ON BALCONY

     ROME, Monday - Mussolini's famous balcony on the Palazzo Venezia had a new occupant to-day.
     He was a private who came from Brooklyn, home of thousands of Italian-Americans.
     He climbed up on the balcony and in Mussolini's old spot told the people of Rome exactly what he thought of the previous occupant - British United Press.

GERMAN SEEKS SANCTUARY

     The German Overseas News Agency states :
     "The German Ambassador to the Vatican, von Weizsaecker, has moved into  Vatican City.
     "He received instructions to remain in Vatican City in all circumstances.
     "The other diplomatic missions of the Tripartite Powers will also take asylum in the Vatican."

SPEEDING UP CHASE NORTH OF ROME

Entire Tiber Bank Ours

     Allied forces fanning out beyond Rome are to-day speeding up their drive to catch up with the main German armies reeling back under the hammer blows of Allied heavy and fighter bombers.

SWEPT THROUGH TOWNS

     They have swept through seven Italian towns in the German right flank and Field-Marsha Kesselring, according to Paris radio, has abandoned the port of Ostia as well as the entire bank of the River Tiber from Rome to the sea.

2,000 VEHICLES DESTROYED

     About 2,000 German vehicles have already been destroyed or damaged in the battle area of Northern Italy in the great air strafe by R.A.F. and American planes.
     A fleet of 500 Allied heavy bombers has been flung in to smash the retreating Germans, it was officially disclosed overnight.

ALEXANDER'S COMMUNIQUÉ

     To-day's communiqué from Italy states :
     "Army - With the capture of Rome the Allied Armies in Italy have brought another phase of the campaign to a most successful conclusion.  The battle to destroy the enemy continues without pause.
     "Troops of the 5th Army are now crossing the Tiber at many places and have advanced some five miles beyond.
     "Only weak resistance is being encountered at present in this sector.
     "Air - Tactical aircraft concentrated their attacks yesterday on lines of communication leading to the battle zone.
     "Medium bombers struck at a number of road bridges in West and Central Italy and north of Rome.
     "Fighter bombers attacked rail-road bridges and trucks, motor transport, and ammunition dumps in the same area.  Medium forces of heavy bombers carried out attacks against rail communications in Northern Italy, bombing yards at Ferrara, Castel Maggiore, Bologna, Faenza and Forli, as well as several bridges.
     "Aircraft and installations on aerodromes in the Po Valley were attacked by fighters.
     "During the day's operations four enemy aircraft were destroyed.  Thirteen of ours are missing.
     "Eight enemy aircraft were seen by our aircraft over the battle area in daylight.
     "Mediterranean Air Force flew approximately 2,400 sorties.
     "On Monday night our bombers attacked objectives in the Viterbo area,"

ULSTER CALL TO PRAYER
Issued by Bishop

     The Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore (Rt. Rev. Charles King Irwin, D.D.), has asked all clergy of the Church of Ireland to make immediate arrangements for prayer and intercession in their churches to-day at their own discretion and according to the conditions existing in their parochial areas.
     St. Peter's Church, Antrim Road, Belfast, and other parish churches in the city will be open all day, and at St. Peter's there will be prayers at each house, beginning at noon.

THE ICELANDIC REPUBLIC
British Ambassador

     The King has approved the appointment of Mr. E. H. G. Shepherd as his special Ambassador at the inauguration of the first President of the Icelandic Republic on June 17, states the Foreign Office.
     Mr. J. Chrisymas Moller, chairman of the Danish Council, said at Denmark Constitution Day meeting in London yesterday :  "The Danish people would have preferred a postponement of the final decision regarding the separation till after the liberation of Denmark, but I do not think there will be bitter feelings between the two peoples."

     Reuter's Military Correspondent learns that Hitler is taking personal command of all anti-invasion operations.
     He is surrounded by a staff including four marshalls, and is believed to have moved his head quarters to a place somewhere in Northern France.

 4,000 TRANSPORTS CROSSED, so says Churchill

     Announcing the landings on the European Continent, Mr. Churchill said in Parliament.

     "An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, with several thousand smaller craft, have crossed the Channel

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WEATHER WASN'T VERY KIND

A Special Correspondent Says :-

     The weather was not very kind on the Continent to the enormous convoys, and there may have been some seasickness.
     The German naval opposition will probably be negligible, though the E-boats may be a nuisance.
     The naval bombardment went "in manner planned."  First reports are therefore good.  U.S. battleships took part in the bombardment, it is learned.
     The underwater obstacles have been a serious difficulty in the planning.  If we chose high tide we might run into them.  If we went in at low tide we would have to face the long beaches.
     The German divisions are believed to be pretty thin on the ground in the coastal areas.

Montgomery In Charge

     The first stage in the liberation of Europe began early this morning when Allied Armies started to land on the Northern coast of France, says W. E. West, Press Association correspondent at Shaef.
     General Montgomery is in charge of the Army group carrying out the assault.  This Army group includes British, Canadian and U.S. forces.
     Allied bombers roaring over London at dawn gave Londonders the first hint that big events were under way.
     The machines passed over the capital in constant procession heading south, and almost simultaneously the B.B.C.'s French transmissions began to warn French people to get away from coastal areas, to avoid roads, railways and bridges.
     Before the assaulting troops embarked each man was handed the stirring Order of the Day from General Eisenhower.
     And so, little more than four years after the remnants of a British Army, battle stained and weary, were snatched from destruction at Dunkirk, they returned to Europe ten times more numerous, armed with the weapons they then lacked, and with the knowledge of a glorious record in North Africa and Italy to sustain them.
     Plans had been made to the last detail for one of the greatest events in history.  The men had been trained to the last ounce, skilled in the use of the most modern weapons, and hardened like fine steel.
     The three Services are geared to the closest co-operation as are the Allied Armies.
     The air assault may be expected to rise to new heights.  Every Allied aircraft is operation in accordance with a single plan under the single control of the Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory.
     To-day sees the first example in North-West Europe of integrated or "triphibious" strategy, in which the Navy and the Air Force help the Army to gain lodgments in enemy held territory, and the Army in turn captures the posts and airfields essential for the efficient operation of its partners.
     For months the air assault has been directed to crippling the enemy's aircraft industry and to minimising the expansion of his fighter force.
     It is estimated that now the German High Command has at its disposal in the West some 1,750 fighters, about equally divided between single and twin-engined.
     Three-quarters of these fighters were probably in Germany before the present operations began.
     There is no physical difficulty in transferring them to France or the Low Countries and within a few days a very powerful force could be in operation there.  But this would denude the Home Front of fighter protection, and no doubt the long range strategic bombing will be continued.
     Thus will the maximum damage and disorganisation be inflicted on the enemy and his fight forces and anti-aircraft defences be stretched to the utmost.
     The enemy is, therefore, in a dilemma, but there is little doubt that he will feel compelled to move some squadrons from Germany and fighting of great severity must be reckoned with before the Luftwaffe can be written off.
     The enemy has a force of some 500 bombers in the West and it must be assumed that he has been conserving these for just this occasion.
     They include a considerable number of aircraft especially designed for attacks on shipping, including torpedo bombers and H.E. 177 glider bomb-carriers.

"Supremely Confident."

