HEAVY FIGHTING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25055, 20 November 1944, Page 5

HEAVY FIGHTING

CAMPAIGN IN ITALY EIGHTH ARMY ADVANCES (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 19 Eighth Army troop,i have cleared the Germans from an outpost nearly two miles west of the Ravenna airfield. West of Forli Polish troops of the Eighth Army captured Monte Fortino and repulsed several counterattacks, says a Mediterranean communique. Elsewhere patrols are active without substantial change in forward positions. Heavy fighting went on all day Friday on the Eighth Army front west of Forli, with enemy outposts preventing tiie British from advancing farther west from the Cosina, which is a stream four miles from Faenza, says the Exchange Telegraph Company's Rome correspondent. British infantry and tanks advancing along a road running northwest from Villagrippa are still engaged in heavy fighting in the area of a road fork four miles from Faenza. German infantrymen entrenched in prepared positions are supported by armour, also the main weight of the enemy artillery. Germans Blow Up Oanal Farther south the capture of Monte Fortino brought our troops to within five and a-half miles of Faenza, but stiff opposition is being encountered and the enemy is throwing in repeated counterattacks. The Luftwaffe on Friday night bombed Forli. Incendiaries were used, but little damage resulted. The Germans on the Adriatic coastal sector have blown up the banks of the Fiumi-Uniti Canal, thereby causing a further large flood south of Ravenna, said an earlier communique. The Eighth Army has improved its positions west and north of Forli. Poles have captured the village of Converselle, north-west of Castro Caro and are in contact with strong enemy defences on the commanding feature of Monte Castellaccu. Bitter Defence Likely

The German action in blowing up the Fiumi-Uniti Canal, which is the waterway formed by the joining up of the Rivers Montone and Ronco, just south of Ravenna, has flooded large tracts of the Adriatic coastal plain, says Reuter's Rome correspondent. This seems to indicate the German intention of putting up a protracted and bitter defence. The flooding has seriously hampered the Eighth Army's manoeuvrability in this area. Other Eighth Army forces, fighting tough tank and infantry battles, continue to push on toward Faenza. Indian and British troops on the right flank of the Fifth Army have occupied the important road centre of Modigliana. American troops of the Fifth Army farther west gained more than a mile in the Serchi Valley. The capture of Modigliana by the Fifth Army is an important gain. It gives command of a junction of three important roads. PATRIOTS TAKE JUNCTION (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 18 Italian patriots captured the railway junction of Torriglia, 12 miles north-east of Genoa, says the Rome radio. The patriots took prisoner 400 troops of a Fascist Alpine regiment. The Germans have already begun reprisals against civilians in the district. BELGRADE ATROCITIES MASS MUIiDER OP JEWS 20 REMAIN FROM 12,000 LONDON, Nov. 18 Of 12,000 Jews in Belgrade before the war, only 20 remain alive there today and only 1000 escaped elsewhere, says Reuter's Belgrade correspondent. The Germans in July,. 1941, began their scientific extermination by calling a meeting of all Jews in the centre of the city. The Jews were ranged up according to their professions. The fifth man from each group was then taken to a rifle range and snot. Every time a German was killed in Belgrade the police called up 200 or 300 .Tews. Their clothes were sent home next day. When men became scarce the wonien and children were called up and driven off in lorries to Zemun, where 1000 women and children were shut up in buildings without food or fuel. I'ifty or 60 corpses were carried off from the camp every morning. Drunken soldiers frequently . entered the camp in the middle of the night and made the women bow before gallows and say their prayers. Then they told them: "We shan't hang you tonight." Women and children were hanged on the least provocation. Many went mad. The Germans later packed the Jews into a sealed lorry with an exhaust pipe leading into it. When the doors were opened only corpses fell out. Many Jews were sent to work in the copper mines at Bor. Those who escaped are now arriving in Belgrade. They are starving, naked and covered with wounds from beatings.