FRONT FLARES UP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21261, 25 November 1943, Page 4

FRONT FLARES UP

BATTLE OF ITALY FIERCE AIR" ASSAULT GAIN' BY EIGHTH ARMY (By Telegraph—Pre3s Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, Nov. 23. Gradually improving weather in Italy has led to an intensification of the battle during the past 24 hours with frequent patrol clashes, heavy artillery exchanges and increasing air activity from coast to coast. According to the United Nations radio in Algiers the Eighth Army has captured Castel di Sangro and Alfedena, but this is not confirmed. The latest reports from the front say that the Eighth Army’s left flank has considerably tightened its grip on the German defences in the mountains of the upper Sangro River and is advancing slowly on the road to Avezzano. Eighth Army troops, south-west of Alfeclena, wrested further ground from the Germans who are at present making determined resistance. Numerically superior Germans north-west of Agnone yesterday heavily attacked light Canadian forces. The battle went on for two hours before the Germans withdrew to their old positions. Wliat is officially described as a fair amount of gun movement was observed southwest of Mignano. . . The situation is static in the Fifth Army’s coastal sector though German patrols are operating in greater numbers on the upper Garigliano River. Allied front-line troops are heartened by bomb bursts, fires, and explosions throughout the day in German positions. The Allied air forces on the Eighth Army front harried the Germans on a scale not previously seen in Italy. Wave after wave of bombers and fighter-bombers blasted enemy gun positions and strong-points on the north bank of the Sangro River. __