     I was the last British was correspondent to see Gen. Montgomery before he sealed his tactical head-quarters in preparation for the invasion, says Louis Wulff, Press Association war correspondent.

     It was when the King went to the General's headquarters to say good-bye and good luck to him a fortnight ago.
     "Monty,"  in his familiar battle dress and beret, was in the best of spirits.  He looked and seemed supremely confident.

PLANE ABLAZE ATTACKS U-BOAT
EPIC OF ATLANTIC
Wounded Crew

     With one engine on fire and two of his crew wounded, the captain of an R.A.F. Coastal Command Liberator carried on through the flak to attack an enemy U-boat in the Atlantic, says the Air Ministry News Service.
     After the attack, and despite bad weather, the pilot flew his damaged machine 900 miles back to base, where the two injured navigators were rushed to hospital.  One was seriously wounded.
     Flight-Lieut. H. F. Kerrigan, D.F.C., of Quebec, captain of the aircraft said : "We were on our way to protect a convoy when we sighted a U-boat on the surface.  As we made our run-in the gunners on the U-boat put up some pretty accurate flak.

BURST INTO FLAMES

     "My starboard outer motor boat burst into flames and I felt shrapnel striking the aircraft in several places, but our gunners fired back and could see their bullets ricochetting off the conning tower.
     "The depth-charges straddled the enemy and, as the plumes subsided, it seemed as though the enemy's bows had been blown into the air."
     As Kerrigan circled, a second U-boat was seen, fully surfaced.  It was immediately attacked, but during the run-in the aircraft suddenly lurched badly and the depth charge controls, apparently smashed, refused to function.

ONE MORE VISIT TO ROME
AS HEAD OF STATE
King Victor Emmanuel

     King Victor Emmanuel is expected to retire almost immediately, but he may pay one more visit to Rome as the reigning head of the State.  In his proclamation on April 12 he undertook to withdraw from public affairs when the Allies entered Rome and to appoint the Prince of Piedmont as Lieutenant of Italy.  The King will not abdicate, but will retire after a reign which will have lasted 44 years next month.
     Mr. Edward Stettinius, U.S. Under-Secretary of State, said yesterday it was not contemplated that King Victor would return to Rome.
     It is probable that when the King retires the ? ? ?ent will formally resign, and that the Prince of Piedmont will ask Marshal Badoglio to form a new Government.  No changes are expected in the composition of the Government.
     Rome will remain under Allied military control.  The Italian Government's jurisdiction at present covers only the southern portion of Italy though this may be extended as the Allies advance.

DIPLOMATS' RELEASE

     The entry of the Allied troops into Rome will mean "release" for Sir Francis D'Arcy Osborne, British Minister to the Holy Sec, who, with 50 other diplomats, have for months been virtually confined to the tiny area of the neutral Church State, says Frank A. King, Press Association diplomatic correspondent.
     The situation in which these diplomats have found themselves has been most curious, for despite their diplomatic privileges they have had far less liberty than the ordinary inhabitants of the city.

OFFICIAL U.S. POLICY

     Mr. Adolf Berle, assistant U.S. Secretary of State, said yesterday that he believed the official U.S. policy towards the makeup of a new Italian Government would be announced in a few days by Mr. Cordell Hull/  Presumably, he said, the United Nations long since had determined their attitude toward the new Italian Government which was to be constituted as soon as Rome was safely in Allied hands - Reuter

W.A.A.F. MURDERER HANGED

     Gunner Earnest James Harman Kemp, 21 Royal Artillery, whose appeal against the sentence of death for the murder of 21-year-old Leading Aircraftwoman Iris Miriam Deeley, at Eltham, Kent, was dismissed a fortnight ago, was executed to-day at Wandsworth Prison.

TYRONE ACCIDENT

     Charles Donaghy, of Birney Square, Coalisland, received a fractured thigh while felling timber near Stewartstown.

DAWN TO DUSK REJOICING

From L. Marsland Gander
("Daily Telegraph" Correspondent with 5th Army.)

     When Rome awoke at dawn yesterday to find that the Germans had gone, it gave itself up to a spontaneous outburst of jubilation never equalled before in this war.
     Every Allied armoured car, every soldier, every vehicle, every gun made a royal progress through the streets between crowds, whose rapturous attentions became positively embarrassing.
     They showered roses on the cars and leant out of the windows of five and six storey buildings, cheering and waving Italian, American and British flags.
     Practically all shops closed, and business came to a complete standstill as the celebration mounted through the morning to a crescendo of wildest enthusiasm.

WOUNDED IN TRUCKS

     The Germans have been clearing out for three days, taking with them every vehicle they could commandeer.
     While the last rearguard actions were being fought on the outskirts of the city late on Sunday night the last weary, dispirited infantry were trudging across the Tiber on their way out.
     Owing to the chronic shortage of ambulances the enemy bundled his wounded into trucks like cattle.
     By midnight advances armoured elements of the 5th Army had forced their way right through Highway VI to the centre of the city.
     By noon yesterday they had passed to the north bank of the Tiber in full pursuit.
     General Mark Clark, Commander of the 5th Army, drove to the Campidoglio, the town hall of Rome, on the Capitoline Hill, and there met on the steps Major-General Harry H. Johnson, who has been nominated as commander of the Rome area.  Major-General Keyes and General Juin, commander of the French Corps.
     Three huge flags hung from the balcony - the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes, with the Italian flag in the centre, while cheering crowds below acclaimed the representatives of their liberators.

GREAT DAY FOR 5TH ARMY

     General Clark :-
     "This is a great day for the 5th Army. French, British and American troops have all made this victory possible, and great credit is due to General Eaker's Air Force for supporting us so magnificently.
     "We have helped to smash two German Armies - part of the 14th and 10th.  I doubt whether the 14th is capable of opposing us on the field of battle any more.  We have wrecked these German Armies.
     "The enemy has been obliged to leave behind untold quantities of equipment - guns, tanks, trucks, everything you can think of.  We are well across the Tiber, we have almost no contact with the Germans at the moment.  We do not know how many Germans are trapped in the coastal area, probably a few hundred.  We have captured 20, 000 prisoners and destroyed untold equipment."

TRIUMPHAL JOURNEY

     By morning light I clambered with two companions into a jeep and began the ride to Rome.  We had some hints of our coming welcome in the first suburbs.
     People had begun to line the streets, waving at us and shouting in Italian - "Welcome," "Liberators."
     If we slowed down or stopped, men and boys would leap on the jeep until we had such a groaning load and the vehicle could hardly struggle on and we had to ask some of them to get off.
     We passed through long columns of American infantrymen slogging down the road in single file.  Practically every one had a rose in his helmet.  The Doughboys grinned happily through the grime of battle on their faces, and made the thumbs up or victory sign.  One shouted "We've been walking since yesterday morning and I guess the next step must be Berlin."
     In the Palazzo Venezia Square the full volume of Rome's enthusiasm burst upon us.
     When we left the jeep, and in fact wherever we went, we were immediately the centre of a seething throng, all shouting at once offering to help in half-a-dozen languages, telling us about the political injustices and Germans infamies.
     Outside the massive insurance building opposite the Palazzo di Venezia there was an angry mob.  Gesticulating men rushed up to me, shouting that some of the Italian African police, well known for their Fascist sympathies, has shut themselves in behind the iron gates.  Somebody had thrown a hand-grenade and there had been shots.
     Carabinieri, arriving in a lorry, took the situation in hand.

