ENEMY PREPARES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24826, 24 February 1944, Page 5

ENEMY PREPARES

BEACHHEAD ATTACK HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRE ALLIED TROOPS READY (Reed. 7.15 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 23 There are signs that Kesselring is preparing to launch another attack against our position in the Anzio beachhead in Italy, says a correspondent. He reports intense enemy artillery fire, particularly against one unit. Our gunners, he says, took up the challenge and engaged in a fierce artillery duel. Our troops are all ready to meet any fresh enemy onslaught, this correspondent says. How soon Kesselring will try again depends on the speed with which he can reorganise his forces after their rough handling in the last attempt. We have an immense weight of artillery and have built np good reserves. Local Action Near Cisterna

Fifth Army troops threw back two local enemy attacks in the American sector west of Cisterna and inflicted casualties, says the Allied communique. Tanks were involved. Allied artillery fire killed between 500 and 800 Germans south of Carrocetto on Sunday night, reports the Exchange Telegraph Company's correspondent with the Fifth Army. The enemy troops were apparently forming up for a renewal of the attack, and had themselves put over one of their longest barrages, using their heaviest artillery against our front line troops. No enemy attack developed, however, and daylight revealed the carnage our guns had caused. Limits of the Beachhead It is officially stated that the Allied line begins at the coast 10 miles north of Anzio and runs almost due east inland for 15 miles, just below Carrocetto and Cisterna, and then cuts south along the fringes of the Pontine Marshes behind the northern bank of the Mussolini Canal to the coast 10 miles_ beyond Anzio. The line is substantially the same as where we dug in a month' ago. What little ground we lost extended bevond these main defences.

lii a dogfight lasting an hour over the beachhead yesterday. United States aircraft shot down nine German planes, probably destroyed five others and damaged at least three more for the loss of three of their own. Royal Air Force Spitfires destroyed one German machine and damaged two others.

BATTLE FOR CASSINO GRADUAL PROGRESS MADE IX)XDON, Feb. 22 Fifth Army units continue to push forward room by room in the battle for the houses in Cassino. Renter's correspondent at Fifth Army headquarters says the British in the lower Garigliano sector took prisoner a German company _ commander and a senior non-commissioned officer who approached the Allied lines seeking a truce for the burial of their dead. The Northumberland Fusiliers have been fighting with the Fifth Army since the assault at Salerno. Previously they served for 19 successive months in the Western Desert', always in the line and in contact with the enemy.

MAROONED BY SNOW BRITISH UNIT ISOLATED LONDON, Feb. 22 Snow still blankets the Eighth Army front. One British', unit has been marooned for a week in snowdrifts. Attempts to supply them from the air were unsuccessful, but a ski party reached them when they were using their last day's rations. NEWS CENSORSHIP MR. CHURCHILL EXPLAINS LONDON, Feb. 22 "I myself sent a telegram asking for stricter censorship on alarmist reports about the position in the Anzio beachhead, not from the correspondents there, but from persons in Naples and Algiers," said the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, in the House of Commons, replying to Mr. E. Shinwell (Labour — Seaharn), who asked about the restrictions imposed on war correspondents in Italv.

31 r. Churchill added that such words as "desperate" ought not to be used in a battle of this kind when they were false and still less if they were true. (Laughter.) They had, in the first case, needlessly distressed the public and in the second encouraged the enemy to attack. "I am glad," he continued, "that radio facilities hare been restored to correspondents in the beachhead. These were not the people who caused the trouble hut others far in the rear." Air. Shinwell asked if it were clear that General Alexander himself did not personally complain of statements about the position and if it were true that newspaper correspondents generally acted with the greatest discretion. "I take full responsibility," replied Mr. Churchill, "for trying to do my best to see that these matters are conducted in the proper manner. I certainly thought from some headlines and from telegrams coming from people at Algiers and from reporters, in many eases of the American press, that a wrong impression was being given, both to our people and the enemy, of the situation at the beachhead. I, therefore, issued some reassuring statements myself, based on statements from our commanders and simultaneously telegraphed asking that there should be a stricter censorship on al a r 111 ist phra seol ogy." Sir Herbert Williams (Conservative— Croydon) said that members of the Canadian and American Governments, and not the press, should be blamed for the alarmist statements.

POPE'S PLEA FOR ROME HEART OF CHRISTENDOM (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 22 According to the Vatican radio, the following statement was made by the Pope in a recent speech when he said he hoped Home would be spared the horrors of war: — "If the heart of Christendom is attacked in the same way as many religious centres, not the least of which is Cassino Abbey, and damaged or destroyed, it would be an undying act of shameful disgrace. It would be a blot on history if Pome were sacrificed to military requirements." RAIL TARGETS ATTACKED (Reed. 10.ao p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 23 The Allied air communique says rail communications at various points in Italy were attacked yesterday by medium bombers. Light bombers and fighters were very active in the beachhead area, attacking troop concentrations, gun positions, supply dumps and motor transport. JAPANESE DISPERSED PROGRESS MADE IN BURMA (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Feb 22 Continuing to disperse the Japanese force on the Arakati front, the British recaptured the high ground overlooking the western section of Xgiikyedn.uk Pass states a communique trout the headquarters of the South-east Asia Command The remainder ol the pass has been almost eutirel.x c.eared oi the enemy. Tanks and earners are mopping up the Japanese in the be\entn Indian Division area. |||