FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 23, 21 October 1944, Page 7

FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

New Zealand Troops On River Line (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) GAMBETTOLA, October 18. Yesterday’s rain has made surprisingly little difference in the quality of the going in the New Zealand sector, and today the roads were drying out very quickly. The fields are still impassable to tanks, bijt there is scarcely any noticeable rise in the streams. t , Our troops are now firmly estabnsneu on the banks of the Pisciatello River, where all today they have been_ subjected to heavy mortar and spandau fire. Some few thousand yards ahead there is a small spur of the Apennines, and on it is a tall stone building which may have been a mediaeval castle. From this the Germans were directing fire on our troops. Six Kittybombers passed over us heading for this target. They wheeled oyer the castle, opened out in line astern, and as each one swooped we could see the sparkle of tracers on the stone. Each plane laid its bomb squarely on the target, which disappeared in clouds of smoke and flame. Shared Billets With German.

Early today members of the headquarters staff were amazed to find that for 24 hours they*had been sharing billets with a German soldier. When he surrendered he was still in possession of his rifle and several grenades. He was a runner in a German air force regiment now serving as infantry. He had been unable to return to his own lines and when he emerged from hiding this morning he found himself in the midst of the headquarters staff.