SWEEPING ON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25560, 13 June 1944, Page 6

SWEEPING ON

FIFTH ARMY DRIVE

70 MILES BEYOND ROME (Rec. 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, June 12. In their rapid push north from Rome, units of the Fifth Army are approaching Orbetello, 70 miles from the capital, on the coast road. Further inland they have captured the road junction of Montefiascone, near Lake Bracciano. A correspondent states that the whole Of the German 14th Army has been acattered to the four winds. On the Adriatic coast the Germans have now been cleared from all the territory south of the Pescara River, and a correspondent says that the Allies will soon have the use of the important lateral road from Pescara to Rome. Allied troops to-night are nearing the halfway mark between Rome and Florence in pursuit of the shattered German armies, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters, Italy. The Fifth Army’s forces occupied Montalto di Castro, 60 miles from Rome. The possibility of von Kesselring putting up any kind of effective barrier south of Rimini-Pisa line becomes fainter. In the central mountainous sector the important Rome-Pescara road is still in German hands, but the whole of the western sector, from Rome to Avezzano road, is clear, and Eighth Army forces have reached Avezzano. The Associated Press correspondent says the Germans, who are retreating north at a quickening pace, are leaving behind great patches of mines and stubborn rearguards. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy says 22 German divisions are now operating in Italy, one fewer than at the beginning of the Allied offensive.

The Naples correspondent of the Associated Press says it is officially revealed that enemy casualties on the Italian front in the past month total 70,000. Fifth Army troops have advanced 10 miles north of Toscanella. Eighth Army forces have occupied Francavilla.