IN THE OUTSKIRTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 212, 19 June 1944, Page 3

IN THE OUTSKIRTS

(THE EIGHTH ARMY AT PERUGIA.

| LARGEST ENEMY GUN CAPTURED

I CAPTURE BY FIFTH ARMY. j ■ ■' * i . * i (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) • (Rec. 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, June 18. j The German News Agency states i that an Allied commando landing was j carried out yesterday morning in the j area of Civitanova, on the Adriatic j coast of Italy. It says: “German ! troops later reported that the beaches j were free of the enemy, so it can be j assumed that the enemy has retreated toward tlie interior.”

The Bth Army is continuing its rapid advance in Italy and is now in r t.he outskirts of Perugia, which is an important road and railway centre' on ■

the Rome-Floronee road, states Ren ter’s correspondent.

Our tanks had to crack a strong German pocket on the road north of Todi, about 12 miles south of Perugia, to enable our advance to continue apace. The retreating Germans are hastily setting fire to massed equipment, which is smouldering along the roadsides.

One of the most important items of booty thus far taken is a 70-ton selfpropelled Ferdinand gun—the largest of all the Germans’ armoured equipment and the first the Bth Army has captured.

An earlier report states that the sth Army has also made further advances and has captured Grosseto, an important German strongpoint on Highway 1. The sth Army’s capture' of Grosseto has eliminated the last important German stronghold before Pisa.

Allied reconnaissance units in the Adriatic sector, without resistance, reached the Vomano River, 22 miles north of the Pescara River. German tanks were seen only in scattered groups.

Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that, according to captured documents, the Pisa-Rimini

natural defence line has been named the Gothic Line. No organised defence lines south of this position has yet been located.

The whole sth Army front is now nearly 100 miles from Rome.