WHO'S WHO OF THE MEN WHO ARE THE LEADERS OF THE INVASION

     "Unless we make some grave mistakes in strategy, the year 1944 will see the climax of the European War.  Unless some happier event occurs, on which we have no right to count, and the Hand of Providence is directed by some crowning mercy, then 1944 will see the greatest sacrifice of life by the British and American armies, and battles far larger and more costly than Waterloo or Gettysburg will be fought."     -     Mr. Churchill in November, 1943

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GENERAL "IRON-HAMMER" EISENHOWER IS JUST "IKE"

     General Iron-Hammer! That is the literal translation of Eisenhower, the name of the leader of the assault on Hitler's European fortress.
     By a curious irony of fate, Eisenhower is of German extraction.  He is ruddy of face, bald, blue-eyed, and a hundred per cent. soldier.  He is a bitter fighter, with a vast capacity for grand strategy and detail.
     Until the Allied landings in North Africa he had never commanded in a major battle, but now he is the world's No. 1 expert in amphibious operations.  After North Africa came Sicily, and then Southern Italy - carried out with the true "Iron-hammer touch."
     Born in Texas in 1890, he is the third of six sons.  He was graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1915, but did not get overseas during the First World War.  He taught tank tactics and from then on was a serious student of mechanised warfare.  He was graduated with highest honours from the Army War College in Washington, D.C., and from the Command General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
     Although generally regarded as a tank expert, he has always been a partisan of air power.  At 46 he took up flying personally and became a licensed pilot.  As Chief of Staff to General MacArthur in the 1930's he helped evolve the plans for centralised control of military and air power.  For the next few years he aided MacArthur in the organisation of the Filipino Air Force and in working out the defensive strategy employed seven years later against the Jap. onslaught on Corregidor and Bataan.
     During the Army manoeuvres in 1941 he helped to direct operations of over 200,000 men and when the manoeuvres were over, he was made a brigadier-general.  Then came his appointment to the War Plans Division in Washington; then he was made commanding officer of U.S. Forces in the European Theatre of Operations; then Supreme Allied Commander in North Africa.
     Eisenhower is 52, married, and has an 82-year-old mother back in Manhatten, Kansas.  She calls him by his proper name, Dwight, but to the U.S. troops he is known as just "Ike."  They idolise him.

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THE FIRST AIRMAN TO BE CHOSEN AS SECOND-IN-COMMAND

     Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Forces that will liberate the Continent, is the man who prophesied in 1941 that "the close comradeship between our three services will, I am convinced, be the vital factor in finally breaking the enemy's power in the Middle East."  He is also the man who in 1942-43 planned the "Boston tea-parties,"  the pattern bombing of the Battle of Egypt and the North African campaign, the man who thought of using Hurricanes as "tin openers" to destroy enemy tanks, who has demonstrated to the full the power of aerial co-operation.
     The outbreak of this war found Tedder at the Air Ministry as Director General of Research and Development.  In December, 1940, he left for an operational command.  He took up his appointment as Deputy C.-in-C. Middle East under Air Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore as Wavell was striking at the Italian armies in  Egypt and forcing them back into Tripolitania.
     He was always learning, planning, trying out experiments.  The first came in 1941; Tobruk was relieved and the Germans were pushed back to El Agheila.  But it was not until the offensive phase under Alexander began in the autumn of 1942, that Tedder's plans could be carried out.  Then the Lease-Lend bombers began to reach him in large quantities and he showed how they could be used.
     When the campaign of Egypt, Cyrenaica, Libya and Tripolitania was completed and the Army and the Air Force has crossed into Tunisia Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder was given still further scope, for he was appointed Air Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean.
     Tedder laid his carpet, and the greatest tactical air assault ever conceived began to blast a way for the big Allied push in Tunisia.
     Six days later all Axis resistance in North Africa ceased, but the North West African Air Forces under Tedder were already anticipating the next move; they were bombing North Africa and the European mainland.
     As the airfields in southern Italy were captured the bombers of the air force under Tedder were able to join those based in the United Kingdom in greater and greater numbers in the bombing of Germany preparatory to a new offensive.  For this offensive, General Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the British and United States Expeditionary Forces and for the first time in history an airman was chosen as second-in-command in the person of Tedder.

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     An adaptation of the famous 8th Army flash is used by General Montgomery's Headquarters Staff as invasion insignia.  It consists of crossed swords in yellow with a blue cross on a red Crusader's shield.  It is worn solely by General Montgomery's staff and not by the invasion troops as a whole.

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U.S. AIR CHIEF IS HERO AND SCIENTIST

     Major-General James H. Doolittle, Commander of the 8th U.S. Air Force.  When you meet him for the first time, he gives you the impression of precise, intelligent politeness.  He listens attentively to questions; his answers are illustrative and exact.  He communicates confidence, experience, and a profound faith in the power of air war.  You feel that he is accustomed to the habit of command and impatient with the slightest degree of inaction.  What you don't get is the impression that he is a hero and a scientist, for Jimmy Doolittle does not believe that he is either.
     Yet he is both.  The career of the new commander of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force in Britain is a dual record of daredevil air exploits and extensive research which has speeded the progress of aviation.  Born in California in 1896, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1917, when he was in his senior year at the University of California. In a short time he was made an officer-instructor. In 1922 he flew across America in 22½ hours - an extraordinary feat in those days.  In 1924 he was awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first degree in air engineering in the U.S.  In 1925 he made international headlines when he flew an Army Curtiss Racer 232 miles an hour to win the Schneider Trophy.
     The war has accelerated and "spectacularised" his work.  On April 18, 1942, the Tokio radio broadcast that Japan had been bombed by American planes.  It was Doolittle who had led the squadron; his first enemy capital.
     "The success of the raid exceeded our most optimistic expectations," he reported.  The following September he was made Commander of the U.S. 12th Air Force in North Africa.  He dashed back and forth all over that area in a Flying Fortress inspecting bases, airfields, repair stations, replacement crews.  He never flew anywhere without a couple of bombs in the Fortress' bay, "just in case we see something to drop them on."  His men hammered enemy armoured columns day and night in Algeria, pounded Axis communications in Tunisia, "strafed" Nazi installations at Oran; and at last, from fresh, frontline bases, bombed military targets in Rome; his second enemy capital.
     No matter how much the Commander of the "mighty Eighth" contributes to the wrecking of the Nazi Fortress, the U.S. will have difficulty rewarding him.  He has already won the Congressional Medal of Honour, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Silver Star and the Air Medal, and numerous decorations for pioneer work in speed experiments, blind flying, aerial photography, the uses of high octane gasoline.
     From Britain Doolittle's Fortresses and Liberators will fly in bigger and bigger formations towards Germany.  It is not inconceivable that in one bomber, heading for his third enemy capital, will be Major-General Doolittle.  For throughout the military world he is known as "the little man who is everywhere."

