HEAVY BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 153, 25 March 1944, Page 7

HEAVY BATTLE

Strong Pressure By New Zealanders 10th DAY’S EFFORT LONDON, March 24. “Very heavy fighting continues in Cassino; elsewhere there have been patrol clashes with the enemy on all fronts, reports today’s communique from the Allied headquarters m ItalyA correspondent at the headquarters says that the New Zealanders, supported by tanks and intensive artillery and mortar hre, have renewed their assault on the German strongpoints in the town. Slight progress has been made, and severe casualties have been inflicted on the Germans. ~ , , One correspondent, writing yesterday, had described the situation in Cassino as a deadlock. Fifth Army troops were still making step-by-step progress in the western outskirts, though no major strongpoints had changed hands in the past 12 hours. STRANGE STRUGGLE DESCRIBED , (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEAR CASSINO, March 21.

“It would be just like some sort of game, if the stakes were not so high,” commented a New Zealand infantry officer about the bitterest and most protracted street fighting in the history of the division. He was referring to the tacticf adopted by German paratroops in Cassino, where ground taken one day by our troops liad to be r captured again and again from enemy groups which filter back Lehi our lines in the darkness. .

It is quite wrong to describe the fighting as being “from heap to heap.” Parts of the town, such as in. the botanical gardens area, across which this officer’s battalion advanced, are completely devastated fey giant feomfecraters, .but then one comes to the part where the fighting has been and continues at its most violent tempo. This is in the area between a church .and the Continental Hotel, where Highway 6 turns sharply to the left and runs close in under the slopes of Monte Cassino. ■ . , „ Here are many buildings whose walls are relatively intact, and whose cellars have been fitted up by the Germans as Ipart of an elaborate system of defences. [Deep dugouts have enabled the GerImans to shelter safely from the heayi[est bombing and shelling, while intricate warrens enable the place to be liurhed into a veritable fortress. The officer's battalian, advancing on the second day, was pinned down by snipers after traversing the obliterated gardens and bad to tvait till dark before moving again. Its next atta sK s gained three houses. Then a most bitter struggle commenced, and has been raging ever since. A Rifles and White Flags. Daylight brings the threat of a sniper firing at any movement and practising every conceivable deception, within ana t without the code of war. Paratroopers who have infiltrated behind and on the flanks apparently have no compunction in firing on stretcher parties and . Red Cross jeeps, the only task of which is to evacuate wounded. Nevertheless, our daylight attacks invariably gain ground, as the enemy is loath to show himself when the terms approach parity. “Every German soldier is now equipped apparently with a rifle and a white flag,” said a New Zealander. “When we attack he gives us everything he has, and when we get in close .up goes the white flag.” That the German paratroopers ar 6 not game . fighters when confronted face to face is indicated by the fact that 12 New Zealanders captured 50 of them in a group of houses. The trouble is to nnd the German. One formation, engaged m a slow house-to-house advance, left an apparently empty zone behind thein. Maoris, coming in through the “deserted area, found they had trapped a large number of the enemy; l their bag including pearly 200 prisoners.

A Maori officer tells a story of how his men, who were occupying a church, suddenly discovered a heavy enemy tank hidden within a few yards. Our armour engaged when the situation looked serious, and the tank was eliminated by one, or cur Shermans firing through the building. . • , When interrogated prisoners swore that there were no Germans in the area, the Maoris did not take their word, and a threat of annihilation, brought another 51 Germans sheepishly to light. Night Reinforcement. Many enemy troops manage successfully to conceal themselves, however, and become a menace to the rear of our troops. Night brings an increase in the enemy activity, for it is then that reinforcements of paratroopers and panzer grenadiers come in in small groups from the hills and flats to occupy points already passed Jby our troops. Enemy patrols move stealthily among the shattered walls, hurling grenades into our positions. Tn. spite of the many prisoners taken, the number of Germans in the town does not seem to diminish. [Morning reveals new strongpoints established and old ones, previously silenced, in occupation again. t As well as the continuous sniping, ithere are many other tricks used by the Germans. One New Zealand officer saw |two men, wearing the familiar British helmets covered -with netting, disappear 'into a neighbouring house. A few minutes later an explosive bullet from this building chipped a wall close by. Another unit, moving through houses, had occasion to call to each other. Some

time later a call came back in perfect English: “Are you there, Mac. In spite of the lack of sleep and ho; meals and the continued strain our mei continue on the offensive. They have the greatest praise for the co-operation by the tanks and artillery. The extreme effectiveness of tank fire is vouched for by many infantrymen, and artillery file has been laid down with great accuracy on positions often only a few hundred yards from our own lines. Greater Tank Support.

Hard fighting continues among the battered buildings and streets of the western parts of Cassino, where the New Zealanders are now with tank support in most places. Our troops have worked round behind the Continental'Hotel, which was taken by the Maoris at the south-eastern end of the town, but they have been subjected to heavy mortar lire. Our artillery has ‘done much to silence these enemy weapons. . . .. . So close are the opposing troops that frequently we see the cuemys shelling and our own shelling almost intermingling. There are now particularly strong enemy formations between the town and the monastery. The dropping of supplies to some ot our troops by plane yesterday is reported to be a success. Nearly ail the supplies are believed to have fallen in the area for which they were intended. Today s air activity on the Cassino sector has been confined to bombing and strafing in ravines to the west of Monastery Hit > which our artillery is unable to shell.

GERMANS REPORTED STILL IN HOTEL LONDON, March 23. A. correspondent says that the Germans are still holding out in the Continental Hotel. In spite of conflicting reports, the hotel has never been completely knocked out, and fighting was reported there early this morning. Ihe Germans are Known to have four tanks in the hotel. , , Isolated Allied groups on the lower slopes of Monastery . Hill are still being supplied from the air. . While the New Zealanders maintained their slow progress on the ninth day of the hand-to-hand fighting inside Cassino, French forward troops on Mount Castellone, three miles to the no.rth-west, withstood a sharp German counter-at-tack, savs Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters. The Germans attacked under a heavy artillery barrage, but the French troops did not yield ground. Simultaneously the German artillery opened up against three towns northeast of Cassino —Portello, Vallerotonde and San Michele—while the Luftwaffe strafed roads in the Monte Cairo-Terelle area.

The New Zealanders, battling from house to house today, knocked out a tank which the Germans had imbedded in, a stone building.

ALLIED BOMBERS ATTACK COMMUNICATIONS

LONDON, March 23. Allied heavy bombers were out over Italy yesterday. Fortresses and Liberators attacked railway yards, and other aircraft went for other targets last night. Medium bombers attacked communications north of Rome. Allied fighter-bombers attacked targets in Yugoslavia. They shot up German transport vehicles, and sank a ship. One fighter-bomber attacked road transport in western Greece. "Seven enemy aircraft were destroyed. Four Allied aircraft are missing. Rome radio states that British and American planes today bombed Florence. Several houses collapsed. They also raided Verona, where casualties were caused. Anti-aircraft guns brought down two Fortresses.