FIERCE FIGHTING

Grey River Argus, 12 September 1944, Page 3

FIERCE FIGHTING

Beyond Gothic Line

', ~ L ° ND °N, Sept. 10Some of the fiercest fighting in Europe is raging for the Cariano and San Savino Ridges. An Allied communique states that heavy fighting continues in the Adriatic sector. The Eighth Army progressed in high ground, where they captured the village of Germano, which was the scene of heavy fighting last week. Indians in hivh ground between .the Upper Arno and Tiber Valleys, captured .several important features. Big advances were made north of Florence, Monte Giovo, Monte Caroso and Monte Calvana were occupied. The British in this sector, for the first time, overlook the Upper Sieve Valley, west of Florence. American patrols were active north of Florence bn the Ptayo-Pisa arterial road which is now entirely in our hands.

Heavy* rain and mud continue to hamper Eighth Army operations on the Adriatic sector says the Exchange Telegraph’s Rome correspondent. Stiff fighting is still going on with frequent enemy counter-attacks and shelling. A strong German counter-attack launched in the Croce sector yesterday) morning is still going on. A “Daily Express” correspondent says: For a week we have been battling for one and then another of four hillside villages on the Cariano Ridge, all of which, have been turned into citadels and each protecting the other in a series of steps. There has been and still is bloody fighting raging on these slopes. Allied troops, under lashing rain since yesterday morning, successfully resisted a new series of incessant counter-attacks. We already hold half of the first ridge.

North Italy Risings

AGAINST THE GERMANS. RESPONSE TO PREMIERS’ CALL. (Rec. 8.20) LONDON, sept. 11. A general uprising of organised Italian partisans and civilians has broken out in Northern Italy. Bologna is under martial law, and German base troops are patrolling the streets of the city day and night. Street fighting between Italian civilians and munition workers and Germans is reported in Genoa, Spezia and Trieste. Uprisings were ordered by the Italian Premier, Signor Bonomi, last Wednesday. They followed the breaching of the Gothic Line by the Eighth Army, and the invasion of Northern Italy by the United States Seventh Army from Southern France. Heavily armed partisans are attacking German 'troops who are squeezed between the alpine frontiers of Italy and France, Switzerland and Austria. Reports reaching General Maitland Wilson’s Headquarters say that the Italian partisans have seized wide areas between Lake Maggiore and Domodossola, a town on the ItalianSwiss border. It is reported 'that partisans encircled and destroyed a large German garrison in this area. A “Daily Mail” correspondent at Allied Headquarters savs: Italian saboteurs and guerilla' bands have begun a new wave of action against German transport communications and depots. Several truckloads ,of Germans were killed In bitter fighting yesterday, after a road column of thirty vehicles had been ambushed near Spezia. Traffic along the Spezia-Genoa railway has been blocked by a derailed train. The correspondent adds: The patriots are also taking revenge for years of oppression and terrorism. Carlo Biaggini, Federal Inspector of the Seventh Republican Fascist Region, has been executed, after a trial, by a partisan court. The partisans captured him after he had given orders for four patriots, who were hosta'ges to be shot. The extent of the patriot activities is emphasised by an official admission from Milan, that 1495 Fascists have been killed and 2,171 wounded in the course of the last eight months in political attacks and in armed fighting with partisans.