Salt Lake Telegram | 1943-06-05 | Page 2 | Bombers Blast Air Field in South Italy

I I 1 Bombers Blast Air Field FieldIn In n South Italy ALL ALLIED lED HEADQUARTERS North Africa June 5 UP UP- UP American four Liberator bombers bombers dropped nearly pounds of high explosive and fragmentation fragmentation frag frag- rag rag- bombs Friday on the Grottaglie airdrome guarding Taranto Taranto Ta- Ta anto southern Italy's most important important im- im im- im naval base it was announced announced an- an Saturday The Liberators from the middle eastern astern command and led by Colonel Colo- Colo nd nel el Keith K Kompton of St St. Joeph Joseph Joseph Jo- Jo seph eph Mo struck after bombers i from rom northwest African air forces blasted lasted objectives in Italy Sicily and nd Pantelleria Thursday night General Dwight D D. Eisenhower's northwest Africa f forces extended their heir raiding to two new targets targets- Catanzaro on the toe of the Italian boot oot and Syracuse eastern coast port of Sicily Sicily Sicily-in in the Thursday raids aids raids Big royal air force Welling tons showered incendiaries on both points in a single flight Ameri an carrying bombs lombs ranged over Sicily in force Friday meeting meeting- strong ground fire Milo airdrome in the northwest section of the island but they saw no enemy fighters Over the airdrome itself the flak fire ire was negligible and the Light- Light scored a direct hit on one hangar langar and dropped bombs near two wo more setting all three on fire They also banged away at machine gun positions on Favignana island off Sicily's western tip Heavy medium and fighter- fighter bombers kept up the continuous onslaught against Pantelleria the square mile isle in the Sicilian narrows Not an enemy fighter was yas as met over th the island and only light and inaccurate antiaircraft fire from Its battered defenses Only two allied planes were missing missing miss- miss ing ng from the Thursday night and Friday operations Several axis planes planes came over Algiers last night but two of ot th the bombers were shot down They caused only a i few casualties and some damage to o civilian property The results of a a. Flying Fortress raid on Leghorn May 22 were re revealed revealed revealed re- re by aerial photographs which showed an oil refinery was put out of action 17 of 19 storage tanks northeast of the plant were burned out service tanks and conveyors conveyors conveyors con con- were destroyed or damaged and railroads and oil pipelines pipeline leading to the plant were wrecked In addition seven storage tanks tank north of the plants plant's boiler house hous were burned to the ground