5th ARMY TARES SAN VITTORE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24151, 10 January 1944, Page 5

sth ARMY TARES SAN VITTORE

Progress Beyond Village

HEIGHTS SEIZED AND HELD

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 9, To-day's Allied communique on the fighting in Italy says that on the sth Army front progress continued yesterday against fierce enemy opposition. More heights were seized, and held against repeated counterattacks. • Elsewhere on the front, says the communique, there is nothing to report. “After two days of heavy street fighting American troops of the sth Army captured the village of San Vittore,” said Saturday’s communique on the land fighting. “In another area our troops fought their way to the top of a 4000 ft mountain which they now hold. The advance continues along a 10-mile front.

“On the Bth Army front strong patrols acting under conditions of bitter cold and deep snowdrifts engaged in sharp clashes with the enemy.” An air communique said: “The aircraft factory at Maribor and railway yards at Fiume were attacked on Friday by escorted heavy bombers. A strong force of medium bombers was over railway communications north of Rome. At Pontedera tracks were well covered, and at Lucca repair shops and the gasworks were hit. The Perugia airfield was well covered by bombs, Several fires were left burning.

“Fighter-bombers and fighters cooperated with the ground forces and made sweeps over the Jugoslav coast. Some merchant vessels were damaged Four enemy aircraft were destroyed and four of ours are missing.”

Describing the fighting in San Vittore, a military commentator on the United Nations radio in Algiers said; “The Germans had turned the village into a fortress guarding the roads to Cassino and Rome. The struggle for the village lasted three days and the Americans had to fight every incH of the way. “Forward elements of the sth Army have now pushed on and are reducing German positions, including pillboxes and the village of Giusta, a mile north of San Vittore.

“The capture of San Vittore has made a further dent in the extensive network of defence installations which the Germans had erected to protect Cassino. Another dent was the capture of the 4000-foot Monte Majo. "North-west of Acquafondata the fighting was particularly stiff, and the Germans have counter-attacked with some success.

“On the Bth Army front fighting has been restricted by the condition of the ground, snowdrifts preventing any large-scale operation.” The capture of Giusta was reported earlier by the Algiers radio. “The Americans used grenades to blast the Germans from houses in Giusta,” says the British United Press correspondent in Algiers. “The Germans had turned dwellings in this village into pillboxes and strongpoints, as they did in San Vittore.

“Fifth Army spearheads are within four miles of Cervaro (two miles northwest of San Vittore) in which the Germans have concentrated artillery. “The enemy suffered heavy casualties when the Allied troops occupied San Vittore. One group of 200 scuttled out of, their dugouts and tried to escape over the hills. The Americans opened rapid tommy-gun fire on the Germans as they raced up a bald hillside, wiping them out to a man.

“Many Italians who emerged from the ruins of the village were completely hysterical. For weeks they had lived in basements and dug-outs, eating only popcorn and dried beans, while the heavy battle raged round them.”

“A Shambles”

“San Vittore is a shambles,” says a correspondent. “We wrested it from the Germans after some of the most tigerish fighting since the original sth Army landings at Salerno. The clearing of the last Germans from the last houses was bitter work, but German resistance crumpled when two infantry forces which had been working their way through the streets met in the middle of the town and together stormed the remaining German defence nests.”

"Allied fighter-bombers are leapfrogging San Vittore and striking against the next objective—Cervaro. This village, which is two miles northwest of San Vittore, is the last defensive position before Cassinosays Reuter’s correspondent in Algiers. “The Germans are hurriedly converting Cervaro into a fortress similar to San Vittore and San Pietro. Allied pilots have spotted troop concentrations and gun emplacements which, in spite of most unfavourable weather, have been subjected to heavy air attacks. “The sth Army has taken at least several hundred prisoners in its new drive, and scores more are being brought in daily. Many prisoners had pamphlets shot from the Allied guns in their pockets when they were captured.”

The Official German News Agency’s military commentator says; “It may be deduced from the increasing activity on the Italian front that the enemy considers the time has come to launch a general offensive. The arrival of further reserves for both the Bth and sth Armies, also the transfer of LieutenantGeneral Clark’s headquarters, warrant the conclusion that the present attacks are the transition stage to a large-scale assault against the German front in southern Europe.”

ENEMY LOSSES IN JUGOSLAVIA

FIGHT FOR BOSNIAN TOWN LONDON, Jan. 7. The Jugoslav People’s Army of Liberation states that, having successfully accomplished its task, its troops have withdrawn from the fighting in the Nazi-held Bosnian town of Banjaluka. The enemy lost 680 killed, 700 wounded, and 720 prisoners, and a great quantity of war material.

Allied Spies in Belgium.— Single British aeroplanes are dropping weapons and uniforms in Belgium, says the Official German News Agency. Spies are active behind the Atlantic wall end Brussels in particular has become Hn enemy listening centre.—London, January 8.