BITTER STRUGGLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23014, 4 October 1944, Page 5

BITTER STRUGGLE

Battle For Monte Capella

Highway To Bologna

Threatened

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON. Oct. 2. The Fifth Army won Monte Capella only after bitter fighting through widespread minefields and in the face of fierce artillery fire, states the correspondent of Reuter’s. The first break in the weather for a week enabled the Air Force to give long-deferred support to the Fifth Army’s operations. Waves of German infantry made a third attempt to retake Monte Battaglia after a heaw be",ment by artillery, but the defenders again threw the enemy back.

The opposition at this uon- outer, as the Fifth Army's throat to Imola and the highway to Bologna constitutes also a threat to the rear of the German forces facing the Eighth Army along the Adriatic, where the sun has reappeared, and fine weather is promised for the whole front. Eighteen men returned to Rimini to-day after having fough; their wav through the German lines. They are the only survivors of nearly 200 English troops of the Eighth Army sent out to ca 1 are three bridges north-west of Rimini. The men reached Rimini hungry and exhausted, and with their uniforms torn and caked with mud. One survivor said that the men were surrounded when they entered a village at night. He added: “There were about 50 of us in a group of houses. The “Jerries” just “stonkered' us with mortars. Those of us who were left hid for two days without food, and then made our way back.” The Fifth Army now controls two of the most important heights dominating the approach to the Imola road toward the Po Valley, says the correspondent of Reuter’s at Allied Headquarters in Italy.

The latest capture, Monte Capella, is two miles west of the Allied-held Monte Battaglia, which is 11 miles south-west of Imola. We are holding both heights against strongly reinforced counter-attacks.

In the Adriatic sector the Eighth Army, after clearing Savlgnani, thrust spearheads across the Fiumicino River, but there is no Indication yet that they have established a bridgehead. A Mediterranean air communique reports that three Allied aircraft are missing from 4000 sorties. These covered attacks on communications and other targets in Northern Italy and north of the battle area in Italy, shipping in the Adriatic and gun positions in Yugoslavia. The Royal Air Force Middle East communique says: “R.A.F. Beaufighters last night destroyed five aircraft’ that were attempting to evacuate the enemy from the Aegean Islands. On six consecutive nights Beaufighters shot down a total of 16 aircraft over the Aegean. One of our planes is missing. • In spite of strong continued resistance and adverse weather, the British and Americans of the Fifth Armv have further progressed in the central sector, says to-day’s Allied communique. The Americans captured the town of Monghidoro,* an important road junction on the main Bologna road.

Bad weather on the Adriatic coast prevented any major action by the Eighth Army. The Mediterranean air communique says that bad weather prevented strategical and tactical operations on Sunday night.