OFFENSIVE IN ITALY

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 May 1944, Page 5

OFFENSIVE IN ITALY

ALLIES MAKE PROGRESS HILLS AND VILLAGES TAKEN

FIERCE RESISTANCE OFFERED

LONDON, May 14. “The Allied attack against the Gustav Line is making progress against very stiff resistance, as had. been anticipated,” says to-days communique from the Allied Headquarters in Italy. “The building up of the Bth Army bridgehead across the Rapido River continued during the night. We took some hill features on the sth Army front and held them against counter-attacks. The peak of Castelforte was captuied. after hard fighting. (Castleforte is about two miles across the Garigliano River, eight miles inland). “Naval support continues to be viven to the left flank of the sth Army. An American cruiser, escorted by two destroyers, yesterday successfully bombarded concentrations at Itri, and heavy enemy guns in the same area. Medium bombers and heavy bombers yesterday continued attacks against rail communications in north and central Italy with good effect.” Light bombers and lighter-bombers Hew many sorties in direct support of the ground forces, attacking gun positions, motor transport, and bi luges. Much road transport was also destroyed. One report says that Indian troops which captured the village of San Angelo, two and a-half miles due south of Cassino, had. by last night pushed forward a mile beyond the village. A B.E.C. reporter in Italy, who visited the front in the Liri Varley and on the Rapido River., says that he heard good news ol slow but steady progress. Immense concentrations of. artillery lire were supporting the Allied advance, but lough and biller lighting lay ahead. An Allied spokesman in Italy said that the Gustav Line was as deep as 10 miles in some places, and would require very hard lighting to break through. “Bitter infantry lighting is going on to-night on the German side of the Rapido and Garigliano Rivers, where our troops crossed on a broad front,” reported Reuter’s correspondent with the Bth Army on Saturday. “All the river crossings were accomplished in the strength planned and with fewer casualties than were feared, though the enemy’s withering mortar and machine-gun lire delayed some crossings. Our troops assaulting the heights round Mount Cassino secured two important objectives behind the monsatery and overlooking the enemy’s supply route.” The Associated Press correspondent at Allied Headquarters reported that the sth and Bth Armies in their major offensive pushed forward to a depth of as much as two to three miles in some places. “German resistance along the 30rnile battle front is now stiffer than was originally expected,” says the British United Press correspondent. “The Germans are unleasing wave after wave of counter-attacks, throwing in tanks, self-propelled guns, heavy mortars, and artillery.” EIGHTH ARMY CAPTURE Reuter’s representative at advanced headquarters reported on Saturday: “Bth Army forces in the first 12 hours of the new assault crossed the Rapido and forced back the Germans from the outer defences of the Gustav Line. The Bth Army occupied San Angelo, which is two and a-half miles south of Cassino and in the centre of the Rapido front, but is not an integral part of the Gustav Line. British officers described the battle as a small-scale Cassino. “Americans captured Damiano Hill, in the Liri Valley, live miles north of Minturno, and an adjacent hill. They also reoccupied Ventosa in the face of bitter resistance. Americans, with tank support, captured Ceracoli, one mile south of Damiano, and additional hills west and north of Minturno. The Americans repulsed a whole series of local counter-attacks and captured about 200 prisoners. “The Bth Army above Cassino is meeting very fierce resistance from the German Ist Parachutist Division. “French troops of the sth Army captured the crest of the 2500 ft Monte Aito, a strongpoint in the Gustav Line, and moved against the neighbouring heights. “The building up of the Bth Army’s bridgehead on the west side of the Rapido is continuing and the troops are rapidly massing quantities of material from a frontal assault on the main defences of the Gustav Line. Cassino itself is quiet, and not under direct attack. The Germans in the Lower Garigliano are holding out strongly in Castelforte, against which the sth Army is thrusting after the capture of San Sebastiano.” OUTPOSTS PIERCED

“With the Allied bridgehead established across the Rapido River. Marshal Kesselring's outposts in the Gustav Line have been pierced,” writes a correspondent in Italy. “Throughout Friday and on the following night there were no counterattacks in the area. Fog hung over the Liri Valley most of the day and hampered the Hun, just as much as it hampered the Allies. Visibility was still bad on Saturday over the entire valley. On the left flank of the AL ied attack French troops under the command of the sth Army have captured one of their main objectives, Monte Aito. The Germans still display arrogance. Those so far captured are mainly young Nazi. fanatics. “Polish troops who magnificently beat off five solid German counterattacks yesterday, to-day continued to fight bitterly for ground which commands the Liri Valley. So far there has been no major lighting in Cassino. The town itself on Friday night was regarded as quiet, but booming and crashing throughout the night made it plain that Allied guns along both army fronts gave the Hun another solid hammering.”

