CASSINO AREA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24825, 23 February 1944, Page 5

CASSINO AREA

ENEMY BEATEN OFF STRONG MOUNTAIN DEFENCE (Reed. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 22 On the Cassino front in Italy the enemy attacked yesterday in the mountains north-west of the town. The threat was beaten off and the surviving Germans got back to their lines under cover of smoke. The day, however, was relatively quiet, says the Allied communique. A description of the kind of fighting that is going on in the mountains behind Cassiho is given by a correspondent. He says the peaks are thickly covered with scrub and the Germans have prepared their positions on every slope. .Mechanical excavators and pneumatic drills have scooped out foxholes and the entrances are well covered by boulders, leaving a slit trench for the machine-guns. Their whole positions are elaborately camouflaged. From these points a field of fire is given oyer the entire face of every slope and Allied infantrymen, when they signt a point and creep up to attack it with hand-grenades, come under concentrated fire and suffer heavy casualties. Tt is obvious, says the correspondent, that the Germans do not intend to allow us to get past the Gustav Line if they can help it. General I?. L. Mc-Creery is announced to be commanding on the Garigliano front. He was General Alexander's chief of staff in the Middle East and followed him to Tunisia. He then obtained command of a corps with which he attacked Salerno.

BEACHHEAD STRATEGY SPECULATION IN LONDON (Special Correspondent) LONDON, Feb. 21 The public uneasiness about the Anzio beachhead has been mollified since Mr. Churchill's pronouncement, and interest is being taken to see whether he will make a further reference to it in his forthcoming speech in the House of Commons. The Evening Standard military correspondent is of the opinion that there is no doubt the battle focus has been moved from Garigliano and Cassino to Anzio, which may have been General Alexander's intention in building up his beachhead and allowing the Germans to assemble in such force. "It may well be that he considered an early break-through from Cassino or Garieliano so difficult that he sought another point at which to engage the Germans and inflict a decisive defeat before continuing his advance northward," states this writer. "That point is Anzio."

Another opinion is_th.it General Alexander's intention in establishing a beachhead was to draw troops and aircraft supplies to Italy as part of the preparation of a second front. If he had hroken the Gustav Line and taken Rome, this would not have exerted such an ultimate drain on the German resources as the present tactics. This, of course, is conjecture. Referring to the gloomv forecast of Mr. Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, the Observer commented: "We now learn with some amazejnent that Mr. Mackenzie King uttered a prophecy of woe to check complacency in Canada without any inside information at his disposal. This is surely as far as we wnnt to go in the abuse of information from the front."

18 GERMAN DIVISIONS FORMATIONS IDENTIFIED LONDON, Feb. 21 It is stated that the Germans have 18 divisions involved in the Italian fighting. Nine divisions, which may not be at full strength, are on the beachhead front, forming the 14th Army under General Eberhard von Mackensen. The German divisions on the beachhead front are the 26th Panzer, the Ist Herman Goering Panzer, the 13th and 29th Grenadiers, the Fuehrer Panzer Grenadiers, the 715 th and 114 th Motorised, the 65th Infantry and the 4th Paratroops Division. The German divisions pitted elsewhere against the Fifth and Eighth Armies are the 334 th, the 350 th, the 94th, 71st and 44th Infantry, the Ist Paratroops Division, the 15th and 19th Panzer Grenadiers, and the sth Mountain Division. The majority of these divisions face the main Fifth Army front. MORE ALLIED BOMBING ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS (Reed. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 22 Allied light bombers aud fighterbombers were active yesterday in spite of bad weather and made repeated attacks on enemy communications around the Anzio beachhead. They shot down tliree enemy, aircraft. Railway yards at Orte, north of Rome, and the docks at Imperia and Leghorn, Northern Italy, were attacked by medium bombers yesterday, says the Allied nir communique. The Mediterranean Allied air forces flew approximately 500 sorties. Enemy activity over the beachhead amounted to about 60 sorties.

Allied sorties in recent davs have outnumbered those flown by the Germans by at least 10 to one, says a correspondent with the Fifth Army. Ho points to this as evidence that the LuftWafl'o is feeling the pinch following our repeated bombing of Jus supply routes.

E-BOATS DRIVEN OFF (Reed. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 2'2 A group of enemy E-boats attempting to approach Anzio during Sunday night were driven oft' by American patrol craft, says the Allied naval communique. One E-boat blew up after being hit, and a second is believed to have been driven ashore. Continuing the bombardment of the Formia and Anzio areas, British warships, including the cruiser Mauritius, scored hits on a factory behind the enemy beachhead lines on Friday, and American warships inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy on the following day, states Allied Headquarters. ITALIAN DESERTERS (Reed. G. 30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 2C! A Home radio announcement last night gave a stern reminder that death was the penalty for Italian conscripts who deserted from their units or failed to report for duty when ordered. It added, however, that 15 days' grace was being allowed to give any Italian defaulter a chance "to search his conscience." \