AGAIN ATTACKING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1943, Page 3

AGAIN ATTACKING

BRITISH & AMERICAN FORCES ON SALERNO FRONT Gain of Some Miles in South PURSUIT OF WITHDRAWING GERMANS EIGHTH ARMY NOW 60 MILES AWAY LONDON, September 16. British and American troops resumed their offensive from Salerno early this morning, after four days of bitter fighting. At one point the Allied troops are eight miles inland. The Germans are withdrawing and the Allied troops are pursuing them to maintain contact. For four days it seemed to be touch and, go for the Allied forces, as the Germans threw in one fierce counter-attack after another. The Germans were well prepared for the landing. The bridgehead is now firmly established and at dawn this morning Allied forces in the southern sector swept over to the offensive and pushed the Germans back two or three miles. The new offensive is a limited one, the main idea being to squeeze the Germans out of some high ground. The new advance has put the Allied forces about eight miles inland, four miles short of the point reached in the earlier fighting. Heavy reinforcements were brought into the Allied line before the new offensive began. The Eighth Army is reported to be making rapid progress and is stated to have reached a point 60 miles from the Salerno battlefield. A party of British war correspondents who travelled from the Eighth Army’s front to Salerno did not see a single German in the area between the two armies. Heavy Allied reinforcements of all kinds have halted the Germans on the Salerno front and - ended the threat to the bridgehead, said an American correspondent with the Fifth Army. He added: “We are breathing more freely tonight.” The Algiers radio declared that Air Marshal Kesselring was throwing further tank reserves into the Salerno battle and very heavy fighting was continuing along the whole front. The Allied fighter cover was hourly becoming more adequate. Vichy radio, quoting Berlin military circles, said the Eighth Army forces in the Bari area were advancing toward Foggia.