HARDER FIGHTING

Grey River Argus, 20 October 1943, Page 5

HARDER FIGHTING

BEYOND VOLTURNO ENEMY ATTACKS REPULSED Eighth Army Flanking Effort LONDON, Oct. 18. An Allied communique states: Progress in Italy is slow but steady, fifth Army troops continue to press back the enemy on the Volturno front. The enemy is fighting hard. Several counter-attacks have been beaten off. Fresh bridges have been constructed and more tanks ana heavy equipment have been moved north of the Volturno. A Reuter, correspondent at Allied Headquarters said: Fifth Arrriyj forces have smashed fierce counterattacks and, battling over ground lashed by heavy rain into a sticky quagmire, captured three vital points north oi the Volturno reiver, namely Morrone, Canoello and Ruviano. Morrone and Cancello are particularly important gains. Morrone is a key town 1009 feet up the hillside. Every 'yard of high ground in this area is tactically very important. The Germans are fighting their hardest to hold all the hill positions. 4 Other press despatches said 'that speed in Allied movements and the relentless pressure from - the two jaws of the British and American pincers were keeping Marshal Kesselring’s forces moving back from the Volturno line. Germans have been forced to abandon most of their positions, and it is confidently expected that the disengaging movement must continue. The British troops wno landed from the sea north of the Volturno form the left jaw of a pincers. They are consolidating positions along a canal north of the estuary ana, striking inland, are developing athreat to the German coastal nank. Americans form the right jaw, embracing the valuable heights northeast of Capua, which dominate the fiat land north of the city. A 8.8. C. report said: Few stretches of the Volturno’s northern bank have not been swept b'y\ the Allies, from the sea to 30 miles inland. Whatever pockets of enemy resistance remain are being steadily mopped up. •Press despatches , yesterday from Italy said mat a' German retreat at some points was so rapid that Allied troops Lost contact with the enemy. Americans occupied heights in a drive north-east of Capua. East of Capua Fifth Army forces advanced four miles. Fifth Army units were fighting for a crossing of the Ti'terno River, a tributary of the Volturno, flowing in 30 miles up-stream and were a little more than ‘2O miles from Eighth Army patrols thrusting out from Vinchiaturo. Germans Attack ALONG THE COAST. (Rec. 8.50.) LONDON, Oct. 18. Severe fighting is now expected along the coast of Italy. A foretaste of this already has come in the shape of several heavy German counter attacks. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters states that the German attacks have all been repulsed. A British United Press correspondent, referring to the Volturno River sector, says: “There is much difficulty country to be crossed before the Fifth Army reaches a point from where an open drive can be launched. London military commentators point out that, contrary to some reports, there is no question of a “dash on Rome” or of the German forces being trapped. It is emphasised that the Germans did not put 180,000 men into Tunisia and 27,000 into Sicily to let the Allies “walk through Italy.” The Germans are still following their policy of fighting vigorous delaying actions to keep the war away from Germany as long as possible. Marshal Badoglio has announced in Algiers that Italian troops are cooperating with the Allies and have done much valuable work in repairing bridges and restoring lines of communication. Families Butchered GERMAN ATROCITIES. 1 ON THEIR RETREAT. (Rec. 1.0.), LONDON, Oct. 19. An Exchange Telegraph News Agency correspondent with the Fifth Army stated: In the picturesque hillside town of Cajazzo, I saw, first-hand evidence of atrpcities. which Germans had committed on the civilian population as they were forced to retreat. Men, women and little children had been butchered with unimaginable savagery. The bodies of townspeaple, bashed into an unrecognisable state, lie in the town mortuary. In houses, women were lying with their throats cut and their heads beaten in. Twenty-four victims were buried yesterday. 1 They included three entire families, the women of which all had their legs severed. One family wiped out, comprised a man, his wife and four children aged from three to eleven years. A farm worker said that four members of his family,'including two women, had all been killed, together with a number of childI ren. The Germans lined up all the I occupants of the house, and shot them. An American soldier, later, saw a pile of bodies in a stable. The bodies had been mutilated. How, Fifth Army soldiers had to protect the Germans against the anger of the populace of Cajazzo was told by a representative of the British United Press, who says: . “Our men were marching some Germans, captured from a rearguard, through the streets, when women rushed from houses with bottles and tried to bash the Germans on the heads. There were shouts of .‘‘death to the Germans!” “There was no mistaking that the crowd wanted to lynch the Germans. They were burning with anger at the destruction of their I homes and at the murder of inhabitants. The people said that, weeks before the Allied occupation of the town, they had been afraid to leave their homes because the Germans shot anyone they saw. The prisoners include several Poles and Czechs. The Germans are increasingly using these nationals for rearguard actions in Italy.” Eighth Army WESTWARD DRIVE. ENCOUNTERS HARDER RESISTANCE. (Rec. 8.40.) LONDON, Oct. 18. The Eighth Army to-day captured Montecilfone) /four miles west of Guefinoesi. An Allied communique said: Eighth Army patrols continue active and contact is being maintained with enemy 1 forces west of the Termoli-Vinchia-turo road. i Reuter’s correspondent at Allied

