N.Z. TROOPS TAKE FAENZA

Southland Times, Issue 25549, 18 December 1944, Page 5

N.Z. TROOPS TAKE FAENZA

Climax To Savage Battle (Rec. midnight) LONDON, Dec. 17. New Zealand troops of the Bth Army have captured Faenza, the German strongpoint south of Bologna, after bitter street fighting. Faenza is halfway on the main highway connecting the Adriatic Coast with Bologna. This notable action is the climax to a savage battle begun 10 days ago and fought by Empire troops, including the New Zealanders, South Africans, United Kingdom troops, Indians and Canadians.

Before the fall of the town, Lieuten-ant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, the New Zealand commander, made a reconnaissance trip in his jeep. All German counter-attacks were decisively defeated by the New Zealanders and about 550 prisoners were taken. The Allies now control all the high ground to the south-west of the town.

Infantry of the Bth Army, supported by tanks, launched a night attack southwest of Faenza and gained a foothold on a ridge running south-west from Celle to north of Pideura, says the Rome correspondent of The Exchange

Telegraph Agency. The Germans early this morning launched a fierce counter-attack with heavy artillery and close support fire from tanks. The attack, however, was beaten off, and more than 200 prisoners were taken. Heavy large-scale fighting continues, but our troops continue to advance. The Poles, a fewimiles to the south, simultaneously stormed and captured a dominating point and fortified houses five miles south-west of Faenza and one and a-half miles from Pideura. The Canadians are still engaged in the heaviest fighting in the canal Naviglio area.

BONOMI VOICES COMPLAINTS

TERMS OF BRITISH ARMISTICE (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 16. Signor Bonomi has written a 100page letter to Mr Roosevelt, detailing many complaints against the British, including the terms of the armistice, says the columnist, Drew Pearson. Under the armistice It.ly ceded, to Britain Pantellaria which, in British hands would be a constant military threat to Italy. Mr Churchill demanded it, however, to safeguard the Suez route. The armistice further provides that Trieste be an international free port and that Italy relinquish part of Piedmont—the Italian breadbasket—to the French. The Italians were promised that the terms of the armistice would be lightened in proportion to the degree of help given to the Allies, but Signor Bonomi points out that the British limited the Italian Army to a mere 11,000 and insisted on the disarmament of every guerrilla. Pearson adds: “When and if the letter is published it will make the Greek trouble with the British look relatively pale.” GENERAL CLARK’S NEW POST Farewell Message To sth Army (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, December 16. Lieutenant-General Mark Clark today relinquished the command of the sth Army and assumed the new post of commander of the 15th Army Group, composed mainly of the sth and Bth Armies. In a farewell message to the sth Army, Lieutenant-General Clark said: “Side by side through some of the bitterest fighting and most difficult obstacles in the history of warfare, the sth and Bth Armies have driven the strong, resourceful, fanatical enemy to the Po Valley. Your contribution to the Allied victory does not rest upon the mere liberation of Axis-dominated land. Your destruction of thousands upon thousands of enemy troops has been far more important. Our campaign holds in this theatre many of Germany’s best divisions which otherwise could be employed on the eastern and western fronts.”