ENEMY FORCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1944, Page 4

ENEMY FORCES

THIRTEEN DIVISIONS REPORTED IN ITALY SPECIALLY TRAINED TROOPS IN ACTION. ALLIES CONVERGING ON ORSOGNA. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 5. Lieutenant-General Leese has taken over the command from General Montgomery at a time when the Eighth Army is facing a very strong delaying action, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. The Germans have ten divisions stretched from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the most intense resistance in the coastal sector facing the Eighth Army. The Germans are also holding one division in close support and two in reserve. Their aim besides preventing the Allies from reaching Rome or demanding the highest price for every inch of ground—is tjo gain time for building up striking reserves. The Germans have been putting specially trained mountain troops across the Apennines and yesterday they launched strong counter-attacks against a 180 feet hillock, three miles north of Ortona. Their main defence line, from which the counter-attacks came, lies a mile ahead of a hillock along the south bank of the Arielli River.

The Cairo radio said Allied troops were converging on Orsogna, which was the subject of a violent artillery and aerial bombardment yesterday. General Clark’s Fifth Army yesterday resumed its difficult progress through the mountains over the Rome Road. They occupied a 2300 feet height about two miles north-east of Sanvittcre. Allied troops, after scaling rugged cliffs, attacked strong emplacements which the Germans established as part of their winter line and inflicted a number of casualties.