ITALIAN FRONT DEVELOPING

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22460, 22 September 1944, Page 2

ITALIAN FRONT DEVELOPING

After a long period of heavy fighting on the Italian front in which only limited progress has been made there are indication# that the German resistance is breaking down and that soon the Allied forces will emerge from the mountains into the plains of Lombardy. At some points the Allies have passed the highest peaks of the Apennines and have begun the descent to the plains. Progress from this point should be accelerated, and it may be that when armour can be deployed in the nbrthern plains the Italian front will become as fluid as the western front. The German army must then decide whether it will back into the Alpine fastnesses to the north or seek its escape into Austria. The way into France has long since been blocked, and in the near future the escape route to Austria also may be closed.

The Allied break-through in the Adriatic sector has not yet produced the results expected of it. The Germans, of course, saw the danger of this entry to the Po Valley and rushed reinforcements to the region of Rimini, which has proved to be an anchor very difficult to remove. The port is new being by-passed, however, and the Allies are gaining room in which to manoeuvre in open country. Contrary to the position in southern Italy, the eastern end of the front from Rimini northward becomes of paramount importance. The Apennines swing diagonally across the peninsula to the north-west, and from Rimini it will be possible to outflank the German mountain positions in the west. This is the shape the battle will probably take in the near future. If the Germans desire to escape eastward toward Austria the time will come when they will find it necessary to more rapidly.