HARD FIGHTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 75, 26 September 1944, Page 6

HARD FIGHTING

BEYOND RIMINI

NEW ZEALAND TANKS BUSY

. (Official' War Correspondent N.2.E.F.) ■■■■■■•.■ RIMINI, September 23. On the front astride Highway Sixteen, extending,both inland and to the coast, the New Zealanders have continued to advance, and the most forward positions of those on the coast are now about four miles beyond Rimini. The seaside township of Viserba was cleared of the enemy last night.

Thickly-housed areas harbouring a.; well-concealed enemy continue to be j a menace for both infantry and tanks, ■ and the advance has had to be a wary I one. . Tank movement 'is restricted, and it has been the enemy's practice to let the infantrymen pass strongpoints before opening fire. It means j almost certain death or capture for j the enemy, but he still persists. Many of these strongpoints / have been shattered by fire, from our tanks, which are quick to. reply to' Spandau bursts. In one instance, a machine-gun crew was killed by a tank shell and twelve paratroopers nearby surrendered; but rao,-e often the enemy has no chance to give himself up and meets the'end with walls crumbling around him. Many prisoners have been taken, in the past 24 hours, many of them paratroopers. j CASUALTIES NOT HEAVY. Fighting has been hard along Highway Sixteen, one house after another having to be dealt with by our men. There is an ever-present danger for tanks of a sudden encounter with antitank guns, and desperate Germans have crawled through fields with bazookas in an endeavour to knock out our tanks. We have lost, some tanks, but casualties amon« the crews have' not, been heavy. Little opposition \vas met during the darkness by troops proceeding up the coast,- the enemy apparently having withdrawn a short distance, but with the coming of daylight enemy. , machine-gunners were active.

Along the coast between Rimini and Viserba there is. a . string of huge concrete gun emplacements built to . resemble villas, complete with skilfullypainted dummy "windows and shutters. The guns were sighted to. shoot only out to sea and' were useless • against bur attack.; ■ \ .