BITTER CLASHES WITH NAZIS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21317, 1 February 1944, Page 3

BITTER CLASHES WITH NAZIS

AMERICANS CRACK ENEMY’S RAMPARTS

HEIGHTS CAPTURED ROUND CASSINO

(By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright.) (10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 31. British and American troops were tangled up with the Germans yesterday in a series of bitter fights along the perimeter of the Anzio bridgehead, says an American correspondent with the Fifth Army. Tanks, guns and infantry mixed it in dashing fashion. The infantry was engaged in hard fighting. The Associated Press correspondent in a dispatch from the main Fifth Army front, reports that American tanks and infantry yesterday cracked the forward ramparts of the Gustav Line after two days’ bitter fighting. The Americans fought a flanking battle around Cassino, in which they captured two hills and took more than 100 prisoners. The Vichy radio states that the Germans launched a strong counter-attack on the Cassino road in an attempt to break the circle that the Allies are forming round Cassino.

A communique from advanced Allied Headquarters in Italy states that hard fighting occurred on the main Fifth Army front. The Allies captured heights beyond the Eapido Elver bridgehead north of Cassino and made local advances in several sectors. The Anzio bridgehead is being steadily supplied, enlarged and strengthened as the troops already established ashore fight their way inland and fresh troops and supplies arrive. Patrols are active along the entire Eighth Army front. Sixty-three enemy planes were destroyed in the air during the day and many more on the ground for the loss of six Allied planes.