NEW DRIVE

Grey River Argus, 29 November 1943, Page 5

NEW DRIVE

BY EIGHTH ARMY Montgomery’s Message [Aust. & N.Z. Press Assn.] (Rec. 12.5) LONDON, Nov. 28. In a message to the Eighth Army, General Montgomery said: The Allies have conquered about one-third of Italy since the invasion on September 3. But the Germans still hold the approaches to Rome and the city itself. The time has now come to (drive the inorlth of Rome. We will do our part in a manner worthy of the best traditions of the Eighth Army and the Desert Air Force. The enemy has been outfought by better troops ever since we landed in Sicily, and his men don’t like what they are getting. The Germans are in fact in the very conditions wherein we want them. We will now hit them a colossal crack. Good luck to you all. and good hunting as we go forward.” The British United Press Algiers correspondent says:— Men and supplies are pouring across the Sangro River and the Bth Army’s bridgehead is broadening and deepening steadily, in spite of strong German resistance. The bridge-head is expected soon to be ten miles wide. The German artillery is putting up a fierce opposition in an attempt to stem the Allied advance. German air assaults have been made against the bridges. These have been beaten off. Meanwhile Allied air attacks north of. the Sangro are forming a creeping barrage, and are smashing at dug in German positions. Creeping air barrages of this tvpe softened the way for the original Eighth Army move 1 across the Sanero. The British are massing reinforcements and supplies in the bridgehead ready for a new drive northward. Inland, fighting is flaring up along- the Sangro’s upperreaches, and notably in the Castel d ; Sandro area There our men hold ground on three sides, of the town.” AN ENEMY RETREAT EXPECTED. (Rec. 9.45) "LONDON. Nov. 27. Algiers radio says: All signs indicate that a German evaluation of Castel di Sangro is imminent. The Eighth Army now menacing this central front." bulwark from heights dominating the town, can see flames and hear explosions from German demolitions. The Eighth Army has repulsed all of the enemv’s fierce counter-attacks against its firmly established Sangro bridgeheads.