Striking at Heart of Italy

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 223, 20 September 1943, Page 5

Striking at Heart of Italy

WELL ON WAY TO THEIR OBJECTIVE Received Sunday, 9.10 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 19. ..British troops are pushing northwards from the Salerno bridgehead towards Avellino. The latest reports from Allied Headquarters show that they are well on the way to their objective. The Allies in all parts of the Salerno front are pushing on striking at the heart of Italy. “This drive,” says the British United Press’s Algiers correspondent, “is part of a huge sweeping movement by the Fifth and Eighth Armies to envelop the whole lower part of Italy. The Germans are on the run but their tactics frequently force- the Allies to fight short and bitter engagements against rearguards who attack to cover the withdrawals of German troops. ’ ’ The Berlin radio commentator (Captain Sertorius) said that with the landing of new and powerful British forces the battle south of Naples has entered the second phase. The fact that the first phase did not end with the expulsion and reembarkation of the Fifth Army is explainable exclusively by the action of the British Navy.” Although the latest reports state that Kesselring has deployed at least six divisions in the Salerno battle area the Fifth Army is steadily increasing its pressure on the enemy. The Algiers radio says the situation has steadily improved in favour of the Allies following the junction of the Fifth and Eighth Armies. The Germans are still retreating on the north flank but are fighting strong rearguard actions. The Allies have captured a series of ridges southeast of Salerno. AIR BLITZ DISORGANISES RAILWAYS Pilots returning to Cairo from Friday’s raids on Italy report long lines of stranded trains in all parts of Italy following heavy damage to railway yards and installations. An indication of the intensity of the air attack on Italy is that the Ninth United States Air Force made eight attacks in the last ten days compared with a normal average of one raid every three days. Patrols of the Fifth and Eighth Armies first met when three American jeeps toiling along the road between Paestum and Sapri rounded a bend and encountered two British armoured cars travelling in the opposite direction at high speed, says a British press representative from Salerno. The vehicles stopped and greetings and introductions were exchanged after which an Irish sergeant of the Eighth Army produced a bottle of wine for a roadside celebration. HOW GERMANS PREPARED FOR LANDINGS Captured documents reveal that our invasion fleet was sighted when south of Sicily and was under observation for the rest of the way, says a British press representative giving an explanation of the German preparedness to resist the Salerno Gulf landings. Since there was no beach farther south where a landing was possible and a landing farther north was impracticable owing to the limit of fighter cover, it was not difficult for the Germans to guess where the blow was likely to fall and against which they actually prepared by beach exercises two days oefore the landing. The documents also reveal that immediately the invasion fleet was sighted the Germans sent troops from the east coast to Salerno, also from the south which while weakening the forces opposing the Eighth Army made the Fifth Army's task tougher. The first issue of the Salerno Times, a daily paper for the British half ol the Fifth Army, appeared on Friday, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s. Salerno correspondent. The Italian Navy yielded British intelligence officers no surprises in details of construction and operation of surface ships, says the Associated Press’s Alexandria correspondent. An Italian naval officer pointed out that the fleet was originally designed as a force complementary to the British fleet for the cooperative control of the Mediterranean. DECISIVE ROLE OF AIR FORCE In the eleven days since the Fifth Army landed at Salerno Allied bombers flew an average of over 500 sorties daily. They made 28 attacks on 14 aerodromes, chiefly those within fighter range of the operations. Eighteen railway centres suffered 23 air attacks and the Air Force made numerous diverse operations in direct support of the Allied troops. In these eleven days our bombers dropped nearly 7000 tons of bombs in support of military operations and this v/as achieved before a single aerodrome on the Italian mainland could be used and whilst all fighter cover for bombing operations had to be flown from aircraft-carriers or from Africa by longrange fighters. As the captured airfields on the mainland come into use the frequency and weight of the bombing attacks will increase.

Reporting on how the Allied air forces have now caught up with the battle, a correspondent on the Salerno front says the movement of German transport along the roads has begun to draw the attention of Allied fighters and fighter-bombers. Fortresses smash-

ed Battipaglia and Eboli. Medium bombers range the countryside smashing German concentrations wherever they find them. If there was anything like enemy air defence this might not have had much result, but the effect of the constant road strafing and bombing on an enemy who has few fighters to protect him is great. Owing to Allied air strength the roads along which his reserves and supplies for the forward troops should come are very unsafe. The island of Ischia off Naples surrendered to the Allied naval forces on Thursday and a garrison is being in stalled there. The Allies now occupy a chain of islands from Capri 80 miles westward to Pon2a, which is 70 miles from Rome. The chain includes Procida, only about two miles from the shore west of Naples. GERMANS DEFINITELY CONCEDE DEFEAT A reporter with the Fifth Army in the Salerno area, writing on Saturday, says: “The Germans definitely conceded defeat this morning when Allied overnight patrols reported a concentrated withdrawal of all the German forces south of the Sele river. The enemy is taking up new defensive positions. This reaction developed out of steady offensive pressure by the Fifth Army from its beachhead positions and intensified by the Eighth Army’s threatening advance. “No full-scale offensive by the Fifth Army has yet been mounted, but General Clark’s troops arc moving confidently into favourable jumping-off positions to be ready when the heavy reinforcements now rolling over the beach roads have taken their places in battle order.” On Friday the same reporter said “Both the Allies and the Germans arc taking advantage of the lull to regroup their forces and reinforce certain areas. To-day’s quiet is certainly the prelude of new fighting on a lai-ger scale than ever. ’ ’ A late message from Salerno says the Germans who are withdrawing from the southern sector counter-attacked on Friday. Around the centre and the northern section the situation remains unchanged with the bitterest fighting around White Cross and Pimple Hills. “The main weight of the German attack is still in the north. Infiltration tactics remain the principal form of enemy delaying policy. Yesterday and to-day warships shelled the enemy heavily. Many prisoners were taken to-day, including deserters.”

HARASSING GERMAN TACTICS Another correspondent says: “Now that the main body of the Eighth Army Forces have almost reached the Fifth Army the German stand around Salerno is coming to an end, but before they leave the Germans are doing everything possible to harass the Fifth Army which is growing stronger every day as reinforcements arrive. Each German withdrawal is preceded by an attack. They are probably trying to keep our forward infantry busy in the hills while they remove their ammunition and

supply dumps further north to prepare for the next stage of their delaying action. This has led to a series of small confused battles in the hills.

“The enemy is holding most firmly to the narrow mountainous strip around Salerno itself. British infantry are fighting to regain three hills two miles from the main Salerno road from which the Germans can shell us. In the last few days the Germans have made an attack every day, always on a different part of the beachhead.

I “Now that the beachhead period is [ nearly over it is possible to say what General Clark’s army achieved. There is no doubt that if the Fifth Army had not landed when it did the Eighth Army would still be fighting hard much further south. At least no German panzer divisions were diverted from the Fifth to the Eighth Army front. The bulk of four or five divisions had been thrown by the Germans against the Salerno area and it is not surprising that we did not break through at once when it is realised that the enemy knew almost exactly where and wheu we were going to land.

“But now that the breakthrough cannot long be delayed, what matters is the knowledge that a landing can be made against strong opposition even if the enemy knows where and when you are coming provided the enemy’s air force is as weak as the Luftwaffe is ir Italy. ’’