ALLIES NEAR FLORENCE

Southland Times, Issue 25434, 5 August 1944, Page 5

ALLIES NEAR FLORENCE

GERMANS FORCED FROM DEFENCES GAINS BY BTH ARMY (Rec. 1.25 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4. Gains by Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese’s Bth Army have forced the Germans to withdraw from their original defence line covering Florence and they now have their backs to the outer suburbs of the city. The New Zealanders are only four miles from Florence. To the 'west the Indians have advanced to high ground and developed their bridgehead over the Pesa river. Despite five major German counterattacks in the last six days and stiffened enemy resistance from their dominating hill positions the Allies are continuing to tighten the arc round the southern half of Florence, reports the British United Press correspondent, The New Zealanders in the centre are fighting for the main features of Monte la Pogginana, lying on the western side of Highway 2. Guards units, cooperating with the South Africans on the other side of Highway 2, crossed the Greve river and captured Strada. In their advance against Impruneta, where the enemy is' strongly entrenched, British troops in the mountainous country at the eastern end of the arc are continuing to progress along the east bank of the upper Arno, between the river and the Arezzo-Flor-ence road.

The British are approaching Incisa, 10 miles south-east of Florence. Their objective is Monte Masso, which is the next dominating height. The German News Agency’s correspondent, Praegner, said the Allies had fired at least 18,000 big shells against German hill positions southwest of Florence to soften up the defence before the attack. He added that the Germans lost the hill and regained it by a counter-attack. FLORENCE NOW IN SIGHT ENEMY DRIVEN FROM HEIGHT (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEAR FLORENCE Aug. 3. “Can you see Florence?” “Oh yes, we can see it all right, but you cannot keep your head up long here.” This was a conversation I heard at a New Zealand headquarters this morning over the wireless inter-communi-cation with the forward troops, who had just driven the enemy from another height. The enemy still makes a fight of it —and a hard one—but the New Zealanders’ most notable move in the past 24 hours has been an advance on the left flank of about a mile to a feature 1000 yards or so south-east of Pian de Cerri, the dominating feature now on that side. Our attack was made on a front of between 4000 and 5000 yards. The more notable incidents have been the knocking out of a Tiger tank by an anti-tank gun and the capture in a house of 30 prisoners. SWIFT ADVANCE The attack began at 11 o’clock last night in the moonlight and the opposition stiffened as the troops advanced. The troops moved forward swiftly and from one house rounded up 30 Germans, including a company commander. By early morning our men were firm on the objective, after cleaning up an enemy strong-point. The Tiger tank, the third which the New Zealanders have disposed of, had apparently skirted our minefields, but it fell victim to a 17-pounder gun which waited until it was at close range before opening fire. The inside of the tank went up in flames. On the centre and right of our sector the enemy had established a strong line of machine-gun posts and had tanks in support, fully realizing that any more New Zealand gains would lead to their domination of route 2, leading to Florence. In spite of this opposition in the centre, our forward troops are now on the height of Poggione and consolidation is proceeding. The enemy took the initiative on the right flank wtih a counter-attack strongly supported by tanks and machine-gun, mortar and shell fire. The enemy was held and the position there remains unchanged. The night was an extremely noisy one and the enemy’s heavy guns were more active than usual.

Air co-operation for our advance has been provided on a large scale. This morning we saw Santa Maria, a hillside town on our left flank, bombed by Kittyhawks. The village and most of the hillside had a thorough pounding from bombs and shells, and columns of black smoke which continued to rise after the raid seemed to indicate that enemy equipment had been hit. . Last night bombers attacked targets immediately ahead of our advance and they have been busy today silencing enemy guns as our troops move forward.