ENEMY TERRITORY CAPTURED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23083, 23 December 1944, Page 4

ENEMY TERRITORY CAPTURED

New Zealanders Make Fresh Attack Moderate Casualties By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (12.20 p.m.) FAENZA, Dec. 21. Following their successful enlargement of the Lamone bridgehead and the capture of Faenza, New Zealand troops in a new attack last night sliced off another sizeable area of enemy' territory north-west of the town and captured just on 200 prisoners. Again the. intensity and accuracy of the artillery barrage and the close following-up tactics of the infantry were decisive factors in the success of the attack, which gained some 3000 yards and considerably extended our line along the Senio River, the next natural barrier on the road to Bologna. Our casualties were moderate. This time the attack was across flat country—cultivated fields and vineyards dotted here and there by farm houses. It was just after 9 o’clock that the guns began. For 10 minutes they blasted the enemy's forward positions while infantry formed up on the start line, and then lifted at the rate that would enable the men to keep up with them. Just at the start a hitch occurred, when enemy shells began falling among forward troops of one of our battalions, but this was not of long duration and the men were soon able to take their place in the general advance.

Infantry went in right under the barrage—as close as possible without getting themselves among the bursting shells. In this way they were on the enemy positions—dugouts, houses and slit trenches—before the Germans recovered from the shock of the terrific artillery hammering, and kill or capture was thus made very much easier.

Opposition Met Most opposition was encountered by the centre battalion, composed of Wellington men, which ran into a minefield, but in general the enemy was overcome with only moderate difficulty and well before daylight all three battalions were firmly on their objectives.

The infantry were supported in their advance by tanks, for which the going was difficult on the narrow, muddy roads after the unique experience lately of five or six days almost entirely without rain.

The New Zealanders’ adversary on this occasion was another crack German division—the 29th Panzer Grenadiers, last met in the Florence sector, where one of its units fought a pitched battle at San Michele with one of last night’s attacking battalions. This action, together with a move forward by other units on our right, has greatly improved the position at Faenza, which, until yesterday, was being consistently shelled and mortared by the ousted Germans, until then only half a mile or so away on the north-east side. Engineers have now been able to throw another Bailey bridge across the Lamone River right on the main road. The result is that traffic in and out of the town has been very much facilitated. Concerning the capture of Faenza an interesting fact is revealed by a German prisoner, who said that the week * before our original outflanking attack which forced the enemy out, the German commander had decided to evacuate the town and retire to the line of the Senio River. This was just about to be done when orders were received, direct from Berlin, presumably from Hitler, that the town should be held at all costs. The cost in two days was 300 prisoners, 150 dead and many wounded

CRACK GERMAN UNIT SMASHED New Zealanders’ Furious Attack ADVANCED HDQRS., December 18. The battlefield south-west of Faenza, over which the New Zealanders outfought and smashed the crack German 90th Panzer Grenadier Division, tells a graphic storv of the fury of our attack. The fields and roads are pitted and torn with shellholes, trees are broken and splintered and not a house in the area is undamaged. Many are reduced to rubble. In many the Germans had torn holes in the ground floors and dug shelters under the houses, stacking earth inside the rooms for extra protection. Slit trenches around the houses emnhasised their determination to hold the positions. It was only the speed and fury of our infantry attack, following a terrific barrage, which smashed the German resistance. Indicative of the fury of the attack was the effort of six 3in mortars with one battalion, which fired 1100 bombs in 73 minutes. It was a company of this battalion which was held up for several hours above Casa on the side of a steep slope. The place was finally taken, when Sergeant L. Seaman, of Raetihi, collected a few men and worked round to the back of Casa and rushed it. Sergeant Seaman was wounded when a German called “Kamerad” and then fired from a doorway. He bolted, but the New Zealanders pursued and shot him dead. The tiny village of Celle is a minature Cassino, with a church and a few buildings. All around is an indescribable confusion of wreckage. Yesterday the German intermittently fired on the area while the New Zealanders went methodically about the task of repairing the roads and consolidating their positions. When a Maori platoon approached the main road on the second day, two Spandaus covering minelaying opened fire. The officer and the n.c.o’s. were wounded, but a private took charge and made a model advance in extended formation covered bv their own Bren guns until close enough to rush the position and kill the gunners and minelaver.