ADRIATIC FRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 293, 10 December 1943, Page 5

ADRIATIC FRONT

NAZI COUNTER-BLOWS

Flame-throwers Again Used By Enemy British Official Wireless Rec. 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, Dec. 9. Making fresh use of their flamethrowing tanks, the Germans have launched a scries of fierce counterattacks against the Eighth Army in the past 24 hours, writes a war correspondent. These counter-attacks are the most determined efforts the enemy has made to drive back our forces since the battering of the Sangro line. It is more than a week since the enemy last used flamethrowers, and on Tuesday night he reintroduced them in the foothills ot the Majella Mountains at the western end of the Eighth Army's 15-mile Adriatic front. With tanks and infantry supporting the flame-throwers, the enemy threw in two attacks before midnight against our troops holding the high ground near Orsogna. The enemy carefully screened the flame-throw-ers with their remaining armoured vehicles as though not wishing to risk exposing them. When the infantry closed on our positions heavy fighting took place. . Further evidence of the stiffening of the enemy's resistance came at the other end of the front near the sea where he made three counterattacks against bridgeheads across the Moro River. In this sector the enemy concentrated most of his available artillery- including three batteries of self-propelled guns. The enemy used tanks in small groups of five or six to support the attacks made by infantry, but all attempts to drive a wedge into the bridgehead close to the village of Rotti failed and cost him casualties. For the first time for six days there has been no rain, and our bombers and fighter-bombers were able to plaster troops and positions at Ortona and Orsogna.