ATTACK AGAINST BOLOGNA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24547, 21 April 1945, Page 7

ATTACK AGAINST BOLOGNA

Forces Closing In BTH army near FERRARA (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 20. Allied troqps are closing their ring round Bologna. New Zealand and Polish troops have established firm bridgeheads across the Quaderna canal ( east and south-east of the city. To the south and south-west, sth Army troops have reached the outskirts of Bologna at Pignoro, which is eight miles from the centre of the city. The Bth Army has captured the German communications centre of Portomaggiore, which is about 12 miles from Ferrara. The British sth Corps captured a bridge leading to the town and then cleared the Germans out. A correspondent in Italy says that the Bth Army is 12 miles from Ferrara, on Route 16, which is eight miles past Argenta, The New Zealanders on the Quaderna canal are astride the Lugo-Bologna road, nine miles east of Bologna. The Germans are fighting fanatically, . „ it _ , ... To the west, both the Bth and sth Armies are into Bologna’s outer defences The Germans have thrown almost all their available local reserves against the British and American troops in a frantic effort to prevent a general break-through into the Po Vailey Positions Smashed •‘Eighth Army troops have smashed clean through the heavily fortified German positions guarding the approaches to Ferrara and the Po river and they are thus gaining control of the enemy’s main escape route, the Ravenna-Ferrara-Venice Road,” says an agency correspondent at Allied Headquarters in Italy, reporting on the Argenta Gap operations. ‘The Bth Army is only 13 miles from Ferrara after piercing the Argenta Gap defences and capturing B°Qcaleone, about 15 miles south of Ferrara; r “With the back door to Bologna thus burst open, the pitched battle for the city continues with both the Bth and sth Armies throwing in all they have. Troops south-west of the Argenta Gap have reached the Guana Canal on an eight-mile front. This has placed them 10 miles from Bologna. “The capture of Monte Adona and Monte Frati took the Americans to within eight miles of Bologna. Monte Adona gives an observation post over a vast arer of the enemy lines. “German resistance on the extreme coastal sector is stiffening with considerable artillery fire." Reuter’s correspondent says that the battle for Bologna is increasing in fury as troops of both the ,sth and Bth Armies converge on the city. The Americans who captured Monte Frati encountered pillboxes on the elopes of the mountain and they used every weapon from hand grenades to close range artillery fire. Spain .Pans German Aircraft—- “ Spain has agreed tq an American, request to prohibit landings by German aeroplanes on Spanish territory,” says the Madrid correspondent of the Associated Press. “This means the suspension of all authorised traffic between Germany and the Iberian Peninsula." —London, April 19.