BID FOR CASSINO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 January 1944, Page 4

BID FOR CASSINO

o— SAN VITTORE ALMOST ENCIRCLED ALLIED AIRCRAFT STRIKING AT CERVARO. NEXT ENEMY STRONGHOLD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright' (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, January 7. Allied fighter-bombers are leapfrogging San Vittore, where the German defences are crumpling under the Fifth Army’s blows and striking against the next objective —-Cerva ro. This village, two moles north-west of San Vittore, is the last defensive, position before Cassino, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. Bitter hand-to-hand fighting is going on in the streets of San Vittore, which is virtually encircled. The Germans are hurriedly converting Cervaro into a fortress similar to San Vittore and San Pietro. Allied pilots spotted troop concentrations and gun emplacements, which, despite the most unfavourable weather, have been subjected to heavy air attacks.

FELL SCALE ASSAULT

ANTICIPATED BY GERMANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, January 7. The Fifth Army has taken at least several hundred prisoners in its new drive and scores more are being brought in daily. Many of the prisoners have pamphlets, shot from our guns, in their pockets when captured. Bo(h sides are carrying out patrols on the Fifth Army front, where snow and mist have reduced fighting. The Germans are systematically destroying Francavilla, the last port before PeSCalT. . -V4 . The German news agency s militaiy commentator says it may be deduced from the increasing activity on the Italian front that the enemy considers the time has come to launch a general offensive. The arrival of further reserves for both the Eighth and Fifth armies and also the transfer of General Clark’s Headquarters warrants the conclusion that the present attacks are a transition stage to a large-scale assault against the German front in Southern Europe.