Good Evening, Ever7body:- Four important victories in cne day -- for the United Rations. For days we have been looking forward to the fall of Catania in Sicil7 Yunda in the Sol,mons, and Orel in Russia. And they all fall on the same day! But that's not all. The Russians, sweeping on fro• the capture of Orel, also took Belgorod, a hundred miles to the South. ------------ First, about Sicily. The British Eighth Army captured Catania today after a twenty-one day siege. Reporters at the front describe it as the culmination of the ost brilliant of aLl military operat ·. u1.s of that brilliant general, ·str Bernard Yon tgomery. The ain body of the Ger ans has fallen back and is already eighteen miles from the evacuated V LEAD - 2 ----- city. The Nazis are digging in, in the mountains near· the co as t. We hear that the brunt of the attack all along •l w as borne b y two tou :: 'l British regiaents. the , iftieth lorthuabrians and the Fifty-first Highlanders. Tonight' • report tells how when they entered the battered city, the ciYilian population welcoaed the ■ with cries of Vi Ya! Apparently the Sicilians ot Catania were not sorry to aee the Na z is takeit on the run. Even it xa the7 did leave the city a wreck -- fro ■ the poundin& it got fro ■ Allied plPnes and artiller7. Though the United Nations have been awftiting the fall of Catania thes e days, the end caae with dramatic suddenness -- •hile the news of tough fighting on the outsjirts of the city ~as still coming in. Meanwhile the word was that the Americans were s till meeting furious resistance in th e ir sector, to the north . The final blow to Catania was delivered when Montgomery brought in a fresh division of troops, the Seventy-eighth; veterans of Tunisia ) where they had fought with the First Army. After the Canadians cut a breach in the German line tw e nty miles northwes of Catania, the Bri ish Seventy-eighth Division poured through the hole in the line. Then Montgomery set up a heavy artillery barrage, under cover of which the British drove to Paterno, onl1 nine miles northwest of Catania, cutting the Mt. ltnr road. Then it was that the Germana saw the g aae was up. Horthuabriens and the Highlanders redoubled their attack, and the Germans began to fall back. Later today, Montgoaery's men also captured Gerbini, the center of the most import nt group of ' Axis airfields on Sicily. There being fourteen .tzfial airfields in that one area! kThe Question now is whether the Germans will fight a delaying action along the road to Uessina or take to strongholds they have built on Mt.Etna. If they do the latter they will be cut off from either rei forcements or supplies. The Geraans and Italians now have only one ,•• place of any consequence left on Sicily, and that's Messina. When the Allies do will find nothing but ruins because take Messina, the7 been it h · asJ(boabed over and over again in this short ca ■ paign, bo ■ bed until it is nothing but~ relic ot the port it once was. The defenses of Messina ... have been so badly a hot up that warships oZ the Allied fleets ar~ now patrolling the waters within rifle range. Which means that neither reinforcements nor supplies can get to Yesaina,nol' anybo.dy escape from Jt. American torpedo boats are combing the nearby waters, and U.S. cruisers and destroyers are bombarding the northern shore line day and night, giving support to ~ the Seventh Army led by General Patton. Also a British - naval s q uadron is bombarding the ea tern coast, to Catania. prevent the escape of the Germans f leein g from A.. The Nazi propaganda in adaitting the fall of Catania does so with a comic note. That is,tbe Beilin radio describes it as one of the moat auccessful maneuvers ever carried out by the Germa1 army -- to mislead the ene ■J. On the northern sector, the Americans are . plugging away, eg aimt Germani guns that are high in the hills in a position t6 mow down the advancing troops that are trying to drive through the valley1. We would ha~e heard of another bombing raid on Ro ■e today. The :tsM: Allies had p1r planned it. Buj, yiaibility was pooD, so the British and American air forces again attacte4raples and variou1 railway junctions in southern Italy. . U A FOLLO \ LA D --- ---- --------- o · f or th n c · fro m th P a c ifi t . Th e b a ttle fo r h e ig Mun da a irfi ld has c om e to a n nd. Nothin g rema in s ut some moppin g u p at hat impor ~ nt point in he olomons . The un da siege h a l ast d thirty-five d a ys. And a rine d U . 