GERMAN LINE BATTERED

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22354, 22 May 1944, Page 3

GERMAN LINE BATTERED

DEFENCE LOSING ITS STING ALLIED FORCES 30 MILES FROM BEACHHEAD MANY MORE TOWNS CAPTURED LONDON, May 21. Battering the German switch line from the Liri Valley to the sea, Allied forces have captured the town of Fondi, bringing them to within 30 miles of the Anzio beachhead. Heavy pressure is being maintained along the whole Hitler Line. Pontecorvo is the scene of particularly fierce fighting. The Germans today threw in 50 tanks but the Allied forces called in the air force and under a hail of bombs the tanks quickly withdrew. Pico also is a vital point of the line where the battle is raging. This town is the hinge of the switch line to the sea. The battle continues in the Liri Valley under a pall of dust which is again rising after rain has cleared. On the tenth day of the battle, says a correspondent at General Alexander’s headquarters, the whole of the Hitler Line has not been broken but the defence is losing its sting. The Germans have frittered away many reserves and much material and are not the fighting force they were. Gaeta, on the coast, and Itri, on the coastal road, have fallen to the Americans, Piumarola, two miles north of Pignataro, to the British, and Santa Lucia, two and a-half miles north-west of Cassino monastery, to the Poles. The Americans entered Santa Oliva, and the Hitler Line bastion, on the Itri-Pontecorvo road, and also captured Mount Conca, two miles west of Formia. The'German communique admits the loss of Campodimele, half-way between Itri and Pico, and the most westerly point of the Allied penetration.

The Allied armies in Italy are smashing through the Adolf Hitler Line from end to end. The Eighth Army has swung in with a massive offensive against the Cassino-Rome highway, several more towns have fallen, and the Germans at Terracina, fewer than 20 miles from the Anzio beachhead, are under withering fire from the sea.

A high official at Allied headquarters made this comment yesterday: “The Hitler Line is collapsing. The Allies in 24 hours smashed through defences which the Germans took months to build.” Reuter’s correspondent says the plight of the Germans is desperate. They have been bounced right off the Hitler Line.