NEW GENERAL'S TASK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 5

NEW GENERAL'S TASK

PRESSURE BY THE GERMANS Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, January 5. Lieutenant-General Leese has taken over command from General Montgomery at a time when the Eighth Army is facing a very strong delaying action, says Reuters Algiers correspondent. The Germans have ten divisions stretched from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the most intense resistance in the coastal sector facing the Eighth Army. The Germans are also holding one division in close support and two in reserve. Their aim—besides preventing the Allies reaching Rome or demanding the highest price for every inch of ground —is to gain time for building up striking reserves in the north. The G,er-

mans have been putting speciallytrained' mountain troops across the Apennines, and yesterday they launched strong counter-attacks against a 180 ft hillock three miles north of Ortona. Their- main defence line, from which the counter-attacks came, lies a mile ahead' of the hillock along the south bank of the Arielli River.

Cairo radio said that Allied troops are converging on Orsogna, which was the subject of a violent artillery and aerial bombardment yesterday. General Clark's Fifth Army yesterday resumed its difficult progress through the mountains over the Rome road, and occupied a 2300 ft height about two miles north-east of San Vittore. Allied troops, after scaling rugged cliffs, attacked strong emplacements which the Germans had established as part of their winter line, and inflicted a number. of casualties.