KING WITH THE TROOPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 121, 24 May 1944, Page 5

KING WITH THE TROOPS

RUGBY May 22. His Majesty today spent another day with his troops somewhere in England. He met General Montgomery and lunched with him and other generals. Later the King decorated General Montgomery's driver, John Burford, with the Military Medal. A staff officer read the citation signed by General Montgomery, recording Burford's bravery in the neighbourhood of Mount Etna in driving liaison officers on dangerous missions under fire. The King shook hands with Burford, who said he had been with. General Montgomery since El Alameiri. -The King inspected detachments of the Royal Navy and the R.A.F., and also men of the commandos, who lined the route at one point. Walking between them, the King noticed Major Porteous, the Dieppe V.C., and had a talk with him. Beach parties with equipment were also inspected by the King, who at one point walked for nearly two miles along a road lmea on both sides with troops.—B.O.W.

about four miles east of the beachhead perimeter. Today's German High Command communique states that particularly grim fighting is raging near Pontecorvo and Piedimonte.

The German newsagency announced that the Germans have evacuated Pico, which is an important strongpoint of the Hitler Line and the northern bastion of the Germans' switch line.

Reuters correspondent with the Eighth Army reports that troops of the Eighth Army, supported by tanks, have cracked through some of the main defences of the Hitler Line. Their attack is designed to send, the Germans reeling back to Rome. A barrage from several hundred guns preceded the drive, which was launched at the first light of dawn against a sector midway between Pontecorvo and Aquino. The first'objectives were reached during the morning, and the attackers pushed on in the afternoon. Prisoners were brought in from the defences shortly after the commencement of the attack.

Many shell bursts could be seen in and over "Pontecorvo, into which elements of a French force endeavoured to fight their way in face of stubborn German resistance. .

Troops of the Eighth Army are at present in possession of the major part of Piedimonte and maintaining their pressure against the enemy, who are being winkled out of dug-outs. German sources stated that Pico was evacuated soon after the announcement from Allied headquarters that the Eighth Army had penetrated the German line in that sector.

The Fifth Army, on the main front, has smashed into the reinforced German lines and seized more heights, and American guns are hammering Terracina, says the British United Press correspondent. Terracina, apart from being the anchor at the Tyrrhenian Sea end of the Hitler switch line, is also in the rear of the Germans surrounding the beach-head. The Allied attack in this area gives direct land support to the beach-head offensive. ' German reinforcements are now fighting vigorously from well dug-in defences against American troops, who, however, are pushing through the mountains and closing in against the town. According to Cairo radio, advanced Allied troops are only 14 miles from the Anzio beach-head. GREAT TANK BATTLE. The "Daily Mail" correspondent says that the biggest tank battle of the Italian campaign has developed on the Eighth Army front before the Hitler Line. The German news agency's commentator declared: "The front is resounding with an Allied drumfire such as has never been witnessed before." The British United Press correspondent at Anzio, describing the launching of the main blow against the containing force, says that a violent barrage came at, dawn from a thousand guns massed behind tanks and infantry. At zero hour, 6.30 a.m., men from picked units, rose up from where they had lain all night, and disappeared into the gun smoke, and a smoke screfen was put up before the Allied lines to conceal the attack towards Cisterna across no man's land, known as "the bloody mile." Air Force flyers who helped to smash a path for the infantry reported striking a devastating blow against large concentrations of Germans. From a low altitude Bostons showered the Germans with fragmentation bombs and smoke bombs. r The landing of many troops and hundreds of vehicles to reinforce the beach-head troops before the attack is described by a British United Press correspondent with the landing force. He says: "It is significant that the enemy made no attempt to impede the landing, which very considerably reinforces the besach-h<iad strength.' Not only was the convoy not attacked, but the enemy did not produce the routine shelling of the anchorage when the convoy arrived. The only explanation is that the enemy was saving ammunition and planes for a fullscale effort to beat the offensive.". German radio reports that American paratroopers were dropped to participate in the beach-head offensive/Allied warships are also bombarding the Germans on the fringe of the beach-head.