SCARED GERMANS

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

SCARED GERMANS

PULVERISING BLOWS

THREE RIDGES TAKEN

STRONG POSTS OCCUPIED (Eecd. 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5 Correspondents on the Fifth Army front in Italy say that the Mount Maggiore and Mount Camino massif was captured. While Mount Camino was being seized peak by peak Allied troops a little further north were making an equally devastating and successful attack on the next massif, Maggiore. A correspondent describes the artillery support there as absolutely colossal. _ . Troops working up a razorbaek ridge running north-west of Mignano cleared pocket after pocket of scared Germans who had thought themselves dug in for the winter. The whole operation, which opens a further stretch of the road to Rome, has been a big blow to i the enemy. The Fifth Army is still ! only in the approaches to the winter line, but so far so good. Devastating Barrage j The artillery support at Mount Camino took the form of a succession of pulverising blows, swinging rapidly from one target to another. There were eight main targets. These mountain peaks, gun batteries, defensive positions and supply routes took a battering again and again. Hundreds of guns, 25pounders, mediums and heavies, would concentrate on a small area under 300 yards square and in five minutes or so would explode 5000 shells, or over 150 tons of steel and high explosive in that area. Then the fire would be lifted and the same weight brought down on the next target. In the first eight hours 1400 tons were sent over. Gains Consolidated Batteries of light anti-aircraft guns were used to fire over open sights at a range of 3000 to 4000 yards at Germans sheltering in caves or dug-outs. The Germans put up little counterbattery fire and hardly any defensive fire when the infantry began in pouring rain to seize the heights. There was mortar and machine-gun fire, but from the start the Allied troops had the upper hand. Three great ridges fell in the next 24 hours. As the Germans were forced out the Allies moved in and occupied their comfortable quarters. Dazed Germans surrendered, sometimes in whole companies. There were no counter-attacks whatever. Meanwhile Allied supply routes were being assured and the ground taken consolidated. With the enemy's wellconstructed positions all ready for occupation, tbe Allies felt secure and certain of themselves.