STRUGGLE AT CASSINO

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1944, Page 5

STRUGGLE AT CASSINO

ALLIES’ PROGRESS SLOW

NEW ZEALANDERS SHELLED LONDON, March 22. “Very heavy hand-to-hand fighting continues in Cassino and on the hills around the town,” says today’s communique on the fighting in Italy. “Our forces are making slow but steady progress against strong opposition.” A correspondent says: “The New Zealanders are fighting their way through Cassino from house to house. They have come under heavy German artillery fire from the nearby hills.” Patrol activity on the other Italian fronts is reported in the communique. In the air, the Allies flew 800 sorties and lost four aircraft. About 40 German aircraft flew over the battle fronts and four were destroyed. The Allied forces fighting in Cassino have made a • little more progress, but German opposition remains very strong. A 8.8. C. reporter at advanced Allied headquarters says that the sth Army has occupied the eastern slopes of Mount Cassino. Opposition is particularly fierce in the southern and south-western outskirts of the town, which indicates that the Germans apparently have managed to infiltrate again. A British force on Monday made a determined attempt to capture the hill positions from which the New Zealanders were being heavily shelled. The attack went well until the force came under particularly heavy fire and had to withdraw.

Heav5 r house-to-house fighting is in progress in the southern part of Cassino and is an indication that the enemy is unable to extend his hold on the town, states a correspondent at North Africa Headquarters. Our efforts to clear the town and occupy the eastern slopes of Monte Cassino are being pushed energetically against bitter opposition and difficulties of terrain.

An aerial photograph of Cassino after last Wednesday’s aerial blitz shows the town devastated, but buildings still stand which are likely to afford cover for the enemy. Mopping up operations by the New Zealanders met with a heavy concentration of enemy artillery fire from nearby hill strongpoints. It is estimated that 30 enemy guns and many mortars are firing from these points into the ruined town. NO QUARTER GIVEN. (Rec. 12.35) LONDON, March 22. The sth Army is forging slowly through Cassino’s fortified rubble heaps and up the western slopes of Monte Cassino, while the German guns massed on the overlooking hills pour in a concentrated fire, says Reuter’s correspondent at advanced Allied Headquarters. It is estimated that the Germans have 30 guns and many mortars firing into the town. A stiff battle is raging throughout the town, no quarter being given or asked. The New Zealanders are carrying on their mopping up for the seventh day and are engaged in very bitter fighting on the southern fringe of the town where the reinforced Germans continue to hold strongpoints, additional to their clusters, each of six houses, on the northwestern margin. The Paris radio says that Allied artillery is pounding Kesselring’s hill positions, but two places west of the town are proving difficult to wipe out because they are only 400 and 700 yards respectively from the Allied positions on Castle Hill. As a result of German infiltrations and sth Army thrusts up the slopes, the opposing positions to some extent have become interlocked, like fingers, with both the German and sth Army forward units separated from their bases. Planes continue to drop supplies to the British troops which launched a determined attack on Monday night against the Germans ion Castle Hill, but the Germans counter-attacked and the British were forced to withdraw in order to secure their base. Another sth Army foray was made 1000 yards farther west, but ran into fierce opposition and was beaten back. The Germans are at present on the defensive in the bridgehead area, largely because of heavy losses, and there is no indication that they are prepared to risk further losses in the attempt to eliminate the bridgehead. The Bth Army front also remains fairly quiet, apart from vigorous patrolling. ESTIMATE OF BOMBING EFFECTS (N.Z.I’.A. Special Correspondent) (Rec. 10.40) LONDON, March 22. At a generous estimate only 40 per cent, of the bombs dropped during the recent heavy raid landed inside Cassino, says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent at Casino. He adds that the remainder of the bombs dropped on fields fringing the Rapido River or fell on the slopes of Monastery Hill.

It was very noticeable that the medium bombers like Mitchells and Marauders were much more accurate than the heavy Liberators and Fortresses. They bombed from a much lower altitude and their accuracy was frequently quite phenomenal.

Asking to what extent did the raid soften up the target before the land attack, the correspondent continues tliat the answer must be it was a very great but not unqualified success. It broke the military deadlock which had lasted for many costly and weary weeks; it knocked the enemy off his balance long enough to enable our land forces to press forward deep into the town and, as appears at the moment, eventually to conquer (t. But it did not wipe out the enemy nor beat him down to such a state of dazedness that he was incapable of squaring up to the subsequent infantry attack.

The correspondent surmises that in three weeks of gales and rains the enemy, believing some form of heavy attack was sure to come once the weather mended, protected himself in advance with bomb-proof shelters and turned the foxholes and caves on Monastery Hill into machine-gun posts; also that the enemy sheltered until the attack was over and that though many were.killed others returned to meet our infantrymen. It has taken many days and nights to clean up Cassino after its softening from the air.

The “Daily Mail’s” air correspondent expresses the opinion that the Cassino blitz was in every way a fair test of the actual value of close support bombing to the Army against an enemy in an established stronghold. The same scale attack against an enemy on the move, either advancing or retreating, would bring very different results, for without well-protected defences he would then be extremely vulnerable. Nevertheless, it has taken far too long for the limitations of close support bombing to be appreciated, not merely by the public but by many in high places. These limitations were already startlingly clear- last Autumn. He expresses the opinion that tactical bombing, except by fighter-bombers and light bombers specially designed for it, is air-power misdirected. AERIAL OPERATIONS I RUGBY, March 22. Rail installations north of Rome were attacked yesterday by medium bombers, and the Arezzo Bucine via-

ducts were well covered, states a Middle East communique. Fighterbombers attacked bridges, road traffic and gun positions in the battle area. Shipping was attacked on the Dalmatian coast, and a bridge at Tarquinia, forty miles north-west of Rome was destroyed. Four enemy aircraft were destroyed and four of ours are missing. Allied aircraft flew about eight-Tiundred sorties.