SCORCHING ITALY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 5

SCORCHING ITALY

SCIENTIFIC GERMAN METHODS , Rugby, Jan. 10. The United States War Department reports that the Fifth and Eighth Armies have constructed more than 200 bridges of major importance since the invasion of Italy began. In face of the obstruction work by the German demolition crews the Allied engineers in Italy “have one of the toughest jobs that has ever been placed before the men of any army,” the report says. The American and British engineers with the two 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 roads to Rome, it states. Adroitly, mile by mile, the engineers are rebuilding the route. The early enemy demolitions showed signs of hasty preparation, but the wreckage in the German wake becomes greater and more scientifically obstructive in direct relation to the growing intensity of the Italian campaign. The Germans are blasting every span of every bridge, uprooting every railway, and blocking every road to the north. Docks, power plants, transformer stations, aqueducts and pumping stations are being demolished. Everything that might conceivably interfere with the Allied progress 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 9th September the Allied sappers have been working day and night, often under fire.