IN SIGHT OF NAPLES

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22151, 24 September 1943, Page 5

IN SIGHT OF NAPLES

STRENGTH OF FIFTH ARMY (Received Sept. 24, 1 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 23 The Allies arc now in sight of Naples, which is burning fiercely and presents a lurid picture. With the Allies closing in the German forces south of Naples are falling back to a defensive ring around the city. Front-line correspondents report that the Allied forces have advanced against heavy machine-gun and mortar fire. The Allies today captured Conturs, six miles north of Eboli. The Fifth Army’s push has taken cn the appearance of a really largescale offensive. Reuter’s correspondent says the Fifth Army’s strength is gathering like a cloud before a storm. Artillery and armour are on the move and the army can count on big support from the Allied Air Forces in ousting the Germans from the hill positions. Other correspondents say that the hardest fighting is still at the German pivot northward of Salerno. The entire German front is centred on these high positions, from which the enem yis moving his lines back. Reuter reports that the Fifth Army followed up a fierce artillery barrage with increased activity all along its front and its pressure is growing. The Germans are fighting hard to retain their hold on hill positions north of Salerno, where everything favours the defence. No sudden break-through is expected. The battle for Naples was continued at 3 a.m. today with a powerful barrage against the enemy positions. Warships joined the land batteries in the bombardment. Big fires were started on the slopes of the saw-toothed mountains separating the Fifth Army from the Naples plain. Italians Beg for Rations The capture of Aviglano means that the Eighth Army, moving up from Potenza, advanced 10 miles in 24 hours. As the British and American forces arc advancing in Southern Italy they pass groups of Italian soldiers, sometimes a hundred together, marching southward in single file, states the British United Press correspondent with the Fifth Army. Many of them are barefooted and many more are ragged, carrying their possessions in small bundles and begging for rations from the Allied soldiers. Our men have seen hundreds of pathetic reunions at little farmhouses, where families have tearfully welcomed sons and husbands. Altogether there are thousands on the roads. Meanwhile the Italian folk follow the Allied troops into towns from which they fled when the fighting started and there begin to search for their ruined homes. Mines and Demolitions

“The war in our area is developing along the lines of the latter stages of the Sicilian campaign,’’ states a correspondent with the Fifth Army. “Our troops are encountering mines and demolitions for the first time since landing and this is holding up the Fifth Army advance.” The correspondent adds that the Germans seem to have withdrawn all heavy guns.