BITTER STRUGGLE AT CARROCETTO

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 118, 14 February 1944, Page 5

BITTER STRUGGLE AT CARROCETTO

Advance After Gale (British Official Wireless.) ' RUGBY, February 11. The Fifth Army’s beach-head forces returned to the attack this morning, reports a correspondent from the front. “Our troops are fighting again in the area of the battle-scarred red brick buildings of Carroeetto,” he says. ‘An advance on this position was made today after a wild night storm. When zero hour came, with the guns laying a barrage, the gale was at hurricane force. Trees were uprooted and deluges of rain turned the rich rolling ploughland into fields of mud. The shelholes were filled deep, and lorries taking ammunition supplies to the front splashed through the cratered roads. “The issue was one of hand-to-hand fighting. The German defenders, defying calls to surrender, were only ousted by grenades and mortars. Our troops were so closely locked with the enemy that the artillery barrage had to be lifted.” Enemy Use of Tanks. The Germans launched attack after attack against the British positions in the Carracetto area of the beach-head, reports a correspondent at Allied headquarters at Algiers, while heavy fighting is in progress on the American sector south and south-west, of Cisterna. There the Germans are using tanks as mobile artillery and strongpoints. The tanks are moving forward, firing a few rounds and then withdrawing to cover. Another German division has been identified on the beach-head front. It is the 65th Infantry Division, which received a bad battering by the Eighth Army -round Ortona and was sent back to reform near Genoa. A correspondent in the beach-head emphasizes that it is still too early to say that the German thrust has been completely smashed. The enemy may be prepared to take even heavier losses to try and find a weak spot in the defences, but there i-s confidence that we can meet and hold him.

PAPAL PALACE VICTIMS

LONDON, February 11. Quoting a message from Rome, Paris radio stated that 50 bodies have been recovered from the Papal Palace at Castel Gondolfo, which was bombed yesterday morning. Referring to Vatican reports of the bombing of the Pope’s summer residence, which is five miles from Frascati, it is officially stated in Algiers that Castel Gondolfo now lies in the battle area and contains a heavy saturation of German forces. Whenever vital enemy targets appear, they’ will of necessity be bombed.