NOT DELIBERATE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 121, 17 February 1944, Page 5

NOT DELIBERATE

Bombing Of Field Hospital LONDON, February 15. A Combined British Press correspondent at the Anzio beach-head says that full investigations have established that the bombings of the field hospital on February 7 and the shelling of another field hospital tent area on the evening of February 10, were not deliberate. It is clear from the statements of a German pilot captured after parachuting from his plane, and also of the Allied pilot who shot him down, that the German jettisoned anti-personnel bombs in trying to escape from four fighters. Machinegun bullets fired by the Allied pilots also fell in the hospital area, supporting the first impression that the tents were being strafed. Some casualties were caused by the bullets 'which the Allied pilots fired against the German plane. The shelling was unobserved artillery ranging in the Murky .'dask. 'Six shells, two of which were air cursts, fell among the tents. Broadsides from British cruiseds and destroyers hae cut the Appian way between the southenr Italian front and the beach-head, according to a naval expert just returned from the beach-head, and quoted by Reuter's Algiers correspondent. He adds that the constant patrols along the west coast shattered the highway between Terracihe and Formia. % . Warships are supporting the British Fifth Army troops in the lower Garigliano, where floods have rendered artillery movement impossible. They pumped thousands of the latest high-explosive splinter shells into the German positions and troop concentrations. Artillery officers are directing the bombardments from observation planes from which they communicate with other artillery officers posted on the ships’ bridges. At night, when observation is impossible, a well-developed navigational technique enables the warships to continue the bombardment. Many cruisers and destroyers have worn out their guns, which are rapidly replaced. Quiet in Beach-head.

Meanwhile, the pause on the Anzio front has entered .the third day, in which Kesselring is sti’.l apparently regrouping .his forces after the failure of the initial attempts to throw the Allied forces back to the sea. In the last 24 hours the Germans have attempted only small infantry attacks in the Carrocetto area. The most significant development appears to be an announcement that the Germans are trying to construct a bridge ,'Kloss the stream Della Moletta, which is under the fire of guns a mile away. This indicates for the first time since the landing that the upper limit of the beach-head is located 10 miles north-west of Anzio. Near Carrocetto the Germans still hold the big building which our troops call a factory, but we are keeping up the pressure against the position. Ip Cassino, the Americans are etill fighting their way deeper and deeper into the town, and a correspondent says it is estimated that a third of it is in Allied hands. . Hand-to-hand fighting went on in the ruined streets while the bombers and artillery pounded the monastery, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. The troops arc closing in on the monastery hill, over ground heavily mined, against stiff resistance from Germans in Steel and concrete dugouts.