“SLOW UPHILL FIGHT.” ALLIES’ NUMERICAL STRENGTH. LONDON. May 12. Correspondents emphasise that this I battle in Italy is bound to be a slow, frontal, uphill fight for many days to come, and that spectacular results should not be expected. Lieutenant-General Leese said before the attack began that unless a 100 to one chance occurred, there would be heavy fighting, and that it would be wrong to expect a quick break-through. “With superiority at last in men and with massive air and artillery support, the Bth and sth Armies are engaged in what is hoped to be the final assault to smash the Gustav Line defences,” says Reuter’s correspondent at advanced headquarters in Italy. “Warships in the Gulf of Gaeta continue to pump broadsides | into the German flank defences, | which are anchored among difficult mountains. Some of the peaks rise to 5000 ft, and it is against these that

the warships direct their fire. The sth Army’s opening barrage gave tne Sth Army an opportunity to move equipment to the banks of the Kapido River. The operations were carefully timed and when the moon rose and the river had been crossed, swarms of fighter-bombers carried out pinpoint attacks against gun positions. Light and medium bombers joined in and pounded the heavilyentrenched, wired, and mined Gustav Line.” , , , A “Daily Express” correspondent, who watched the barrage which opened the offensive, draws a comparison between the Allies' .belching hell” and the “twinkle” of the German reply. “This comparison," he says, “is an indication that tor tnis battle we greatly outnumber the enemy. We have more guns, tanics, and aeroplanes, and most of all, more men. It is the infantrymen who will light this battle. His air colleague in the next few days, cannot do much to help. Even pinpointed dive-bombing helps little in mountainous country, and the Germans are too well .dug in to suffer many personal losses by bombing. The'air forces can scarcely hope to bend a single gun, but they can bend a man’s will and break his heart. “OPERATION STRANGLE.” “The Mediterranean air forces, before the first shell screamed through the moonlight bn Friday night, had been fighting the battle lor a whole month—an all-out effort to strangle Kesselring’s supply lines. The plan was officially known as an ‘operation strangle.’ and the intention ol the whole scheme was to cut off railway and sea communications to the German battlefronts. So successful has been the • strangulation that to-day the Germans as . far north as Florence have not a single through train with which to send supplies and reinforcements to any front. n , . . “Kesselring's roads are deserted in the daytime. There is no such thing as a German road convoy near the front —just odd vehicles travelling oy night. The Germans at sea have not dared to use anything larger than a 300-ton vessel. Even caiques and schooners sail only at night, hugging the coast, and sheltering in the daytime in coves. There is a bridge blown up on every railway route, and every major line is blocked, usually at more points than one. The Germans, therefore, in the course of the last few weeks’ lull, have been able to get through only enough to live on. It now remains to be seen if they have enough to fight on, but, whatever the air forces have done in the last month, it will not save a single infantryman’s life. It may take days and perhaps weeks in the first fierce fighting before the Germans use up their immediate sup-* plies.” Describing the opening of the offensive, a special correspondent with the Indian forces says: “Many hundred guns more than were employed at El Algmein opened fire simultaneously and the while battlefield quaked as the guns thundered. Concentrated artillery fire was followed by hours of ‘softening’ fire. Just before the barrage opened there was a curious silence over a 30-mile stretch of ground that had known no peace for the last six months. When the guns started everything was blotted out. The barrage was like a gigantic fireworks show, with hundreds of Hashes lighting up the hills and valleys. The Germans’ readiness to offer very stiff opposition was known, but they hardly expected an attack on such a broad front.” The Associated Press correspondent with the American air forces in Italy says that hundreds of Allied warplanes started sweeping the sky at the crack of dawn on Friday. They gave record-breaking support to the ground forces in the first round of the offensive. AERIAL ACTIVITIES LONDON, May 14. The Allies Hew more than, 2800 sorties yesterday for the loss of eight aircraft. They shot down 12 German aircraft, and night fighters destroyed three more when enemy raiders came over Naples. About 60 German aircraft, more than for some time, were in action during the day. “Heavy bombers of the Allied Meidterranean air forces have again atateked enemy concentrations in Northern Italy,” says a message from a correspondent in Naples. “Fortresses and Liberators attacked enemy communications in pursuit of their- plan to destroy Kesselring’s communications. Fourteen railway targets were bombed and it is believed that Fortresses cut the Brenner Pass line from Germany. Liberators attacked railway yards between the Apennines and the River Po. Light bombers and fighter bombers attacked targets north and south of Rome in direct support of the ground forces. Between 20 and 25 enemy aircraft were seen on Friday, being the first encountered since the battle opened. Spitfires destroyed three Focke Wulf 190’s and Warhawks got two Messerschmitts 109’s. Three Warhawks are missing. “Two Allied aerodromes in Corsica were bombed by the enemy on Friday night.” “The part of the Royal Air Force in the preparation for the new battle in Italy has not been less important than its present day-to-day cooperation,” writes an air correspondent. “For weeks past bombers have been pounding the west coast ports of Leghorn, Piombino, and San Stefano night after night, interfering with the unloading of enemy supplies brought down the coast from Genoa, These ports have increased in importance because of the chaos caused .in German land communications by our incessant bombing. “Portoferrajo, on the Island of Elba, has now been under continuout bombing for 48 hours. * GERMAN STATEMENTS. LONDON, May 13. The Official German News Agency on Saturday morning admitted” that the Allies had broken through at several points in the German-held Liri Valley below Cassino, but it claimed that the attackers had nowhere reached the actual German defence system. The German Agency said: “Approximately. , four British and five American divisions are participating in the battle. The-operations in Italy, in spite of their scale and extent, are unlikely to be the decisive offensive to which the Allies have so often referred. It is much more probable that the attack will prove only a diversionary operation, enabling the Allies to launch another attack with five fully-equipped divisions held in reserve in Italy. These divisions are equipped for an expected new landI ing on the coast. Endless columns of I refugees are .streaming northward from Rome, many thousands on loot.” The Berlin radio has quoted the following German High Command an-

