HEAVY ATTACKS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 25 January 1944, Page 2

HEAVY ATTACKS

GERMANS ON FIFTH ARMY FRONT TO COVER WITHDRAWAL? APPIAN WAY BEING SHELLED (Rec. 12.50 a.m.) London, Jan. 24. British and American artillery are already shelling the Appian Way. It is also within range of Allied cruisers which are hurling salvos against positions far inland. German motor convoys are reported to be streaming northwest along the Cassino-Rome road. Forces from these convoys may be used to screen German lines of communications. Allied air forces are keeping up an incessant pounding of road and rail keypoints over a wide area to prevent the movement of major German forces.

German attacks on the Fifth Army front were made with the full strength of the nine available divisions, against the French, American and British sectors simultaneously. There was stiff fighting all along the front and a withdrawal across the Rapido of Americans, who at one stage broke through the heavily mined and wired outer fringe of the Gustav line, was carried out with some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. British forces on the southern end of the Garigliano line, by counterattack, drove the Germans from a commanding ridge. Both flanks are holding firm. ALLIED PENETRATION * The Allied penetration on the landing areas of the west coast of Italy extends four to five miles in some places, according to reports from Algiers. In the north the landing party has occupied Nettuno and presumably its small fishing port, Anzio, and here consolidated their position. They advanced four miles towards two main roads—the Appian Way and via Latina—leading to Rome, meeting little resistance while the British and American troops are steadily landing on the beachheads with fresh supplies and equipment. The surprise effect ot the landing is confirmed by the fact that the Ger mans had not time to destroy Nettuno as they have the towns previously evacuated. General von Kesselring was faced with four courses—to bring troops from the north to seal off the new offensive, to bring back his three panzer divisions to the north to defend Rome, to order a general retreat from the south to a completely new line, or to attack in the south to offset the brunt of the Allied forces and give himself a chance to retire on his own conditions. Von Kesselring has taken the fourth course.

The heaviest fighting again took place yesterday in the French sector where General Juin’s troops not only maintained all previously gained ground in the face of most violent counter-attacks, but also kep* up the pressure to the west of the Gustav line

After violent fighting and hand-to-hand actions the Americans were forced back across the Rapido River in the area of San Angelo. They found the German defences well organised with minefields and hundreds of strongholds from which to fire guns and mortars The Germans attacked with such fury that the Americans exhausted all their ammunition and held the enemy at the point of the bayonet before crossing the 124-foot river.

In the southern region the Germans put in very strong attacks and British troops inflicted very heavy casualties. The fighting was so fierce that once we lost command of heights on Mount Tuso, but recaptured them soon afteiNvards by counter-attack. According to Algiers radio the counter-attacks were apparently designed to cover the wjtndrawal of German forces. Roads behind the Garigliano front yesterday were reported to be jammed with venicles headnig in the direction of Rome where, a few days before, divisions had been streaming south-east to bolster the crumbling Gustav line. It is still uncertain whether the Germans with such forces as are available near Rome, will strike immediately at Nettuno beachhead before it can be consolidated, or await the arrival of further divisions from the north, by which time the Allies will be ashore in great strength.