Headquarters states: The resistance of the Germans is now stiffening m the central sector of Italy, as General Montgomery’s drive to the westward increasingly menaces the Germans’ left flank on the Volturno River. Offensive patrols from the Eighth Army are operating five miles ahead of its main forces. The patrols fought a wav into Montecileone. They found the Germans there in considerable strength. Desperate street fighting occurred, before the Eighth Army men withdrew. They did so after inflicting heavy losses. A thrust by the Eighth Army along the Foggia-Rome road has for its objective a vital communications centre, twenty miles north of the captured town of Vinchiaturo. General Montgomery, on taking Iserma, could, by swinging twenty miles along the road to the westward, cut the German retreat by way of an inland highway from Capua to Rome. Fires are visible behind the enemy lines along the whole front. These indicate that the Germans are continuing to scorch the countryside as they retreat. Front-line reports today °ive gains as three miles in some sectors, and the Allied bridgehead as varying from two and a-half miles t S l^orre S pon P dent in Italy, says that once the Eighth Army reached Isernia' It would be possible tor General Montgomery, by swinging 20 miles along the road to the west, to cut Kesselring’s retreat up the inla ™ highway from Capua to Rome.. InAllied line now runs just north oi Volturno, through Cancello, past Capua to Morrone, Ruviano and c ei " retto. from where it shoots north to Vinchiaturo and’ by way ot casacaienda', Larino, arid Guglionesi to the Eighth Army positions a tew nines north-west of Termoil. A correspondent at Allied Head quarters 'deals -with this operation, saying: Our aircraft had to fly through heavy cloud, yesterday, to bomb and strafe German communication lines, gun positions, and niqtor vehicles in Italy. Sweeping » the east coast towards Ancona, Spitfires and Warhawks of the lactical An Force attacked two locomotives and a number of rail cars on a siding and renewed their attacks on the ti a 1 damaged on October 16, setting fire to cars that escaped the previous strafing. Fighter-bombers were busy over the battle area, bombing mo oi vehicles, troop concentrations, and positions. Direct hits were scored on a bridge south of Garamanico. S'outh-west of Chieti, medium bom - ers attacked Alite. made it impossible to see the results. Bostons bombed a railway south of Rome on Saturday, and.hit a railway on the oast coast south o Pescara ' R.A.F. heavy bombers attacked the Maritza aerodrome on Rhodes during Saturday night, carus ing bursts in the aircraft area and hits on hangars. aircraft bombed Kos Harbour the same night, starting fires, says a Miduie East air communiqque. In (daylight on Sunday bombers attacked Syros Harbour, in the Aegean Sea. From these and other operations none of our aircraft is missing. “Airfields at Salonika were attacked on Saturday by medium bombers escorted by Lightnings. Direct hits caused fires arid explosions in the hangar areas. Photographs show that many parked aircraft were destroyed.”’