CAPTURE OF SAN VITTORE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 7, 10 January 1944, Page 5

CAPTURE OF SAN VITTORE

STORMED BY AMERICAN TROOPS

EIGHTH ARMY PATROL CLASHES

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright)

Recd. 7.30 p.m. London, Jan. 8. After two days of heavy street fighting American troopt of the Fifth Army captured the village of San Vittoire, states the land communique from Italy. In another area our troops fought their way to the top of a 4000 ft. mountain which they now hold. The advance continues along a ten miles front. On the Eighth Army front strong patrols, acting under conditions of bitter cold and deep snowdrifts, engaged in sharp clashes with the enemy. The Fifth Army captured Guista, one mile north of San Vittore, reports Algiers radio. The Americans used grenades to blast the Germans from houses in Guista, says the British United Preas correspondent. The Germans turned the dwellings in this village into pill-boxes and strong-points, as they did at San Vittore. Fifth Army spearheads are within four miles of Cervaro in which the Germans concentrated artillery.

The enemy suffered heavy casualties when Allied troops occupied San Vittore. One group of 200 scuttled out of their dugouts and tried to escape over the hills. Th® Americans opened rapid tommy-gun fire on the Germans as they raced up the bald hillside, wiping them out to a man. Many Italians who emerged from the ruins were completely hysterical. For weeks they had lived in basements and dug-outs, eating only popcorn and dried beans. ■ while a heavy battle raged around them. Describing the fighting in San Vittore, the military commentator of the United Nations radio at Algiers said the Germans had turned the village into a fortress guarding the roads to Cassino and Rome. The struggle for the village lasted three days and the Americans had to fight every inch of the way. Forward elements of the Fifth Army have now pushed on and are reducing the German positions, including pill-boxes in the village of Giusta.

The capture of San Vittore made a further dent in the extensive network of defence installations which the Germans had erected to protect Cassino. Another dent was the capture of 4000 ft. Monte Majo. North-west of Acquafondata the fighting was particularly stiff and the Germans have counter-attacked with some success. On the Eigth Army front lighting has been restricted by the condition of the ground, snowdrifts preventing any large-scale operation. The air communique from Italy states: “The aircraft factory at Maribor and railway yards at Fiume were attacked on Friday by escorted heavy bombers. A strong force of medium bombers were over the railway communications north of Rome. At Pont Dera the tracks were well covered and at Lucca repair shops and gasworks were hit. Perugia airfield was well covered by -bombs and several fires were left burning. Fighter-bombers and fighters co-operated with the ground forces and made sweeps over the Yugoslav coast, some merchant vessels being damaged. Four enemy aircraft were destroyed. Four of ours are missing.’’—U.P.A. and 8.0.W. “The Allies to-night occupy San Vittore,” reports the British United Press correspondent from San Vittore. Every German still inside the town when two American columns finally broke into the last streets was dead, wounded or a prisoner. San Vittore is a shambles. We wrested it from the Germans after some of the most tigerish fighting since the original Fifth Army landings at Salerno. The clearing of the last Germans from the last houses was bitter work, but the German resistance crumpled when two infantry forces which had been working their way through the streets met in the middle of the town and together stormed the remaining German defence nests."