Varying Conditions On Eighth Army Front

Northern Advocate, 18 January 1944, Page 4

Varying Conditions On Eighth Army Front

(Official N.Z.E.F. War Correspondent) DIVISIONAL H.Q., January 11. The tremendous differences existing on various parts of the Eighth Army front have become apparent during the relatively short jeep drive from the New Zealand sector to Ortona. Whereas the left flank is still bound in winter snows of the high ranges, the right flank rests on the coast on which traces of summer still linger in green fields and sunny waters. As I passed the notorious Brickworks Corner today headed towards the sea, Ortona seemed to lean out from a white ridge straight from the pictures of an old time Christmas. Under pounding by our artillery the shape of the town is changing. The tower has a drunken appearance with shell-pitted sides and many buildings which once were strong-points are now burned out ruins. Around our lines bitter patrol activity goes pn under bright moonlight. At all hours, night and day, our artillery opens on targets which appear under the eyes of air and ground observation posts. Snowclad hillsides deeply rutted and waterlogged under winter sunshine are the usual scenery on the road which runs through the half-ruined Lanciano, once a thriving textile town. Streets littered with rubble are no longer desolate as the tide of war rolls northward but enemy shells still make life venturesome for local inhabitants. Pastural Life The road to San Vito winds down from the snow and one sees increasing sigps of pastoral life despite the occasional presence of a shattered truck or burnedout German tank. Amid gnarled olive trees are graves of the fallen —New mounds —of men who died on the last days of 1943 while pressing forward. San Vito itself is a pleasant town little marred by war, thrusting out on a bold headland into the Adriatic. From a promenade one can see almost every point of interest on the front. The west is dominated by Maiella, under which Orsogna, Guardiagrele and Castel Frentano are easily distinguishable. It is possible to trace the line of the ridge on which Orsogna stands and under which a tiny stream winds its way to the sea near Ortona. Northward is another headland and beyond that the battered town of Ortona itself thrusts forward on its own headland. The northern road winds down a calm blue-green sea and across temporary bridges towards the next hillside. Thunder of Guns The continuous thunder of Canadian guns was in our ears as we pushed on towards where black puffs of enemy airburst curled up against the sky. The scenery recaptured the first impressions of Southern Italy with olive trees and beached fishing boats. San Leonardo appeared as just another front-line town, its plaster slashed by steel fragments. Then we were under Ortona, looking up from the remains of the small harbour. The town looked like a row of broken blackened teeth. The harbour was heaped with tire wreckage of shattered jetties, fishing boats, schooners and several smalt steamers. Carefully we ascended a ridge liberally sprinkled with shell-holes and mines into the town. Though one wrecked town is much like another Ortona impressed me as something out of the common in wartime spectacles. It was obvious that stories ot fighting from house to house and room to room were perfectly true. Every house in the narrow lane was pockmarked with machine-gun and tommy-gun, while improvised barricades of barrels, paving stones, even books, guarded gaping doorways. Historic Buildings Wrecked The remains of a German anti-tank gun offered parking hazards in the main square but it was better there than under a wavering brick wall. From the promenade we looked upon the ruination of the harbour below and saw that not even a 1000 years old castle was immune from the blight of modern war. Most damage was done by the German system of mining buildings and then blasting them by remote control when occupied by Canadian troops. Such was the fate of a beautiful cathedral which appears today as a model for an architectural manual—divided cleanly in cross section as by a gianr knife. There are still bodies under the wreckage. Whole areas are blasted flat bv explosions and by very recent attention from German guns. As we walked on we had to dive for cover to avoid a vicious concentration directed at a nearby building in the centre of the town. Despite bright sunshine. Ortona is the nearest approach yet to a town of the last war. I saw files of infantrymen marching out in full order towards lines just three kilometres away. With its barricades and defences, the entire devastated area looks like a fortress under seige. Evening hate whs descending'on the town and roads behind us as we turned again towards our 1 cirri' sector in the snows.