8 . In fantr y h a to fi g ht through jun 1 , fi g ht yar d by y a rd . e he a r they were a battered a nd wor n lot h n they fin a lly strea med onto th e ~ irdrome. A s for the Japs, it is' belie v ed they be ga n evacuatin g their hi g h renking officers by destroyer to Kolombangara I s land, as we l l as some of their troops , sever a l days ago , l eav in g a r "' ar guard to prot ct the evacuati n. A nd those soldiers of the rear g u ard ba d be e n ordered to.fight to the de a th for their Em eror. Some of them, in fact , are still holding out on a hill ov e rlookin b the a i port . All of which doesn ' t mP a n hat ev rything iE ov e r on Ne. Geo r g ia, for the rest of th a t i E l nd is r still to occupied by ot.r pe ople. On e un it of Pme ican tro o ps has moved north to cut off th e J aps fle in g from Munda. Wh a t final l y roke down J ap re s istance on Munda as an unending s ries of bomb a rdments from both American artil l ery a n d ircraft. Th e M a rin P S a nd O. S. inf antr ymen found half a doz en J ap Zeros and to-motored bombers on the souvenirs field. Tho se of them who like to collect ameI•aiaxa be ga n s trippin g t he Jap Planes. The tkx other s took the f i rs t rest they ha d had f' o r d a y s , a nd had a good meal. Acor es pondent sa one of he boys r ea ding a baseball magazine in th e shade of a wrecked Ja p anese bomber. The Japs left huge stores of rice an d clothing and b 1 an k e t s , a s w e 11 a s c a n n on and o t he r t h in g s • RUSSIA FO L L OW UNDA - ---------- - ---- In R u ssia , ei g ht ar mored col umn s of Red soldieJS ~ ' _ -:-,./; lled throug h Ore1J-1Jut 1 t hey did~....,n~t st~p. Th e y pus hed 1 7~~ to fresh c o nqu ests . They dr ove · flaming villa g es ~ A and al on g ro ads th at wo:r;cw strewn with the wreck~ <f-J- German tanks and tr uck s, /~J so thu ~ "7, German dead, The Ber li n r a io announces the news in these words: "In t he course of strai g htening out the front, ~, t he evacua ti on of Orel, which h ad long been contemplated, -vt-"~1 ~•as carried out on th e night p receding August Fifth, A undisturbed by the Russi a ns. All stores were removed \ according to plan and importan t wa installations completely destroyed." µ.,rt is a fact that by evacu at ing Orel, the Germans l have straig htened out their lin e , because Orel was a big salient . Evidently the Nazis are now preparing to hold the front from K irov, southeast of Smolens k , through Bryansk, to the n o rthwest corner of the Kursk salient. RUSSIA FOLLOW MUNDA - 2 ------------- ~ ~ I t ie true that the Buseians failed to achieve one obj ec ?fo; -~~~.,-t:w 1:..::tm 1'. the entire two hundred and fifty th ous and Germans) m t, 11 e . r"6--"\ gs,. 1rta,1 fl , n -e brit?m The m ai n ~~ body of ;"1"wl' a: A tefilnd:u.tnr escaped. , However, Moscow c lai ms that thousands of ~ in individual groups are being encircled, And the swift little Russian tanks and tommy gun - squadrons are forging ahead and threatening to entr~_p ,&, , (.. other ierman units. " - - - - - - D . The next goal of the Red Army is Bryansk. V'--(1W They ar\ driving from all directions to join up all their forces at a point southeast of Bryansk. C, ~ The spectacular aspect o~ this is that it mar ks the first big summer victory of the Soviet armies. If and when they capture Bryansk, they aim to attack Kharkov. The S oviet ¥ Ger ma n s h ad g iven the ~ high comm a nd denies that the ~/ I ~ ( c i t y • according to plan. A On the contrary, the Russi a ns fought their way in from street to street, and h o use to h o use. However, they admit that the Germ a ns dynamited factories, public buildin g s and homes a s they retreated. Aside from the moral effect of the victory, the Russians have now control of ninety miles of the most important railroad in that part of the country. That gives them three hundred and seventy miles clear from Moscow to ~lgorod. And B\lgorod is only forty-two miles northeast of Kharkov. Thus the Red generals are in a position to move both men and supplies freely for either offense or defense. They have plenty to celebrate in Moscow toni g ht. The ~•i•a bells rang out at midnight, and a hundred and t enty r uns fired twe ve salvos by order of Premier Sta l in, t o celebrate th u t do ubl e victory. Th e Soviet c h ief nn o un ced th fall of Belgor o d just as the world had hardly finished di g e st ing the news from Orel. It means more th . n the ca pture of two cities. The significance of the taking of B~lgorod after Orel is th a t the Red armies are now c a rr ying out a doubl e threat offensive and the entire Ger a n frony south of Smolensy is in d a nger. .. Stalin an noun ced t he victor · in rhetorical fashion, be ginnin g with the words "Etern al gl ory to the herr.>es who fell in the struggle for the freedom of our country ," to which he a dd ed, "death to the German occupants." It is to be no iced that the Soviet Dictator this + ;, me uses the word "Ge r a ns" to describe the invaders. Hitherto, all the official Russian disp a tches have alluded to the Germ a ns as "Fascists" or "Hitleritea." Sta lin w ent on to p oint out th at the Red arm ies h ad t a·e n O rel and Belgorod exact ly one m onth a f ter the Ge r~an e op e ned their offen s ive on July Fifth. Be was also jubil a nt over wip n g• out the Ger ~a n legend that Sovi e t troo p s are unab l e to carry out a successful offensive int e summer. Military obs e rvers point o ut that the impArtance of the captur e of Orel is that the Red army is now threatening Bryansk. The takin g of Bel g orod gives them the a nchor point of the Kursk salient, an d if they continue in that direction, the Germans at Kharkov will be at their mercy. .§.T.!