DRIVE RESUMED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22934, 3 July 1944, Page 5

DRIVE RESUMED

Allied Forces In Italy Florence Declared Open City By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 2. After being held for several days at the Chienti River, the Eighth Army advanced troops reached the vicinity of Civitanova railway, five miles east of Macerata, reports the Algiers correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency. The enemy has now been cleared from Maginone, and advanced elements have reached Corciano, six miles west of Perugia. Fifth Army infantry, are pressing back the Germans in the Cecina area, and have reached a position miles northeast of the town. Further inland Fifth Army tanks captured Monte Cerboli on the road to Pomarance. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that a combat team comprising American soldiers of Japanese origin is fighting with the Fifth Army. A beautiful young American actress, who speaks German with the slightest trace of American accent, is being used as a medium for the transmission of a subtle form of propaganda among German troops in Italy, says the Rome correspondent of the Associated Press. She was originally imported by the Americans to entertain Allied troops. Thousands of her photographs are now being shot by cannon into the German lines, and the Fifth Army radio unit relays her enticing voice to the enemy. Renamed “Toni from America,” the actress does not resort to anything so clumsy as ridiculing German leaders, but gives the names of Germans recently captured, and perhaps quotes an item from a German newspaper illustrating the food shortage in Germany. Allied intelligence officers are satisfied from reports that the Germans are listening avidly. The Berlin radio announced that Hitler has declared Florence an open city so that irreplaceable treasures can be preserved. General Sir Harold Alexander, Commander of the Allied troops in Italy, in a special message broadcast over Algiers radio, said: “Patriots of all Italy. For the next week, starting from to-day, apart from your ordinary activities, make all efforts to destroy the enemy’s signalling system and communications.”

The radio revealed that patriots contributed to the liberation of 400 localities in Italy.