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     Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, in command of the Tactical Air Force, began his career in the Army.  In 1916 he was invalided home from Egypt and told that he was unfit for further service.  But he was 21 and had his own ideas on the subject.
     After six months at home in New Zealand he was as strong as when he had left New Zealand University to join the Canterbury Mounted Rifles in 1914.  By September, 1939, Coningham had been promoted Air Commodore and had become A.O.C. No. 4 Group.  Then, after two years, he left the bombers in North-East England for the fighters and bombers of the Middle East, where Tedder was already in command as A.O.C.-in-C. R.A.F.  For some months Coningham was A.O.C. of a bomber group stationed in the desert, and then with the start of the winter offensive of 1941 he was appointed A.O.C. R.A.F., Western Desert.
     Tall, dark, lean, seeing everyone and noticing everything, he was confident and filled others with his confidence.  Speaking French, Italian and German, he can wise-crack in each as in English.  Tedder has been called "the architect of victory."  What he planned Coningham put into execution; the aerial blasting that preceded the artillery barrage of Alamein in October, 1942, the bombing of Tobruk and Benghazi, and the many other ports and the coast road to Tripoli.
     Changes were made in the High Command in February, 1943, so that though the Axis forces had retreated beyond the borders of the Command originally held by General Alexander, Air Chief Marshal Tedder and Coningham, yet they continued to fight against them.  Alexander became Deputy C.-in-C., Allied Force, North Africa, and Tedder, A.O.C.-IN-C. Mediterranean, while Air Vice-Marshal Coningham was given command of the air operations in support of the British 1st and 8th Armies and other troops on the Tunisian battlefield.
     The Tactical Air Force, as it came to be called, bombed the enemy from south and west during the months of March and April, 1943.  Then on April 30, Air Marshal Coningham stood watching the bombers under his command make the greatest air assault ever conceived.  It was a gigantic peppering of bombs with explosions planted so tightly together that there were not many yards of surface untouched.  And after the "carpet" of a thousand yards by four miles had been "laid" by the aircraft of the tactical Air Force the ground forces advanced, still supported in the air by bombers and fighters.

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EISENHOWER'S CHIEF OF STAFF

     General Eisenhower's Chief of Staff is Brigadier General Walter Bedell Smith, who is 46.  General Smith entered the U.S. Army as a private in the Indiana National Guard.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in November, 1917, and was wounded in France later the same year.
     After the Great War he served at various infantry posts in the United States, on the Mexican Border, and in the Philippines.  He became a member of the General Staff Corps in April, 1940.
     On September 7, 1942, he joined General Eisenhower in England and has been the latter's Chief of Staff since serving with him throughout the African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns.

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GENERAL SHOT DOWN GERMAN PLANES IN LAST WAR

     In 1899, when he was eight, red-headed Carl Spaatz was the youngest linotype operator in Pennsylvania.  He operated the machine in the Boyerstown print shop where his Pennsylvania Dutch father and grand father published the "Berks County Democrat."  Carl had a happier time in the evenings, when Father Spaatz taught him to play the guitar. Father Spaatz, who later became a State Senator, got him an appointment at West Point, so off he went in 1910, lugging his guitar.
     The man who now commands the American Strategic Force against Germany strummed his way through West Point without scholarly distinction.  He learned to fly in California.  He added an "a" to his name because people infuriated him by pronouncing it "Spats" instead of the correct "Spots."  He shot down three German Fokkers at the front in World War I.  Wiry, wind-beaten, taciturn Carl Spaatz has been known as a crack flyer ever since.  He won a Distinguished Service Medal then and another in 1920 when he and four other U.S. airmen took the plane Question Mark aloft for a non-stop refuelling flight which established a new endurance record.
     He was serving as Chief of the Air Force Combat Command in June, 1942, when he was suddenly "yanked out" and sent to England to organise and train the 8th Army Air Force.  Germany is well aware of his success in this command.  In December that same frantic year when Allied armies were struggling across the muddy mountainous country between Algeria and the coast of Tunisia and U.S. airmen were groping through the complexities of coordinated operation, Spaatz was brought to North Africa as air adviser to General Eisenhower.  The Germans are also well aware of his success in that theatre.
     General Spaatz has no violent theories which qualify him for these strategic transfers.  He just has an expert airman's view of how air power should be used.  He watched a German air raid from a London rooftop one night and saw the Nazis drop incendiaries helter-skelter on the city.  "The damn fools," he roared, "they're setting air power back 20 years."
     He and Air Chief Marshal Tedder see eye to eye.  An air force, they both think, is an offensive entity, striking at the enemy in co-operation with the army.  Spaatz, blunt as a hammer, likes and is liked by the British.
     When the Queen paid a visit to the U.S. Air Forces and rain began to fall the general quickly wrapped his coat around her shoulders, "Your Majesty," he said, "this makes you a major-general in the American Air Force."

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"I never put an army into battle until I am quite certain it is going to be a good show - never,  We won't have any question of failure.  This was began a long while ago, I am getting fed up with the thing.  I think is it nearly time we finished.

General Montgomery in February last

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Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery talk things over

"MONTY,"   THE MAN WITH ONE AMBITION

     General Sir Bernard Montgomery, is of course, the Ulster lion.  He is a shirt, spare man, hard and bold in battle, the man who made Rommel run at El Alamein, the man who turned the whole course of the war and wrote "Ulster" across the war maps in letters of fire.
     He is 56, a widower, and has one son.  His father was a distinguished Ulster prelate, Rt. Rev. Sir Henry Montgomery, former Bishop of Tasmania, who died at his Moville home in 1932.  His maternal grand-father was Dean Farrar, author of "Eric, or Little by Little."
     "Monty" is the most Spartan of Spartans; he lives simply and abhors luxury; he fights hard and gives no quarter.  He expects none.
     The Germans call his ruthless - and he is.  His sole ambition in life is to do the very best job he can; he expects his men to do the same.
     As a young officer just out of Sandhurst he is remembered for his interest in his work and the more strenuous athletics, and his dislike of social activities.  In the last was he won the D.S.O. and the French Military Cross and was mentioned half a dozen times in despatches.
     In this war he sprang into prominence when he hurled the Germans back from the El Alamein line.  The Tacticians say he accomplished the most difficult task that could confront any general - frontal attack against strong defences in depth.  For a time there was the cunning lure of an Axis pocket between Tel-el-eisa and Sidi-abd-el-Rahman.  This might have foxed a lesser general into diverting his forces, but not Montgomery.  He had made up his mind to cut the Axis armies to ribbons.  He did.
     His superb confidence is Monty's great characteristic.  Once after a staff conference in which he outlined his plan for forthcoming action, a brigadier-general said "I understand what is ahead of you, but what is behind me?"
     "You've got me behind you," replied "Monty" tapping his finger on his chest.

