OVER THE ADIGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 100, 30 April 1945, Page 6

OVER THE ADIGE

N.Z.E.F. FIRST AGAIN

WALK-OVER PROGRESS

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.)

■ ADIGE RIVER, April 27. Just 43 hours after they set out across the Po, the New Zealanders started crossing., the Adige River, and half an hour . later they were firmly established, and the first troops of the Eighth Army to cross the Adige. Between the crossings the infantry had advanced twelve miles on foot, over difficult and thickly-populated country, taking several prisoners and a great amount of enemy material, and had chased the'light holding force out of the area between the rivers. The same men made both crossings and are still pressing forward, meeting slight and disorganised resistance. The enemy ahead is obviously a beaten and exhausted rabble. Italians here tell of the Germans fleeing in panic, some weeping with strain and exhaustion, some stumbling on bandaged,- and bleeding feet, and most shedding equipment and even personal belongings. Not only is the retreat marked by vehicles and big dumps of munitions abandoned, but the trail of rifles, steel helmets, overcoats, and personal odds and ends gives the advance the aspect of a grotesque paperchase. Witn the partisans now operating boldly, this retreat must be a horrible nightmare for men who have no haven of safety. ;

Last night's attack was a silent move, made towards dusk at 8.30 p.m., and the fast-travelling and hard-hitting 23rd Battalion was the first across the river. They were closely followed by the 21st, 24th, and 25th. The enemy, who had fired small arms across the river during the day, had fled, and except for a little mortaring and a little scattered small-arms fire, there was no fighting. The Division had very few men wounded. This time all the companies paddled over the hundred-yard-wide river in collapsible assault boats.j

A great job of transportation was done with these boats. Brought by truck to the Senio, they were reloaded and carried on to the Po, quickly reloaded, and carried on again to the Adige. With the first wave of assault troops, the move went as quickly as a well-rehearsed drill. Men picked up the boats, trotted over the stop-banks, launched the boats, climbed aboard, and paddled swiftly across' the river. The banks had a sheer drop of six feet on each side, but the current was not strong and the men had no difficulty in getting across. Then the boats paddled back for the support companies. After the first line of infantry disappeared into the darkness on the other side the scene was still and peaceful. North of the river narrow lanes ran across fields enclosed by hedges, and a determined enemy could have put up a strong resistance. A TRANSPORT "CIRCUS." Two men investigating a chink of light from a window found three Italian men in the house. They pressed "vino"" on the visitors, and while two of them, gave information on the German's flight, the third boiled,eggs. They said the Germans told them the New Zealanders would cut their throats. The refreshed visitors pushed on through absolute silence until they met another patrol. ' The finding of lending places cut in the stop-banks on both sides of the river by the Germans expedited the transferring of vehicles, but heavy rain early in the morning slowed up the work. Two tanks were quickly got over in support of the infantry, but for the sappers and.the tank gun-crews it was an all-night session of hard work, operating a ferry service of queer craft and preparing to throw a bridge across the river. Yesterday the residents in the area between the rivers gave the troops the usual almost hysterical welcome. It was a genuine "circus" which moved forward, because one bridge and the ferry service over the Po were insufficient to carry all the transport needed to carry the material wanted by the ■advancing troops. So the Kiwis poured petrol into German trucks and cars, and borrowed horse and donkey carts. They, were amazing columns which rolled across the narrow roads to the Adige. The most amazing sight of all was three huge new German trucks ' led by a small German staff car, all driven by and carrying as passengers Germans who came in to surrender. The trucks were loaded with bridging material. RESISTANCE REVIVED. ADIGE RIVER, April 28. The New Zealand infantry and tanks are moving steadily ahead, and at midday were some seven miles beyond their bridgehead across the Adige. The country there is not so well roaded as that south of the river, but despite the rain of the past two nights the going is still fair, over flat cultivated fields and through vineyards. But for the first time since we left Rimini more than, six months ago, hills now loom directly in the path of the division— the first of that hilly country that leads up to the Alps. Along the line which runs across these hills to the Adriatic coast south of Venice the enemy has what he terms his "Venetian Line," and a much narrower front to defend than he had on the Po and the Adige. It is doubtful, however, whether he will be able to make any stand. However, there are signs that the panic which . characterised the enemy's crossing of the Po and the hasty flight to the Adige has subsided sufficiently to permit a more orderly retreat, as the enemy is now blowing up bridges and here and there is fighting small delaying actions. Such motor transport as he still possesses has been seen heading rapidly northwards and has formed a welcome target for our fighter-bombers.

For the first time in the history of the New Zealand Division, maps were dropped from the air yesterday over Divisional Headquarters near the Adige River. Speed of our advance was such that when the maps had to be sent immediately from Corps to Divisional Headquarters, a tiny artillery spotting plane was commissioned to do the job.- The pilot circled'over Divisional Headquarters, acknowledged the recognition sign, and dropped the maps within, a few yards of where they were wanted.