DRIVE AGAINST CASSINO

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 37, 12 January 1944, Page 5

DRIVE AGAINST CASSINO

ALLIED TANKS TAKE PART

THRUSTING THROUGH PEAKS.

LONDON, Jan. 11. Allied tanks have now joined in tho drive agahist Cassino and are thrusting through the peaks guarding tho gateway to Rome, reports Renter's Ak'iers correspondent. It-is the first time since the Mignano Gap was broached that armour has participated in

the fighting,

The tanks are being used to support the infantry assaults, which have already cleaned up two of the three main mountain defences on either side of the Rome road. General Clark's attack is now directed against tho 1300 ft Mount Rocchio, the last peak guarding the Cassino Pass.

Tho Columbia Broadcasting System's Naples correspondent says the Germans are fighting savagely on Mount Rocehio, the fall of which is only.a matter of time. _ The battle for Cassino will be decided on the Rapido River line, to which the main enemy forces are falling back. The most crucial days of the fighting are ahead. The Rapido River flows southwest through Cnssino to join the Liri just before it empties into the Garigliano, five miles r*st of Mignano. According to the Berlin radio, tanks and other armoured units arc massing on the Eighth Army's front in readiness for a new attack. The enemy apparently intends to start a new "attack only with far superior forces. ENGINEERS' HARD TASK. According to* the Official Wireless, the United States War Department states that the Fifth and Eighth Armies have constructed over 2CXJ bridges of major importance since the Invasion of Italy began . In the face of the scientific obstruction work of the German demolition crews the Allied engineers in Italy "have one of the toughest jobs ever placed before men in any army.' The War Department report added that American and British engineers with the Fifth and Eighth Armies are pitting their courage, ingenuity, and perseverance against systematic and scientific scorched earth destruction left in the wake of the German army on the road to Rome Adroitly, mile by mile, the engineers are rebuilding the route. Early enemy demolitions showed signs of hasty preparation, but the wreckage in the German wake became greater and more scientifically obstructive in direct relation to the growing intensity of the Italian campaign. The Germane arc blasting every span of every bridge, uprooting every railway and blocking every road northward. Docks, power plants, transformer stations, aqueducts, and pumping stations are _ being demolished. Everything that might conciovably interfere with the Allied progress up tho Italian boot is being done. German demolition crews working within 16 miles of the front _ line once wrecked six railways at 51 points.. Since the initial landing on September 9 Allied sappers havo been working day and night, often under fire.