Troops' Quick Thrust

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 64, 13 September 1943, Page 5

Troops' Quick Thrust

SLOW GOING IN NAPLES AREA

LONDON, September 12,

Italy's biggest port on the Adriatic Sea, Brindisi, has fallen into Allied hands in good working order. The Italian dock workers are co-operating with our forces.

Brindisi is right on the heel of Italy, and as well as being a first-class harbour for big ships it has an airfield which puts Allied .bombers within closer striking distance of the Balkan countries than 'ever before. Albania, for instance, is only 70 miles away across the Sftrait of Otranto..,

There Eas been little German resistance in the toe of Italy except ."'for mines and demolitions, and the Eighth Army has now occupied 'Catanzaro, whch is a good 75 miles from the first landing beaches.

On the Salerno front, near (Naples, Allied troops are meeting much tougher opposition, both on land and in the air, and one dis- > patch says that there the Allied forces are meeting the real hard ■cpre of German resistance in Italy, but despite all the enemy can do ■iii the air our unloading is ahead of schedule, our divisions are firmly 'established, their strength is mounting, arid their supply lines are Secure. Progress inland is tough and slow. '

•'■'' Brindisi was captured by British tfoops after' a lightning thrust across the Italian heel from Taranto. The port facilities are reported undamaged.

By withdrawing from this city the Germans have left several more good airfields in British hands. Enemy parachute troops are now defending positions north and north-east of Taranto, and out forces have made contact with them.

A correspondent who landed with the Fifth. Army at Salerno says that lie had a look at the strong coastal defences which • our men, had to reduce before they got ashore. TJie German gUnners hati almost every v kind of weapon from heavy machine-guns to large field pieces. Some of them had been blasted to pieces by our naval gunfire and the dead bodies of their crews were lying behind them. These German batteries put up plenty of fight, and our men had an uncomfortable time during the first landings, but, considering the size of the operation, the casualties were relatively light