ITALIAN FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 5

ITALIAN FRONT

TEMPORARY STALEMATE BAD WEATHER CONTINUES AMERICANS RECOVER GROUND (Rec. 1.15 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 17. The weather in Italy has become even worse, and at the moment has reduced the position on the whole front to a stalemate. North of Venafro, however, American troops of the Fifth Army yesterday regained some of the high ground they lost the day before. There was greater activity in the air. American heavy and medium bombers carried out heavy raids on two airfields near Marseilles, from which increased attacks have been made recently on Allied convoys in the Mediterranean. Considerable damage was done. Other bombers flew east to Athens, in Greece, and bombed airfields there. They found fires still burning from the previous day’s attacks.

General Alexander has slipped his offensive machine into low gear to overcome the mud and slush in the mountains, says one correspondent. The Eighth Army continues to edge forward to level up its line along the Sangro River, and it has strengthened its hold north of recently-captured Atessa, gaining new heights. Advanced units moving forward from positions 20 miles inland clashed with a German detachment at Montazzoli, six miles north of Castiglione, which is held by the British. The Germans are expected to put up a hard fight for Montazzoli, which overlooks the Sangro Valley, four miles distant.

Twenty miles of mountainous country, constituting the German winter, line, faces the Fifth Army, and into these rugged hills several enemy divisions have dug strong positions, states an agency war correspondent. At Castel Forte on Monday one group of enemy troops flew the Swas-

tika flag, which was plainly visible from our forward posts. Patrolling was the only activity along the front, but explosions could be seen where the Germans were carrying out demolitions.

Paris radio reports that , General Montgomery continues to mass troops and seems to be waiting for artillery reinforcements before resuming largescale operations. One of the features of Monday’s air activities was the debut of Jugoslav pilots against the Luftwaffe in Liberators given them by the United States Government. With American fighters they flew to Eleusis aerodrome, near Athens, in the first raid by heavy bombers on Greece for some time. Some of the Jugoslav pilots had ferried their planes to Cairo after receiving them from President Roosevelt.