HARD FIGHTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25454, 8 February 1944, Page 3

HARD FIGHTING

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN ALLIES’ SLOW PROGRESS AMERICAN CRITICISM (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 7. British and American troops have fought off more strong German coun-ter-attacks in the Angio beach-head area, and have taken many prisoners. At Cassino hard fighting continues, with the Allied forces making further gains north and west of the town. The Eighth Army has advanced, capturing two more towns.

This summing up of the position in Italy is given fi' to-day’s communique from Allied headquarters. Correspondents point out in their despatches that the new German counter-attacks m the Anzio area follow earlier reports that the enemvihad brought up fresh troops and supplies. No doubt the Germans intend making a strong effort to break the ■ Allied defences in the area. 58

“The picture of the 156-day-old battle in Italy is not too encouraging, and it is time to say so,” states the Algiers correspondent of the New York Times. “The Germans are fighting back harder' than ever at Cassino. and have brought up new guns. The fate of Cassino may be said to hang by a thread, but it is a thread of steel and fire requiring harder steel and hotter fire to snap it. The position is similar on the front below Rome.

. “ There is nothing to justify hopes of a swift, smashing junction of the Allied forces and a triumphant march to Rome,” the correspondent adds. “ In spite of the heavy Allied air and naval superiority, the enemy has been able to build up forces in the Anzio-Net-tuno wedge. At least four German divisions are now at this point and more are apparently arriving. The weather has turned gusty, slowing up the Allies’ vital reinforcement and supply process. This is- significant, inasmuch as time is on the side of the

defender and every day lost increases the hazards to the Allies when the major counter-attack finally comes.” Mr Hanson Baldwin, writing in the New York Times, says the operation at the Nettuno beach-head revealed some defects in American tactical concepts—for example, the failure to land a sufficient mechanised mass to enable a daring power drive into the German communication system. “ The slow Pcice of the operations,” he states,

•‘seems to be due to an over-cautious attitude on the part of the Allied commanders.”