FIRST REAL CLASHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1944, Page 5

FIRST REAL CLASHES

INVADERS AND GERMANS

(By Telegraph—Press Association-rCopyright.)" Rec/12.30 p.m. LONDON, January 27. The first major clashes between Allied invasion troops and the German defenders which have occurred among irrigation ditches on the fringe of the beach-head are regarded as a prelude, to a heavy battle which Reuters Algiers correspondent says is presently brewing. ' Correspondents report that the Allies ,are still fanning out from the beachhead with an uninterrupted stream, of reinforcements banking up behind them. The disclosure that the Allies beat back a counter-attack by the Hermann. Goering Division south-west of Littoria two miles from the Appian Way was the first official information given of the position of the Allied force inland. There is no confirmation of the reported capture of Velletri or of the appearance of the Allies near the mouth of the Tiber, which was announced by some European radio stations. The Algiers correspondent of the British United Press says that the main Allied thrusts are apparently being made eastwards from the Nettuno area and north-eastward from beaches farther down the coast, converging on the Littoria .area. The forces moving east from Nettuno are those which were earlier reported to be across the Mussolini Canal. Though no Allied troops have yet been reported across the Appian Way, patrols may have penetrated that far. The Appian Way is also probably within artillery range. A thrust up the road through ApriUa against Veiletri may also be in progress. British troops met the first determined German counter-attack against our beach-head in the village of Latium yesterday morning, reports the British United Press correspondent. The British had captured the village on the previous afternoon after sharp street fighting in which heavy casualties were inflicted on the Germans. One hundred prisoners were taken. The British were well entrenched when the Germans counter-attacked with several tanks and a large body of infantry. The attack proved futile and costly, and the enemy withdrew. Reuters correspondent with the Fifth Army says that according to prisoners Hitler, immediately on receiving the news of the Nettuno landing, signed a message which was tfead to the defenders of the Gustav Line, stating: "The Fuhrer orders the Gustav positions to be held at all costs, since its wholly successful defence would have important political repercussions." The Navy announced that Allied naval units in support of the Fifth Army subjected Formia and the-rieigh-bouririg stretch along the Gulf of Gaeta to a thunderous bombardment, which lasted 48 hours, without let-up. Allied light bombers swooped„ down on a German column of about 50 liprsedrawn artillery vehicles, which.: was moving up to the Nettuno beach-head area, threw it into the utmost confusion, and destroyed several vehicles.