RAPID ADVANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25579, 5 July 1944, Page 5

RAPID ADVANCE

ALEXANDER’S ARMIES MOMENTUM MAINTAINED (Rec. 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, July 4. The momentum of the Allied advance in Italy is being maintained, and von Kesselring is reported to have moved troops from the Adriatic coast to the west to defend the port of Leghorn. The Eighth Army advancing up both sides of Lake Trasimeno has joined up and captured Cortena, north of the lake. Advanced forces are now only eight miles from Arezzo. Further west, French troops which captured Siena have cut the road from Siena to Arezzo. On the Adriatic coast German counter-attacks south of Acona have been repelled. The Associated Press Rome correspondent reports that French contingents of the Fifth Army occupied Siena early yesterday after a week of heavy fighting through heavily-de-fended German positions. The Allied troops have broken through another of von Kesselring’s defence positions in Italy, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters. The Eighth Army has surged forward into the Chiana Valley, taking a whole series of towns. General Alexander’s armies, are at present driving

forward in order to prevent the enemy from settling down on his third delaying position, which runs through Arezzo on a line lateral to the Allied advance.

Elements of 10 German chvisions have been identified on the Fifth Army front on the Tuscany coast, where enemy opposition has become increasingly violent. Reuter’s correspondent at advanced headquarters says German opposition is becoming increasingly violent, with vicious counter-attacks occurring along the Fifth Army front. The Germans brought up reinforcements to assist the Twenty-sixth Panzer Division. The Germans are using self-propelled guns, tanks and mines more extensively. A German High Command communique states: “ We voluntarily withdrew from Siena owing to the danger that the town’s most valuable cultural monuments might be destroyed.”