GOTHIC LINE BATTLE

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1944, Page 5

GOTHIC LINE BATTLE

HARDEST GOING YET Allies Nearing Po Valley (Rec. 8.15) LONDON, Sept. 22 “We are hanging on to mountain positions in the centre of the Gothic Lin e with our finger nails,” says a "Daily Express” Rome correspondent. “No large break through is yet apparent in, these fastnesses. We have captured pill boxes and concrete emplaced guns on crests of such importance tnat we threaten the whole enemy position. It is officially announced that German resistance in last few days which has been as savage as any known in Italy., decreased somewnat. To individual infantrymen sheltering from mortar fire in the scrape that must pass for a slit trench in this rocky terrain, the battle is still as bloody, as ever. The hilltop has its corpses to prove it. Significantly, the Germans, who are so meticulous in covering their dead left many of these in the hills. But sometimes there were no survivors to bury. Often Allied soldiers climb Gothic Line heigths, pulling themselves ujo by stumps of the shellblasted line .of trees, or like mountaineers, holding each other’s rifle butts. They at times hurl hand grenades with one hand and cling to rocks with the other. The biggest heart break to the Allies have been that once one summit is reached, another lies ahead, till one wonders if the Po (Valley is only a map-maker’s dream. What may herald an end to the Gothic Line offensive is that we are beginning to take prisoners. In tne last two days we took prisoner more than six hundred from key positions north of Florence.

A “Daily Telegraph” correspondent with the Eighth Army says: General Alexander’s masterly plan for penetrating the Gothic Line has completely succeeded. Marshal Kesselring is being outwitted and out-manoeuvred at every move. General Alexander early in August decided that the only way to penetrate the Gothic Line was to deceive Marshal Kesselring and take him by surprise. It is stm too early to tell the full story of the campaign, but when the facts are known, General Alexander’s strategy and the use made of the limited forces at his disposal will ring as one of the war’s major tactical successes. The .Fifth Army enlarged the breach in the Gothic Lines defences on the central sector and is advancing on. a front of six miles, approaching Firenzuloa, about 25 miles north of Florence. The Germans are shifting troops from the west to halt the advance of the Fifth Army north of Florence where it is nearing the village of Santa Lucia, half a mile sou tn of the famous Futa Pass, a key position in the Gothic Line. It also captured four more mountains guarding the route to the Lombardy Plain. The Eighth Army continues the hard driving advance against bitter resistance between San Marino Republic and the, Adriatic. The enemy is clinging to defensive positions. Canadians made progress by clearing the enemy from a number of towns in the vicinity of San Fortunato, as have the British in the vicinity ot San Marino. Fifth Army troops are approaching Firenzuola.

GREEKS ENTER RIMINI ('Rec. 11.10) LONDON, Sept. 2. The American Associated Press correspondent with the Eighth Army reports Greek troops have entered Rimini. RIMINI TAKEN (Rec. 1.0) LONDON, Sept. 22. The capture of Rimini is announced in to-day’s Allied communique from! Italy. It adds:. Eighth Army troops after nearly a month of continuous, bitter fighting, have driven the enemy from the San Fortunato Corriano Ridge, and have established a bridge-head over Marecchia River. The capture of Rimini is most important, as the town lies in the entrance to the Po Valley. GERMANS MOBILISE MALARIAL MOSQUITOES. LONDON, September 21. A “Daily Mail” correspondent on the Italian front says: One of Germany’s evil secret weapons has been conquered in Italy, where Berlin scientists deliberately propagated the malarial mosquito, hoping it would prostrate large proportions of Allied troops. The German plan depended on the fact that Japan holds most of the world’s quinine. The Germans, before retreating from the marshlands, smashed mosquito screen pumps and diverted water from canals to form sour swamps, which form an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. The Allies received definite information that Nazi entomologists were working with retreating German armies. “We had to drop two hundred thousand gallons of valuable oil over the malarial swamps and to help to clean, redig and refit more than six hundred miles of canals, and they even dusted cities with Paris Green. We supplied Allied troops and Italian civilians with ten million atabrin tablets, and prohibited troops from entering some areas on foot or even stopping cars.”