NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1944, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

ALLIED ADVANCES

N.Z.E.F. BACK IN LINE

To NeAV. Zealanders the most interesting item in today's news tvill be that the New Zealand Division is back in line Avith the Eighth Army in Italy, taking part in the Allied advance on Florence, which seems to be goim* very well. In Normandy the Americans have made an important advance Avest of St. Lo, Avhich may mean a German Avithdrawal in that area. In the Caen sector the British and Canadians are consolidating their limited gains in the second phase of their offensive. General Govarov's men of the Leningrad front have entered Narva in Estonia, and Marshal Rokossovsky's tanks and infantry have taken Deblin on the Vistula, less than 60 miles south-east of WarsaAV. There have been Russian advances elseAvhere on the long front from the Gulf of Finland to the Carpathians. General Freyberg's Neiv Zealand Division, after their ordeal in Cassino and their subsequent advance up the Liri Valley to Avezzano in the Central Apennine plateau, Avere rested after the fall of Rome, and no doubt refitted, reinforced, and regrouped. They are now back in the line on the left flank of the Eighth Army, advancing up the main road to Florence from the southwest at Poggibonsi through San Casciano. The Eighth Army has taken over from the Fifth Army (French division) in this sector, The New Zealanders were last reported to be about nine miles from Florence, which puts them in the vicinity of San Casciano. j The country is hilly, but not as rugged as the Apennines proper to the east The South Africans and British troops, j ivho are fighting their Avay on the Upper Arno from Arezzo, are now be-; tween 15 and 20 miles away. The Americans of the Fifth. Army are grouped along the Lower Arno for thirty miles from the sea through Pisa. Though the Germans are fighting hard in a semi-circle to the south of Florence the general position in Italy seems to be improving. Unless Kesselring can get the troops, he may find it difficult to hold the 150-mile long Gothic Line from Pisa to Pcsaro on the Adriatic. West of St. Lo. In capturing Marigny on the high road between St. Lo and Coutances on the ivest coast of Normandy General Bradley's Americans have made' a promising break in the tough fortunes of the recent fighting at ' both ends of the Normandy front. Marigny is about eight miles from St. Lo, and another 13 from Coutances. • The American advance Avas probably made from the St. Lo-Lessay road, five miles j to the north of Marigny, and the opera- ■ tion threatens the retreat of the German forces still in the Lessay-Periers section to the Avest and north-Avest. Other American advances south and east by south of St. Lo should give General Bradley more elbow-room in the St. Lo sector, where he has been cramped like General Dempsey round' Caen. Here the British-and Canadians of the Second Army have come up against such dour resistance that they have had to content themselves Avith digging in and consolidating. Tactical Air Limitations. j Though the Allied pushes at both ends of the Normandy front Avere preceded by the heaviest tactical air bombardments staged in this war, 7000 to 8000 tons round Caen and 6000 on the St. Lo western sector, and though these ivere folloAved by terrific artillery sweeps of the German defences, the advancing Allied infantry and tanks, as Reuter's correspondent with the United States army puts it today, "met ivith savage resistance." "The Germans," he says, "apparently lay in deep holes during the bombardment, and came out as the planes started back to their bases." The British and Canadians are having the same experience in the Caen sector. All this is reminiscent of the Allied air assault on Cas-. sino, which permitted the New Zealanders to enter the battered town, but by no means gave them a right-of-way through, so that they were later compelled to withdraw. The tactical use of air power is most successful Avhen it is used against armies more in the open; as against the retreating British Imperial Force in Greece or against the Germans retreating from El Alamein over the Western Desert. When troops have time to prepare semi-permanent defences, as at Cassino or on the Normandy front, air bloivs. hoAvever heavy, seem to have a more limited range of success. The Germans, despite all handicaps of hampered communications by strategic air bombing and internal sabotage, seem to have accumulated sufficient force, Avith sufficient material, to hold up our advance in Normandy ivhile the Nazi regime, after the "purge" prepares in Germany for a fight to a finish. It looks as if another Allied landing might now be in order. Moscow's Guns. Moscow's guns have fired many salutes to victory in the past few months, and there will be more still to come. Here is what Ralph Parker, Moscow correspondent of the "Neiv York Times," says of a typical Moscoav salute* "In itself, the salute is a splendid spectacle. From doAvn by the Moscow River in Red Square you see the flash of anti-aircraft guns lined closely on the Kremlin's terraces, and with the first peal of the clock on the Spassky tower the sharp bark reaches your ears. Simultaneously, from the rooftops rockets shoot up and burst with an explosion and hurl coloured fireballs in all directions. And Avhile they hang in the air from Moscow's outskirts rolls the crash of the heavy guns. It is as clear as daylight ivhile the salvos are being fired and, though now a familiar sight, it never fails to provoke amazement in those who watch. I have seen old ivomen cross themselves solemnly each time the guns go off."