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COMMANDER OF U.S. ARMY'S SECOND FRONT GROUND FORCES

     "I've spent 25 years trying to explain why I wasn't overseas in the last war.  Thank goodness I'll be spared that this time." said Omar Nelson Bradley when he put foot on North African soil in February, 1943.
     Until that moment no U.S. officer had disembarked in a theatre of war with so firm a conviction of the foot soldier's obligations in battle.  "No matter how excellent our equipment or how effective our artillery,"  he said, "it is the infantry which must bear the brunt of the battle."  His application of this certainly has produced victories from Gafsa, in Tunisia, to the Straits of Messina.
     It has won his (him) two French decorations, a Distinguished Service Medal, and a Lieutenant-Generalship.  It is responsible for General Eisenhower's appointment of him as Senior Commander, American Ground Forces, Allied Expeditionary Force, the coming invasion of Europe.
     Omar Bradley was 51 on Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 12.  He was born in Moberly, Missouri, commissioned from West Point in 1915, served conventionally through '41 when he was places in charge of an officer's candidate school.
     He is what soldiers call a "quiet operator."  He is tall, soft spoken, decisive, imperturbable.  A war correspondent has said of him: "It would be toying with the truth to call him handsome."  He is a terrific walker.  During a campaign he averages only about five hours a day in his jeep.  "It's good for my liver,"  he says.
     He is totally without swagger, as any of his men will tell you.  One young officer remarked, as he left the General's presence,  "He makes me feel like the general."
     Some infantry commanders believe in the theory of direct attack, accepting a 30 per cent. loss of men in order to achieve an objective quickly.  Bradley more sensitive than most to casualties, is as thrifty with his men as war allows.  If the enemy doesn't crack after a direct attack, he devises another method of attack.
     "We can't get out without some loss of life,"  he says, "but it's really harder on some of the newer officers than it is on me.  After all, I've spent 30 years preparing a frame of mind for accepting such a thing."
     When General Bradley received his third star his 19-year-old daughter wrote him a letter of congratulation.  "Mother and I,"  she wrote,  "think you are the greatest general in the world - next to General Marshal."

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BACHELOR EXPERT ON BIG GUNS

     Admiral Sir Bruce Frazer, Commanding the home fleet Forces of Liberation, is 56 and one of the Navy's greatest experts on air-sea strategy.  He knows more about big naval guns than probably any other man in England, and was responsible for the 14-inch guns with which the great new battleships of the King George V class were armed.
     Sir Bruce has devoted his life to the Navy, and his interests outside it are few.  As a young gunnery officer he was soon singled out for promotion, and his gifts as a commander eventually brought him one of the biggest commands in the British Navy, that of the aircraft carrier Glorious.  He was director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty from 1933 to 1938, and in March, 1943, following a brilliant interlude as captain of the Glorious, became Chief of the Home Fleet in succession to Admiral Sir John Tovey.
     His task in this command was to pin down the German High Seas Fleet and watch the North Sea, the Atlantic, and the Arctic all at the same time.  In this post he was responsible for many brilliantly executed operations, including the sinking of the Scharnhorst.  Admiral Fraser is unmarried.

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HIS MOTTO IS "THE BIGGER THE BOMBS THE BETTER"

     Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, commanding the R.A.F. Bomber Commands, is perhaps best described as "Hamburg Harris."  He is the man who launched the thousand bomber raids on Germany and who decimated Hamburg, Lubeck, Cologne and other cities of the Reich in the early days of the air offensive.
     His biggest concentration of bombs was on Hamburg.  Until then never had an attack of such weight and persistence been made on a single industrial target.
     In private life Harris is a man of quiet tastes.  He likes to read history and books on farming, but he has left his books aside for the moment to give all his attention to bombs - "the bigger the better."  Next to Churchill, Harris is probably the Germans' biggest "bogey-man."  His attacks on Hamburg and other leading targets were followed by tirades of hysterical abuse on the German wireless in denunciation of "the murderer Harris."
     Nothing however, ruffles Harris.  Nothing turns him aside from his purpose - to bring about the end of this war in the shortest possible time.  He once said that the day would come when it would be possible to send 1,000 bombers over Germany every day, and "from that day I give the war four or five months."
     Harris was Deputy Chief of Air Staff before his promotion to Bomber Command.

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THEY CALL HIM  "DYNAMO"  RAMSAY AT 60

     Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander-in- Chief of the invasion, is known in the Service as "Dynamo" Ramsay.  He has served his apprenticeship in grand strategy as one of the senior officers under General Eisenhower in the combined operations in the Mediterranean.  His handling of the landing operations in North Africa was regarded as "masterly," and the knowledge and experience which he acquired then should prove invaluable in the larger operation which has now begun.
     In recognition of his part in the capture of Sicily he was awarded the K.B.E. in December last.  He also achieved fame for his work at Dunkirk - he planned this historic evacuation.
     Admiral Ramsay was actually on the retired list when the war began in September 1939.  He had retired in 1939 after 40 years distinguished service, and was living quietly at his home at Coldstream, Berwickshire, when he was recalled.  As a former Chief-of-Staff of the Home Fleet he was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable men in Britain in regard to the war at sea, and his vast experience was soon put to good use,
     Although he is 60 his dynamic energy has made him one of the most redoubtable of the invasion leaders.

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ALLIED AIR C.-in-C. IS A RECTOR'S SON

     Air Vice Marshal Leigh-Mallory, the Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, was 22 when he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in August, 1914, for he was born on July 11, 1892, at Mobberley, Cheshire, where his father and grandfather had both been rectors.  But in July, 1916, he left the Army on being seconded as a flying officer to the Royal Flying Corps, with which he was to serve with distinction in France.  Three years later, on choosing the R.A.F. as a career rather than the Bar, he was granted a permanent commission as squadron leader.
     In the next few years he served in many different positions with brilliance.  It was as A.O.C. No. 12 Fighter Group that "L-M," as he is known in the R.A.F., went into battle against the Luftwaffe in 1939.  He directed the work of Wing Commander Bader's wing in the Battle of Britain, a wing which destroyed some 150 German aircraft in seven engagements.  On many other occasions in 1940 he sat in the Control Room of his Fighter Station and directed as many as three wings of fighters at a time.  For these "distinguished services rendered in recent operations" he was awarded the C.B. in July, 1940.  Later in the same year he transferred to No. 11 Group, again as A.O.C.
     In addition to commanding a fighter group, Leigh-Mallory was also helping to form the Polish Air Force in the United Kingdom, and in recognition of his work in its organisation and development he was awarded the Polonia Restituto medal in June, 1942.
     Two months later he was commanding units of the Polish Air Force, for they took part with other units of the Allied Air Forces, the U.S. Air Force and squadrons from Bomber, Fighter, and Army Co-operation Commands of the R.A.F. in the Dieppe Raid.  The aircraft took off long before dawn and the air battle that began so early went on till dusk.  Pilots flew to clear the air above Dieppe and the Channel.  German aircraft were prevented from hindering the landing operations, the work undertaken ashore and the re-embarkation by directions sent from the headquarters of a Fighter Group under Leigh-Mallory.
     Besides the bombers attacking gun-posts and strong-points, the smoke-laying of the Blenheims and Bostons, Hurricanes, and Spitfires fought countless battles so that by the end of the day 91 enemy aircraft had been destroyed and another 100 probably destroyed or damaged for the loss of 98 of our aircraft of all types with 30 fighter-pilots saved.

