DOMINION TROOPS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 29, 3 January 1944, Page 5

DOMINION TROOPS

CONDITIONS AT ORSOGNA

GRIP ON LATERAL ROAD (N.Z. Press Association, —Copyright.) (Official War Correspondent.)

DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS. Dec. 29. Though no rain has fallen for a few days conditions in the forward areas are still made miserable by keen winds and drying mud. The roads are hardening again and the supply problems are solving themselves as wheeled traffic becomes mobile again up to the limits of our advance. Since our last attack on Christmas Eve the enemy has not attempted any serious counter-attack, but lias contented himself with shelling and using mortars against our new positions. The New Zealanders’ hold on tho Orsogna-Ortona road has not been seriously challenged and the danger period can now be considered past, as a strong line has been established. The lack of activity about the stronghold of Orsogna might almost indicate that tho town is clear of the enemy, hut ever-active , patrols have established that this perfect defensive position is still well held by heavy arms. It is even an open question whether the threat from the east will force the enemy to withdraw from Orsogna as long as the mountain flanks are reasonably secure. At the moment his best ally is the Italian mountain winter. In spite of the impasse, the front cannot be described as a quiet one. With visibility good a trip to the forward units was again something of a lottery, with tho German gunners casting the dice. “Mad Mile”- lias never been better named—a twisting ascending stretch of slippery roadway, most of which is in uninterrupted view of Orsogna at a range of a few thousand yards. As my jeep approached the fatal thoroughfare 1 coulcl see vehicles speeding up the long incline, flashing and doubling in the watery sunlight. Suddenly there would be a flash and a cloud of smoke and flying earth—but there was no faltering in that well spaced line. Then we were out in the plain in view of Orsogna- and whisking up a slope spinning with sereecliiiig tyres around each bend. I had time to observe black powdermarks and shallow craters of shellholes. There was a whistle and a crack behind, and then another, and another, and the scream of flying fragments. Then wo^ were round the last corner, with the bulk of the hill between us and the enemy. But the road to the front lines runs for some miles yet, and nn to high ground again. From this vantagepoint I could sec a black pall of enemy mortar bursts hanging over the positions and spouting plumes of high explosive shells. The men out there were getting “just the usual hate”. It was just another day, unmarked by anything unusual. *■