ITALIAN FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 5

ITALIAN FRONT

NEW HEIGHTS CAPTURED

APPROACH TO P0 VALLEY (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec, 10.45 a.m. LONDON, October 2.

The Fifth Army now controls two of the most important heights dominating the approach to the Imola road towards the Po Valley, says Reuters correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy. The latest place captured, Monte Capella, is two miles west of Monte Battaglia (held by the Allies), which is 11 miles south-west of Imola.We are holding both heights against strongly reinforced German counterattacks.

In the Adriatic sector the Eighth Army, after clearing Savfgnani, has thrust spearheads across the Fiumicino River, but there is no indication yet that they have established a bridgehead.

"The Fifth Army won Monte Capella only after bitter fighting through widespread minefields and in the face of fierce artillery fire," states. Reuters correspondent. "The first break in the weather for a week enabled the air force to give long deferred support to the Fifth Army's operations. Waves of German infantry made a third attempt to retake Monte Battaglia after a heavy artillery bombardment, but the defenders again* threw the enemy back. The opposition was bitter at this point, as the Fifth Army's threat to Imola and the highway to Bologna constitutes also a threat to the rear of the German forces facing the* Eighth Army along the Adriatic. The sun has reappeared on the Adriatic front, and fine weather is promised for the whole front."

Eighteen men returned to Rimini today after having fought their way through the German lines. They are the only survivors of nearly 200 English troops of the Eighth Army who were sent out to capture three bridges north-west of Rimini. The men reached Rimini hungry and exhausted and with their uniforms torn, and caked with mud. One survivor said that the men were surrounded when they entered a village at night. He added: "There were about 50 of us in a group of houses. The Jerries just stonkered us with mortars. Those of us who were left hid for two days without food and then made our way back."