ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

Grey River Argus, 30 November 1944, Page 5

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

STRONG RESISTANCE. MEETING Sth. ARMY PUSH. (Rec. 1.20.) LONDON, Nov. 29. Eighth Army troops, pushing northwards between the Lamone and Montone Rivers, is meeting with heavy resistance in the Albereto area, reports the Allied communique. British and Indian troops, of the Fifth Army, have further progressed on high ground to the west and north of Modigliana. American forces have driven off two strong raids. Active patrolling has been undertaken by both sides elsewhere.

A British United Press correspondent stated: Marshal Kesselring’s ■luck is holding. The Eighth and I F ifth Armies countless times in the I past few months have been bogged by rains just as their attacks appearI ed to be developing into a full-scale offensive. Now it has happened again. Heavy rain, is pelting down on the battlefield around Faenza, where the Eighth Army attack is threatening to turn the Germans’ east flank. The weather has not yet stopped operations and may improve in a matter of hours, but reports from the front indicate that our attacks have already slowed down. An Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent stated: British patrols crossed the Lamone River, south-west of Faenza, re-establishing contact with the enemy on the high ground beyond. Contact was temporarily lost owing to heavy rains after the Germans were forced back across the River. All fighting has ended east of the Lamone south of Faenza, but our troops who crossed the river continued to drive west, outflanking Faenza. The going has become very difficult. Rain has been falling for 24 hours. There is still heavy fighting north-east of Faenza. The enemy was cleared from the eastern side of the Lamone, as far north as Alberto, which is six miles north of Faenza. There is so far no sign of a major offensive by the Fifth Army which the Germans have been predicting for several days, but important gains were made by Indians and British west of Modigliana. The Indians gained ground on a seven miles front immediately west of Modigliana. They are a few miles to the west and reached a line running northwest to Torridicalamello, about two miles north-west of the Lamone River. ALEXANDER’S OPINION. (Rec. 1.18.) LONDON, Nov. 29. There is no short cut to Germany until we beat the Germans. The infantrymen in Italy are winning the war as much as any man on the Western Front, declared Field Marshal Alexander, interviewed by the American Army newspaper “Stars and Stripes.” To point out that the Italian campaign fitted into the war strategy, Marshal Alexander said: “Offensives don’t start because Stalin, Eisenhower, or we in Italy want to attack. It works like a huge team. He added that the Germans preferred to fight on other people’s sqil rather than on their own The Germans han better possibilities in the Po Valley. For a winter offensive the enemy in Italy was to be forced to use some of his finest divisions.