ATTACK BY 5th ARMY

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24149, 7 January 1944, Page 5

ATTACK BY sth ARMY

One-Mile Advances Made

FIGHTING IN SAN VITTORE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec, 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6, American and British troops of the sth Army yesterday made an attack in rough mountain country. They made advances averaging one mile in depth on a front of about 10 miles.

This is reported in to-day’s Allied communique, which also says that street fighting is now in progress in the village of San Vittore (between Mignano and Cassino). Bad weather yesterday limited air operations, but fighter-bombers attacked enemy gun positions in the battle area. Destroyers shelled the Adriatic coast port of Pesaro, north of Ancona. “There has been no change in our positions on the Bth Army front,” says a correspondent at Allied Headquarters in North Africa. “On Tuesday, in spite of very determined fighting, we captured a 180-root elevation which the Germans have been making a persistent effort to regain. Indian troops succeeded in occupying a road southwest of San Tomaso. “The sth Army reports an advance of a little over a mile west of Venafro, and the capture of a high point northwest of that town. We now hold all the high range dominating the little

village of San Vittore which the enemy has made a bastion of his winter defence line. Over the rest of the front our patrols were, as usual, active in spite of the cold and overcast weather."

The Cairo radio said yesterday that Allied troops were converging on Orsogna, which was subjected to a violent artillery and aerial bombardment on Tuesday.

The radio said that Lieutenant-Gen-eral Mark Clark’s sth Army resumed its difficult progress through the mountains above the Rome road, and occupied a 2300 ft height about two miles north-east of San Vittore. Allied troops, after scaling the rugged cliffs, attacked strong emplacements which the Germans had established as part of their winter line, and inflicted a number of casualties. “Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese has taken over command from General Montgomery at a time when the Bth Army is facing a very strong delaying action,” says Reuter’s correspondent in Algiers. “The Germans have 10 divisions stretched from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the most intense resistance in the coastal sector facing the Bth Army. The Germans are also holding one division in close support and two in reserve. Their aim—besides preventing the Allies reaching Rome or demanding the highest, price for every inch of ground—is to gain time to build up striking reserves in the' north. “The Germans have been putting specially trained mountain troops across the Apennines, and yesterday they launched strong counter-attacks against a 180 ft hillock three miles north of Ortona. Them main defence line, from which the counter-attacks came, lies a mile ahead of the hillock along the south bank of the Arielli river.”

■ “Prisoners recently captured in Italy say that the enemy is now feverishly building up new defensive positions in the rear of the battle area,’’ writes a correspondent. “These are several miles deep and are concentrated on the lines of the Todt system, which will impose the maximum amount of delay in the advance towards Rome. Some of these formidable fortifications, which are reached by communication trenches, will have machine-gun and mortar posts, not only built all along the new defensive line, but at vital points in the old line, probably in the vicinity of Cassino and San Vittore, and also in the Pescara area.”

NEW 8™ ARMY COMMANDER

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL

SERVICE IN FRANCE AND AFRICA

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, Jan. 5. Acting Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese, who has commanded the 30th Corps with General Sir Bernard Montgomery since El Alamein, is the new Commander-in-Chifjf of the Bth Army, says a correspondent*at Allied headquarters in North Africa.

Lieutenant-General Leese was promoted to his present rank in September, 1942, and he went to the Middle East to assume command of the 30th Corps. For his services in France with the British Expeditionary Force, he was awarded the C.B.E. In December, 1940, he was promoted to Major-Gene-ral, and two months later he was transferred to the command of a division. During the last war he was awarded the D.S.O. He was wounded three limes and he was mentioned in dispatches twice. General Leese is among the youngest of the Army’s higher commanders. He has made an enviable reputation during the last four years for having the gift of being in the right place at the right time.

He was born 49 years ago in Hertfordshire. From Eton, LieutenantGeneral Leese joined the Coldstream Guards, through the special reserve, and saw active service on the Western Front, where he was in the fighting line before his twentieth birthday. He had not intended to make the Army his profession, but once he had tried soldiering there was no longer any question about his career. He quickly proved himself an excellent regimental officer and an equally good instructor. At Dunkirk At the outbreak of the present war he was chief instructor at the Staff College at Quetta in India, with the rank of Colonel. Called back to England in 1040, he was given an infantry brigade. A month later he was sent to France as acting major-general to take up the duties of deputy-chief of the General Staff at the General Headquarters Of the British Expeditionary Force. He was just in time for the rapid advance through Belgium to the river Dyle and’ the subsequent fighting withdrawal to Dunkirk. He was mentioned in dispatches, and received the C.B.E. Lieutenant-General Leese was selected to command the 30th Corps in the Middle East and arrived in Egypt m September, 1942. In October his corps went in to attack at El Alamein. For 12 days the guns, infantry and armour of Englishmen, Scotsmen, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders ana Indians commanded by LieutenantGeneral Leege fought their way forward. crushing furious counter-attacks. By the morning of November 4 the

Axis armies were broken. Mareth, Wadi Akarit and Enfidaville were other battles in which Lieutenant-General Loose’s 30th Corps showed again the skill, dash, and tenacity for which it has become famous. In July it landed in Sicily and fought its way up the eastern flank of the island past Catania to Mt. Etna and Messina.

Lieutenant-General Leese is already known affectionately to men of the Bth Army, and correspondents say that he is bound to become a popular commander. Speaking of the new commander. General Montgomery said: “I shall hand over the Bth Army with every confidence to an experienced fighting general. I would want to hand over to no better man, so the future of this army is good.” Lieutenant-General Leese’s idea of a working day is to visit his troops at 8 a.m., carry through a programme until 6 p.m., then extend his visits until 11 p.m.. after which he returns to his headquarters to decide staff problems.

Everything making for the soldier’s comfort, health, and efficiency is sure of his attention. He is a strict disciplinarian and makes Ihe most relentless demands on himself.