ENEMY LINE OUTFLANKED

Evening Star, Issue 25089, 2 February 1944, Page 5

ENEMY LINE OUTFLANKED

STRATEGIC MOVE EY BRITISH COLUMN ROME-CAPUA RAILWAY CROSSED (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONiDON. Feb. 1. A British column from the beachhead has outflanked .von Kcsselring's fortified lino south of the Alban mountains, says Reuter's Algiers correspondent. The British advancing to the outskirts of Campoleone, on the Anzio-Albano road 19 miles from Rome, have crossed the Rome-Capua railway along which the Germans had constructed a five-mile belt of defences extending to Cisterna. The Americans, battling within half a mile of Cisterna, have virtually severed both the railway and the Appian Way which intersect in. the neighbourhood of the town, tlhus additionally handicapping the movements of German reinforcements from the Gustav line to the beachhead. The defenders, however, are well dug in, and the first stiff battles since the landing have been joined. Fierce fighting is proceeding. The Americans on the main front are now in a position to cut off Cassino completely, and are endangering the whole defensive structure of the Gustav line. Some reports from the front line indicate that the Germans have evacuated the town. The Americans in the past few days in. bloody give-and-take fighting across the Rapido River have taken 250 German prisoners. The Americans smashed through the strongest mountain defences, and are now three miles from the inland highway to Home.