HEAVILY TRIED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 117, 12 February 1944, Page 7

HEAVILY TRIED

Allied Troops Round Anzio ALL LINES HELD Enemy Slackening His Attacks LONDON, February 11. Further progress by the Americans and the frustration of a tierce enemy counter-attack on the forces attacking Monte Cassino are the principal points of the news from Italy 'this morning. Fighting has died down on the Anzio' beach-head, where, according to a correspondent, heavy rain is sweeping the battlefield. Today’s communique from Allied headquarters, in reporting these facts, says that the enemy is continuing to probe our positions in the Anzio sector, and that heavy bombers supporting our troops’ in the beach-head have bombed enemy troop concentrations at Albano, Cisterna, Vellelri and Campaleone, and medium and light bombers attacked transport in the Albano area. During the day our aircraft flew more than but) sorties', while no more than 30 enemy sorties over the 'beach-head were observed. A correspondent in the beach-head states that the enemy counter-attacks have now slackened off, partly because of the weather and partly because of his heavy losses.

"Our Hoops have been heavily tried,’ he states, “but our lines have held everywhere. Enemy losses have been verv heavy, to judge from the number of his dead left lying before our lines.

A message from the Cassino area says that the German counter-attack on the Americans approaching the crest of Monte Cassino was very fierce and was only repelled after four hours’ desperate fighting. The Americans are near enough to the monastery on the crest to see that the Germans have turned it into a fortress. They can see 30 machineguns firing from its walls.

ON THE DEFENSIVE Beach-head Forces Holding To Positions

LONDON, February 10. The Allied forces at the Anzio beachhead are definitely on the defensive, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. The heaviest fighting is occurring north-west of Cisterna. The Germans are counterattacking along the perimeter, trying to find a weak spot. The Americans west of Cisterna withstood three attacks and then gained some ground. The Press Association’s military correspondent says, “The Germans are making many wild claims about the situation at the Anzio beach-head, but the facts are that five or six days ago we withdrew, from a salient which had become uncomfortable. Apart from that, as far as can be ascertained from reliable sources, the line has remained almost unaltered.” The British United Frees correspondent at Allied headquarters says that the bridgehead battit is moving to a new crisis.

Field-Marshal Kesselring’s troops are massing in force after a series of punches delivered along the Allied line. Vichy says, however, that an Allied counter-at-tack is imminent. “Large quantities of war materials are being landed at Nettuno and Anzio, and the Allied invasion forces have been considerably reinforced in the past few days,” adds the radio. _ The “Daily Express” military writer says that under all-round pressure the Allied beach-head has been contracting toward the beaches at the rate of about one mile a day for the last 48 hours, but he adds that the beach-head can contract a good deal more before the position ,of General Clark becomes untenable. Allied planes caught a German force massing in a ravine for a counter-attack a few miles north of the advanced Fifth Army troops. The pilots swept in low and showered splinter bombs between the men and vehicles. Succeeding'waves of planes added to the destruction of the Germans, who were hemmed in by the walls of the ravine and suffered heavy casualties. A combined Press correspondent cabling from Anzio tonight says the situation is possibly a little less grim as a result of the heavy casualties inflicted, on the Germans. He adds : “It is impossible to sneak adequately of the performance of the British, who for 15 days have ceaselessly engaged an enemy so superior in numbers that even the annihilation of a German battalion brought only temporary relief.” Though the Germans yesterday claimed that an offensive had been launched on tlie ‘Anzio beach-head, the German overseas radio stated today that the counterattack in the past 24 hours was not intended to be a major attack and was only of local significance for the time.

GERMAN STRATEGY Big-Scale Offensive In Beach-head (Received February 11, 9 P-m.) LONDON, February 10. It now appears that the German General Staff have their dispositions so arranged that they hope to contain the Fifth Army in and round Cassino long enough for the execution of a big scale offensive designed to drive the Allied forces in the north back to the beaches, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at Allied headquarters. The latest report from the Anzio beach-head tonight says that the German drive appeared to have been slowed down as American resistance tightened and held. The “Daily Mail” in a leading article says that whether ' because of bad judgment or bad luck, there is no doubt that the beach-head operation has not proved a success. After referring to previous failures in Italy, the paper concludes’: “Luck plays a part in war,' as Napoleon knew when he said ‘I don’t want only good generals, I want lucky generals.’ 'Nothing in the part played by General Maitland Wilson suggests that he is 51 lucky general. Fortune was not on his side in the Greek campaign in 1941 or in the Dodecanese last year, and it is not on his side at Nettuno. Now the fortune of war veers first to one side and then the other. When it returns to our side we must be ready for it.”

HILL MONASTERY

Key To Situation LONDON, February 10. The Cassino area is still the main battle centre on the front in Italy, and there are signs that the Germans have further reinforced their troops hanging on to it. Casualties on both sides are mounting as the battle rages without respite for the battered town and the hill that dominates it. A correspondent writing from Naples says that Monte Cassino is the key to Cassino, and the key to the hill is the monastery on its summit. He says it had been hoped that the Germans would adopt the policy of treating this historic building ns neutral ground. The Allied forces have gone to the utmost length to preserve it intact, but it is now clear that the Germans mean to treat it as they treat everything that serves their ends. The Allied command is now faced with a difficult problem—whether it must blow the monastery to bits by shellfire, of lay siege to it by slower and much more costly means, costly in human lives. The correspondent says: “If the Germans were in our place there would be little doubt what action they would take. The Germans themselves say they have sent the portable treasures of the monastery to Rome for safety, but the 1400-year-old building is the greatest treasure of all.”

U.S. CASUALTIES (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 10. Casualties sustained by American elements of the Fifth Army total 20,w3, including 3707 killed, .16,510 wounded, and 5448 missing, states a Washington message.