FORWARD IN ITALY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 157, 2 June 1944, Page 2

FORWARD IN ITALY

3.45 P.M. EDITION

ALLIES STILL ADVANCING. (N.Z; Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, June 1. Bitter tank and infantry battles were going on late to-day between Velletri and Valmontone. Armoured units of the Fifth Army crossed into Fossia' di Campoleone, three miles west of Lanuvio, and 13 miles from Home. The Allies have occupied Carpineto, 12 miles west of Frosinone. lleuter's correspondent at Allied Headquarters says the threat against the Germans' Valmontone line is growing hourly and the fall ot Velletri is regarded as imminent. A two-pronged American assault has Already driven a considerable distance beyond Velletri. It is in this region, and half-way between his two bastions of Velletri and Valmontone, that von Kesselring has thrown the crack Hermann Goering Division and all the last-ditch parachute troops available. The fiercest fighting was continuing in this region at dusk to-night. With Frosinone gone, the Germans are shrinking back rapidly along Highway 6, harried by the closely pursuing Eighth Army. The Times correspondent at Allied Headquarters, dealing with the Velletri sector, savs the Americans have occupied the 3000 ft height of Monte Artemisio, which forms the outer barrier of the Alban Hills on the south-east, while other Americans have occupied Mount Peschio, a high feature nearer Lake Nemi. Additional troops are being sent in to consolidate the Americans' hold on the dominating height of Monte Artemisio.

The Daily Express correspondent says the Americans' success meant that we' have prevented Velletri from ever becoming another Cassino, because we have captured the equivalent of Cassinn's Monasterv Hill.

Tho British United Press correspondent, describing how the Americans breached the Vcllefiri-Valniontone' line, states that tho advance began before dawn yesterday morning with the Americans stabbing- northward on the. flank to tho right of Velletri, then swerving to the left to take Monfie Peschio. which lies two miles north of Velletri and is one of the loftiest points in the Colle Lazale massif. The Germans, contrary to expectations, had not manned the concrete . emplacements across the Velletri-Valmontonc road, and consequently the American casualties wrt very light. Tho German rearguard resistance is weak, and there is no shelling from the few mortars, but there are many snipers. Tho snipers forced the Americans to crawl on their stomachs through the vineyards on tho slopes, from which they fired back at the snipers from behind lodge/; and boulders. The Americans, from the top of Monte Peschio. saw Rome in the distance. They could also see the Gorman artillery, which had been forced to move back. Our engineers, fighting as infantry, were battling with the Germans along the Appian Way, which is the main German escape route on.this front. With Velletri thus surrounded, tho Americans gingerly approached Velletri to gee whether the town had been evacuated. Shcllfire drove them back and they reported to headquarters that, there were still some Germans in Velletri, hut the town was obviously very lightly held.