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HE IS PROUD OF THE IRISH IN HIM

     Major-General Lewis H. Brereton, Commander of the 9th U.S.A.A.F., U.K. Forces of Liberation, is affectionately known in the Service as "General Looie."
     He is a typical American, renowned for his forcible method of speech, particularly when over enemy targets.  Originally he was trained for the Navy, graduating from Annapolis, America's Dartmouth, in 1911.  At that time, however, the U.S. Army was urgently in need of second lieutenants, so young Brereton resigned from the Navy and joined the Artillery.  A year later he transferred to the infant Air Arm of the Army and served with it in France from 1917, winning the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart.
     With the entry of the U.S. into the present war "General Looie" stepped into world prominence by making the first U.S. bombing flight to be led by a general.  This was a flight of Flying Fortresses over the Japanese held Andaman Islands.  It was he who formed the U.S. Air Force in India to operated from Chinese bases against Japan.  Social life in Delhi did not appeal to this unconventional general, and one of his first orders to his staff was a warning against: "Delhi-dallying."
     Incidentally, "General Looie" is particularly proud of the "Irish in him" - he is of English and Irish descent.  He is 53.

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ONE-TIME PRIVATE WHO HAS CHARGE OF OUR AIR DEFENCES

     The man in charge of Britain's day and night air defences is Air-Marshal Sir Roderic Hill, one of the intellectuals of the invasion team, but an intellectual with a strong practical strain.  He is the son of a professor and has a string of degrees after his name in addition to decorations for military achievement.  In addition he is a Fellow of the University College, London.
     Like so many other airmen who have climbed to fame Sir Roderic began in the Army.  In 1914 he joined up as a private on the 18th Royal Fusiliers, and was commissioned a month later.  He was wounded and mentioned in despatches, but land-fighting proved "too tame" for him, and he transferred into the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 where he got his M.C., and was again mentioned in despatches.  From 1917 to 1923 he was in charge of the Experimental Flying Department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and was one of the pioneers of modern flying, holding up to the outbreak of the present war a variety of posts in the Service, that of Air Officer Commanding in Palestine and Transjordan.
     Sir Roderic has played an important part in this war in planning both the offensive and defensive tactics of the R.A.F.  As defender of the British skies he is the right man in the right place.

THIS IS THE GERMAN "WEST WALL"

BRITAIN ONCE BEFORE INVADED FRANCE ACROSS THE CHANNEL

     England invaded France across the Channel in 1346, and seized a beachhead at Calais that endured for 200 years.
     In the Hundred Years War, Edward III, aspiring to the French Throne, loaded up an invasion force at Portsmouth and set off for the coast of Normandy.
     To-day a successful amphibious operation requires control of the air.  In those days of military innocence control of the sea was enough, and Edward secured that by smashing the French Fleet in 1340.
     And Edward too, had a secret weapon as he and his army swarmed up the beaches at Barfleur.  He had no reason to use it then, however, for the French offered little resistance as he marched on to Rouen and thence down towards Paris.
     Stopping before Paris he decided his lines were too thinly stretched, turned boldly, and marched north towards Calais.  At Crecy he found the French Army at last blocking his path, and released his secret weapon.  It was a massed force of trained archers, who shot into the charging French cavalry with fearful execution.  The back of the French Army was broken there, and Edward swept on to Calais.
     The tide of English conquest rolled high in that protracted war, and once lapped over the northern half of France.  But at last the French found a secret weapon of their own - artillery firing round shot that slaughtered the British bowmen.

 
    The invader was routed from most of France, and the Hundred Years' War ended in 1453.  But that firm beachhead at Calais lasted for another hundred years.

LIBERATED ROME SYMBOL FOR STRICKEN ITALY
By C. M. Franzero
(Former London Correspondent of "Giornale d'Italia")

     Many people in Italy will be found prepared to argue that Rome never was in modern times a Capital in the sense that London is the Capital of Britain.
     It is true enough that Roma never meant that centralisation of politics, finance and trade, which made London the commercial as well as cultural centre of Britain and of the British Empire.
     Yet all Italians, cynic and realistic as they are, would tell you that Rome means for Italy the very heart of the nation.  For centuries, even before the ideal of a United Italy was nurtured by Italian thinkers and patriots, Rome was looked upon as the Mother City, and the patriots of the Risorgimento, whatever their particular political conceptions - from the Republican followers of Mazzini and Garibaldi to the Monarchist collaborators of Count Cavour - all kept their eyes fixed on Rome.  Without Rome, Italy could never have been considered complete and united.

MORTAL BLOW AT FASCISM

     Its liberation from the Germans - and indeed from the last traces of the tyranny of Mussolini - will have a terrific repercussion in those parts of Italy which are still under the Nazi heel.  It will deal a mortal blow, too, to the fanciful Fascist Republic set up by Mussolini in his hiding-place.
     The Germans have kept Mussolini a virtual prisoner.  In his villa at Fasano on Lake Garda he is watched over by a "jailer" of high rank, Ambassador von Rahn, who occupies another villa close by.
     From his office he directs the affairs of "Republican Fascism" in Northern Italy, by permission of his German masters, who take leave to smother or annul any of his edicts which fail to suit their purposes.
     The drift of his policy is markedly more Republican than Fascist.  The "revolutionary" social reforms he tried to set up earlier this year have proved a dead letter, and there is no one who does not know in his heart that Mussolini's new Government has no future, and will disappear with Germany's defeat.  It never had any real authority or the means of enforcing it.
     Notwithstanding ruthless pressure and propaganda, such as the claim that "thousands of Partisans have surrendered," Mussolini has never even succeeded in putting together the shadow of an army.  The few thousand men who have been mustered are armed with a variety of weapons and dressed in fanciful semi-civilian garb, because there are no new uniforms and no cloth to make them.

BOYS WITH ROWS OF RIBBONS

     The breasts of quite young boys who have never seen a day's fighting are adorned with rows of ribbons, for it has become fashionable to display the medals of relatives.
     Even these boys, many of whom are barely 16, are fully armed with machine-guns and revolvers, and carry hand grenades strung to their belts.  Indiscipline is the order of the day, combined with much impudence and ribaldry.  Even more grotesque was the attempt to reconstitute a Navy.
     Mussolini's Republican Navy exists only on paper, because the small proportion of the Italian Fleet that did not reach Allied ports after the Armistice was confiscated by the Germans, and Commander Grossi's submarine squadron is immobilised in a French port, since the Germans do not care to entrust Italian submarine crews with war missions any more than they trust Mussolini's new "Army."
     The only active element of the Army, and perhaps the most conspicuous, have been the so-called "Compagnie della Morte," or death squads, who are reputed to be "ready for anything."
     Such is the picture of Mussolini's Fascist Republic," and it would not be surprising if, now that Rome is freed, we find ourselves on the eve of very serious developments in the provinces still under the Nazi-Fascist sway.
     With the fall of Rome, Mussolini has met his "Waterloo."  There is a possibility that Marshal Badoglio with the new Government will take new measures towards interpreting the real feelings of the Italian people.
     No voices will be fully representative of the whole nation till the population of the all important North is free.  But the freeing of Rome remains an event of the highest augury, one which rejoices the very soul of Italy.

