GERMAN DIVISIONS IN ITALY
ABOUT FIFTY TIED DOWN Recd. 9 p.m. London, Nov. 19. About 50 German divisions, apart from Bulgarian and Croat forces, are now tied down- in the Mediterranean theatre, says Reuter’s correspondent at General Alexander's headquarters. Of these 50 divisions ten are on the Italian front.
Some of these are known to be battle weary and below strength. Three second-rate di,visions recently arrived on the Italian front—the 9th Division on the Fifth Army front, the 65th Infantry Division on the Eighth Army front and the 305th Infantry Division in the centre. The 94th includes large numbers of young and in experienced soldiers
The 65th has only two regiments instead of the usual three. Prisoners from this force say they are equipped with obsolete weapons such as 37 mm. anti-tank guns and under-sized mortars.
These three divisions depend largely on horse and mule transport, but this is no great disadvantage in the hilly, muddy country in which they are now in action. The men were probably withdrawn from the resei*e pool in France, which was used as ,a convalescent ground for formations withdrawn from prolonged battle. However, the German divisions in Italy have experienced corps officers and a kernel of veteran troops who inspire the others to fight as stubbornly as they are doing now.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19431120.2.57
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 275, 20 November 1943, Page 5
Word Count
217GERMAN DIVISIONS IN ITALY Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 275, 20 November 1943, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in