KESSELRING’S ORDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1944, Page 3

KESSELRING’S ORDERS

TOLD TO DEFEND LINE , AT ALL COSTS FURTHER COUNTER-OFFENSIVE EXPECTED. LARGE ENEMY FORCES BROUGHT IN (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, February 8. Marshal Kesselring’s counter-attacks against the Anzio beach-head have temporarily dwindled, says Reutei s correspondent at Allied Headquarters, but Allied and German patrols are active along the 30 miles beach-head perimeter, and artillery exchanges are frequent. British and American troops have further consolidated their positions west of Cisterna and north of Padiglione, in readiness for the expected coun-ter-offensive. The Germans are' believed to have built up a force of formidable proportions. Kesselring is using tanks liberally, and also flame-throw-ers, which appeared for the first time on the beach-head front, against the Americans west of Cisterna.

The Americans have again advanced in shell-swept Cassino, but a major part of the town is still in German hands. A British United Press correspondent with the Fifth Army says the Americans today, after a day of rest, swept up the slopes of Monastery Hill, behind Cassino, to attack strong German defences. The Germans used mortars against the advancing troops, but the Americans were unable to use guns because of the existence of the monastery and the proximity of other American troops. The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Zurich correspondent says it is con- 1 firmed in Berlin that Kesselring had orders to defend the line between Gaeta, Cassino and Pescara at all costs. The establishment of the Nettuno bridgehead has not changed this determination. Additional reinforcements have been despatched from France to North Italy in order to strengthen the defence positions protecting the railway lines from the south. • The battle for Cassino has reached a whirlwind of fury, resembling in violence the battles in Russia, says the Paris radio. General Clark has thrown into the cauldron 35,000 men and 400 tanks, strongly supported by artillery, in an attempt to outflank the town from the north. The radio adds: “The Allies on the beach-head south of Rome have gone over- to the defensive, but it must be remembered that General Alexander no doubt expected a German coun-ter-offensive and made preparations for more than a walkover. The initiative is now firmly in German hands.”