IMPORTANT HEIGHTS CAPTURED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24759, 6 December 1943, Page 3

IMPORTANT HEIGHTS CAPTURED

MORE TOWNS TAKEN BY EIGHTH ARMY

(Received December 5. 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, December 5 The Fifth Army is driving toward Rome in a full-scale offensive, says the Algiers correspondent of the Associated Press. This long-awaited offensive began against mountains in Central Italy late on Thursday afternoon, says the Algiers radio. More than 600 guns hammered German positions in preparation for infantry • attacks. Blasting fire from the Allied artillery was concentrated on the area north of Mignano. It was the heaviest barrage Italy has evey seen, says a correspondent. When it stopped many dazed German soldiers tumbled out of their foxholes. There were plenty left, however, to man machine-guns when our men went in with the bayonet to capture an important height. Allied fighters and fighter-bombers laid down bomb patterns just ahead of General Clark's advancing troops. Waves of bombers swept the Cassino area, 10 miles ahead of the most advanced elements of the Fifth Army. Reuters correspondent in Algiers says the Fifth Army has taken Calabrito and other important positions on top of and also around Mount Camino, a 2800 ft. peak four miles south-west of Mignano. British and American forces then advanced north o£> Camino. The Fifth Army hammered both flanks of the German defences which are blocking access to the Capua-Rome highway. The British United Press correspondent with the Fifth Army says that British and American forces which took the Mount Camino massif, which is the main Apennine barrier on the way to Rome, scaled peaks under torrential rain. The Germans rolled rocks down on them. This increased the casualties, but our losses were light in view of the importance of the operation. Allied infantry moved up only five minutes behind the creeping artillery barrage. _ .... The towns of Treglio, Lanciano and Orsogna, in the Adriatic zone, have been taken by Eighth Army troops, whose progress continues in the face of stubborn resistance, says an Allied communique. In spite of a number of demolitions, we advanced along the road toward San Vito.