ALEXANDER'S FIRST BIG MOVE

Evening Star, Issue 25083, 26 January 1944, Page 5

ALEXANDER'S FIRST BIG MOVE

NEWS THRILLS BRITAIN LONDON, Jan. 24. News of the fresh landing in Italy was greeted with delight here, one comment being: " It thrills the land." It is a new phase in the battle for Rome, and one of the type which has been looked for by many for a shortcut in the arduous work of " slogging up Italy." It is very likely that amphibious attacks of this nature did not come earlier because of reorganisation and the preparations for the coming invasion from Britain, which admittedly had slowed down the momentum in Italy. Now, perhaps because of the availability of fresh supplies, landing craft, and shipping, General Alexander has been able to make his first big move since becoming commander-in-chief in Italy. "Freshness of imagination" and "an immense triumph of initial surprise " are comments on the landing, which is the culmination of a carefully-worked-out. plan. First, there were intensive air attacks on enemy communications and airfields, and then intensive naval activity in the Adriatic, followed by a diversionary attack carried out by the Canadians on the extreme right wing, designed to focus attention more closely on the Adriatic. Next there was' the'full-scale offensive on Garigliano.

This resulted in the Germans sending up reserves and massing nine divisions. There finally came the landing 'behind the German line. General von Kesselring has the alternative of rushing down the Rome, garrison to try to contain the new .bridgehead or retire his divisions from Cassino. General Alexander's task will now be to join up his two armies

The ' Manchester Guardian' suggests that far too much has been made of the Germans " being taken by surprise'," .and points out that the Germans prophesied the coming of an attack of this kind in, just this part of Italy, and that it is exactly in the form of an imminent threat to Rome, which the German command must have foreseen every time it considered the South Italian front.

The German statements, of course, may have been bluff, on which the 'Evening Standard's' military correspondent comments: "In view of the latest crop of German statements on

the strength of their-coastal defence in Italy and elsewhere, the extreme defencelessness of Nettuno is remarkable. The same shortcoming may not be found in France, but at least it does show how much the Germans do rely on bluff as one of their mainstays for coastal defence."

The same newspaper in a leader expresses the opinion that the German bluff has been called.