NOW WITHIN SIGHT OF NAPLES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 310, 25 September 1943, Page 7

NOW WITHIN SIGHT OF NAPLES

Fifth Army’s Offensive Gathers Weight (By Telegraph.—Press Assu.—Copyright.) (Received September 24, 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 23. The Allies are now in sight of Naples, which is burning fiercely and presents a lurid picture. With the. Allies closing in, the German forces south of Naples are falling back to their defensive ring round the city.

Front line correspondents report that the Allied forces have advanced against heavy machinegun and mortar fire. The Allies today captured Contursi, east of Salerno. The Fifth Army s push has taken the appearance of a really large-scale offensive.

Reuter’s correspondent says that the Fifth Army’s strength is gathering like a cloud before a storm. Artillery and armour are on the move, and the army can count on big support from the Allied air forces in ousting the Germans from their hill positions. ' Other correspondents say that the hardest fighting is still at tlie German pivot north of Salerno. Tlie entire German front is centred on these high positions, from which tlie enemy is moving his lines back. Reuter reports that the. Fifth Army has followed up a fierce artillery barrage with increased activity all along its front, and that its pressure is growing. Tlie Germans are still fighting hard to retain their hold on the hill positions north of Salerno, where everything favours defence. No sudden break-through is expected. The battle for Naples was. continued at 3 a.m. today with a powerful barrage against the enemy positions. Warships joined the land batteries in the bombardment, and big fires were started on the slopes of the saw-toothed mountains separating the Fifth Army from the Naples plain. Tattered Italian Troops. By the capture of Avigliuno the Eighth Army moving up from I’otenza has advanced 10 miles in 24 hours. As the British and American forces are advancing in southern Italy they pass groups of Italian soldiers, sometimes 100 together, marching southward in single file, states the British United Press correspondent with the Fifth Army. Many of them are bare-footed and many more are ragged. They carry their possessions in small bundles, and beg lor rations from-the Allied soldiers. Our men have seen hundreds of pathetic reunions in little farmhouses whore families tearfully welcomed sons and husbands. Altogether thousands are ou tlie roads. In tlie meantime, the Italian folk follow the Allied troop's in the towns from which they fled when the fighting started, and there begin to search for their ruined homos.