PAINFUL PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1944, Page 5

PAINFUL PROGRESS

TROUBLESOME NAZI GUMS

Rec. 1.30 p,m. LONDON, Jan. 20. The Germans have apparently chosen Castelforte, six miles inland, as the key point of their defence against the British forces, says Algiers radio. Our progress is painful, as the ground is thick with mines and is swept by persistent and accurate gun fire and mortar fire. The British are nevertheless battling their way yard by yard up the hill overlooking part of Monte Aurunci. Our casualties are not light. From the heights beyond the advancing British troops the Germans are firing on the river crossings, damaging rafts and temporary bridges, Allied air^ men and British artillery are working incessantly to silence the troublesome German guns and mortar nests. Troops landed from the sea north of the.river moJith formed the spearhead which entered the southern outskirts of Minturno. Tufo, which we have captured, is in the vicinity of the Rome-Capua railway four miles inland from Minturno. The Americans and the French have tightened the net around the German defence, positions beyond the Rapido River. Reuters correspondent pn the Fifth Army front says that the battle on the lower Garigliano has developed into a slogging match in which the Germans are slqwly getting the worst of the exchanges, although they have repeived reinforcements and are fighting resolutely, Rome radio reports that Allied naval unitp yesterday shelled Scambi, near Minturno, in the area where the Pritish crossed the Garigliano, causing great damage and heavy casualties among the population.