IN DANGER OF BEING OUTFLANKED BY ALLIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1944, Page 4

IN DANGER OF BEING OUTFLANKED BY ALLIES

According to “Times” Correspondent IMPORTANT GAINS MADE BY FRENCH AND AMERICANS EIGHTH ARMY LESS THAN 25 MILES FROM ANZIO BEACH-HEAD (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) - LONDON, May 22. The Allies now threaten to turn the Pontecorvo-Aquino line, which is the most highly-organised of the Hitler Line positions, says “The Times” correspondent at Allied Headqiiarters. Commenting on the advantages gained by the French and American drive across the Pontecorvo-Terracma .Road, and the capture of heights beyond, he adds that enemy troop movements in the past 48 hours suggest that the German High Command sets great store on holding the Aquino-Pontecorvo-Pico sector. The Germans certainly have been transferring troops from the Adriatic coast and smokescreens put up on the eastern side of the Anzio beachlhead suggest that they are drawing on divisions in that area. A spokesman at Allied Headquarters predicted that the battle for Rome would be fought along the new German defence line which aerial reconnaissance had revealed astride the two main roads from the south. Photographs show that the line is 50 miles long, from the Avezeano Mountains southward through Valmontone, incorporating the Alban Hills, before continuing to the sea. Reuter’s correspondent, stating that a new phase in the battle lies ahead, says there are two especially suitable positions where the Germans may attempt to stabilise their line and make another stand. The first is between San Giovanni and Ceprano and the second between Ceccano and Frosinone. He says the Fifth Army’s advance from the south, in which American patrols reached Terracina before being forced back, aimed at driving the Germans across the Pico-Terracina Road. The advance was not stopped at the road. The Allies pushed on, oc-> cupying heights between Fondi and Terracina and also seized a height three miles of the road, among the mountains forming the base of the German switch line. The Fifth Army is now less than '25 miles from the Anzio beach-head, on the Appian Way, running straight across the Pontine Marshes. The Americans pushed back from Terracina retired 5,000 yards along the road. They are making progress north of the road towards Mcntemario and are heavily engaged north of Fondi. The French, to the north, have crossed the Pontecorvo-Pico Road to recapture Monte Lucio, within the Hitler line defences, and less than a mile from the Liri Valley Road.

All of Kesselring’s mobile reserves have now been drawn into the battle line, where 17 German divisions are now engaged, a correspondent states. The Americans, pushing northwards from the Appian Way, have captured further heights and are tapping into the Hitler switch line.