ALLIED CONTROL OF ROME
SPECIALISTS TEAM
From SHOLTO WATT
("Daily Telegraph" Correspondent with the 5th Army in Rome)

     The 5th Army brings an army within an army for the administration and safeguarding of Rome, ready to feed and protect its citizens.  Rome will hold only the minimum of troops necessary for these purposes - it is our declared policy that Rome is not to be a garrison city and that the 5th Army is not here to stage triumphal marches.
     The Vatican City, as a neutral State, will be treated with the utmost consideration.  Its population will be fed if necessary, and earnest efforts will be made to meet any requests made on behalf of the Pope.
     Dealings with the Vatican will be through the British and U.S. Ministers, Sir D'Arcy Osborne and Mr. Harold Tittman.
     Rome area command will be under Major-General Harry H. Johnson, of Eagle Lake, Texas, and the "Mayor" of Rome will be Senior Civil Affairs Officer of the 5th Army, Brigadier-General Edgar Erskine Hume, of Frankfort, Kentucky.  Their task will be to relieve the fighting forces of the 5th Army of the responsibility for Rome.

FEEDING 2,000,000

     It is not known at present how many people there are in Rome, but General Hume is prepared to feed up to 2,000,000.  Transport communications and Utilities Division of the Allied Control is prepared to meet almost all conditions.
     There is even apparatus to distil water from the Tiber if other sources prove insufficient.  Lighting materials for the whole city are on the way, as well as supplies of petrol for essential traffic.
     A team of specialists under General Hume, trained for many different jobs, include - 
     Legal officers, who will set up courts at the earliest moment, their concerns being only civilian offences against the Allied Forces.
     Welfare officers who, beside supplying food, will give other relief in urgent cases both to Italians and Allied nationals in Rome.
     Public health officers to prevent epidemics.
     Labour officers to recruit civilian workers for military purposes.
     Education officers to reopen schools, scrutinise teachers and purge text books of Fascist ideology.

SECURITY TASK

     Maintenance of security is among the prime tasks.  So complete is the Allied organisation that our own fire-fighters are being brought in.
     The normal administration of Rome in ten districts will be retained.  each district will be under a civil affairs officer and a political officer, who, with the Carabinieri, will form a miniature Government.
     Some of General Hume's officers will control Allied property appropriated or sequestrated by the Italians, which we are now taking back.
     The black market will be controlled as far as possible.

BUTCHERY BY BULGARS
CAPITAL A SHAMBLES
From A. T. CHOLERTON
("Daily Telegraph" Correspondent in Istanbul)

     The new Bulgarian Premier Bagrianoff's first act was, despite Moscow warnings, to intensify the drive against the guerillas and other pro-Russian elements.  Some 30 of the newly-formed Terror-Gendarme battalions have already ringed in and are now purging selected areas with shootings and atrocities against families.
     Surgeon Professor Stanicheff - one of the old Mikailoff Macedonian gangs - Minister of the Interior, directs this operation, combining his duties with the portfolio of Public Hygiene.
     The advent of this sorry, new stooge Government means that Hitler has so far had his way, without having to take over the direct administration and even without moving in a single extra battalion.

RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL

     The realist Russians have withdrawn their Minister and Counsellor from Sofia, evacuated women and children, but left 25 officials, including the Military Attaché.  Service attaches are usually pulled out ahead of time when trouble is coming.
     Their Legation is the sole one still working right inside the ruined little city.  Guarded as it is, it is not much use, but they have been reluctant to break until a breach should serve a major purpose.
     Every Bulgar, even those who got their people into this mess, hates the Germans for it.  Russia alone is popular there.  Czar Alexander II liberated the Bulgars from the Turkish yoke, and Stalin has not yet dropped one bomb on the Varna and Burgas naval bases, the sole points where there are any considerable number of German troops.  Burgas too, has the finest airfield in the Balkans and dominates the Straits.
     Fifty of the surviving 140 members of the Sobranje (Parliament) are said to be pro-Russian, the mass of peasants also, together with most of the young intelligentsia and many of the reserve officers.  The workers are mainly pro-Communist.  But a Russian landing on the Bulgarian coast seems at present unfeasible, and the Red Army is still over 200 miles away.
     A Russian declaration of war, unless combined with very large-scale operations from our side, is not likely to loosen the Nazi grip on Bulgaria now.  It would precipitate disintegration and so embarrass Hitler, but it might lead to a damp squib rising.

PARTISANS ILL-LED

     The Bulgarian Partisans are ill-equipped and do not seem to number more than 10,000.  Ill-led, having no Tito, they work in small bands, raiding for food and taking minor reprisals rather than going for major communications.
     It is believed that the Nazis had to disarm two shaky Bulgar divisions, and they do not let the Bulgarian pilots take the air.  Although the army cadres are certainly being purged to some extent, no evidence has so far reached Istanbul of any widespread Army plot.  The Gestapo's hold on the police is fairly absolute.
     When we destroyed Sofia we dispersed the political opposition and also drove the Government departments out into the primitive townships.  Instead of going again for Sofia the R.A.F. might try these and also the provincial garrisons. Like most fearless primitives the Bulgars do not take bombing well.

16 JAPANESE SHIPS SUNK
BY U.S. SUBMARINES

     Washington, Monday - Sixteen more Japanese ships have been sunk by U.S. submarines in the Pacific, the Navy Department announces.  Six were transports and the rest cargo vessels - Reuter.

R.A.F. APPOINTMENTS

     Air Commodore Stephen Charles Strafford has been appointed Chief of Operations and Plans Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, and to be Air Vice-Marshal, it was announced last night.
     Air Commodore Oliver Eric Carter is to be Director-General of Aircraft Supply, Government of India, and to be Air Vice-Marshal.

NAZI VALUES ON THEIR LIVES
THE FIVE LEADERS

     The five leading Nazis - Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, Himmler and Ley - value their lives at a total of 30,000,000 dollars.
     An average of £1,500,000 each, says the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg.  He wrote in "Pravda":
     At a funeral of air raid victims at Essen, Goebbels demanded:  "How can a German life be valued?"
     His own life, however, Goebbels had valued precisely.  He insured it for £2,490,000 dollars.  Comrade Himmler is more modest.  He valued his person at 635,000 dollars.  The life of the notorious thief, Ley, is insured for 841,000 dollars.  Goering prizes himself considerably higher and has grown sufficiently rich to insure himself for 4,000,000 dollars.
     "Ribbentrop has surpassed them all.  This enterprising gentleman has insured his life for 5,665,000 dollars.
     "These five cannibals also hold deposits in foreign banks to the value of 16,415,000 dollars."

POLISH PREMIER'S DISCUSSIONS
VISITING AMERICA

     M. Mikolajcyk, the Polish Prime Minister, is to discuss with President Roosevelt general European and Polish questions.
     An announcement issued from the State Department by Mr. Edward Stettinius, Under-Secretary of State, yesterday said that on the invitation of the U.S. Government the Polish Prime Minister is on a courtesy visit, his first trip to this country since his assumption of the Premiership. - Reuter.
     Mr. Edward Stettinius, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, said yesterday that the State Department had no new proposal or formula for the settlement of the Soviet-Polish dispute to offer to M. Mikolajcyk (Mikolajczyk).  The Soviet and British Governments had been advised of the visit.

