HEAVY BARRAGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 92, 19 April 1945, Page 5

HEAVY BARRAGE

DREADFUL SPECTACLE N.Z. Casualties Light But Those Of Enemy Heavy N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent CROCETTA, April 16. Before our armour could cross the Sillaro River to their assistance last night, the men of the 25th Battalion alone accounted for two selfpropelled guns and one Tiger tank. Of the other enemy armour opposing them, at least one was hit by Piat gun and mortar fire before making its escape. Following closely on the heels of our barrage, which hurled over 100,000 shells at the defenders, the 25th was one of the New Zealand battalions which since last evening have advanced 5000 yards. Opposition was there all the time, for the Germans were counting on holding the line of the Sillaro, while endeavouring to cope with Eighth Army attacks elsewhere. The assault guns knocked out were fast, manoeuvrable 75 millimetre weapons, mounted on tracKs, and so heavily armoured as to be almost indistinguishable from tanks. Private E. J. S. Gear, of Mornington, engaged one with a Piat at a few yards, and put it out of business. Later Sergeant Mitchison, also with a Piat, scored the battalion's second Tiger since the crossing of the Senio Ri\'er. The biggest single contribution of the night to the growing divisional total of prisoners of war was made by the 26th Battalion, which sent 163 to the rear to join their colleagues in the cages. Taking account.of the 500 Germans taken by all the forward battalions in the past 24 hours, the total for the week since the beginning of the advance at sunset on April 9, is more than 2000. The countryside north of the Sillaro River this afternoon presented a dreadful spectacle of pockmarked fields, shattered buildings and bodies of Germans, Italians and cattle thrown haphazardly across the terrain. There was scarcely a habitable building in any of the little villages, such as Sesto lmolese, which has been in the pam of our advance. But the results justify the means. Our casualties have been light, and those of the enemy extremely heavy. He has done his best to stop us, but is not good enough.