~§Q_ Those four United Na tions victories were so ~~t • l eft 1111••U much timefa;l ~all B8\'e t,e 'eeil ttxliura the ree ♦s 1:£ th e newe •••• ~Qtty fiRQ. Secretary of Wa r Simson, back i~ Washingtqn, hoped that the news would not make tne people of the United States so sanguine as to cr\use them to let up .>..Le . . on war efforts at home. If th a h appe ned, sai~Stimson, it would be criminal. RThe re at est bre ac h of national faith. Ultimate victory," he s id further, "can be won only by inf i nitely more sw~at and sacrifice . " Then he reve a led th a t the number of American casualties in Sicily is amazingly small. Up to Ju ly Twenty-Second, only f ive hundred and one were k i l led, thr ee thousand eight hundred and seventy wounded , an d two th o usand, ~hree hundred and seventy missing . The British casu alt ies were not much higher . The Allies ~TI SON - ------- - h av e no take n mo r e th n a hundr ed thous a n d Germ a n and Italian pris oners. r The · secr e tary amused correspondents by • describing his a ' riv a l at Newfoundland recently. When he climbed out of his plane, there were a couple ~ ' of lieutenants looking ea g erly. As they saw;\Stimson, their faces fell. The Secretary l earned later that there had been a rumor that Heddy Lamar was coming in at that fi el d. e s from Ital to i h con irms a story pub l i hed this mornin . I mean the ory that Badoglio is not goin to SU r nder an has turned his face de ·nit ely to ard Hit ~ r. The opular clamor for peace saz ■ •g•• x by th Italian people has not abated. There are tories from Madrid that the big industrial le ders and bankers have been begging Badoglio to give in. But their pleas , were of no avail and there seems to be ood round for the jubilation of the Nazi ■ • The Berlin radio broadcast an announcement that the political situation in Italy has changed in favor of Germany. Travelers from Hamburg are reporting th at th British and Americ a n raids have paralyzed the city. -- ----- ---- They say norm a l life is not functionin g , and even money ~ ' i•,,t"' f~hA11i'\ in The only plac es to eat are the publ ic field kitchens, which are scattered a ll over the city. Nobo dy pay s, nobody seems to think of money. Hamburg is being evacuated. Trains are le . ving at regular interv a ls ■ packed with hundreds of pe ople t aki n g with them wh a tever they can carry. - There were hints in London today that the treatment gi ven to Hamburg will pr e sently be meted out to Berlin. The big b o mbers oday a r e so large and powerful and have such a w ide ran e that mass raids with block-busting bombs are now p ossible on the Germ an capital. Berlin is full of war f a ctories. It looks as th ou g h there w e r e g oing to be another stiff d iff erence of opinion between the Tre a ury and Congress over the new tax bill. The Administration wants fresh taxes which will raise t welv~ bil l ion dolla r s in addition to those we are , payin g already. Congressmen, even Chairman Doughton of the Ways and Means Committee, have declared that they have reached the limit. Any he vier taxes, they think, will wi p e out the middle class and put excessive burdens on the shoulders of the little fellow. Apparently that irked Secretary Morgenthau. J, Be told his press conference tod a y that in spite of what Cong ressmen feel, the Treasury is going to push fo r more and bigger taxes, and will aim to r ai se those twelve billions, come wh a t may. Secr e tary Ic k es a s Petroleum Administrator has had plenty of fights on his hands ever since gasoline has been rationed. First he had his troubles with eastern congres s men. He and the other agencies controlling gasoline have made plans to ease up the situation for drivers in the eastern states. Now Ickes has the western senators and representatives on his hands. He met a hundred and fifty people at Chicago today and listened to their protests. The westerners appe a r to be willing that the drivers in the east should have more fuel, provided it is not done at the expense of the middlewest. Ickes was obliged to assure them that ~ny sacrifices at which the people of the m i d dl e w est and southwest have to make are not for the civilians of the east coast but for the sake of their own fighting men. Ir FA TH E RS --- Con g ressmen are n ot g oin g t o let fathers be inducted into the arme d services without a struggle. Thie is no surprise to Washington. Senator Wheeler of Montana opened the ball w ith a telegram to Paul ~ McNutt, Chai rm an of the War Manpower Commission. Wheeler ta asked McRutt to postpone the induction of fathers for at le ast one month so th~t Congress may be given a chance to define its p licy. c:,J----~ t-{-- • (y Con g reasme are not g oin g to let fathers be inducted into the armed services without a struggle. Thie is no sur p rise to Washington. Senator Wheeler of Montana opened the ball with a telegram to Paul ~ McNutt, Chair m an of the War Manpower Commission. Wheeler ta asked McRutt to postpone the induction of fathers for at east one month so thut Congress may be given a chan ce to define its policy. e:,J---~ 1-\- •