Late News PATROLS MEET

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 304, 18 September 1943, Page 7

Late News PATROLS MEET

Allied Armies In Italy LONDON, September 17. A correspondent at the Allied headquarters in Algiers reports that Fifth and Eight Army patrols have met I<> miles south of the Salerno battlefield near Agripoli. _ General Eisenhower said: The Germans have shot their bolt.”

STAND SOUTH OF ROME Evidence Of German Intention (Received. 'September 17, 9.40 p.m.) LONDON, September 17. The latest evidence indicates that the Germans are determined to establish a major front south of Rome, says the “New York Tinies.” The Germans have abandoned their original plan to make •a stand on the Bo River. The paper adds: “The conquest of Italy has become for the Allies a major, military operation. Hitler’s strategy in Italy is another example of his resourcefulness, which will continue to make him a dangerous enemy to the end. Hitler is rushing reinforcements south mainly to the Salerno front, and this fact, together with the constitution of the Fascist puppet Government in Rome, indicates that the Germans have decided on establishing their main from in Italy south of the capital.” General Clark’s strongly-reinforced Fifth Army, wedged in the enemy lines between the Sele and Colore Rivers, is now exploiting the success with orders to drive on relentlessly, says Reuters correspondent at the Allied headquarters. An official German spokesman told the Berlin correspondent of the Zurich newspaper “Die Tat” that the British Navy s intervention at 'Salerno exclusively turned the battle in the Allies’ favour. Berlin radio stated that General Montgomery sent a motorized division. force from the Eighth Army by sea to join the Fifth Army. This division, which included Canadians, embarked on .Tuesday and landed during Wednesday night near Oastellabette and Paestuin. It immediately took over on American sectors while the Americans reformed. _ The Germans claim, that one or tie main reasons for their successes on the Salerno front was that no Italians are fighting with them. The “Daily Express” correspondent ■ in Stockholm says the Germans are making big propaganda use of this fact. They claim that it proves that when the German army is not hampered by the presence of a traitorous and cowardly ally it can repel any attack. Reached Headquarters. How three correspondents made the motor dash of 100 miles and reached the American headquarters on the Gulf of Salerno is told by a Reuter correspondent “With a conducting officer, we left the Eighth Army neighbourhood of Belvedere, prepared to become involved in a series of rearguard actions and encounter road deiiiolitions and wrecked bridges,” he says. “Instead, we drove in grand style along a road which crawls over the cliffs along this southern part of the Italian west coast.

“We encountered absolutely no opposition, and found a no-man’s land without mortars, snipers, land-mines, boobytraps or battle-torn villages. We found only one bridge destroyed, yet there were 50 bridges which the Germans could have blown up, causing many days’ delay. We encountered only one demolition. “Our idea was to run straight through every village, but always, crowds halted us, crying ‘Viva Churchill I Viva .Inglesi I’ ” Italian soldiers who had just returned from the front disclosed the German dispositions. “We drove to the American headquarters, where we reported the state of the roads "and the lack of demolitions. The Army commander thanked us. We.then visited General Alexander, who said: ‘Gentlemen, you have done something I would not have attempted. You have certainly shown enterprise.’ ”

RAILWAY LINKS Between France And Italy R.A.F. ATTACKS

LONDON, September 17.

Aircraft of the Royal Air Force ranged over occupied Europe from Britain during the night. Radio stations in France and Germany went off the air early in the evening, and Zurich reports that an alert was sounded in "Western Switzerland. The Air Ministry later announced that an attack had been carried out by heavy bombers on railway communications between France and Italy, and that Mosquitoes had bombed objectives in Berlin.