KESSELRING'S PLIGHT
NO AIR PROTECTION FOR BEATEN ARMIES
By Air Commodore HOWARD WILLIAMS
("Daily Telegraph" Air Correspondent)

     Kesselring's armies, floundering outside Rome, have to all intents and purposes no air protection whatever.
     A fantastic situation has thus been created, the Allied air pressure on the retreating armies has been described to me as terrific.
     On Sunday our strategic bombers heavily attacked the railways in North-West Italy and along the coast of Southern France - railways by which reinforcements might have been sent.  Scarcely an enemy fighter appeared.
     Although some 300 German fighters are stationed in Austria to protect Germany's southern air flank, it seems that not one has been moved in to help save the army in Italy.
     There was some speculation yesterday as to whether the plight of the Wehrmacht in Italy was an indication of the fate of what awaits the German armies elsewhere when other fronts are opened.
     The reason for the present debacle in the air is that the Luftwaffe is so short of reserves that the German High Command dare not risk what they have to try and save their divisions.
     An interesting point that arises is the use to which the Rome airfields can be put by the Allies.
     They are all likely to be impressed into speedy use by the Tactical Air Force in its assault on the enemy armies.
     With the strategic bombers already firmly based around the Foggia airports there seems no point in moving them to the Rome area.  Such a step would save only a few miles.

KEEPING NAZIS ON THE RUN
IS THE ALLIED PLAN
By Lieut.-General H. G. MARTIN
("Daily Telegraph" Military Correspondent)

     After 23 days of continuous battle Kesselring's armies are in full retreat.  That they should have left Rome behind them practically intact is significant.  It was well be that the Army had insisted on moderation where the party would have utterly destroyed.
     The count of prisoners up to yesterday was over 20,000.  The mopping-up of stragglers, which will continue for days, cannot fail to bring in many more.
     The German divisions in Italy started the battle with a strength of 10,000 - 12,000 apiece.  Deducting subsequent losses in killed and wounded, we can safely put the average strength of a division to-day at not more that 7,000 - 8,000.
     When the final county is made, therefore, we are likely to find that Kesselring has lost the equivalent in prisoners alone of at least four divisions south of Rome.

EXHAUSTED REMNANTS

     We know that the remnants of his armies are exhausted, disorganised, and short of a large proportion of their transport which our Air Forces have destroyed.
     The problem then which faces Kesselring is this - to form a new front somewhere north of Rome through which he may withdraw this inchoate mass to some area of comparative safety still farther north, where he may restore order out of chaos.
     The lie of the roads and the mountains suggest that he may hope to find this new front somewhere on a line south of (that is covering) the lateral road from Guilianuova on the Adriatic through Teramo.  Aquila and Rieti to Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenean Sea.
     Such a front would cover both the port of Civitavecchia and the airfields of Viterbo.
     On the Adriatic Kesselring can hardly avoid some readjustment to conform with his withdrawal elsewhere.

THE ALLIED PROBLEM

     Conversely, the Allied problem is simply this - to keep Kesselring's armies on the run till they are run off their legs, to blast his columns on the mountain roads, to give him no respite to reform to destroy him utterly.  The hunt is up - General Alexander is a matchless huntsman.
     It is impossible to believe he will allow Kesselring to spirit away some 20 divisions, and we may expect soon to see new Allied thrusts - the outcome of some rapid regrouping.
     Thus the German High Command is likely soon to find itself faced with this dilemma - peculiarly awkward at this juncture - either to reinforce Italy further from any High Command pool there may be, or to write off Kesselring and his armies, laying open the Po Valley to Allied invasion.

TREATY DENOUNCED

     Marshal Badogilo's Cabinet has formally denounced the Armistice Treaty imposed on France by Mussolini in 1940, it was announced in Naples on Monday night states British United Press.

THREE ULSTER AIRMEN DECORATED

     A long list of the R.A.F. honours issued to-day includes the following :-
          Bar to D.F.C. - Flying Officer Robert McCurdy, D.F.C., R.A.F., who, the citation states, "has filled the post of squadron gunnery leader since July, 1943, and has succeeded during this period in greatly improving the standard of efficiency among the air gunners of his squadron.
     "Since the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross he has taken part in a number of operational sorties, which have included four attacks on Berlin.
     "Throughout a long and arduous career Flying Officer McCurdy has shown great determination, cool courage and efficiency of a high order."
     Flying-Officer McCurdy is a son of Mr. and Mrs. E. McCurdy, 13 Blakeley Street, Belfast.  he won his D.F.C. in August, 1943.  He joined the R.A.F. in 1936 when 18 years old.  In 1941 he was posted to the Middle East as rear-gunner in a Wellington squadron.  From various bases in North Africa he took part in raids on Greece, Crete, Syria and the Western Desert.  He returned to England and after a year as instructor of air-gunners he rejoined a bomber squadron, taking part in raids over Berlin, Essen, Duisberg, Spezie, Cologne and Milan.  Later he was transferred to a Rhodesian squadron.  His brother, Albert, is a sergeant-gunner in the R.A.F.
          D.F.C. - Flying Officer Robert Frazer, R.A.F., whose home is at Belfast, where he was born in 1922.  He was educated at Woodvale, Belfast, and Whiteabbey Technical School.  He enlisted for air crew in 1939 and was commissioned in 1943.
          D.F.M. - Sergeant Gerard McFadden, R.A.F., who was born in 1914, at Derry.  His home is at Southgate, London.  He enlisted in 1938 and is now air gunner.

U.S. CARRIER SUNK

     The U.S. escort carrier Block Island was sunk in the Atlantic last month, as the result of enemy action, the Navy Department announced in Washington last night, states British United Press.  Casualties were light.

PROGRESS BY THE CHINESE
ALLIES ADVANCE

     Chinese forces have captured Tumbongkha, ten miles south-east of Kamaing, and 12 miles north-east of Mogaung, which is the former rear echelon headquarters of the once potent Jap. 18th Divisions, says Frank Hewlett, British United Press War correspondent, cabling from North Burma headquarters yesterday.
     At. Myitkyina, in fierce fighting in which our losses were not light, Allied forces advanced one hundred yards into the town from south-west in the past 24 hours.  Limited gains were also reporter by the Allied force moving into this enemy base from the south.
     The advances were made through well-prepared Jap. positions.  The Allies have occupied the railway station area of Myitkyina, which we held 18 days ago, but was retaken by the Japs after several counter-attacks.  The Allies now hold most of the residential district of this encircled town, which had a pre-war population of 10,000.
     General Stilwell's main force, which is driving south along the Mogaung Valley motor road, advanced two miles nearer Kamaing.

IN FULL RETREAT

     Chungking, Monday - The Japanese forces west of Tungting Lake are in full retreat north-east towards the south bank of the Yangtse River, cables Thomas Chao, Reuter's special correspondent.
     A Chinese column advancing east along the Yangtse captured Kungan to-day, while others on the western shore of the lake are converging on Nanhsien.

TITO'S LIAISON STAFF.
NAZI RAID CLAIMS

     The German Official News Agency claims that 20 British and U.S. officers attached to Marshal Tito's staff were killed in the attack by German paratroops on Tito's headquarters when they failed to capture Tito himself and Captain Randolph Churchill.
     The Germans claimed that the Yugoslavs suffered 6,000 casualties, including 3,000 killed, and that substantial booty was captured, including numerous radio sets and large supply dumps.
     That the Allies considered the Yugoslavs of primary importance was shown by the intense support given to them by Anglo-U.S. bombers, fighters and transport planes, the radio said.

ZERO HOUR - AT LAST