BEFORE TERMOLI

Evening Star, Issue 24990, 8 October 1943, Page 3

BEFORE TERMOLI

CRITICAL BATTLE DEVELOPING EIGHTH ARMY MORE THAN HOLDING OWN (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7. Stiffening German resistance and the breaking of the weather have slowed up the Allied forces in Italy. On the Fifth Army front rain and mud are aggravating the difficulties. The British and Americans are meeting with enemy minefields and demolitions as they slowly press on, while at the eastern end of the extended battle line in the Termoli area von Kesselring is fighting grimly to ward off the outflanking threat to Rome. , The main interest at present is centred .in the fierce struggle for Termoli, where both the Eighth Army and the Germans have been reinforced. Reuter's Algiers correspondent says a critical battle is developing in the rain-soaked country side before Termoli. General Montgomery's men are more than holding their own. Von Kesselring fears an Allied break-through to Pescara, 60 miles northward. The Germans are using bombers against the Eighth Army for the first time since the British landed in Italy. The Germans have also switched an entire panzer division from the west coast to the Termoli area, where it sharply counter-attacked yesterday on the coast road near Termoli. The British United Press correspondent at Algiers says the earlier statements that the Fifth Army had smashed its way across the Volturno was. corrected to-dav witli the announcement that our troops had crossed the Carole River, a tributary of the Volturno. This means that the Volturno has not been reached. The Germans are holding the high ground north of the Volturno in considerable force.