BOLOGNA UNDER FIRE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24545, 19 April 1945, Page 5

BOLOGNA UNDER FIRE

Poles Ten Miles From City

KEY POSITIONS SEIZED (Rec. 12.5 a.m.) LONDON. April 18. British troops of the Bth Army in Italy have surrounded Argenta, a key town on the north bank of the Reno river west of Lake Comacchio. It was . earlier reported that . Argents, which is about 22 miles from Bologna, had been by-paaaed. 'Farther south New Zealand, Indian, and Polish formations are pressing forward towards Bologna, . and the Poles have penetrated to within 10 miles of the city. According to one correspondent Polish long-range guns are shelling Bologna railway station. South-west of Bologna sth Army troops have captured two more heights. A special communique from Allied Headquarters in Italy last night said: "On the right flank of the Bth Army British troops have by-passed Argenta and established a bridgehead across the Marina canal. The New Zealanders have .reached the line of the Medicine canal and linked up on the left with Gurkha troops who captured the town of Medicina. 14 miles from Bologna, on the Lugo-Bologna road. Advances north of the Imola-Bqlogna highway continue steadily. Polish troops, after heavy fighting, have taken the enemy strongpoints of Castel Guelfo, Poggio. ana Caste! San Pietro, the last-named of which is 14 miles south-east of Bologna, and the last sizeable town before the city. “Fifth Army mountain troops southwest of Bologna have reached Monte Moscoso, Elsewhere in the central sector progress continues against fanatical enemy resistance. On the west coast line Monte Tomaggiora and Marina dl Carrara have been secured." An earlier communique said: "Eighth Army troops advancing from the Sillaro bridgehead on a wide front threaten Medicina and Castel San Pietro. Further gains have been made west of Lake Comacchio against strong opposition. Fifth Army forces south-west of Bologna have captured Mosca and Monte Abelle. They continue to advance. Progress has been made elsewhere in the central sector in spite of heavy resistance." The New Zealanders on the Bth Army front, astride the Lugo-Bologna road and railway, broke the core of the enemy defences and pushed on two miles and a half. Gurkhas, fighting south of the New Zealanders, are now only a mile from Medicina and 12J miles east of Bologna. The Mediterranean Air Force kept up its hammering of German communications. including the Po river crossings.

GERMAN PLANES DESTROYED

879 ON MONDAY, 400 ON TUESDAY

LONDON, April 17. After a 1500-mile flight, more than 1000 American heavy bombers for the second day running struck to-day (Tuesday) at targets ahead of the Allied armies at Dresden and other places in southern Germany and Czechoslovakia. Railway centres and ml storage depots were hit. Once again a tremendous toll was taken of German aircraft, the escorting fighters destroying 400 German aircraft on the ground. These attacks followed up raids by a powerful force of British heavies. "The Allies yesterday (Monday) destroyed a record total of 879 enemy aircraft." says an announcement from Supreme Headquarters, “Of thta total 832 were hi* on the ground and 47 in the air. The Allies lost 52. This month 3462 enemy aircraft have been destroyed.” "Ten bombers and 14 fighters are missing from Tuesday's Bth Air Force mission ” says an American communique. “Many of the escorting Mustangs and Thunderbolts dropped down to strafe parked enemy aircraft, and pilots reported the destruction of 269. Thirteen others were shot down in air combats. including three jet-propelled planes.”

moved. The children are not In such bad shape as the men, but with continuous starvation they resemble little old men, with yellow faces and sunken cheeks. “Among the inmates until April 4 were M. Leon Blum, the former French Prime Minister, and hip wife: M. Daladier. General Gamelin. Dr. Schuschnigg Field-Marshal Milche, and Fritz Thyssen. ‘The second daughter of the King of Italy. Princess Matalda, was wounded in an Allied raid on the camp factory. She died because gangrene set in after an operation." “Some of the prisoners in the Buchenwald camp became as bruta] as their Nazi oppressors." says a “Daily Express" correspondent. “The Nazis gave some prisoners who had been in camp nearly 12 years the ‘privilege* of beating their fellow sufferers. Some thousands of Ul-clad. diseased, deliriously happy men seen after the Americans liberated the camp were little above the level of beasts. It takes time to degrade a man, but some of these •prisoners had been here 10 or 12 vears. They entered it as Communists or anti-Nazi Germans, and thev were humane and decent men; but to-dav they are much the same bullies as the Nazis who put them there. The cold, calculated wickedness behind a camn like Buchenwald Is something which paralyses the imagination."