nouncement: “The enemy, under cover of a smoke-screen, launched, fairly strong attacks at five points in. the Nettuno beach-head. The thrusts were directed against the northern fringe of the Vallicelle Grandi wood and also against the Garano cemetery.” COSTLY ADVANCE NEW YORK, May 14. The “Herald-Tribune’s.’ r Na P laa correspondent points out: The Bth Army is facing a difficult job in consolidating the bridgehead, as the enemy guns, hidden in the hills overlooking the Liri Valley, are heavily shelling the river. The crossing of the Liri Valley is vitally important, because it is a natural geographical approach to Rome. It is flanked on both sides by formidable mountains, where the Germans are firmly entrenched. In addition the enemy has thrown two barriers across the valley—the Gustav Line and five miles to the rear the Adolf Hitler Line. The correspondent adds: The advances made have cost dearly. .They do not represent any significant penetration, but the Allied commanders envisaged a long campaign of attrition. FRENCH PROGRESS. LONDON, May 14. A Reuter correspondent at advanced Allied Headquarters in Italy says: The French troops have captured a village, Monte Maoi, seven miles north-east of Minturno, and lour miles north of Castel Forte. The French have also captured two other villages. “GOING GREAT GUNS.” (Rec. 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 14. The new Allied offensive in Italy is going great guns from the heights above Cassino to the mouth of the Garigliano River, says “The Times s correspondent at Allied Headquarters. As expected it is meeting with stubborn resistance. The Germans are fortified on the heights and in the valleys with every known device of cross-fire from guns, machineguns, barbed wire and minefields. The Germans counter-attacked our newly-won positions again and again —fivefold on the heights north of Cassino, the Germans being compelled to throw in men and munitions on a scale unequalled since the battles of January and February. It will soon be seen whether they can stand the pace after the terrific damage inflicted on their communications from the air. The British United Press correspondent says: ’The Allies, in the most vicious battles of the Italian campaign, are.slowly blasting a way into the Gustav Line. Castle Forte, an important Gustav Line outpost, is in our hands, after our troops thrust through a storm of fire. German suicide squads are being winkled out of the cellars in San Angelo. At least five towns and nine strategic heights have been taken since the offensive began, but the German counter-attacks have been so vicious that many of them changed hands several times before final capture. The Rapido River, as far as can be judged, now lies about a mile behind the Bth Army. The Germans made no attempt to withdrawn They are fighting doggedly for every vantage point. GERMAN COUNTER-ATTACK. REPULSED WITHIN HOUR. ""RUGBY, May 14. The first German counter-attack on the Rapido sector of the Italian front was launched just after 8 a.m. to-day—and beaten back to the starting point within an hour. A correspondent in Liri Valley cables: “I was with a brigade of infantry from famous British, regiments down near the Rapido River. After 24 hours’ bitter fighting this division had won all objectives, crushing strong enemy resistance and consolidating. Once over the Rapido, the brigade fanned out.to the right and struck towards covered highway six —the road to Rome. Then the Germans struck. Things were pretty sticky for a time, and at one stage it looked as though we might get pushed off our bitterly fought for objective. Thick haze, which reduced visibility to less-than 30 yards, hung over the entire Liri Valley. It was a combination of smoke, dust and mist that caused confused lighting—.so confused that on one sector some of our mortars got so far forward they could not fire. . They have a minimum range of 1000 yards. “When the enemy attacked we gave him all we had. For a time things did not go well for us, but when the battle was an hour old, these crack British troops, fighting magnificently, had smashed the counter-attacks and driven the enemy back whence he came. Now we are attacking again with plenty of tanks in support. “Most of the enemy opposition these British troops have encountered so far came from shells and mortar fire. Along the river sector fighting has been fierce and on the sector where I am this morning we find ourselves against troops of the Ist German Parachute Regiment—probably the best unit of its kind in the German Army. They were the troops who held Cassino against the New Zealanders. They are fighting with just as much FURY AS IN CASSINO. But the morale must be shaken. It must be a shock to find the Liri Valley swarming with Allied tanks on the first morning of the battle.” In the Lower Garigilano sector, says a Naples correspondent, a town taken in the initial advance was lost to a counter-attack and retaken during daylight on Friday. Late on Friday Americans in the Santa Maria area recaptured Hill 66, just south-west of Solacciano, after having taken it and lost it during the afternoon. Fighting continued in and on three adjacent features where elements of the German 49th Infantry Division were resisting capture on high ground.

