WELL BUT SLOWLY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 253, 25 October 1943, Page 3

WELL BUT SLOWLY

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN All Roads To Rome HeavilyMined, Says Alexander British Official Wireless Rec. noon. RUGBY, Oct. 24. The Italian campaign is going well but slowly, declared General Sir Harold Alexander, deputy-Allied Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, to war correspondents at his headquarters in Italy on Sunday. "It has not gone as quickly as one would have liked, because one always wants to get to Rome as quickly as possible. They say all roads lead to Rome, but to-day all those roads are mined. It has also been said that he who holds Rome holds the hearts of the Italian people, but we need Rome strategically as well." General Alexander said the Italian campaign was a continuation of a series of body blows against the Germans, begun at El Alamein. He

declared that the Italian campaign had forced the Germans to bring troops into Italy and the Balkans which would otherwise have been available for use in Russia. It was his estimate that, as a result of the Italian collapse, the Germans had committed between 35 to 40 divisions to Italy and the Balkans. He described the campaign so far as a slow and slogging up Italy. Reviewing the campaign to date, he said the total casualties of the Fifth and Eighth armies were about 15,000, including 8000 British and 6000 Americans with the Fifth Army and 1000 British or Empire troops with the Eighth Army. The plan for the Salerno landing was a very good one, but the Germans were able to react quickly and to throw in greater forces. The