Word: sofias
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...Night. But the Allies, far better than the tiring Luftwaffe, could replace their losses, press on with the attack. Punches were tossed at targets in German Europe all the way from the Pas-de-Calais to Sofia. Allied bomber fleets were roaring out by day and by night, from British and Italian bases...
Bulgaria is a peasant country, whose capital, Sofia, has been called an overgrown village. Bulgarians for the most part are pro-Russian by tradition, provincial by nature, pro-German by decree of persistently pro-German governments. They like Americans (but have had few dealings with them), consider Britain anti-Bulgar. They fear and hate the Turks, who ruled them for five centuries. They think that they have a right to keep lands snatched from Yugoslavia and Greece, but do not want to fight for these territories. In World War II they have found little profit, much distress...
Pressure from the Sky. The Allies are doing what they can to hasten Bulgarian defection. Last week U.S. bombers by day, R.A.F. bombers by night all but wrecked Sofia with a one-two punch. More than 3,000 lives were Sofia's sacrifice to alliance with the Axis. Bombs wiped out the center of the city, disrupted the telephone and water systems. Fires swept the town. After seven raids in two months (all from Allied air bases in Italy), the city's air-raid alarms had been destroyed; church bells had to be used as alerts. Bulgaria...
Other fighting in the mountains was aimed at railroad lines. These attacks were evidently keyed in with air raids by Allied Mitchell bombers from Italy. The U.S. Fifteenth Air Force, newly based in Italy, struck heavy blows at Pola, big supply center for Nazi forces in Yugoslavia (and at Sofia, Balkan communications hub.) Tito and Allied commanders were in communication; it was no longer a secret that some supply vessels and many liaison parties shuttled between Italy and Partisan-held points on the coast...
...than any other prize, put Anglo-American forces in position for a flank attack on southern France and/or the Balkan Adriatic coast. Presumably from Foggia's web of runways last week, Allied planes thrust an arm over Marshal Tito's troops, hammered the Nazi rail junction at Sofia and dromes near Athens...