MANY PRISONERS TAKEN GUSTAV LINE PIERCED (Rec. noon). LONDON, May 14. Allied tanks and infantry smashed into the Gustav Line south of Cassino this morning, over-running a number of German positions and taking many prisoners in an outflanking drive threatening the enemy’s Cassino position, says the United Press correspondent. The Germans threw in large parachutist forces in the effort to halt the advance. Monte Majo was taken after a brief struggle. Warships are shelling the Gustav Line, and Allied planes are striking at gun positions to the north, giving effect support to the offensive. Photographs show that Fortresses yesterday blew up a 40-foot gap in the Alviso viaduct on the railway from the Brenner Pass, thus temporarily blocking traffic into Italy. The German News Agency commentator, Praegner, says the battle between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Cassino flared up into extreme violence. Allied forces total 10 divisions. The German Command, as before, is pursuing preconceived tactis of forcing the British and Americans to expend the maximum effort for every yard of ground. Gurkhas of the Indian Division, captured 60 prisoners when they took San Angelo says Reuter’s correspondent with the Bth Army. The initial attack resulted in the capture of only half the town. Exploitation of the Allied positions proved so difficult that the Command decided to

null lhe Indians out and launch another full-scale attack. Artillery concentrated against the village, and when the troops went in, resistance hod blen softened. The Gurkhas, t/ifb fixed bayonets and kukris, moved swiftly through the streets. HRing those who resisted. The atta k® lost only 10 men Qpnrps ol’ tanks, brought across the river two miles below Cassino, ennblpd the British to overrun the country so swiftly that they were able to round up batches of prisoners including many paratroops. The correspondent reports that a wounded German prisoner killed an Allied stretcher-bearer on the Cassino front by throwing a knife at him as he was attending, a wounded Allied soldier. The knife, which was of the type supplied io mountain troops for use when a gunshot would reveal the position, lodged in. the stretcher-bearer’s neck, killing him instantly. The wounded Allied soldier grabbed a rifle and shot the German dead ‘ MASTER PLAN

Solid confidence without cocksuredness is the keynote of all the Aliled comments on the Italian offensive and military commentator generally endorse the German News Agency statement that “an invasion master plan has been put into operation "by the Allies.” The early successes in Italy are carefully not overemphasised in London, either in the news columns or in commentaries. The general tone is “so far so good, but oi'ily the outer shell ot the Gustav Line has yet been met.” General Sir Robert Adam, Adjutant-General to the British Forces, said there would" be no walk-over, but he added: “We have started well. We shall hear some news in a day or two. We shall have other offensives from this end ard from Russia. We hope it is going to be finished this year.’ A hint that the Germans may withdraw troops from the Italian front to meet the Allied invasion in Europe is given to-day by the military spokesman of the German News Agency, Hallensleben. He said: “The High Command may have to withdraw troops from the Italian front for reasons which have no connection with the fighting on that front.”