FRAUGHT WITH PERIL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 164, 8 April 1944, Page 5

FRAUGHT WITH PERIL

Supplying New Zealanders (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEAR CASSINO, April 5.

Now that any movement or noise, even the starting of a tank engine, brings down on the front terrible concentrations of German shells and mortars, one of the most hazardous jobs our troops are given is getting food and ammunition to the New Zealanders at Cassino. Every night groups of our New Zealand infantrymen, clearly visible in the moonlight, walk out across the river flat to take stores into Cassino and bring back wounded from the front dugouts. Often the casualties they carry back include some of the men who began the-night’s work walking alongside them. Usually, now that the front is quieter, the job of these ration parties is more dangerous than that of men actually holding the front. Even when they take up their night positions ready to meet German patrols, most New Zealanders in the front line have the shelter of deep, wellcovered dugouts. These men who take up stores are exposed for several hours every night to all kinds of fire. “Once vou get up to the front, the hardest part is to get out of the trench and come tack again,” one of these men said today. You feel that the Huns up on the hills can see every step you take.” As soon as it is dark, three-ton trucks carrying stores set out for the front. They can go as far as the Rapido River, which runs across the valley several hunfired yards on our side of Cassino. From there, everything that goes forward has to be carried on men’s backs. Usually the men who go on spend at least two tiresome and dangerous hours nightly trudging across the river flat over rubble to the New Zealanders’ positions in the town. . , All this time German snipers and gun observation posts across the slopes behind the town are watching for them.. M eeks of fighting in this area have given the Germans time to range their guns and mortars accurately on to almost every hard track they know our men must follow. When patrols go out from the front trenches to replenish their water supply from the nearby river ,they have to be well armed. Often there are short clashes and exchanges of bullets and grenades as the New Zealanders meet German patrols, either in search of water themselves or out to -prevent the New’ Zealanders from getting it. Of one ot these patrols of 10 German paratroops, the New Zealanders recently killed eight and captured the other two. NO LULL AT EASTER Heavy Shelling By Both Sides '(British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) (Received April 7, 8 p.m.) „ RUGBY, April 6. Heavy shelling from both sides has been the main activity on all fronts m Italy in the last 24 hours, says the British 'United Press correspondent at Allied headquarters. The Germans directed 601) rounds of heavy artillery fire against the coastal area west of Minturno, but Allien casualties were very light. Door weather reduced the scale of ground and air operations. . , „ . ~ , Gerimiu gunners again heavily shotted the 56th Evacuation Hospital at the Anzio beach-head, says a Naples correspondent. Among other beach-head areas shelled was Mussolini Canal. Allied artillery engaged smoke-throwing mortars two miles south-west of Cnrroeetto, and two tanks three miles west of Cisterna. Bridge Rendered Useless.

On the main front, while the enemy s patrol activity was less, his artillery lire was heavier. Allied long-range shelling rendered useless an important bridge near Forniia. Castle Hill was mortared by the enemy and Allied guns were active iii the Cassino area. There was active patrolling, by both sides in the vicinity of Orecchio on the Eighth Army front, and considerable enemy digging was heard on the sector north of the town. The weather has been fine on all fronts. Another correspondent says that there is no relaxation in the beaeh-head this Easter. Communiques may report ouiy patrol activity, but both sides pound away day and night with artillery barrages and mortars. Men in wadis on the left flank lie in holes in the ground from which they usually cannot stir during daylight, and which sometimes are within 2UO yards of the enemy. In some places even battalion headquarters are so shell-swept during daylight that no one can move about. An enemy attack on Monte Mot-rone, north-east of Cassino, was repulsed on Tuesday by the Italians, who inflicted casualties on the enemy, writes a Naples correspondent. Monte Man-one was attacked after leaflets had been dropped from the air calling on' the Italian defenders lo give up the fight and drawing attention to the Allies’ prolonged holdup at Cassino, says Reuter's coi-i-espoud-ent at advanced headquarters in Italy.