LEFT HOOK TACTICS

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22353, 20 May 1944, Page 5

LEFT HOOK TACTICS

APPROACH TO CASSINO ESCAPE ROUTE CUT OFF NEW ZEALAND TANK MEN (N'.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent) NEAR CASSINO, May 17. Attacking across the Rapido river in daylight on Tuesday, New Zealand tanks struck deep into the German Gustav Line defences and formed one of the armoured spearheads out with the most forward of the Eighth Army infantry in the Liri Valley. Already they have knocked out at least one German heavy tank and accounted for several machine-gun nests and strong points. By the speed and strength of their attack our tanks, many of them manney by the same crews who fought through the Cas sino battle, had been largely responsible for securing our front across the river against enemy counter-attacks. Faced with the prospect of meeting groups of Sherman tanks, their guns jutting out across the crests alongside the most advanced infantry trenches, the Germans had been reticent to mount counter-attacks of any strength. All through Tuesday night as terrific concentrations of enemy mortar and artillery fire fell at points along the Liri Valley front our tanks stood ready to meet German armoured thrusts. Though the fire against them was severe then, and again through every hour of yesterday, the New Zealanders’ tanks and the British infantry with them have not been seriously threatened. Every yard of ground the British infantry captured in four days of hard fighting is firmly held. Valuable Experience tv>o py^ev—''cp +bese tank crews gained in the fighting beyond the Sandro river, and again more recently around Cassino, taught them to beware of houses and haystacks which so often hide German tanks and anti-tank guns. Every haystack they saw on the Adriatic front they destroyed, and in the Cassino battles dozens of houses, many of them holdinrr German s+roner>rir»t<;. crumbled under the fire of our tank guns. Taking no chances in their advance yesterday, the New Zealanders opened fire with high explosive shells on the first haystack they • came upon. Instead of setting the hay ablaze the shells ricochetted away and disclosed a German tank waiting as a sitting shot for our tanks. A few armourpiercing rounds from the Sherman’s mins set the enemy tank, believed to be a powerful Mark 4, on fire.

One of the fastest advances New Zealand armour has ever made into action brought our tanks from the reserve area well behind the lines into the thick of the battle within 12 hours, with bedding, billies, cooking pots and all manner of spare equipment slung hurriedly on behind, the tanks set out through the hills towards the front at one o’clock on Tuesday morning. By daybreak they were under the guns. Infantry Joined

Pausing only to eat and refuel, they advanced under a great pall of smoke and dust to the Rapido river, rumbled across the girder bridge erected during the night and joined the infantry in the bridgehead. Not one tank was lost in the crossing and by early afternoon the whole formation was lined behind the forward trenches.

Striking through patches of trees, scrub and long grass, the New Zealand tanks, closely supported by battalions of British infantry, launched a three-pronged attack which by early this morning (Wednesday), had given them a strong new front line facing Highway 6 near where it winds out of Cassino along the Liri Valley towards Rome. Realising that this new thrust could trap their garrison of paratroops holding Cassino, the Germans opposed our tanks and infantry fiercely but in the last hours of daylight, and in the second attack at dawn this morning, the New Zealanders secured all their objectives. This assault vrrjc- t.h» first major advance the New Zealand tanks had made since they crossed the Rapido river early in the Eighth Army offensive. Until it began their casualties had been slight. Early reports on the attack are that the New Zealanders’ losses rthi n«t, been heavy. Under an artillery barrage of hundreds of guns tne New Zealanders’ “left hook” armoured thrust towards the highway to Rome began at 6.30 last night. As they advanced the whole Liri Valley for miles on either side was obscured by a great thick curtain of smoke and dust. Until darkness made further tank movement impossible they attacked ahead of the British infantry. When they saw the Sherman tanks crushing through the grass and scrub towards them the Germans surrendered quickly, but as soon as the armour passed them they tried to get to their machine-guns and fire on the close supporting British infantry’s Bren guns. Carefully Hidden Guns Early in the attack one New Zealand tank commander watched a farm house which was suspiciously quiet and without the usual bursts of German machine-gun fire. He directed on to it a tremendous concentration of artillery fire, which blasted the house apart and destroyed a carefully hidden German anti-tank gun. Against another house which the infantry reported to be alive with enemy machine-gun nests the New Zealand tanks put down a concentration of their own gunfire. After the first few shells, some of them combined armour-piercing and high explosive rounds which penetrated the walls of the building and then exploded. what remained of the German machine-gun crews came out and

surrendered. As darkness fell the fighting was fierce and confused.

Another heavy supporting artillery barrage was prepared for early this morning, and as the Poles attacked across the ridges above them the New Zealand tanks and their supporting British infantry struck forward again towards the highway from Cassino. Within two hours they had pushed this sector of the Eighth Army’s front out to a line parallel with a road a short distance from it. Over the last yards of their advance the German defences put little real opposition against our tanks.