ANZIO FRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 66, 18 March 1944, Page 5

ANZIO FRONT

ATTACKS REPULSED

Three German Blows Parried

By Allied Troops

N.Z.P;A. and British Wireless Bee. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 17. Von Mackensen's troops on the Anzio beachhead yesterday again struck against the centre of the Allied line. The Germans thrice smashed against the perimeter but were thrown back. The beachhead elsewhere remained quiet, but enemy artillery maintained its harassing fire.

The enemy made more attempts to recapture strong points wrested from them by the Americans in the centre and northern region of the beachhead, but their attacks were made with company strength and were beaten off, writes a correspondent. On the British-held sector a fortified farm building, which has been causing considerable nuisance, was the target for an artillery concentration. Twenty shells from our guns hit the building, reducing it to a heap of bricks.

Patrol actions flared up on the Eighth Army front, particularly in the Tollo area and also at Orsogna, where the Allied gunners silenced a number of German machine-gun posts and forced a German withdrawal. Aerial Activity Tactical Air Force - mediumbombers yesterday attacked gun positions in the Pontecorvo-Piedi-monte area. Fighter-bombers bombed guns at Esperia. Coastal Air Force medium-bombers attacked the docks at Leghorn, and fighter-bombers attacked shipping on the west Italian coast. Bombers last night again attacked the railway yards at Sofia. Three enemy planes were destroyed yesterday, for the loss or four Allied aircraft.

The Mediterranean Air Force flew 1144 sorties and the enemy carried out approximately 30 sorties ovei the battle area.